March 2008
5-minute interview: Bob Priest-Heck, President and CEO, Immersa

Bob Priest-Heck has been named President and CEO of San Francisco-based Immersa, an event marketing company formed out of the re-launch of the Chase Marketing Group as part of the Wachovia Exhibition Partners group of companies. Priest-Heck has a long history in the exhibition industry, most recently serving as President and CEO of MediaLive International Inc., which owns a number show brands including COMDEX, Interop, Web 2.0, Business Communications Review, Seybold Seminars and Publishing, as well as the WingateWeb event-management software. Priest- Heck also has experience managing marketing strategies for well-known brands such as IBM, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.

EXPO: Of all the paths you could have taken after MediaLive, how did you choose Immersa?
Priest-Heck: I’ve come to the conclusion that the model of the large, established marketing agency is broken and I think there’s an opportunity to put my experience to work and to drive change in the industry. At their very core they are chained to an outdated way of doing business that no longer works. It’s literally in their DNA and frankly it prevents creative thinking. With Immersa, I have a unique chance to build a strategic, innovative company that takes a fresh, unbiased approach to event marketing that is fully accountable. I want to break the mold and create a new model that can adapt to the unique needs of each individual client. We want to provide each client with a strategy that is best suited for them.

EXPO: What do you think your company will be able to bring to the marketplace that is lacking now? Where do you see your niche?
Priest-Heck: It’s our intention to become a new kind of fullservice agency that creates and executes immersive experiences that fully synch with each of our clients’ business and branding goals. Thanks to Wachovia, I have the resources to surround myself with some of the most intelligent and experienced people in the industry. We’re hiring ‘the best of the best,’ each of whom will bring a diverse set of skills and understanding to the table. Along with our customized, ‘agnostic’ approach, we are ideally positioned to qualitatively and quantitatively bring brands to life through the creation of innovative, strategic experiences and events. Immersa is focused on how to support our clients’ sales objectives by properly mapping their event strategies to their marketing and branding needs and goals.

EXPO: Marketers have been known to justify cutbacks at trade shows because of a perceived lack of ROI — how will your company be able to help prove ROI to exhibitors?
Priest-Heck: This industry should be about accountability. Almost every company defines ROI/ROO in a different way. We spend time with our clients to carefully plan their marketing portfolio and approach in order to put practices and programs in place that accurately measure and analyze their ROI/ROO before, during and after the engagement. A recent report from Forrester surveyed approximately 400 marketing executives and they reported that more then 50 percent of respondents would increase spending on executive seminars and events. This is a perfect example of what I believe is a fundamental shift in our industry. Companies are working very hard to do a better job of coordinating their marketing strategies. The Web provides a face for your brand, but it’s real, immersive experiences that are really what drive changes in customer behavior.