The Client

Inviqa is a digital experience agency that brings together experts in strategy, user research, design and technology.

Inviqa has been at the forefront of digital transformation for over 14 years and is a long-term client of Commerce Futures, Buyingtime’s events brand, which led to a conversation in late 2020 about one of their new initiatives in 2021.

Inviqa’s Challenge

Inviqa was planning its 2021 marketing and was focused on building out its advisory services to help specific brand owners who wanted to design and build subscription business models.

The challenge Buyingtime helped Inviqa with was identifying those brand owners, planning who to engage with and agreeing on which tactics to deploy to position Inviqa as subject-matter experts—whilst also generating interest and enquiries. Most importantly, the activities needed to drive ROI within Inviqa’s tight budget.

The Solution

Buyingtime worked with Inviqa to design a virtual event which we titled “Subscription Addiction”, and executed by our events brand Commerce Futures. We tested the theme with Buyingtime’s advisory board and community of online merchants - then, the Commerce Futures team recruited expert speakers from leading UK subscription businesses and worked with Inviqa to recruit one of their clients as a speaker/case study.

Commerce Futures then worked with Inviqa to find relevant and complementary tech firms in the same space to share the event cost, resulting in ReCharge also joining the event. A date of 21st April 2021 was identified, and our 12-week invitation cycle was initiated, using a database of Commerce Futures delegates and Inviqa target accounts.

Over 240 registrations were made directly through the Commerce Futures website and indirectly through a public (but well-vetted) LinkedIn page. On the day, we achieved a 58% attendance rate - an incredibly high number given the accepted wisdom at the time of significant “Covid-fatigue” with virtual events. Nearly all delegates attended the event with very little “drop-off”, indicating a very high overall engagement.

Outcomes

Both Inviqa and ReCharge reported incoming sales enquiries immediately following the event, without any follow-up being activated. More than ten serious opportunities were switfly in dialogue, and a consulting win was confirmed in late May 2021. ‘Subscription Addiction’ was such a success, Inviqa and ReCharge committed to repeating the event as a “European” event in September 2021.