Objective

Our Presence Context

Oliver Wyman served as the strategic knowledge partner and an exhibitor at the 2024 Singapore Fintech Festival, where 65,000 attendees from the public and private sectors in financial services gathered from 134 countries. We shared insights on stage as well as within the exhibit hall along with 600+ exhibitors. At our booth, we showcased Quotient – AI by Oliver Wyman, engaging visitors and assessing their organizations' AI readiness through our survey, which projected aggregated responses in real time.

Our Social Objective

As a priority event for 2024, our social media, digital, and design teams were present to provide coverage with specific aims:

1. To bring a global social media audience along on the journey, fostering a sense of investment and connection with our event content.
2. To get mindshare for the newly launched Quotient – AI By Oliver Wyman offering through a differentiated approach in the highly competitive market for management consulting on AI
3. To leverage our internal teams, igniting their enthusiasm and encouraging them to participate and share content as recognised influencers.
4. To create an experiential connection between our on-the-ground booth and our social media campaign.
5. To challenge traditional perceptions of how B2B brands should present themselves, demonstrating that professional service brands can be playful and exhibit character with purpose.
6. To achieve better results than previous years' activations, specifically targeting a higher engagement rate and greater affinity for our content.

Strategy

How the Idea Was Conceived

Our brainstorming began with a fundamental question: how can we create an emotional connection with our social media audience—99% of whom would not attend the event—while effectively working the algorithm to boost top-of-funnel awareness?

After aligning the event's goals with our business objectives, we engaged our social, marketing, and design teams in strategic ideation. Recognising the rising influence of employers as trusted voices and the power of user-generated content (UGC), we devised an "Ask Us Anything" format focused on AI. This approach not only invited the external audience in but also leveraged our internal teams, who are often overlooked yet invaluable contributors to UGC.

Additionally, our booth offered barista coffee, creating long lines and a captive audience that we thought would be eager to participate. By involving both external and internal audiences, we maximised emotional connections and participation.

The Biggest Challenge

This ambitious idea posed significant challenges for a traditional, fairly reserved B2B brand and the activation required substantial time and effort to plan and execute. The most daunting task was persuading conservative stakeholders who were laser-focused on business outcomes that prioritising social engagement was a viable strategy.

To address this, we meticulously mapped out the engagement journey, highlighting the benefits for our diverse communities: external social media followers, internal team members, and event attendees. We paid close attention to activation details, ensuring the right individuals, from our CEO to regional delegates, were prepared to answer questions live at the event.

Full steam ahead

After everybody was onboard, we promoted our CTA through internal Microsoft Teams channels, encouraging delegates to solicit questions from their teams and spread the word. During the event we invited the online community to submit their questions via our social media platforms, while simultaneously asking people onsite at our booth during their wait for a coffee, ensuring a dynamic and interactive experience for them.

Results

1. Over 75 questions submitted, half from our booth, a quarter from SM, and another quarter from our internal teams. The resulting video with our replies produced an average engagement rate for Oliver Wyman’s corporate accounts that was 37% higher than 2023.

2. We increased our brand presence and that of Quotient – AI By Oliver Wyman. Impressions YoY increased by 20% with a similar volume of content, and total engagements rose by 68%. Context: LinkedIn accounts for 80% of our reach. In 2024, the algorithm has squeezed organic reach by circ. 50%, increasing reach is an indication of engaging content, which is confirmed by a better engagement rate and more engagements. The campaign contributed to three times more visits to our website and related content. This point also addresses point 6.

3. Our internal teams that submitted questions engaged with content on corporate accounts and shared content related to the event using our employee advocacy tool producing better than average shares.

4. The question boxed served as an opportunity to interact with people queuing for our coffee, providing an engaging, well-received conversation starter that helped us complete over 300 completed AI readiness surveys. The data from which was visualised live on screen at the booth on our custom-built microsite, which provided more UGC on social media (people taking photos and posting about it).

5. The AMA approach and final video were well received by audiences, particularly among marketers and stakeholders, paving the way for more creative strategies moving forward.

Media