WHAT ARE EVENTS
An event is something that takes place in a given time and space.
Here are some perceptions about events:
“An organized occasion such as a meeting, convention, exhibition, special event, gala dinner, etc. An event is often composed of several different yet related functions.’’ (Bowdin 2006, 14.)
“Events can be described as transient, and every event is a unique blending of its duration, setting, management and people.’’ (Tassiopoulos 2005, 11)
“Event: An occurrence at a given place and time; a special set of circumstances; a noteworthy occurrence’’ (Getz 2007, 18)
By definition, events usually involve several entities, including, producers, sponsors, actors/participators and audience.
Events can be in-person, hybrid or virtual/digital
In-person, virtual and hybrid events when executed in a unified way offers a treasure trove of data that leads to unified brand message and amplified brand reach. An orgnaization might have different stakeholders planning and executing different events at different times. However, if they can be aligned and synced, the organization enjoys improved ROI and the attendees benefit from it.
In this article, we have discussed the different kinds of events and identified opportunities for unifying various parts of the event planning and execution process across a brand’s event portfolio.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT EVENT TYPES
Live Events for Product Launch, Product Updates & Sales Continuity
These events focus on pre-sale activity or the post-sale customer audience. It is designed to create initial product awareness, and is often built on previous interactions, adding value to an existing customer relationship. Often times, a tangible reference program is built in to lure in new prospects. The agenda is controlled by the sponsoring organization.
For example, INBOUND organized by Hubspot is an yearly inspirational marketing event held at Boston Convention Center. It is four days of inspiring talks and educational sessions with 24,000+ attendee, including agency clients from over 100 countries.
Digital or Online Events
Online events include webinars (interactive), webcasts (lecture format), and hangouts (on-camera discussion).
More expansive web-based events (e.g. virtual trade shows) offer attendees and sponsors some of the benefits of a trade show without the associated cost, travel time and logistical planning. These include a “Virtual Booth Experience” where a company creates an interactive 3D rendering of their exhibit booth, and various touchpoints allow for videos, jpegs, pdfs and information capture much as would happen at a live event. Virtual events allow attendees to customize their event experiences to best fit their interests.
A virtual meeting on the other hand, enables interactive discussions; it can be live or a pre-taped presentation; and it can be a repository for varied brand-related information, or updated information on products. In a virtual meeting there is only one session for all meeting attendees. While there may be a leader or moderator at a virtual meeting, all attendees are typically involved in the conversation in one way or another. This is done through polls and or chat sessions.
It’s the combination of “live via virtual” plus “info on demand” that makes this option a cut above a regular website or landing page. That same combo may prove beneficial for some marketers when coupled with a return to live trade show exhibiting.
Hybrid Events
Hybrid events are part in-person and part virtual.
These could be internal town halls, sales kick-offs, companywide events, trainings, department meetings, and more.
Internal hybrid events are great for big companies that span across different states boundaries or country perimeters to share a cohesive message to the entire company when employees are scattered all around the world. While it would be great to fly every employee to your organization’s headquarters, it would be incredibly costly, and the scheduling required would be time-consuming.
External hybrid events are apt for user conferences or industry conferences. These events demand complex technology skills and higher levels of video production so that virtual attendees are able to engage with effortless ease. These events allow attendees who are unable to travel to the event to participate, learn and contribute.
It is challenging to provide the same value at external hybrid events, as in-person attendees are able to network more freely and engage easily with content than those attending virtually.
Online events include webinars (interactive), webcasts (lecture format), and hangouts (on-camera discussion).
More expansive web-based events (e.g. virtual trade shows) offer attendees and sponsors some of the benefits of a trade show without the associated cost, travel time and logistical planning. These include a “Virtual Booth Experience” where a company creates an interactive 3D rendering of their exhibit booth, and various touchpoints allow for videos, jpegs, pdfs and information capture much as would happen at a live event. Virtual events allow attendees to customize their event experiences to best fit their interests.
