Zero-Click Futures and AI Truths: How Tag Digital is Redefining Event Marketing
# 1st-party data
# Analytics
# Artificial Intelligence
# B2B
# Data
# Data monetization
# Digital Strategy
# Events
# Leadership
# Marketing
Inside my conversation with Tag Digital CEO Laura Davidson on AI disruption, data mastery, and why authenticity—not automation—will win the event marketing game.
Heather Holst-Knudsen
When you think of today’s global performance marketing leaders in events, you probably picture sleek offices, enterprise dashboards, and AI-powered teams. But for Laura Davidson, CEO and co-founder of Tag Digital, it all started with a tiny office shared with a local football team and a licensing dispute over a hamster photo on a vet’s website.
Yes, really.
I had the chance to sit down with Laura on the Revenue Room™ podcast to hear how she and her husband, Craig Davidson, went from knocking on doors in Scotland offering websites and social media management to building Tag Digital into a global leader in attendee acquisition and digital performance marketing for events, recently joining forces with MDG and Freeman.
The Power of Finding Your Niche
Tag Digital’s growth story is a masterclass in strategic focus. After landing UBM (now Informa) as their first major client, Laura and Craig realized that specializing in events could unlock exponential growth. By doubling down on this niche, they built credibility, expanded internationally through client referrals, and created a service offering tailored specifically for event organizers’ unique structures and pain points.
As Laura shared, “We realized that every event is its own mini P&L within a massive P&L. You need a strategy to land, expand, and support each brand’s distinct goals.”
SEE OUR FULL INTERVIEW ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
What Sets Successful Events Apart?
With hundreds of global events under their management, Laura has clear insights into what separates event marketing leaders from the pack:
Clean, organized, segmented data – The backbone of predictive advertising, targeting, and personalization.
Memorable, emotionally resonant creative – Moving beyond generic show floor images to build brand connection and credibility, not just clicks.
Always-on value – Year-round strategies that engage communities continuously, not just during 12-week campaigns.
“The biggest factor uniting success isn’t just conversion optimization,” she explained. “It’s whether the target audience has heard of your event and sees it as essential.”
AI, Automation, and the Zero-Click Future
Laura is bullish on AI, but she’s also realistic about its disruptive power. Tag Digital uses AI across operations, from building internal knowledge bots and voice training agents to sense-checking data and generating creative tailored to regional and cultural nuances.
She predicts that AI will continue shifting marketing into a zero-click economy, where users get what they need from AI summaries or virtual assistants without ever clicking an ad or website.
Laura's advice? Rethink measurement. Attribution will only get messier. Instead of narrow channel ROI, focus on media mix modeling and total outcome growth.
Why Human Authenticity Will Matter More
In an AI-saturated world, authenticity and trust will become premium currencies. Laura foresees B2B events leveraging influencer marketing and thought leadership to drive emotional connection, something consumer brands have mastered but events have yet to fully embrace.
“Perfect, AI-generated content is everywhere. But humans are flawed—and that’s what builds real trust,” she shared.
Leading with Grit, Humor, and Humanity
From building an AI-powered digital twin of herself to optimize internal knowledge sharing, to advocating for employee confidence as a differentiator in an AI future, Laura’s leadership style is grounded, innovative, and deeply human.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, they resolved the hamster photo licensing dispute. And no, she doesn’t recommend skipping licensing fees, no matter how cute the stock image is.
Want more insights like these? Tune into the Revenue Room™ podcast on your favorite podcast platform or subscribe to our YouTube channel to catch every conversation.
Heather Holst-Knudsen is a distinguished figure and expert in the events, media, marketing and technology sectors. Using her extensive experience, she guides clients in adapting to structural economic and market changes, seizing the chance to innovate and evolve. She specializes in digital and data disruption and opportunity, exploring how these overarching factors can impact revenue growth, customer-centricity, operational efficiency, profit margins, and the overall valuation of companies in both public and private markets.
Her journey began at her family business, Thomas Publishing Company, where she honed her skills. She further expanded her expertise by holding positions at early industry giants Miller Freeman, Reed Elsevier, and IDG. Returning to Thomas Publishing, Heather founded and spearheaded Manufacturing Enterprise Communications, an integrated media portfolio connecting buyers and sellers in the manufacturing and technology sectors. Starting in 2015 and spanning the next seven years, she leveraged her expertise as a revenue and business leader in various SaaS businesses, including Feathr, Gleanin, Brella and Edflex.
Heather is deeply passionate about digital innovation, data monetization, and AI and how these strategies fuel revenue growth, profitability, and company valuation. To serve and create value for clients in these areas, she launched H2K Labs, dedicated to generating and leveraging value through data for media, business information, events, and adjacent technology and service markets.
