mdg has been running paid placements inside OpenAI as part of an early access beta. That access has now expanded, and the placement is open to U.K. advertisers as of June 4. Here’s what we learned during the beta so you can hit the ground running. 

The ad unit itself is more minimal than most people expect. You get 30 characters for a headline and 60 for a description, which is closer to writing a text message than a display campaign. If your creative team is used to having space to work with, they’ll need to adjust their thinking upfront, because there’s no room for nuance or extended value propositions here. 

What the Data Showed  

Click-through rates landed between 0.8% and 1%, which is a reasonable number for a new channel, but CTR wasn’t the figure we were watching most closely. What stood out was how many of those visitors were genuinely net new — people who hadn’t arrived through our clients’ existing channels before.

For event marketers trying to grow their audience rather than recirculate the same names every year, that distinction matters quite a lot. Google is effective at reaching people who already know you exist; this reached people who didn’t.

Once they arrived on your site, those visitors didn’t just browse and leave. Engagement metrics and event completions tracked closely with what we typically see from Google Ads traffic, which suggested these were qualified visitors rather than people clicking out of curiosity.

Things Worth Being Honest About  

CPMs are higher than Google — significantly so — and that needs to be part of any honest budget conversation. It’s not a reason to avoid the channel, but it is a reason to be deliberate about how you structure a test, particularly while you’re still building a picture of what good performance looks like.  

The removal of the original minimum spend threshold does at least mean you can run something meaningful without committing serious budget from the outset. 

There’s also a fair question about how much of the strong CTR is being driven by novelty. Fewer advertisers, less saturation, a context that users aren’t used to yet — those things probably play a role, and they won’t last indefinitely. The creative constraint is worth taking seriously too.  

A limit of 30 characters is enough for a high-intent intercept when someone is already looking for something specific, but it’s not a format built for storytelling or sustained brand building at scale. 

One Thing People Always Ask  

Running ads inside OpenAI doesn’t improve how your event shows up in organic LLM responses — there’s no measurable connection between paid spend and how the LLM references your brand. If anyone suggests otherwise, it’s worth pushing back on that assumption directly. 

The Bigger Picture  

The launch of OpenAI ads is a useful prompt to think more seriously about how your organization shows up inside AI tools in general. Paid placements are one piece of that picture, but the more foundational work involves making sure your events and brand are referenced well when someone asks an AI assistant for a recommendation — which is less about advertising and more about content strategy and authority signals. We’re already working through both sides of that with clients. 

Measurement is still catching up with this channel too. Conversion tracking isn’t live yet on the beta, and increasingly the path from an AI interaction to a real-world decision isn’t a clean, trackable click. Getting comfortable with that ambiguity is an adjustment to start making now. 

Where This Leaves You  

mdg ran these campaigns while access was still restricted to a small group, which means we’re in a position to help clients move with a meaningful head start. The placement is now open, the minimum spend barrier is gone, and if new audience acquisition is a priority for your events this year, a structured test is worth considering, and for U.K. advertisers, this is now available from June 4. 

If you want to talk through what that looks like for your specific campaigns, we’re ready when you are, you can book a call with our team today.

Justifying attendance and exhibiting in uncertain conditions? This practical messaging framework makes it easier.

With audiences becoming more selective, every event must earn its place by demonstrating real business value. From addressing travel constraints to proving the ROI of face-to-face engagement, we’ll explore how to communicate the true value of events and why, in uncertain times, participation is a strategic investment, not just an operational decision.

Here are five actionable steps to refine your event messaging and ensure it resonates with decision-makers in challenging market conditions.

1. When confidence is lower, be explicit about the business value.

When markets are harder to read, audiences need a clear reason to believe participation will help them make smarter decisions, reduce uncertainty and move business forward.

For attendees: Emphasize that participation will give them a clearer picture of how market conditions will affect their work in the midst of uncertainty. Attendance is a practical way to see more of the market, compare alternatives and gain clearer direction before making important business decisions.

For exhibitors: Show how exhibiting will keep their company visible, engaged and positioned strategically while customers reassess priorities and supplier relationships. It’s about ensuring they stay top-of-mind with their target audience.

Practical step: Craft your messaging to focus on how the event will provide actionable insights that help both attendees and exhibitors navigate the market’s unpredictability. Instead of merely listing features or statistics, incorporate proof points that position the event as a platform participants use to make critical business decisions.

2. When travel is under pressure, prove the value of being there.

When travel feels cumbersome, in-person participation must present a clear advantage. The value of face-to-face engagement should be made concrete, not assumed. Attendees and exhibitors need to be convinced that the event justifies the time, cost and effort involved in traveling.

For attendees: In-person engagement offers a unique opportunity to gather critical information that’s harder to capture virtually. Emphasize how the event offers a high-efficiency way to cover more ground, assess the market in less time and make better-informed decisions — even when the environment feels unpredictable.

For exhibitors: Highlight how creating an on-site presence provides the opportunity for stronger conversations, faster trust-building and more meaningful problem-solving with qualified prospects. The ability to meet and engage face-to-face can significantly improve the quality of connections and accelerate the decision-making process.

Practical step: Showcase testimonials or case studies that demonstrate how in-person engagement has directly contributed to stronger business outcomes. Share real examples of past events where attendees gained valuable insights and exhibitors successfully built relationships, reinforcing the tangible benefits of face-to-face participation.