A virtual meeting on the other hand, enables interactive discussions; it can be live or a pre-taped presentation; and it can be a repository for varied brand-related information, or updated information on products. In a virtual meeting there is only one session for all meeting attendees. While there may be a leader or moderator at a virtual meeting, all attendees are typically involved in the conversation in one way or another. This is done through polls and or chat sessions.
It’s the combination of “live via virtual” plus “info on demand” that makes this option a cut above a regular website or landing page. That same combo may prove beneficial for some marketers when coupled with a return to live trade show exhibiting.
Hybrid Events
Hybrid events are part in-person and part virtual.
These could be internal town halls, sales kick-offs, companywide events, trainings, department meetings, and more.
Internal hybrid events are great for big companies that span across different states boundaries or country perimeters to share a cohesive message to the entire company when employees are scattered all around the world. While it would be great to fly every employee to your organization’s headquarters, it would be incredibly costly, and the scheduling required would be time-consuming.
External hybrid events are apt for user conferences or industry conferences. These events demand complex technology skills and higher levels of video production so that virtual attendees are able to engage with effortless ease. These events allow attendees who are unable to travel to the event to participate, learn and contribute.
It is challenging to provide the same value at external hybrid events, as in-person attendees are able to network more freely and engage easily with content than those attending virtually.
Trade Shows
Typically, these are theme-based, industry specific organized events where exhibitors and sponsors compete for the attention of attendees and members of the press. Typically, there are four players in this type of setting: the owner of the show, the producers of the show, the exhibitors, and the attendees.
For example, The RSA Conference is a series of IT security conferences. Founded by Jim Bidzos in 1991, as a small cryptography conference, it is attended by over 45,000 security professionals each year. RSA conferences take place in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the United Arab Emirates each year. The conference also hosts educational, professional networking, and awards programs.
Typically, these are theme-based, industry specific organized events where exhibitors and sponsors compete for the attention of attendees and members of the press. Typically, there are four players in this type of setting: the owner of the show, the producers of the show, the exhibitors, and the attendees.
For example, The RSA Conference is a series of IT security conferences. Founded by Jim Bidzos in 1991, as a small cryptography conference, it is attended by over 45,000 security professionals each year. RSA conferences take place in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the United Arab Emirates each year. The conference also hosts educational, professional networking, and awards programs.
Customer Conferences
These are commonly multi-day events, although a single day may be feasible. They drive loyalty among current customers and educate them about new offerings or updates on current offering. These are usually company sponsored events. The sponsoring organization controls the content and attendee list. Often the company has a separate team and specific budget to fund and organize the events.
These are commonly multi-day events, although a single day may be feasible. They drive loyalty among current customers and educate them about new offerings or updates on current offering. These are usually company sponsored events. The sponsoring organization controls the content and attendee list. Often the company has a separate team and specific budget to fund and organize the events.
Sponsorship | Reward Events
This type of event relies on a third-party activity (e.g. sporting or cultural event) or a reward-oriented location and activity to drive success. After all, “marketing is a battle of perceptions, nor products.”
Usually, these events are well aligned with the concept of cause-related marketing.
“Cause Marketing or cause-related marketing refers to a type of marketing involving the cooperative efforts of a for-profit business and a non-profit organization for mutual benefit.”
A simple way to achieve this is through the use of events or even pop-up stores.
For example, the Pinky Swear Pop-up Show in the Mall of America. The Pinky Swear Foundation has a mission to help kids with cancer and their families with financial and emotional support. They achieve this by raising awareness of pediatric cancer, raising money for the children affected, and partner with like-minded organizations, like Love Your Melon, to spread their mission.
This type of event relies on a third-party activity (e.g. sporting or cultural event) or a reward-oriented location and activity to drive success. After all, “marketing is a battle of perceptions, nor products.”
Usually, these events are well aligned with the concept of cause-related marketing.
“Cause Marketing or cause-related marketing refers to a type of marketing involving the cooperative efforts of a for-profit business and a non-profit organization for mutual benefit.”
A simple way to achieve this is through the use of events or even pop-up stores.
