What Snöball does

Snöball is a Montreal-based SaaS platform that enables event organizers, associations, and exhibition managers to run peer-to-peer marketing campaigns by mobilizing attendees, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors into advocates. The platform provides segmented referral campaigns with co-branded promotional assets, personalized landing pages, multi-channel social sharing across 17+ channels, automated booster emails, video invites, a social proof wall, multilingual delivery, and real-time advocate-level analytics, with deep integrations into registration systems such as Cadmium and Maritz (CDS). Snöball monetizes through annualized enterprise subscriptions (quote-based, fees locked for the contract term) with an optional managed-services add-on in which its own team configures and runs campaigns on the client's behalf.

The company was founded in 2017 by Rachel Stephan and operated in parallel with Sensov until 2019, when Stephan committed full-time to Snöball. It now employs 11–50 people, holds SOC 2 Type II certification (a first among peer-to-peer event marketing platforms), and is the official and exclusive digital marketing partner of UFI, the global exhibition industry association. Named enterprise customers include Informa (Gulfood), Clarion Events (ITC Vegas), RX Global (G2E), NHS Confederation, Henry Schein, IPC (APEX EXPO), and Premiere Show Group, with documented outcomes such as 51.5% share-to-sign-up conversion at G2E 2025, 31,966 referrals at Gulfood 2026, and approximately $400K in estimated paid media savings for Gulfood.

Commercially, Snöball pursues a high-touch enterprise field-sales motion initiated through a "Book 17-min chat" consultation, supplemented by content marketing (benchmark reports, Sevinars, case studies), industry events (IMEX, UFI), and channel partnerships through event industry associations (UFI, IAEE). Distribution is anchored by an ecosystem of 70+ integration partners. The company's AI surface is currently limited to a generative AI Avatar Portraits feature for advocates and AI-assisted multilingual and video workflows; it remains founder-owned with only a single disclosed non-dilutive government grant of approximately $69,458 from Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions in January 2025, indicating a capital-light, bootstrapped operating posture.

Name

Snöball

Legal name

Snöball Event Marketing Inc.

Website

https://snoball.events

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Snöball is a Montreal-based SaaS platform that helps event organizers, associations, and exhibition managers mobilize attendees, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors into advocates through peer-to-peer referral campaigns, with deep registration-platform integrations and a managed-services option.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Event Marketing Software

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Influencer PR & Seeding (Gifting/Press Kits) (MPAAAHAG)

Keywords

• Peer-to-peer marketing
• Event marketing software
• Referral marketing platform
• Association marketing tools
• Advocacy campaign software

Headquarters

HQ city

Montréal

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Subscription: SaaS platform access for peer-to-peer marketing campaigns with tiered pricing based on event size or campaign scope. Subscription model with annualized fees locked for the contract term.
2. Managed Solution: Fully managed peer-to-peer marketing campaigns where Snöball's team configures, runs, and optimizes campaigns for clients with limited time and resources.
3. Professional Services: Custom campaign setup, asset creation, and ongoing campaign management beyond standard platform access.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Snöball is a SaaS peer-to-peer event marketing platform that turns event attendees, speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, and association members into active promoters. The platform provides segmented personalized referral campaigns with co-branded toolkits, multi-channel social sharing widgets, trackable advocate landing pages, automated booster emails, real-time analytics, and an optional fully managed campaign service for clients with limited resources.

