Event Marketing is quickly becoming one of the hottest trends in marketing and advertising today, and rightfully so. While holding an event for you company might not be the best practice (depending on your industry), it’s generally important to connect on a personal, physical level with your audience as it helps promote brand engagement.
B2B companies generally focus less time and investment on events than B2C’s and Nonprofits, but it doesn’t mean the events are less relevant—it’s just a different shade of the game. One of the reasons for that is the fact that event marketing has so many sides to it, and so many ways of integrating within your own company or organization.
But What Is Event Marketing?
Event Marketing, at its most general, is the name of the process of creating and implementing exhibits, presentations, booths, etc. to promote your company, products, or services. And it’s a vital cog in the greater marketing machine. The key is leveraging your audience for physical, in-person interaction, where visitors and customers have a chance to engage with your brand, your team, and your products or services—with no strict rules as to what’s required.
Did you grab a singular “pig-in-blanket” from that old lady at the grocery store? Event Marketing. Have you ever gone to snowboarding or skiing to find a company peddling free bags or stickers? Event Marketing. What about that time you regretfully took a free shot from that girl walking around the bar peddling Fireball? Event Marketing. Whether it’s the mall, or the supermarket, its and effective way of building an audience, especially one that will help your business or organization generate more leads.
The Goals of Event Marketing
Like we’ve said, event marketing is a fantastic way to drum-up new business, as well as reinforcement for those who have already indulged. Remember, while other forms of marketing may try to push thousands and thousands of different messages (via social media, email, video, etc.) to the intended audiences, event marketing lets you make a personal impression—one that they’ve seen, touched, or tasted themselves. And the higher they’re engaged, the more responsive they’ll be the next time they see your logo while shopping, or searching for that needed solution.
It’s because we live in an ultra-competitive marketplace, that you need to be sure you’re seizing every available opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition, and events are a great way to do that. Building relationships comes with the territory, so a firsthand sense could mean all the difference in a make-or-break deal. You want to deliver a lasting impression. So what does that mean? Let’s put it this way, would you rather receive a blue flyer, or a bag with branded key-chains, magnets, office schwag, and more? Play by the golden rule, and you’ll see results.
Examples:
At Stratus Interactive, we dip our toes in every aspect of the marketing industry, so events are nothing new for us. Like everything we do, events take proper planning and execution in order to be successful. This past year, we were lucky enough to help our clients with various events, and promotional activities:
Global Leadership Congress:
The Global Leadership Congress is an awards ceremony held by CorpU to honor the top-performing learning organizations across the globe. For CorpU, we were able to provide many of the marketing materials and promotional handouts (emails, posters, papers, handouts, etc.). During the event, we were also there to live tweet for our followers to increase engagement and get people talking about the event--which was a great success.
CoreDial Holiday Party:
Each year, CoreDial LLC hosts an over-the-top holiday party, complete with games, food, drinks, and some of the best gifts you could imagine. Stratus helped plan and coordinate the event, as well as materials, game planning, and a holiday lip dub video to help bring the entire company together.
Ride The Rails with Boxcar:
Boxcar Brewing Company runs an awesome event (fall and spring) called Ride the Rails, full of fun, beer, and good company. It's a great community event, and we were able to help in many aspects, including marketing blasts, promotional materials, social media, and more, taking control of all marketing related activities in lieu of the event.
