John Cook: Rethinking events as part of an integrated media and marketing strategy

The enduring centrality of events

Industry events continue to dominate the iGaming calendar, with major conferences such as ICE in Barcelona, SBC Summit in Lisbon, and SiGMA in Rome drawing significant investment in exhibition booths and sponsorships. Despite the arrival of new products and technologies, the default marketing approach remains traditional: build a large stand and take to the expo floor.

Many marketing executives have long treated events as a silver bullet for filling the commercial pipeline and achieving annual targets. While face-to-face networking holds clear value in a relationship-driven business, relying solely on a few days in an exhibition hall to capture every key decision-maker presents a serious challenge.

According to the SBC Media Marketing Buyers Report, events still represent the single largest marketing spend in iGaming. Yet many organisations approach them with high ROI expectations without laying the necessary groundwork, treating the event as a standalone activity. They shout alongside hundreds of competitors and get lost in the noise.

A content-driven marathon, not a sprint

SBC Media Commercial Director John Cook argues that to truly benefit from conferences, companies must stop viewing them as three-day sprints and instead treat them as a content-driven marathon. He divides this approach into three phases: preparation, activation, and follow-up.

Pre-event: laying the foundation

Cook identifies the failure to prepare the audience before the expo hall opens as the number one killer of event ROI. Rather than using sales teams to explain the company from scratch during meetings, marketers should pre-educate the market weeks or months in advance. Potential clients should already be familiar with the brand, its data, and its differentiators when they sit down.

To secure high-value meeting slots, companies must give prospects a reason to care. Instead of shouting about brand colours or software updates, marketing should leverage independent, value-based media to demonstrate an understanding of client pain points. Cook notes that SBC, as both a publisher and events company, offers a network where operators and target clients engage with digital events, news, and websites alongside the physical expo.

By launching targeted content, research, or lead-generation campaigns ahead of a show, the audience arrives pre-educated, and non-viable prospects are filtered out. Conversations at the event become more sophisticated, moving from product introductions toward closing deals.

Making the most of the conference

Drawing on nearly 20 years in financial services, Cook contrasts the iGaming approach with that of banking and fintech. In financial services, marketing follows a strict progression: first, trusted media proves the company understands a systemic industry issue; then, its specific solution is aligned to that problem; only then does the commercial conversation occur at the event.

Applying this to iGaming, Cook uses the example of responsible gambling (RG). Given the regulatory pressure on operators to invest in player protection, an RG technology provider could run a pre-event campaign of independent research, lead generation, and brand reinforcement. By the time the conference arrives, the provider is seen as an authoritative voice sought out to solve regulatory headaches, not just another vendor.

Post-event: the critical follow-up

The breakdown often occurs after the show closes, when generic templated emails are sent from airport lounges. Cook stresses that people want to be remembered and to know they were heard. At SBC, the team focuses on understanding each client’s target demographics and strategy, so post-event follow-ups become precise, bespoke roadmaps rather than generic pitches.

A powerful tactic, Cook suggests, is to turn event takeaways into thought leadership – co-authoring a post-show analysis or market discovery report. Distributing this through an independent media publisher adds value back into the ecosystem and demonstrates a continuous commitment that a standard sales pitch cannot replicate.

An integrated lifecycle

Events are not going away, Cook affirms, and they remain the heart of B2B marketing in iGaming. However, the wall between industry media and events has crumbled. They are no longer separate budget items but two sides of the same coin. Media drives pre-education and post-event amplification, while the event serves as the catalyst where trusted partnerships are consolidated.

Brands that will stand out in 2026, according to Cook, are those that build an integrated lifecycle, using media to establish expertise and own the narrative before the conference doors open. Cutting through the noise means stopping the attempt to shout the loudest on the floor and instead relying on a fully integrated media and events ecosystem to make deals sustainable.