The Future of Digital & Power of Infinity Loop Marketing – DigitX Moments US
DigitX Moments Session Overview – The Power of Infinity Loop Marketing by Nicola Shaw, Head of Growth and Tony Joy, Growth Manager
As we move through 2024 and look towards 2025, the world of event marketing is evolving faster than ever, with predictions made earlier in the year already materialising.
Earlier this month, we organised DigitX Moments by Tag Digital x mdg, a series of exclusive events in Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York, where event marketers gathered to explore what the future holds and how they can stay ahead of the curve.
Here’s a closer look at the key takeaways from Nicola and Tony’s session, offering insights for event marketers to future-proof their strategies.
3 Core Impacts in the Event Industry Right Now
1. Consumer Behaviour Shift
Nicola Shaw, Head of Growth at Tag Digital, kicked off the session by discussing the rapid changes in consumer behaviour over the past few years.
In 2024, content remains king, but with an important shift— audiences are demanding expert-led content more than ever before.
This is content that humanises your brand, featuring insights from industry leaders, exhibitors, or event speakers.
As Nicola pointed out, consumers want authenticity and credibility, particularly in a world where AI-generated content is becoming more prevalent.
The biggest takeaway? Video continues to dominate. With video accounting for 82% of all internet traffic in 2024, event marketers must focus on short-form content to capture shrinking attention spans.
Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels are at the forefront of this trend, and leveraging behind-the-scenes footage or expert testimonials in video form can drastically improve engagement.
The New Search Engines: Social Media Takes the Lead
One of the most striking shifts in consumer behaviour is how social media has overtaken traditional search engines.
According to Hubspot, 1 in 4 consumers now prefer to search for brands, products, or solutions via social media rather than search engines like Google.
This is particularly true for Gen Z, with platforms such as Instagram and TikTok acting as the go-to search tools for this demographic.
For event marketers, this represents a huge opportunity to rethink their content strategies. Nicola encouraged attendees to tap into user-generated content at their events, using branded hashtags to encourage attendees to share their experiences.
Authenticity is key, so consider creating content that builds trust and resonates with your audience on a personal level.
2. The Growth of AI in Event Marketing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) was a recurring theme throughout DigitX Moments, with Nicola highlighting the exponential growth of AI-driven tools and technologies in the marketing world.
AI is transforming everything from automated customer service to content creation and personalised marketing.
Nicola shared examples of how AI chatbots are being used by event organisers to provide 24/7 customer support, and how generative AI tools like Midjourney are enabling marketers to create eye-catching visuals that stand out in a saturated content landscape.
What do Generative AI Creatives look like for event paid advertising campaigns?
But AI’s impact doesn’t stop at automation. Generative AI is now being used to produce creative content that resonates with today’s audiences.
Nicola emphasised the need to embrace AI as a tool for innovation, particularly in the realm of visual assets.
With consumers exposed to endless streams of content, event marketers must ensure their visuals grab attention and drive clicks, making AI-powered creativity a game-changer for 2025 and beyond.
3. Prioritise Data
With Google’s ongoing changes to cookie tracking, first-party data is becoming an invaluable asset for marketers.
Nicola explained that while Google has delayed the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome, users will now have more control over whether they opt into tracking.
The reality is that most users are becoming increasingly privacy-conscious, and fewer will choose to allow cookie tracking.
For event marketers, this means focusing on first-party data is no longer optional, it’s essential. Nicola shared how first-party data, such as attendee email lists, has overtaken the value of oil in the US.
Building and maintaining healthy data lists is critical for targeting attendees with personalised marketing, running effective paid ads, and ensuring ongoing engagement.
Introducing the Infinity Loop Marketing Model
A key highlight of DigitX Moments was the introduction of the Infinity Loop Marketing Model.
Moving away from the traditional linear marketing funnel, which focuses solely on conversion, the Infinity Loop is a dynamic and continuous approach to marketing.
It emphasises the need for ongoing engagement and turning customers into advocates. Rather than viewing the customer journey as a one-time transaction, the Infinity Loop creates a circular flow of awareness, consideration, purchase, and advocacy.
Key elements of the Infinity Loop include:
- Cultivating Community: Building a loyal community of engaged participants who will return year after year.
