InGo Client Spotlight: Matthias Clock, VP of Marketing, Shoptalk

What is your proudest achievement in event marketing?I’m especially proud of how our team at Shoptalk has elevated on-site video content beyond the traditional sizzle reel. We invested in a larger on-site video crew, built a rapid editing workflow, and quickly produced high quality, shareable clip (more on that below). 

Who is your Event Marketing Hero? My manager at WBR, Amir Sebahat , really shaped my approach to event marketing. Early on, I had all these big ideas, even bigger opinions, but none of the data chops to back up my ideas. Amir helped me to see (sometimes like a splash of cold water!) that many of my claims were mostly noise. So I spent the next 12 months living in our Google Analytics daily, making annotations, slicing and re-slicing data, and finally grasping what marketing activities mattered and which ones didn’t. That balance of encouragement and tough love made me a better marketer and set me up for success in future roles. 

What is the best piece of professional advice you’ve received, and who gave it to you? Amol Tembe , VP of Marketing at WBR, gave me annual review feedback that’s stuck with me for the last ten years. I had gotten annual feedback from members of other teams that I talked too much, was too vocal with my ideas, and despite my best efforts and some good success in changing, I received the same feedback for the fourth year in a row. 

Amol saw me deflate at the feedback, and he stopped me and told me “ Matthias Clock , your ideas and innovations are such a big part of how you contribute here. Don’t sacrifice that superpower for the sake of making everyone happy. You’re working on making space for everyone, that’s enough.” 

I’m naturally sensitive to negative feedback, so it was very freeing to be told that it’s better to refine your approach than to bury your strengths to avoid criticism.

Which InGo feature or tool has been most beneficial to your events? Early on, we used InGo inside our registration flow for easy social sharing - just a quick way to encourage attendees and sponsors to post about the event. But the biggest leap came when we began creating targeted campaigns outside of registration. By building dedicated campaign landing pages, we could make it super easy for attendees to share links to things like our attendee list, special offers, or other show features. 

If you could describe your event marketing style in one word, what would it be?Exploratory. I love experimenting, questioning the status quo, and seeing which unorthodox ideas stick. That’s where the fun is. Blowing up the marketing budget and asking “what if we really shifted our focus to x channel entirely?” 

Which team achievement are you most proud of? Our approach to video at Shoptalk Spring this March is high on the list. We shifted a significant budget out of paid ads and into video production onsite at the show. I think our photo and video crew was 23 members strong. Our strategy involved adding dedicated onsite editors for fast turnaround and hiring a dedicated videographer shooting pro footage in native 9x16 format for reels. 

To execute, we pulled in staff members from multiple departments and the team, led by our incredible global social media manager Aneesa Anwar created near realtime storytelling content that combined with onsite ad spend to drive FOMO far and wide in the retail community.

It was a huge win, but most excitingly, that was just a stepping stone for deeper investments we’re planning in storytelling and community engagement. 

What’s your go-to resource for staying on top of event marketing trends? Definitely LinkedIn. Curating the right mix of people to follow is key. I follow event marketers, B2B strategists, AI experts (real ones) and attribution experts who share deeply insightful content. Here are a few I can’t recommend enough: 

• Barbara Galiza – measurement, attribution, total professional drawing on heaps of experience and offers a ton of value in her posts. 🤌
• Stuart Winter-Tear – no bull****, deep insights on AI. Also, the memes 🤌
• Evan Dunn – obsessive, borderline over-analysis of GTM strategy. Does brilliant videos mapping out strategy on a whiteboard that’s way too small. Absolutely brilliant guy. 🤌

What’s your top tip for someone just starting in event marketing? Two things:

1. Own your own business, even if it’s just a small side project. Nothing teaches you about marketing and resource faster than spending your own money, measuring your own performance, and getting an intuitive feel for what successful marketing feels like.
2. Get obsessed with your data. Spend the time to learn your analytics tools inside and out. Numbers tell stories about what’s working and what isn’t. Always ask how the data can be broken out or viewed a different way—that’s usually where the real story is. 

Whose work in the industry do you admire the most? I feel so lucky to get to point to someone I work for here! Sophie Wawro , the Global President of Shoptalk. She’s been the driving vision and rock-solid will behind Shoptalk’s constant push for reinvention. She sets a high bar and gives the entire team room to do big, bold things in service of our customers. That combination of big-picture thinking and trust creates an environment where everyone aims higher.