Case Study: Maven Road uncovers top sports, entertainment and virtual event affinities for IBM with Audiense

How audience insights helped IBM uncover consumer must-go to events

Maven Road, a global business intelligence firm, partnered with IBM’s Consumer Intelligence and Event Partnership team to pinpoint which sporting and entertainment events generated the most buzz and affinity for IBM’s clients. The challenge was processing massive, diverse data sets to justify event spend and to decide which in‑person or virtual events (a pressing question during COVID‑19) would deliver the strongest return.

Using Audiense, Maven Road built targeted audiences, analyzed social conversations around event‑specific phrases, and ran deeper affinity analyses to surface related interests. The work produced clear outcomes: the top 20 sports and top 20 entertainment events for IBM audiences, the most popular virtual events at the time, and the insight that sponsorships are most effective with on‑site booths—plus identification of C‑level decision‑makers—enabling IBM to prioritize events with the highest ROI.

Maven Road

Paul Herrera

Chief Operating Officer & Co-founder