Event technology platform Grip has launched Audience Campaigns, which lets organisers sell sponsors and exhibitors the chance to email chosen attendees without handing over the attendee list.

Sponsors search an anonymised version of the list, filtering by details such as company and job title, and pick the people they want to reach. They then write an email campaign, which the organiser approves before it goes out. Names and contact details stay hidden throughout.

Organisers choose which profile details sponsors can see and control how many emails each sponsor can send through a system of credits, which they price themselves.

Grip says sponsors often ask organisers for registration lists, for example to fill a private dinner or roundtable, and organisers can’t hand them over because of data protection rules.

Tim Groot, CEO and founder of Grip, said: “Event organisers are sitting on the best first-party data in B2B marketing.”

Dinners, sessions and product launches

According to Grip, organisers are using the tool in three ways: to let sponsors invite chosen attendees to a breakfast or dinner they’re hosting, to promote a sponsored session, and to tell specific buyers about a product launching at the show. Sponsors can track how many emails were delivered, opened and clicked, and how many people acted on them.

Organisers can also see which attendees sponsors are most keen to reach, which Grip says can help them price packages for the following year.

Used at Yotta

Digital infrastructure event Yotta has used the tool at its events in Las Vegas, where each sponsor sent 100 invitations to its own breakfasts, lunches and private dinners, choosing guests by company and job title. Grip says Yotta’s sponsor and exhibitor numbers grew from 101 to 177 in a year, and that half rebooked on site, against a target of 40%.

Chiyon Yoon, sponsor logistics manager at Yotta, said: “Providing sponsors with a secure way to invite their own prospects was a major value-add.”

Audience Campaigns is currently in early access for selected customers using Grip Manage. Full details at grip.events/products/manage.