Product overview

Snöball is a peer-to-peer event marketing platform that turns event attendees, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors into influential promoters. The platform operates as a unified solution combining a core marketing automation engine with modular feature add-ons. The core platform provides social sharing widgets (14-17 channels), personalized landing pages, and email outreach capabilities, while modular features include Video Invites, Social Proof Wall, AI Avatar Portraits, Multilingual Campaigns, Boost (automated referral emails), and a Managed Solution (full-service option). The platform is offered across two solution verticals: Referral Marketing for Events (including attendee acquisition, speaker promotion, exhibitor marketing, award recognition, onsite activation, content on-demand) and Referral Marketing for Associations (including membership referral, content distribution, pre-to-post event promotion).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Referral Marketing for Events Peer-to-peer marketing solution for event organizers that mobilizes event audiences including speakers, partners, attendees, and exhibitors into referral-driven promoters. Supports attendee acquisition, speaker promotion, exhibitor marketing, award recognition, onsite activation, and content on-demand use cases for trade shows, conferences, and exhibitions.
• Referral Marketing for Associations Peer-to-peer marketing solution for industry associations focused on growing member and subscriber bases through trusted peer referrals. Includes membership referral, content distribution, award recognition, and pre-to-post event promotion modules for global associations such as UFI and IAEE.
• Managed Solution Fully managed peer-to-peer marketing service where Snöball's team handles complete campaign setup, execution, and optimization on behalf of clients with limited time or resources. Available as an add-on to the platform subscription with annual billing.

Quantifiable outcome

• 51.5% referral-to-registration conversion rate (vs industry benchmark)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability5 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core flagship partnership, technology integration, industry partner and technology integration ecosystem.

• UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry)core flagship partnershipGTM or Marketing Partner · 24 April 2025Official and exclusive digital marketing partner for 2025. Snöball delivers tailored digital marketing services for UFI's flagship events including UFI MEA Conference, Global Exhibitions Day, UFI European Events Week, and UFI Global Congress. Partnership leverages Snöball's peer-to-peer marketing expertise to boost promotion and engagement of UFI's global events.
• Cadmiumtechnology integrationTechnology or IntegrationAPI integration partner for real-time sync of session and speaker data throughout registration cycles. Enables real-time personalization across all advocate assets.
• Maritz (CDS)technology integrationTechnology or IntegrationRegistration platform integration with Maritz (CDS) for APEX EXPO 2025. Once registrants signed up, they were prompted to share their participation through Snöball's peer-to-peer social amplification widget.
• IAEE (International Association of Exhibition Executives)industry partnerGTM or Marketing PartnerIndustry partner listed on Snöball website, representing exhibition industry association relationship.
• 70+ Integration Partnerstechnology integration ecosystemTechnology or IntegrationExtensive integration ecosystem with 70+ partners enabling seamless connectivity with major event technology platforms and registration systems.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Splash: Event marketing platform offering branded event sites, email campaigns, and attendee engagement tools for marketers running events. Most direct overlap with Snöball on event-centric marketing automation and referral/advocacy workflows.
• Bizzabo: Event experience operating system serving enterprise event organizers with registration, marketing, and engagement features. Comparable as an event-tech platform pursuing enterprise trade show and conference customers.
• Hopin: Event platform offering virtual, hybrid, and in-person event technology to enterprises and associations. Comparable in targeting event organizers and associations with marketing/engagement tooling.

Broad incumbents

• Cvent: Enterprise event management suite covering venue sourcing, registration, and event marketing. Overlaps with Snöball's trade show and conference customer base while offering a much broader portfolio.
• Eventbrite: Large-scale event ticketing and discovery platform serving a broad range of event organizers. Adjacent as a marketing channel for event attendance, but skewed to consumer/self-service events rather than enterprise trade shows.
• Freeman: Global event services company providing strategy, design, production, and event marketing for large trade shows. Overlaps as a vendor to the same Informa/enterprise trade show customer base.
• Maritz Global Events: Major event and incentive management firm serving large enterprise clients with end-to-end event programs. Comparable in serving the same enterprise event organizer buyer and integrates with Snöball via CDS registration.

Emerging players

• Hubilo: Event and webinar platform with marketing, engagement, and analytics modules targeting enterprise marketers. Comparable as a newer event-tech entrant pursuing event marketing automation use cases.
• Airmeet: Virtual and hybrid event platform serving communities, conferences, and trade shows with engagement and marketing features. Comparable as an event-tech platform pursuing similar event marketing use cases.
• ReferralCandy: Referral marketing platform for e-commerce brands with referral program automation. Comparable on the underlying peer-to-peer/referral mechanics, though serving a different end vertical (e-commerce vs events).

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@Snoballeventmarketing
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/snoball-events
• Xx.com/snoballevent
• Facebookfacebook.com/snoballevents

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Snöball