Event marketing platform Banzai: enhance your virtual and in-person events
Banzai International provides comprehensive event marketing solutions that drive engagement and results. Explore its features and how it can benefit your events.
The global outbreak forced most businesses to turn their in-person events into virtual or hybrid gatherings. However, this became a challenge unto itself, as companies candidly shared that they don't know how to get participants to attend online events. For this, an event marketing tool like Banzai can be a potential solution.
Banzai created an AI-powered platform that gives marketers access to a database of 500 million contacts who may be keen on attending online events. It’s also possible to organize an event from end to end on Banzai’s platform. Here are six things to know about the martech company.
What is Banzai?
Banzai offers two primary services for marketers in the context of event management and attendance: Banzai Virtual and Banzai Reach.
Using Banzai Virtual, marketers can plan, launch, and host their virtual or hybrid events from one platform. The tool also comes with an analytics feature to track event performance.
Meanwhile, Banzai Reach focuses on assisting marketers who need to increase their audience numbers for offline, hybrid, and fully online events. The US-based company claims to have more than 500 million contacts in its database, all of whom marketers may consider approaching with offers. Together with webinar platform Demio, users can also launch webinars quickly under one roof.
Upon receiving an invitation to join an event, attendees can do a quick sign-up through several channels like email and phone. To attract more interest from invitees, marketers can also customize their branded registration pages.
Key features:
- Audience targeting and segmentation: Banzai uses AI-powered tools and a database of over 500 million contacts to help marketers target specific audiences for their events. Advanced segmentation ensures that the right audience is reached.
- Event automation: Banzai offers automated workflows for managing event promotions, invitations, and reminders. This includes email campaigns and responses, simplifying the event management process.
- Virtual and hybrid event support: With Banzai Virtual, users can host virtual, hybrid, and in-person events from a single platform. This includes features like branded registration pages and options for webinars through the Demio integration.
- Advanced analytics: The platform provides robust real-time analytics and reporting tools to help track campaign performance and audience engagement. Marketers can access metrics such as registration rates, email open rates, and attendee behavior.
- CRM integration: Banzai integrates with popular CRM systems such as Salesforce and HubSpot, enabling seamless management of event data and improving lead nurturing efforts.
- Customizable registration pages: Marketers can create branded and customizable event registration pages that are optimized for conversions, further boosting event attendance.
Pros:
- Comprehensive event marketing tools: Banzai offers a range of tools for both virtual and in-person event marketing, including audience targeting, registration management, and email campaigns.
- Targeted audience engagement: The platform focuses on improving attendee engagement by targeting the right audience, which can lead to higher-quality leads and event participation.
- Supports multiple event formats: Banzai supports a variety of event types, including virtual, in-person, and hybrid, allowing flexibility for organizers.
- Data-driven insights: Banzai provides analytics and reporting features that help organizers track the effectiveness of their campaigns and understand attendee behavior.
- Automation features: The platform automates many event marketing tasks, such as sending invitations and reminders, which saves time for event organizers.
- Personalized outreach: With Banzai, you can send personalized invitations and communications, improving engagement and response rates.
Cons:
- Steep learning curve: Some users report that the platform can be difficult to navigate, especially for those unfamiliar with event marketing software, requiring a bit of time to fully utilize its features.
- Pricing: Banzai’s pricing may be on the higher side for smaller businesses or startups with limited budgets, particularly if advanced features are needed.
- Limited customization for certain features: While Banzai offers automation, some users have noted that customization options for certain processes like email templates could be more flexible.
- Reliance on third-party tools: For certain functionalities like CRM integration or additional analytics, Banzai relies on third-party tools, which may involve additional costs and setup.
- Smaller market share: Compared to larger event marketing platforms, Banzai is relatively smaller, which could mean fewer integrations or community support.
How much does Banzai cost?
Banzai's pricing is not displayed anywhere online. The firm encourages prospects to book a demo first before discussing rates.
What is the company's traction?
As stated on Latka, Banzai has generated a total revenue of US$55.4 million to date. In 2019, the firm claimed to have doubled its revenue and supported 1,400 company events. Since the pandemic started, the company claims to have seen increased interest in its virtual events product.
To date, Banzai has secured more than 100+ client users, with notable names including Microsoft, Dell Technologies, and Nextiva.
Who owns Banzai?
Joe Davy (CEO), Andy Linteau (CSO), and Alexey Melnichenko (ex-CTO) were the people behind Banzai's establishment in 2015. Before Banzai, they had built a social media analytics startup together in 2009 (acquired in 2012). The three founding members all had experience in software engineering prior to starting Banzai.
Davy started his career as an IBM software engineer, claiming that it was his first and last role at a big company. After that, he focused on building his own businesses and became a board member at several prominent companies, including Microsoft.
Linteau had a stint as Head of Software and VP of Marketing before setting up Banzai and his consulting firm in the same year. Meanwhile, Melnichenko left the company in 2017 and is currently building another startup as CTO.
The company has collected US$22 million in capital so far from five investors. To date, Banzai has made two acquisitions in the event space: Demio and High Attendance.
See: 5 lesser-known places to hire freelance press release writers
Who competes with Banzai?
As an event management platform, Banzai is currently competing with Cvent and Splash. Both tools have similar services of helping businesses manage their events and increase attendance.
Launched in 1999, US-based Cvent was a public company before it got acquired by Vista for US$1.65 billion in 2016. In 2019, the business reported annual revenue of US$640 million.
Cvent has acquired 12 companies. The firm claims to have brought in more than 300,000 enterprise users, including Siemens, Olympus, FIS, and Washington University in St. Louis.
Splash, established in 2011, has banked a total of US$14.5 million in funding from 27 investors. The company claims to have worked with various big brands, including Shopify, Uber, Expedia Group, and Sharp.
What are Banzai’s stakeholders saying?
"Going forward, companies will win or lose based on their ability to educate and engage with their buyers. This allows Banzai to accelerate growth and provide solutions that enable results-driven marketers to adapt and thrive in the changing world of event marketing," said Davy.
"Joe and his first-rate team at Banzai have impressed us with their innovation, growth, and leadership, especially over the past year," said Trent Stedman of Columbia Pacific. "Banzai's solutions deliver remarkable ROI for event marketers. We look forward to helping Banzai achieve its vision as it provides simple, powerful SaaS tools to decision-makers in the multi-hundred billion dollar event marketing industry."
Save time and money when producing high-quality branded content. ContentGrow helps marketing teams work with perfectly-matched freelance writers and journalists at preferred rates. Fill out the form below to get your own shortlist of talent or visit the site to get started.
