Events and Marketing…it’s a little like peanut butter and jelly…they definitely go hand in hand. They need each other…sometimes more than they might like to admit. Marketers get the message out about the event while the event planner makes sure it’s a memorable and well-executed event.
As the event planner, you have to understand clearly how marketing is going to positively impact your role. A few key things for an event planner to understand:
- You need people to know about the event. Email, social media, advertising, calendar listings, invitations – these are just a few of the strategies to create awareness and buzz around your event. They get people excited and interested about attending/participating in the event. Marketers have a vast toolbox and they will create the strategy to generate the best engagement around the event.
- You need brand recognition and a lot of it. Branding is extremely important, especially if this is intended to be an annual event. While the theme surrounding an event may change from year to year, it’s important to keep consistent branding for your event. Changing logos, colors, fonts, messaging every year may make it difficult for your brand to get established among the community. This can create confusion and make it difficult to grow your following if you continually have to market your event as if it’s a new event each year. Establish your brand first and build upon that.
- You need people talking about and getting excited about the event. Marketers have a lot of ways to get people talking about your event. Communication calendars are key to creating buzz. Instead of mentioning all the aspects of your event at once, marketing can develop a communication calendar and release “pieces” of the event as appropriate. Have a guest speaker? A limited edition shirt that will donate proceeds to charity? Individual ticket sales? Marketers can create a communication calendar that will keep people talking about your event and generate excitement. Another benefit of the communication calendar is that marketing & events can work together as event deadlines are approaching and choose to release information around those key dates.
As a marketing authority, you have to understand clearly how the plans and logistics of an event can make or break its success. A few key things for a marketing professional to understand:
- You need the event planner to be organized and have a plan. Organize, organize, organize! With all the details that surround an event, the event planner should have a plan that can be shared with marketing.
- You need the event planner who is creative and not afraid to take risks. As an event planner, it’s important to always be thinking of something new. What will make the event standout? Why will people want to attend? Any unique pieces that can give your event an edge will give marketing the opportunity to promote it and this will help generate buzz around the event.
- You need to support the event in a way that might not be visible.
And when these two amazing talents create synergies, there is definitely success! The ability of these two professionals to work together to pull off memorable experiences is something that is so gratifying.
When these two people come together and form a team…you’ll hear things like:
“What if we do it this way?”
“Let’s try this…”
“I had an idea…”
And when the teamwork is so strong, you’ll never really know who said what!