Case Studies

ASM approached Charlesworth to help market their planned Beijing conference to potential delegates working in academic and scientific institutions within the field of microbiology. Charlesworth already supports ASM in China through our sales team and provides WeChat marketing services.

Challenges and Obstacles

This was ASM's first large-scale offline symposium in China, and it faced the following challenges:

• Adapting to the Chinese conference model and recruiting the target audience in the required numbers through China’s conference promotion methods.
• Creating awareness of the event among potential delegates.
• Coordinating with the ASM U.S. marketing team and co-organiser (Tsinghua University).

Solutions and Actions

• Localised invites:
  WeChat is one of the primary channels for brand promotion and audience engagement in China. Designing an H5 invitation that can be embedded in WeChat allowed us to directly leverage WeChat articles to expand reach to target users. H5 invitations included conference information, registration forms, and WeChat post inserts, providing users with a direct and comprehensive experience from event awareness to registration. Weekly registration data was compiled and shared with ASM.


• Developed a content strategy for the event:
  
  • Pre-Warm Up (3 months before the event): Released conference notification posts.
  • Warm Up (2 months before the event): Released posts with registration links to encourage sign-ups.
  • Intensive Promotion (Event Month): Promoted the event schedule, introduced speakers and editors, conducted interviews, and shared video content.
  • Post-Event Review: Published symposium recap posts and photo posts to provide timely feedback to users.
  • Recordings: Charlesworth also assisted with video processing and posting following the symposium.


• Leveraged KOL accounts to promote the symposium:
  Contacted previous ASM authors who had provided support and engaged with other public accounts in the same field to expand the event’s influence.


• Maintained regular communication with ASM:
  Conducted bi-weekly meetings and established a shared planning space where all stakeholders could edit the project timeline and upload materials.

Results

• 2,609 users visited the registration form link created by Charlesworth.
• 162% of the target registrations achieved, with over 651 registered an additional 250 were placed on a waiting list).
• 120% of the total expected attendance over three days, with approximately 300+ attendees.