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Forbes’ Icons & Investors Summit shows the value of building a loyal community

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Forbes’ Icons & Investors Summit shows the value of building a loyal community

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Forbes loyal community

Forbes Australia’s 2024 Icons & Investors Summit recently brought together leading entrepreneurs and property magnates to discuss the ever-changing dynamics of the wealth and investment landscape in Australia. Strategic events like these are a key part of a marketer’s playbook in building deep and tangible relationships with their audiences.

You might be reading this and wondering how the gathering of financial and wealth experts is relevant to marketing – but let’s take a step back. Forbes Australia is first and foremost a media company that focuses on business, investment, technology, entrepreneurship and leadership.

As Forbes Australia editor-in-chief Sarah O’Carroll outlined in a recent conversation with Marketing, when Forbes Australia was launched in 2022, the vision extended beyond the pages of a magazine or the pixels on a screen. “We knew business media needed a fresh approach, and we also needed to forge new connections within the business community,” she said.

“Whether it’s business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors or creators, people want to be part of something bigger – a place where they feel understood and supported,” O’Carroll said.

The lineup of speakers, agenda, insights discussed and the summit atmosphere demonstrates that the Forbes team knows their audience’s interests, businesses and experience – so what can other marketers take away from their success?

Forbes loyal community

Building communities through events

At the heart of the summit was the concept of bringing influential communities together. Tech entrepreneurs like Ed Craven and Scott Farquhar represent the new face of wealth, and Forbes global properties director Tracey Atkins made sure to highlight this on stage. Conversations like these offer an open dialogue between experts and emerging leaders – ultimately the aim of attendees that take part in exclusive events like these.

Speaking on topics – in this case how new wealth is not just reshaping property but shifting how people engage in professional and social spheres – positions the curator of said conversations as a leader and trusted authority.

For marketers, the value of curating events that do more than just sell products or services is unparalleled. By creating platforms where people with shared values, goals or aspirations can engage meaningfully, brands position themselves as more than just transactional entities – they become community leaders with a loyal audience.

Additionally, the influence of hosting and participating in events like the Icons & Investors Summit extends beyond immediate ROI – instead building long-term emotional loyalty that elevates the brand experience.

Audience engagement

On stage at the event, O’Carroll sat down with multi-billionaire Jack Cowin, who brought KFC to Australia in 1969 and then founded Hungry Jack’s. Cowin spoke about his adoption of the Chick-fil-A ‘upside-down pyramid’ philosophy, which places customers at the top and focuses on empowering frontline employees. This perhaps ‘traditional insight’ still echoes a crucial element of a modern brand strategy: experience-driven marketing. 

 

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A post shared by Forbes Australia (@forbesaustralia)

Events like those Forbes curates offer unique opportunities to implement this strategy firsthand. Engaging directly with audiences in an intimate, more personal setting, strengthens relationships in a way that is difficult to achieve through digital channels alone. Experience-driven marketing fosters two-way conversations that offer actionable insights into audience desires, feedback and challenges – giving brands an edge over competitors when developing future strategies.

Events are tools for trust and brand leadership

As O’Carroll so clearly articulated in the strategic power of events for Marketing, in-person experiences give brands the opportunity to foster genuine relationships and build trust in a way that static media alone cannot. While the Icons & Investors Summit was positioned around wealth and investment, the underlying takeaway for any industry is that convening communities around shared topics in a genuinely insightful and beneficial way results in deeper, more meaningful engagement with a marketer’s most prized possession – their audience.

Whether creating thought leadership platforms, fostering conversations that matter, or simply allowing direct interaction with key figures, marketers can unlock the immense value of these real-world experiences for their own audiences.

Imagery attributed to Forbes Australia.

Also, read about the strategic power of events by Forbes Australia’s editor-in-chief and group marketing director.

     
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Billy Klein

Billy Klein is a content producer at Niche Media.

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