"In 2005 Whitney Tilson and I started the Value Investing Congress. We hired Yael Penn and Imagine 360 to launch the event. In only 5 months, they were able to set up a whole marketing infrastructure for the Congress, develop a strategy and roll-out marketing initiatives, negotiate terms with vendors and run a sold-out Congress impeccably. They are extremely dedicated and resourceful and we love working with them. Imagine 360 has become our agency of record and we’ve been working with them ever since."
—John L. Schwartz, CEO and Co-Founder, Schwartz Tilson Information
Situation
Schwartz-Tilson Information produces the highly acclaimed Value Investing Congress and the Pre-Congress Workshop: Becoming a Better Value Investor. In June 2005 Schwartz-Tilson Information, Inc. hired Imagine 360 to develop and implement a marketing strategy, as well as organize and run their first Value Investing Congress, which took place in November 2005 at the Time Warner Center.
Challenge
This was Schwartz-Tilson Information’s first ever event. Imagine 360 had to develop and roll out an effective marketing campaign for this high-priced event, with only five months of lead time. Imagine 360 also had to set up a whole marketing operations infrastructure for STI.
Approach
Step one was to set up the marketing operations infrastructure, so Imagine 360 developed a Congress website, integrated it with a marketing database, an email marketing system and an online registration system. With that in place, we then developed, implemented and coordinated all marketing efforts, including web, print and email, for the 2005 NYC Value Investing Congress. Concurrently, we negotiated all contracts with vendors including the venue, A/V, catering, etc. and coordinated all logistics.
Result
The Congress was a sold-out success with over 500 value investors attending. It was widely covered by the media, and STI retained Imagine 360 to run and market all future events.