3. When spending is scrutinized, focus on outcomes over event features.

With audiences facing trimmer budgets, it’s critical to shift the focus away from event features (like the number of sessions or exhibitors) and emphasize what participants will actually achieve by attending or exhibiting.

For attendees: Highlight that the value of the event goes beyond just attending sessions or viewing exhibits. It’s about specificity around gaining actionable insights, building stronger contacts and clarifying business priorities and next steps that will directly support their goals and growth.

For exhibitors: Show how exhibitors can enhance their ROI by planning ahead using event apps — to connect with attendees before the event, gather data at the event to track interactions and create a targeted post-event outreach plan.

Practical step: Create messaging that focuses on specific outcomes attendees and exhibitors can expect, such as business growth, a wider network and strategies they can use immediately. By framing participation in terms of tangible results, you make the event’s value clear and relevant to the attendee’s goals, helping them justify their investment even when budgets are tight.

Instead of: Attend our show to get the latest insights into how the industry is moving forward.

Try: By attending our show, you will hear more about how to be ready when the supply chain breaks down, how your peers are using e-commerce as a tool for additional revenue and tips for upskilling your staff to help with employee retention.

4. When different audiences face different pressures, tailor the case.

The business case for participation is not one-size-fits-all. Attendees and exhibitors are each navigating different risks, constraints and internal expectations.

For attendees: Lead with efficiency and direction. They need to feel that attending will help them make better decisions faster — not that it will expose them to more content.

For exhibitors: Lead with timing and access. The question they’re weighing isn’t whether the event has value in the abstract — it’s whether this is the right moment to be in the room with their customers.

Practical step: Map your messaging to each audience’s actual decision-making criteria, not just their demographic. A persona built around pressures and priorities will get you further than one built around job title alone.

5. When approval is harder to win, make participation easier to defend.

Strong event campaigns give people the language they need to justify participation internally.

For attendees: Give them specifics: what they’ll learn, who they’ll be in the room with and how it connects to decisions they’re already facing. The easier you make it to explain the value up the chain, the fewer obstacles stand between interest and registration.

What exhibitors need to hear: Arm them with ROI framing they can share with leadership — data on past performance, the cost of absence in a market where competitors are still showing up, and concrete examples of what a strong show can produce.

Practical step: Build “justify your trip” and “justify your booth” resources into your campaigns. Case studies, ROI estimates and audience data are not only useful for your sales team but they’re also tools your prospects need to get a yes internally. This justification page from InfoComm is a great example of providing clear guidance and tools for prospective attendees.

For years, the primary goal of event email marketing was simple — get into the inbox. Build a clean list, maintain healthy delivery rates, avoid the spam folder. Do those things well, and your message had a fighting chance. 

That bar has moved. 

AI-powered tools — like Gmail’s Priority Inbox, smart summaries and inbox assistants — are now sitting between your send and your audience’s attention. They filter, collapse and rank before a human even accesses their email server. Permission isn’t the hurdle anymore. Being chosen is. 

This doesn’t mean that email is broken. It means the standard for what earns attention has gotten higher. And for event marketers who rely on cadence-driven campaigns, it’s worth asking a harder question with every send: Is this an email that AI will prioritize for my audience? 

The Problem With Sequence-First Thinking 

Event email has always followed a familiar rhythm: save the date, registration open, early bird, last chance, see you there. That sequence still works, so long as each email is intentional, containing timely and relevant information. 

The issue isn’t the cadence. It’s when the next email goes out simply because it’s next — not because it’s earned its place. Volume without value is becoming a liability. Inbox algorithms are learning what readers pay attention to, and a string of low-engagement sends can quietly erode your standing — regardless of your technical delivery rate. 

The shift isn’t “send less.” It’s “send with more intention.”

What Changes When You Lead With Value 

A few practical adjustments tend to move the needle: 

1. Send from a name your audience recognizes. That might be the event brand, the organization or, in the right context, a specific person. Emails should never come from noreply@ or info@ addresses. Every email should be from an address someone can actually reply to, because that’s part of what signals legitimacy to people and algorithms. 
2. Give your audience something worth their time. A session preview, a practical insight, a reason this event matters to them specifically. Logistics — dates, deadlines, links — are important details, but outside of time-sensitive moments (e.g., early bird registration is ending) should not be the main focus. In other words, repeating the dates and location of an event will have your email fighting for attention in any inbox.  
3. Test with a hypothesis, not just a habit. A/B testing is only useful when there’s something learnable at stake. Comparing two subject lines without a clear hypothesis will not give you the insight you need to make effective changes. Test one variable at a time — length, personalization, framing — and apply what you find. 
4. Don’t stop at the event. A strong post-event email — one with real content, not just a thank-you — builds the audience for next year. The relationship doesn’t end when registration closes. 

The Test Worth Applying to Every Send 

Pull up the last three emails from your campaign. For each, ask yourself: If someone’s inbox assistant was triaging messages, how would it prioritize this one? Is the right information included — in the right way — to determine that this email needs to be seen? 

If the answer to the second question isn’t clearly yes, that’s where more work is needed. Not every email needs to be a production, but the goal is no longer just hitting an inbox. It’s creating easily discernable value-driven emails that actually make it in front of your audience.