Most marketers agree that event marketing is one of the most effective channels for driving business goals across all industries. Especially now, well after the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the collective appreciation of public events has increased drastically, which makes it an even better time to implement event marketing strategies.
From conferences and tradeshows to workshops and VIP events, brands across all industries share a specific goal when it comes to event promotions: to entertain and excite attendees while tapping into new business from potential customers.
With creative and collaborative planning, full-scale project production and logistics, on-site event management, and data driven metrics, experiential marketing agencies like Food Truck Promotions understand today’s buyer-empowered world and why businesses need to seize every opportunity to foster better relationships and earn consumer trust.
Event marketing is an umbrella term, which makes it hard to break down into a single definition, and as you continue reading, you’ll discover the many different ways companies choose to implement event marketing. With that being said, event marketing generally refers to the promotion of a product, service, or overall brand through curated in-person experiences.
Now, here’s where things get a little more nitty-gritty: these in-person experiences can be curated by and for your brand, or they can be larger, more general events at which your brand makes an appearance to promote itself.
Or, event marketing can also refer to virtual events such as webinars and live-streamed workshops, which aren’t technically in-person events at all. This day and age, ‘camera-to-camera’ counts as face-to-face. So as you can tell, event marketing can take on many forms, but there’s an important common denominator: the above examples all leverage the power of live experience to achieve your business goals. If you want to know how, keep reading!
In a case where your brand is attending an already-existing fair or conference, the most obvious benefit is that your company can capitalize on already-existing buzz. This takes pressure off your marketing department, as they don’t need to use all their manpower to create attendance from scratch.
Not only does marketing your brand at a pre-existing event minimize your marketing team’s workload, but by doing so, it also creates room for your company’s event planners to focus on other aspects of the promotion. Without having to worry about event attendance, the creative details and other elements of your experiential brand activation can reach new heights.
Together, what the two benefits listed above give you is the opportunity to establish your brand’s ethos in a truly memorable way; however, keep in mind that this can also be attained when you create your own event. The best way to use event marketing to establish your brand ethos with your target audience is by curating an experience that communicates the right message.
Consider the big picture. Meaningful consumer connections outlive short boosts in sales. If you want to transcend trends and create a company that becomes a household name, event marketing can help you do it. Effective event marketing strategies can help you connect emotionally with your target audience, which can make all the difference in the long-run.
Establishing the right message to the right audience is part of the equation, and what it ultimately brings is larger brand awareness. Putting on or showing up to an event creates important buzz through social media and word of mouth that positively impacts your company growth.
Of course, the main goal of any marketing tactic is to drive up sales— and with the right event marketing, you won’t miss. Especially when you combine event marketing with email marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing tactics, your brand is on the road to success.
Festivals garner a lot of attention, which make them excellent activation spots when you’re considering your promotional strategy. Especially popular in today’s experiential marketing culture with festivals like SXSW and Coachella, brands use these events to bring conversations to life with innovative and interactive experiences, and you should too.
These large-scale events make up a considerable percentage of the events industry. From hosting live speakers and influencers to educational workshops and more, these events balance a professional environment with an exciting, social atmosphere.
Focus your strategy on your most influential consumers with exclusive (and one-of-a-kind) experiences designed to amplify brand loyalty and nurture long-term relationships. This type of event will have a more narrow reach but will appeal to a loyal, recurring demographic that will continue to play a part in your event marketing plan.
Focus your strategy on your most influential consumers with exclusive (and one-of-a-kind) experiences designed to amplify brand loyalty and nurture long-term relationships. This type of event will have a more narrow reach but will appeal to a loyal, recurring demographic that will continue to play a part in your event marketing plan.
Present new products and services from a variety of brands. Use these events to bring conversations to life with innovative and interactive experiences.
For Uber’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), our team said: ‘why not go public in public?’ That thought process is what gave us the idea to transform two vehicles into UberEats pop up shops. Parked right outside of the New York Stock exchange, our trucks celebrated this momentous event while also bringing even more positive attention to Uber’s brand.
