Building Content Personalization into a Key Category via Events
Context
OneSpot was a content personalization startup competing for attention in a rapidly crowding content marketing space.
Our technology, patented AI-based Content Sequencing®, was powerful, but we were selling into Fortune 500 marketing organizations that didn't yet have a mental model for content personalization as a distinct discipline.
The challenge wasn't just awareness; it was creating category conviction among marketing leaders. We needed a way to insert OneSpot into the conversation at the highest level of the industry and be seen as the connective tissue between content, audience engagement, and measurable business results.
What I Did
I created and produced Unify, a half-day invitation-only summit in NYC—purpose-built to elevate content personalization from tactic to strategic category.
Both years, I handled concept development, speaker curation and recruitment, agenda design, partner relationships, event production, and on-stage moderation. The format was deliberately intimate and exclusive: senior-only, ~150 attendees, no expo hall, no vendor booths.
The inaugural Unify event, hosted at The Standard High Line in New York, featured keynote panelists from GE, J&J, and MasterCard moderated by Ad Age, with additional presenters from Coca-Cola, Intel, BuzzFeed, Mondelēz, Vox Media, and more.
In 2015 we hosted Unify at New York's Helen Mills Theater and enlisted Forbes as a media partner, gaining their promotional reach, masthead credibility, and CMO Network editors on stage alongside speakers from Bank of America, Vonage, The Onion, and Content Marketing Institute.
The inaugural event was standing room only 2014. In 2015 I brought on Forbes as our media sponsor (at zero cost), bringing additional visibility and credibility to the event.
Speakers and presenters featured top executives from many of the world's leading brands and media companies.
Outcomes
Two sold-out summits drew 300+ senior marketing executives from dozens of Fortune 500 brands, positioning OneSpot as the company that convened the category, not just competed in it.
Two sold-out events with 150+ senior marketing executives each year
20+ Fortune 500 brands represented across the two events (GE, J&J, MasterCard, Coca-Cola, Intel, Mondelēz, Kimberly-Clark, Bank of America, and more)
Directly grew and advanced the pipeline: commercial relationships with Mondelēz (Honey Maid), J&J, Intel, Vonage, Kraft Heinz and others were sourced or advanced by Unify
Positioned OneSpot as the convener and leader of the content personalization conversation—not a vendor pitching from the audience, but the company that owned the stage and defined the category
2
Sold Out Events
20+
Fortune 500 Brands
150+
Attendees Each Year