Vivastream
The Evolution of a Leader in Event Data Analytics

Vivastream came on the scene in 2011 with a mobile app that helped attendees navigate events, allowing them to better plan their event schedule and make connections based on common interests. The app was a highly useful tool, but in presenting the resulting data to clients like IBM and HP, Vivastream kept hearing the same things, for example, “This is great, but it only shows engagement data for the 40 percent of attendees that used the app. It would be much better to have engagement data for ALL attendees." and “This is excellent information, but it is just one of numerous sets of data and we have no way to integrate and make use of it all." Vivastream soon realized that there was a huge unmet need in the marketplace: a way to effectively and efficiently mine the vast untapped potential of event data. Vivastream knew they needed a solution that transcended the capability and scope of an app and charged themselves with the goal of developing what would eventually become the industry’s first event data analytics platform.

Even as they continue to evolve, Vivastream remains committed to partnering with clients to overcome data challenges and remain focused and uncompromising in their mission: to maximize the value of events by making event data actionable. Vivastream also remains driven to advance the field, fostering an entrepreneurial “Let’s try everything” culture and spirit that forces them to challenge themselves and constantly innovate.

How it’s Going

Vivastream has become an indispensable solution for their clients, contributing enormously to the success of event marketers and account and sales teams. No longer do these key stakeholders have to sift through piles of spreadsheets, trying to reconcile and interpret numerous, disparate sets of data. The Vivastream platform aggregates and normalizes data regardless of its source and performs a truly holistic analysis.

Recognizing that data is only as actionable (and therefore valuable) as it is relevant, clear, and accessible, Vivastream customizes analyses to clients’ needs and presents them in beautifully visualized reports delivered through an easy-tonavigate dashboard. Vivastream is also able to feed analyses into widely used internal systems like Salesforce and Eloqua, adding another level of utility and convenience. With all of these capabilities, Vivastream continues to go unmatched in the marketplace, with a solution that is nimble enough to adapt to the particular needs and challenges of each client. Vivastream has not only made an onerous, minimally fruitful task effortless, they have enabled clients to reap the full value of their event investments.

Vivastream’s success is largely attributable to their deep understanding of the value and potential of events. Events can be viewed as a microcosm of the larger market and offer a unique opportunity to gather vital information in a real-life setting.

By engaging with customers in person, clients can better understand what topics and products they are interested in and convert that understanding into marketing strategy. Vivastream helps clients take advantage of this opportunity by extracting critical, actionable insights from the rich behavioral data collected at events. As a side benefit, the specificity of Vivastream’s analyses helps event teams more easily demonstrate the value of their events.

Vivastream also understands that events are just one piece of the marketing puzzle. Companies engage customers in manifold ways (e.g., conferences, webinars, trade shows, field marketing events, proprietary events, etc.). In an ideal world, clients could merge the data from ALL of these activities to obtain comprehensive and therefore more accurate profiles of their customers. Vivastream makes this ideal possible. Because Vivastream’s platform has the capacity to normalize data wherever it comes from, clients have begun expanding its application beyond events. Many are using it as a Customer Data Platform, feeding in data from all arms of their marketing plan. For the first time, sales and account teams are able to see the products and content each account engaged around across multiple marketing activities. This multifaceted view allows for a high degree of precision in the way companies target their customers. They are also able to hone their marketing tactics and maximize sales thanks to more reliable behavioral insights that suggest how best to cross-sell and upsell.

What’s Next

Vivastream is poised to take event data analytics into the future with their newest capability—AI. The end goal is to create a seamless, holistic ecosystem in which raw data is effortlessly processed and readily converted into strategy. Vivastream’s AI component (affectionately called Viv) facilitates this by putting insights at marketers’ fingertips in real time, delivering answers without the need to review analyses or click through dashboards.

The Vivastream platform aggregates and normalizes data regardless of its source and performs a truly holistic analysis

As Viv evolves, she will be promoted from assistant to copilot, establishing benchmarks, discerning trends, and making recommendations that inform strategy. In these ways, Viv will empower marketers to solve problems, recognize opportunities, anticipate trends, and generally be more confident and proactive in their marketing approach.

Why Vivastream Stands Alone

It is difficult for other companies to compete with Vivastream. They have tried to offer similar solutions, but they do not have the functionality or flexibility of Vivastream’s platform. Aspiring competitors quickly realize that effectively processing event activity data has tremendous complexities due to the nature of events—so much activity and data! A recent industry study by Forrester found that 73 percent of event marketers implement between one and five different event management technology solutions for each event and the rest even more. These solutions capture data in multiple, inconsistent formats. It requires significant effort and a high level of technological expertise to build a platform that can aggregate the volumes of incongruent data generated from these various sources and normalize it, then perform the most beneficial analyses and make them clear and accessible. But ultimately, it’s hard to compete with a moving target—a company that is always evolving, challenging the status quo and themselves to come up with the best solutions for their clients in a constantly shifting event landscape.