Category Design — Bizzabo
Bizzabo was raising $138 million and needed more than a rebrand — it needed a new category. We built the Event Experience OS.
Bizzabo made event management software — a crowded, commoditized category where every vendor's feature list looked the same. With a $138 million funding round in motion, the company needed to stop competing inside the category and start defining a new one.
The data pointed at a structural absurdity: according to Harvard Business Review research, 90% of companies prioritize events, but only 23% can assess their ROI. Everyone was spending; almost no one could say what it earned. We gave that problem a name — the Event Impact Gap — because a named problem is a problem a company can own the solution to.
The new category was the Event Experience OS — a shift from managing logistics to designing experiences and measuring what they return. The language system extended the idea: Return on Event as the metric that closes the gap, and the Event SerendipityEngine for the moments that make in-person gatherings worth having.
The lead message said goodbye to the old category by name: "So long, Event Management Software. You had a good run."
Category strategy brief and point of view. Two brand identity directions. A twelve-page website. Out-of-home campaign. The kind of strategic story a company tells investors, analysts, and customers in the same breath.
"I was sold. I love it."Bizzabo, on seeing the category strategy