Bringing the Magic of In-Person Events Online: How We Increased Live Event Viewership by 40x

When it comes to delivering a message that truly resonates, nothing beats the power of an in-person experience. While digital platforms boast boundless reach and television excels in big-screen storytelling, the impact of face-to-face interaction remains unmatched. Think about your favorite events: the energy of being surrounded by like-minded individuals, the intimacy of hearing words directly from the speaker, and the human connection create a uniquely powerful experience.

For marketers, in-person events are an invaluable tool to engage and influence audiences. Yet, they come with significant challenges—events are costly, have limited reach, and today's marketers are under increasing pressure to demonstrate ROI and expand their impact. So, how can marketers justify these investments while amplifying their events’ influence beyond the room?

My team at LinkedIn encountered this very challenge in the lead-up to last year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity—the world’s premier gathering of brands and marketers.

The Challenge: Finding the Right Solution to Scale

Cannes Lions celebrates the best in creative communication, attracting a diverse audience of marketing professionals, advertisers, and industry leaders. For LinkedIn, it was an opportunity to connect meaningfully with this audience.

We invested considerable time and resources into creating engaging, high-value content for our Cannes audience. However, we wanted to extend the reach of this content far beyond the festival itself. While previous efforts to share recorded panels online yielded decent results, they didn’t achieve the scale or visibility we hoped for. In a digital landscape overflowing with content—and the online buzz surrounding Cannes—it was difficult to ensure our content stood out and reached the right audience.

The Solution: Live Event Ads

Thankfully, just in time for Cannes, our Product Team introduced us to a new tool: LinkedIn's Live Event Ads. Still in beta, we became “customer zero,” testing the product firsthand. Our expectations were modest (don’t tell the product team!), but the results far exceeded what we imagined. This tool fundamentally transformed the way we leveraged event content on LinkedIn.

Live Event Ads are designed to support every stage of an event—before, during, and after—maximizing reach and engagement. Here’s how they worked for us:

• Before the Event: Live Event Ads drove registrations and built awareness ahead of the festival, helping us capture our audience’s attention before the Cannes buzz took over.
• During the Event: These ads optimized delivery, maximizing live views of our content and allowing us to make the most of the Cannes “moment.”
• After the Event: Post-event, Live Event Ads enabled us to create retargeting audiences based on registrations, live viewers, and engagement. This helped us drive full-funnel results and nurture ongoing connections.

Record-Breaking Results: Massive Growth in Views and Engagement

The results were staggering. Here’s what we achieved:

• Livestream views increased by an incredible 4,024% compared to the previous year, reaching 397,000 views.
• Total minutes viewed grew by 399%, hitting 20,000 minutes.
• Unique views soared by 3,119%.
• The Click-Through Rate (CTR) for Live Event Ads campaigns reached 0.58%, surpassing the industry benchmark of 0.49%.

Thanks to Live Event Ads, we achieved unparalleled awareness, engagement, and performance—all with a single, streamlined solution. This tool has since become a cornerstone for our event marketing strategy, enabling us to scale impact across our entire event slate.

Unlock the Power of Live Event Ads

For marketing professionals, event planners, and digital advertisers, Live Event Ads offer a dynamic solution to amplify results. Whether you're hosting a product launch, industry conference, thought leadership webinar, or live-streaming content from festivals like Cannes, this innovative tool helps you drive registrations, maximize live views, and extend the lifespan of your content.

Ready to elevate your event marketing? Learn more about Live Event Ads and how they can help you achieve your goals.