Exclusive
Coronavirus isn’t stopping people from getting their party on — they’re just doing it in front of computer screens at home now. Welcome to 2020.
Due to multiple state-wide stay-at-home orders, the online event planning biz is seeing a massive spike in engagement for all sorts of get-togethers … some more adult-friendly than others.
Evite made its name peddling online invitations, but has since become a go-to destination for online events. The company says it’s seen a 1,130% increase in events tagged “virtual party” in the last year … but it believes the lion’s share of the boost has come in the last month.
We’re told their biggest categories of online get-togethers of late include birthdays, cocktail parties and happy hours — with average group sizes between 15 to 20.
Paperless Post — another event planning company — says in the past 12 days, virtual party events have jumped to 48% of their total biz. It used to be less than 1% … so that’s a clear quarantine-related shift.
As a result, PP’s shifted to offer way more online invitation options — for kids’ birthday parties, game nights, book clubs, dance parties, brunch … all the party possibilities.
Pretty amazing how quickly society adjusted. We’ve heard of workout groups, baby showers and even charity galas … all moving to the online realm.
As you’d expect, in-person event planning is down, but not dead. We’re told traditional invites for big stuff, mostly weddings, are still ordered — but by and large event planners are marketing for online biz now.
Evolve or die.
