Beyond Conference Rooms: Inside Aditude’s $200K Bet on Experiential Enterprise Events

Picture two scenarios for meeting enterprise prospects: sitting through another PowerPoint presentation in a cold conference room, or spending three days at Disney World. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Aditude CEO Jared Siegal revealed why his company is betting $200,000 on the latter approach.

The Problem with Traditional Events

“I’ve been to a million events where you’re locked in a big conference room,” Jared explained. “It’s the same people talking to the same group of people on the same topics, boring topics that no one really cares about. It’s cold, it’s dark.”

The Experiential Alternative

Aditude’s solution? “We’re doing the exact opposite,” Jared shared. Their first major event in 2024 brings together “45 or so publishers, some of them work with Aditude already, some obviously are prospects that we want to work with going down to Disney World, three days at the hotel, tons of parks, golf, dinners at famous restaurants.”

The strategy stems from a simple insight: “What a better way to get to know everyone and understand what’s important to them than spending three days basically on vacation with them.”

The Investment Strategy

When asked about the budget, Jared was direct: “Oh, geez. They would budget like 200,000 for that.” But this investment needs to be viewed in context. Aditude targets enterprise publishers doing “hundreds of millions, if not billions of impressions a month.” The potential lifetime value of these relationships justifies significant upfront investment.

Beyond Traditional Marketing

This approach aligns with Aditude’s broader relationship-focused strategy. “We become very ingrained with these clients day to day businesses and we become almost members of their team as well,” Jared noted. The depth of these relationships is remarkable – some publishers have even written Aditude into their wills.

The events strategy extends this philosophy. Instead of trying to close deals in a conference room, they’re creating environments where genuine connections can form naturally. As Jared puts it, they want to “be the nice company in the space, right. Not a company that’s just out for yourself.”

The 2024 Events Roadmap

The Disney World event is just the beginning. “In 2024, we’re switching it and we’re doing all of the events ourselves,” Jared explained. “We have our first one in April that we’re really excited about, and we have five more coming by the end of the year.”

This represents a significant shift from traditional industry participation. Previously, they would “go to a lot of different major advertising events all around the country, and in fact, all around the world.” Now, they’re taking control of the entire experience.

The ROI Calculation

While $200,000 might seem like a large investment for a single event, the math makes sense when you consider:

• The enterprise nature of their target market
• The lifetime value of publisher relationships
• The cost of traditional conference attendance and sponsorship
• The competitive advantage of deeper relationships

For B2B founders, particularly those targeting enterprise customers, Aditude’s approach offers an interesting alternative to traditional event marketing. Instead of competing for attention at industry conferences, they’re creating memorable experiences that foster genuine connections.

The strategy aligns with their broader philosophy about customer relationships. As Jared notes about their entire business approach: “Every time we sign a new client, that’s another giant set of families that we’re responsible for. I don’t take that lightly.”

In an era where everyone is fighting for attention at the same conferences, maybe the best strategy is to create something entirely different. After all, which meeting would you remember more: another hotel conference room, or three days at Disney World?