“If you build it, they will come”: a great illusion, but no longer true, says Sebastian Klein of Jack Morton. In the world of experiential marketing, facilitating the entire experience lifecycle is just as important as execution excellence.
Even post-pandemic, experiential marketing budgets remain tighter than skinny jeans. Inflation has increased costs, cut marketing budgets and made it difficult to secure sponsorship funding. Meanwhile, attendees expect more than ever. They crave highly relevant and inspiring experiences that go beyond inspiring content, with opportunities for more immersive interaction and connection.
So there's no wonder why experiential marketing teams are desperate to add as much value as possible to experiences. But they often get discouraged under intense scrutiny of their spending and stumble when it comes time to pull it out.
Creating a compelling experience is critical, but so is the strategic promotion that precedes, accompanies, and follows it. Today, the success of an experience goes far beyond its execution. Just building doesn't guarantee they will come.
Event promotion is essential to experience design
Developing an effective promotional strategy for a brand experience is not an independent task, nor is it something to be handled by a separate task force.
True 360-degree event promotion principles incorporate event promotion into the overall experience design from the beginning. Collaboration across the specialized skill sets of communicators, channel planners, strategists, brand managers, creatives, and production personnel to create a comprehensive, connected, and connected to broader marketing ecosystem that goes beyond just the moment. Deliver a powerful brand experience that is a personal journey.
1. Driving empathy and relevance: Customized messaging
Avoid falling into the trap of “one-size-fits-all” messaging when creating different experience journeys for specific audiences for different purposes.
Start with a comprehensive communications plan as the foundation for successfully promoting your event and instantly connecting with your audience. If your audience can't understand your content right away, they won't come to your venue or even pay attention.
2. Audience differentiation: strategic channel prioritization
Recognize audience nuances, media consumption behaviors, channel preferences, and rallying points. These insights, along with the recognition that not all audiences utilize the same platforms and channels for the same purposes, should drive channel prioritization and overall planning. This ensures you hit the right notes in the right places with the right crowd.
3. Exploring untapped audiences: The power of paid media
Relying solely on reaching known audiences through owned channels or one-on-one outreach has its limitations. A better approach is to leverage highly targeted paid media to reach new audiences and control or change the composition of participants to suit high-opportunity targets.
Stay nimble and nimble with pre-planned contingency strategies that can be turned on and off as needed to optimize spending without overspending. The more exclusive and popular your experience, the more selective your guest list will need to be.
4. Channel specificity matters: precision beyond the basics
Once you've wisely defined what to say, to whom, when and where, stop going back to your basic channel execution instincts. How you convey your message is equally important. Prioritize reach drivers for large-scale awareness and promote formats that lend themselves to storytelling, such as video and digital audio that tease and hype.
Make the most of lower-funnel placement to build anticipation through engagement-based execution and drive pre-event chat while converting interest into registrations and ticket sales.
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5. A comprehensive event journey: beyond the moment
Implement a “before/during/after” communication strategy to increase continuity and treat events as key moments within a series of touchpoints to create more impactful and memorable journeys, and therefore long-term business goals. Realize the journey you are most likely to achieve.
Extend your events beyond featured moments and physical walls by repurposing content for on-demand viewing and fostering community engagement year-round. A predefined follow-up plan goes a long way in driving long-tail connections, conversions, and loyalty, but it also helps you reach a growing audience and strengthen your message. Keep up the good momentum you've been building.
6. Measurement Strategy: Drive Continuous Improvement
Develop a robust measurement strategy to understand effectiveness. Establish benchmarks to measure success, drive continuous improvement, and demonstrate ROI. All of these are essential to maintaining or increasing investment in your event. An approach centered on continuous learning and optimization not only demonstrates responsible budget management, but also sets the tone for purposeful decision-making and deliberate creativity throughout.
Nowadays, results are more important than results. The secret to success lies in embracing customized messaging, diverse channel planning, and strategic use of paid media as an integral part of the overall brand experience. We take a dynamic, interconnected approach to continuously measure, refine, and improve to achieve lasting impact. Surround yourself with partners who share your vision and seamlessly extend subject matter expertise to your team to bring your vision to life.
It's time to transform your event from ordinary to extraordinary. It's not just a gathering. It's a story, a journey, and a movement towards unparalleled success.