For example, the Pinky Swear Pop-up Show in the Mall of America. The Pinky Swear Foundation has a mission to help kids with cancer and their families with financial and emotional support. They achieve this by raising awareness of pediatric cancer, raising money for the children affected, and partner with like-minded organizations, like Love Your Melon, to spread their mission.
Channel Events
This type of event focuses on supporting the channel business. An externally focused event can be hosted or sponsored by a supplier brand on behalf of its channel partners, or a supplier may invite channel partners to an internally focused event.
For example, AWS re:Invent is a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services for the global cloud computing community. The event features keynote announcements, training and certification opportunities, access to more than 2,000 technical sessions, a partner expo, after-hours events, and so much more.
This type of event focuses on supporting the channel business. An externally focused event can be hosted or sponsored by a supplier brand on behalf of its channel partners, or a supplier may invite channel partners to an internally focused event.
For example, AWS re:Invent is a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services for the global cloud computing community. The event features keynote announcements, training and certification opportunities, access to more than 2,000 technical sessions, a partner expo, after-hours events, and so much more.
QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE CONCEPTING YOUR EVENT
- What size and kind of events are you organizing?
- How will the audience benefit from the events that you organize?
- How do you start planning an event in general?
- How much time do you allocate yourself pre-event for collecting data on competitors, target market, costs, venue, ticket prices, staffing, etc.
- How do you manage event budget and document cost breakdowns for an event?
- What kind of efforts do you make to attract sponsors for the event if needed?
- How are aspects like technical, logistics, security, catering, etc. handled?
- What promotional vehicles do you use to inform the audience about the forthcoming event and what has been the most effective with your company?
- On what basis do you evaluate the success of the event?
- What kind of post-event activities do you plan to attract audience for your future events?
- How often do you refer to the theoretical aspect of marketing process like 5Ps and 5Ws?
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The 5 Ps of your Event (will discuss this further in future articles)
Product — The event itself is a product. It is the event marketer’s responsibility to know as much information as possible about the event so that he/she can build the marketing plan around it.
Price — is one of the essential component of event marketing. One of the main responsibilities of the event marketer is to understand the relationship between the operational costs and revenue generation.
Place — refers to the site where the event takes place (the venue of the event)
Public relations — refers to the image than an event has on the target market.
Positioning — is the “strategy of determining, through intuition, research, and evaluation, those areas of consumer need that your event can fulfill’’
The 5 Ws of your Event (will discuss this further in future articles)
Why should your audience spend both their time and money to attend the event?
‘Who’ in event marketing determines the right target audience for the event. It has to be clear beforehand who is the target audience.
When is the right time for the event? An event marketer should remember that timing is everything.
Where is the ideal place to host an event? Event venues play a huge role determining the success of an event.
‘What’ should explain the purpose of the event. Without an overarching purpose, your event marketing will not have the needed traction.
Product — The event itself is a product. It is the event marketer’s responsibility to know as much information as possible about the event so that he/she can build the marketing plan around it.
Price — is one of the essential component of event marketing. One of the main responsibilities of the event marketer is to understand the relationship between the operational costs and revenue generation.
Place — refers to the site where the event takes place (the venue of the event)
Public relations — refers to the image than an event has on the target market.
Positioning — is the “strategy of determining, through intuition, research, and evaluation, those areas of consumer need that your event can fulfill’’
The 5 Ws of your Event (will discuss this further in future articles)
Why should your audience spend both their time and money to attend the event?
‘Who’ in event marketing determines the right target audience for the event. It has to be clear beforehand who is the target audience.
When is the right time for the event? An event marketer should remember that timing is everything.
Where is the ideal place to host an event? Event venues play a huge role determining the success of an event.
‘What’ should explain the purpose of the event. Without an overarching purpose, your event marketing will not have the needed traction.
EVENTS ARE IMPORTANT TOUCH POINTS IN YOUR BUYERS JOURNEY
Events will remain an important interaction type that B2B buyers crave throughout the buyer’s journey. Yes, it is challenging to keep up with the planning and budgeting processes for various event types and may present an obstacle to unifying event activities. However, brands that unify activities across their events portfolio are poised to improve their measurement of value generated by their events.
