CORE
September 2025
Bespoke events are having a moment – and for good reason. In an era where personalization and relevance drive results, these curated, high-touch experiences are helping B2B marketers deepen relationships, influence decision-making, and accelerate the sales cycle.
But how do you design the right event for the right audience with the right call to action?
That’s what Arketi Group COO and Vice President Star VanderHaar sat down to explore with John Hansen, Senior Field Marketing Director at Iron Mountain, in our recent episode of Arketi Live in ’25, “The Power of Bespoke Events in B2B.”
In this month’s edition of Core, we distill the top takeaways and strategic implications from their conversation, so you can bring the power of high-touch events into your own B2B mix.
In a sea of competition, it’s difficult to know whether your brand’s message is breaking through – or if it even sets your team up for success. Arketi’s proven SCORE process helps us develop sound messaging that showcases our clients’ true differentiators, and it’s now available online. If you’ve got just seven minutes, take the quiz for instant insights!
B2B marketers are rethinking the role of events, not by abandoning tried-and-true formats, but by expanding their mix to include more intentional, high-touch experiences.
Recent research proves this out. Gartner’s 2025 CMO Spend Survey found in-person events lead the pack when it comes to offline marketing investments. And it’s not just about visibility. CMOs say these gatherings are critical for influencing consideration and strengthening customer loyalty.
At Iron Mountain, this evolution is well underway. While large tradeshows remain part of the plan, John Hansen and his team are leaning into curated events – think executive dinners, product previews, and invite-only roundtables – designed to enable focused conversations with key accounts.
They are also hitting the road, bringing these events into their prospects’ own backyard. As he put it: “Are you more likely to hop in a cab across town for a few hours – or fly to Vegas for three days?” When time and budgets are tight, proximity lowers the barrier to entry. Sometimes, that’s the difference between a full house and an empty room.
Today’s B2B sales cycle only adds fuel to the fire. Rather than waiting for annual conferences to unveil big news or engage stakeholders, companies are launching products and initiating dialogue year-round. With the right resources, a team can build and launch a bespoke event in just a few short days.
If you’ve ever hosted a dinner party, you know the pressure of getting it right. Should it be a formal sit-down or something more casual? Steak or vegan? Playlist or background jazz? Knowing your guest list and their preferences is key to creating a night they talk about long after they leave.
The same goes for us B2B marketers. In our case, the buyer’s journey offers three types of guest lists – each a different guide for selecting the right bespoke format. For example:
The format should fit the moment. When events are aligned to where the buyer is, and not just what’s easy to execute, they become powerful tools for accelerating the sales cycle.
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Our conversation closed on a topic near and dear to every marketer’s heart: how to define and measure success.
Tradeshow analytics often track metrics like badge scans or booth traffic. Bespoke events, however, call for a more nuanced approach that looks beyond volume to impact.
John and his team at Iron Mountain gauge event performance by pipeline influence and lead quality. For Marketing, participation is a critical metric, especially as it relates to deal progression and movement through the sales cycle. They’re looking at who showed up, how engaged they were, and where they sit in the funnel.
Post-event, it’s all about velocity. Personalized follow-up strategies help steer each prospect toward their next best step, whether that’s a demo, discovery call, or another touchpoint. These tailored interactions ensure leads don’t just sit idle; they stay warm and steadily advancing.
Ultimately, success isn’t just measured by attendance or MQLs. It’s about turning event insights into action and ensuring each activity drives measurable momentum toward closed-won deals.
Join us for the next episode of Arketi Live in ’25 – “Communications Inside-Out” – featuring Brandon Harris, CMO of InvestCloud. We’ll be live on September 24 at 1:30 p.m. ET, so register now and catch the recording if you can’t make it in real time.
Missed our last episode? “The Power of Bespoke Events in B2B” is now streaming on LinkedIn. Tune in to explore how high-touch, personalized experiences are transforming engagement strategies for today’s modern B2B marketers.
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