Comic Con is one of New York’s most anticipated events. In 2022, we made an appearance at the convention with DC Comics to celebrate Harley Quinn’s 30th anniversary! From our Harley Quinn cart, convention-goers were offered complimentary sandwiches and cupcakes, plus lanyards and and 30th anniversary Harley Quinn comic books. For the cherry on top, we made a special announcement about the comic’s future.
Every year, NFT.NYC takes New York by storm. We helped promote one of the most recognized NFT collections- the Bored Ape Yacht Club- with three branded vehicles parked on Pier 17. Their holders were offered free tacos, ice cream, and burgers for four consecutive days!
Art Basel is an iconic, annual event that brings people from all over the globe to Miami, Florida. In order to capitalize on the weekend’s popularity and buzz, Nespresso teamed up with us to brand an e-tuk and create a mobile café and showroom for their coffee products. The effect of this event promotion was successfully reinstating the value of the brand’s luxury cafés, which were measurable results post-event.
Zara partnered with us to make use of our experiential event marketing expertise. 2019 WorldPride event attendees were pleasantly surprised by the brand’s appearance to promote LGBTQ+ rights with a JUST Water window display in the design of a rainbow. Not only was the brand able to establish its allyship with gay rights, but they were also able to create positive brand affiliation with a huge subgroup of their target audience while doing it!
Shaka Tea came to us as a Hawaiin tea brand looking to bring greater brand awareness on the mainland. We teamed up with the brand to put on a mobile tour that stopped in major markets like Seattle, Denver, Miami, and Charlotte. And in each of these locations, we made full use of event marketing, by promoting Shaka at sporting events, concerts, parades, and more.
Social media marketing, especially before the actual day of the brand activation, can complement your other event marketing strategies really well. Your brand can even choose to collaborate with an influencer to get the word out with a wider following and gain more potential attendees.
Pick a unique location for your event. It’s worth stepping outside your comfort zone if it means your event will be more memorable, and a non-traditional location is primed to entice and intrigue consumers.
The more interactive you make your event marketing, the better. Remember, the whole purpose of taking the event marketing route is to interact directly with your consumers, so take advantage of every opportunity! You can include scratch-offs, prize-wheels, and other giveaway elements that create more hype around the event. Live events should be focused on engaging your audience to build long-term brand awareness rather than passing relations on LinkedIn or through digital marketing campaigns.
As you can tell from our name, Food Truck Promotions swears by incorporating food or drink to a promotion for the most optimal results. Although we do work on plenty of brand activations that don’t include a food or beverage, we have seen amazing results with ones that do. Serving F&B also gives you the opportunity for more branding, by customizing coffee sleeves, plates, napkins, or the actual food and drink items themselves.
Depending on your marketing budget, arranging for a guest appearance with a celeb sponsor could bring your activation to the next level. It goes without saying that a famous face wins people over, which is why so many brands work hard to get the right partnerships.
Think beyond your in-person audience. Not everyone can attend your event, but that doesn’t mean you can’t connect with them, too. By incorporating photo-opportunities or an event hashtag, you give your live event a digital presence as well. Content marketing strategies like YouTube videos and press releases are effective in their own right, so it’s always a smart marketing move to create shareable content that will further amplify your event.
While every brand wants their ambassadors to be presentable, informative, and charismatic, there are also more brand-specific qualities you should be keeping an eye out for. For a fitness company, this means brand ambassadors who take pride in their health and wellness, while for a skincare line, what matters is people who are actually interested in and informed about our products.
Do you want to increase sales? Drive traffic to your website? Are you aiming for lead generation among the potential attendees? Knowing what you want for your event’s success will help you get there.
No matter how engaging your event is, your guests will remember poor management of the basics more than anything. From event registration to post-event meet and greets, make sure the event runs as smoothly as possible so your guests leave wanting to attend future events!