- Building Content: High-quality, relevant content drives ongoing engagement, sparking conversations and fostering long-term relationships.
- 365 Paid Advertising: A year-round advertising strategy ensures your brand stays visible, builds data, and keeps your audience engaged beyond the event cycle.
Case Studies: Real-World Applications of the Infinity Loop
Content is the fuel that keeps your community engaged and connected to your event or brand and is the core of building an infinity loop – it provides ongoing value, sparks conversations, and helps build trust.
By consistently delivering relevant and personalised content, you maintain interest, nurture relationships, and turn one-time attendees into long-term advocates. The right content also helps position your event as a thought leader and go-to resource in your industry.
How can we apply this to event marketing?
Our client, POSSIBLE, announced Pitbull and Janelle Monae as event speakers, 3-4 weeks before the event and saw an impressive 63% uplift in registrations.
We also ran a campaign for our client’s event, Indian Gaming Show, and saw a significant boost in registrations through a combination of programmatic ads, speaker announcements, and user-generated content.
The loyalty stage of the infinity loop is arguably the most important area to focus on and is often most missed, event organisers have a lot of faith on brand loyalty but unfortunately we are seeing that dip.
This has a lot to do with the new generations coming into the workforce and becoming the event goers, the priorities and needs of GenZ is different to Millennials and Boomers and your marketing needs to reflect this.
To build your event community and be successful at providing content for your audience at the ‘loyalty’ and ‘advocacy’ stage, you could share referral programmes, user generated content from the event, post event surveys and early access to next year.
Other ideas to retain your audience after your event include: exclusive content for attendees, private LinkedIn groups, a content newsletter or content portal to keep your audience engaged 365.
Content Repurposing: Maximising Efficiency with AI
Another key insight from DigitX Moments was the importance of content repurposing. We understand that having content for each stage of the infinity loop is difficult for marketing teams that lack resource, time or budget.
At Tag Digital, we have a 2 person marketing team, resource and time is our biggest hinderance for growth – we knew we needed to create all of this content but physically didn’t have the time.
Introducing our Content Repurposing Matrix, which showed how a single piece of content could be transformed into multiple formats—such as turning a blog post into a podcast, a video, and a social media campaign.
With AI, repurposing content is easier than ever, saving time and resources while maximising engagement across different platforms.
Tony shared examples from Tag Digital, where AI tools have reduced the time needed to repurpose content from hours to minutes, allowing the team to focus on more strategic initiatives.
An example of how the repurposing matrix has turned a task that used to take 8 hours to a 1 hour task is the production of our podcast.
We now use AI to transcribe our podcast and use the transcript to create various versions of social posts for promotion, automatically create short video snippets of the most engaging parts of the conversation and create a summary blog of the content that is optimised for SEO.
Our repurposing matrix has transformed how we produce content for all of our marketing activities.
Implementing a 365 Strategy for Continuous Engagement
One of the biggest challenges for event marketers is maintaining engagement throughout the year.
Nicola and Tony highlighted the need for a 365 Strategy, which involves running year-round paid advertising campaigns to build awareness and keep your audience engaged.
By leveraging advanced targeting tools, event marketers can reach specific audience segments with tailored messages based on their interests or position in the customer journey.
The ultimate goal of a 365 Strategy? Building valuable first-party data all year long, ensuring that your audience remains connected to your brand, even when events aren’t taking place.
Key Takeaways: The Future of Event Marketing
As we look ahead to 2025, the message from DigitX Moments was clear: event marketers must embrace the changes in consumer behaviour, integrate AI into their processes, and prioritise first-party data to remain competitive.
By adopting the Infinity Loop model, marketers can create a continuous cycle of engagement that fosters loyalty, drives conversions, and builds lasting relationships.
Here are our top recommendations:
- Embrace AI: Integrate AI tools to enhance creativity and automate repetitive tasks.
- Focus on First-Party Data: Build and maintain healthy data lists for effective targeting.
- Adopt the Infinity Loop: Move beyond the traditional funnel and engage audiences year-round.
- Content Repurposing: Use AI to repurpose content and maximise its reach.
- 365 Strategy: Keep your brand visible all year long with a continuous advertising strategy.
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