Features - February 2007

The term “event marketing,” whether it is understood as marketing an event or using an event as a marketing tool, refers to initiatives that are critical to many companies. In the first case, the intention is to generate interest in the meeting content, increase attendance, promote a destination to potential incentive qualifiers, and so on. In the second case, the idea is to stage an event that reinforces a company’s brand to clients while entertaining them, creates a “buzz” around a new product or communicates a company’s service offerings. Meeting planners, not just marketing professionals, do well to stay abreast of the latest trends and innovations in each of these marketing spheres.

“EventView 2006,” the fifth edition of a study originated by the George P. Johnson Company in 2002 and co-sponsored by the MPI Foundation since 2003, is a major barometer of the strategic role events play in marketing a company’s products and services to current and potential customers. Based on interviews with nearly 900 corporate marketing managers from North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the study indicates a slight overall decrease in the importance and budget allocation to event-based marketing from 2005 through 2006. Nevertheless, the practice is still alive and well: nearly half of respondents (49 percent) indicate that its importance is increasing, while 37 percent of companies surveyed expect their budgets for event-based marketing to increase. Moreover, for the third consecutive year, most participants (23 percent) indicate that event-based marketing yields the highest ROI compared to other kinds of marketing initiatives (18 percent for Web marketing, 15 percent for sales promotions, 9 percent for print advertising, and so on).

According to “EventView 2006,” the strong ROI for events used as marketing tools results from the “controlled environment” they create for “delivering messages and closing business” with customers. In particular, corporate marketers are more interested in staging events that afford attendees (e.g., current and/or potential customers) meaningful experiences with the company’s products or services. The experiential approach has certainly taken hold of the marketing industry: 81 percent of respondents say they are currently trying the methodology in some form, while 74 percent of experiential marketing experimenters indicate that they will continue their transition within the next 12 months.

Meeting planners adept at staging events that have a promotional impact will thus be well positioned to demonstrate a healthy ROI (in terms of deals closed, leads generated, feedback obtained from customers and so on), which in turn reflects positively on the value of their role as planners. In particular, those planners who can bring the ideas of experiential marketers to life will be on the cutting edge. For example, while marketing executives at an automotive company may envision an event where media professionals get to test-drive a car’s latest model and enjoy various other diversions, it is the planner who must then find the most conducive site for the event and procure the vendors that will help create an experience synonymous with the brand.

When it comes to marketing an event, the meeting planner or a marketing/communications professional may handle the task. But in either case, it is clear that most meetings, even internal ones with required attendance, benefit from some initiative that heightens interest and enthusiasm among attendees. Naturally, much of that marketing takes place pre-event, through an event Web site, targeted e-mail blasts, direct-mail pieces and even phone. But most of the innovations are taking place in the electronic marketing mediums. Event Web sites, for example, are becoming highly interactive. “It’s interesting to create an e-environment or e-community before the event to get people excited about it,” said Jeff Kline, executive vice president of business affairs with Woodland Hills, CA-based TBA Global Events. “It’s an opportunity to get people more involved on an interactive basis before they attend an event or go on a trip.”

In general, corporate advertising budgets for interactive marketing, as opposed to print and TV, are increasing, and when it comes to marketing a meeting, there is plenty of room for valuable interaction among attendees via an event Web site. “With many corporate meetings you really don’t start getting interactive until you get to the event, meet people and get the booklet with the names. Up until that point the meeting has been very closed. It’s hard to even get a list of attendees,” observed Hillary Bressler, president and CEO of Winter Park, FL-based .Com Marketing. A Web site where participants can post messages related to the event and interact with speakers and other attendees in virtual forums not only makes in-person time more productive, since much of the preliminaries have been dispensed with, but also generates more interest and anticipation. Bressler explained, “It’s marketing because you’re allowing people to integrate with the event before they even get there: ‘Wow, I’ve already made five lunch appointments.’ Or, ‘I know what so-and-so looks like because I saw her photo that she uploaded to the site.’”

Such a medium “utilizes the Web 2.0 philosophy, strategy and feeling,” Bressler noted. “Web 2.0,” a term coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004, refers to the next generation of Internet-based services. Rather like the upgraded version of a software program, Web 2.0 sites are not merely sources of information but also feature increased user-generated content, opportunities for social networking and a design characterized by “rich Internet” applications such as Adobe Flash and Flex. Good examples of the Web 2.0 approach include Wikipedia and MySpace. But however interactive one’s event Web site is, it should be professionally done, which may mean outsourcing the work to a Web designer. “You want to bring in an expert instead of doing it yourself or hiring your neighbor’s son (to design it) because people are going to be looking at the site more than any piece of collateral that you have,” said Bressler. “You wouldn’t design a brochure in-house, so why do it for the Web?”

Given that it takes time and money to design a sophisticated event Web site, it makes sense to track how many hits it received, how long visitors stayed and other data in order to determine its ROI. While the site for an internal meeting will typically be established on a company’s intranet, an external meeting’s Internet site will often have the aim of increasing registration, and that’s where tracking is especially valuable.

E-mailing prospective or registered attendees is another means of marketing a meeting, and can work to direct recipients to the event Web site (perhaps with a little incentive, such as an e-mail announcing an electronic “scavenger hunt” on the Web site). “One of the things we’re seeing now is the use of video within the e-mail,” Bressler noted. “The video runs in the e-mail itself. You don’t have to click out and go to a browser. We build it (as a relatively small file) so it gets through all the spam blockers, because usually large files with ISP will be blocked.” The advantage of a video, such as one depicting the meeting destination or hotel, is that it “sparks emotion,” she said. “You have movement, sound and music. It takes that flat-print type feeling away from the e-mail.”

In order to be effective, marketing efforts clearly must be conducted with some frequency leading up to the event (e.g., the qualifying period for an incentive), but just how often? With some promotional mediums, such as brochures or videos, production costs may limit frequency. “We used to do a promotion every month, but it’s now more cost-effective to do it on a quarterly basis,” said Charles Coleman, director of events planning for Pitney Bowes, in discussing the Stamford, CT-based company’s PB1 Leadership Conference. The sales incentive has a one-year qualifying period, during which potential qualifiers are enticed with a variety of promotional devices, from posters to resort amenities to a DVD of the destination.

But with cost-effective promotional means such as e-mail blasts or phone calls, it’s quite easy to bombard one’s audience, and restraint should be exercised in order not to dilute the impact of the initiative or, worse, annoy recipients. To determine the appropriate frequency, consider the demographics of the audience, beginning with age and experience level. “The audience profile and culture will dictate the frequency of the marketing that’s required to get them excited and motivated,” said Kline. Bombarding a seasoned sales rep, for example, will just provoke the response, “‘Hey, you don’t have to hit me with three e-mails. I get it, I’ve qualified every year,’” he illustrated. “It’s a balancing act. Some people would like to have more information. It also depends on the company. We’ve done programs for companies where it’s the first or second year they’ve done incentive trips, so the more [marketing] the merrier.” When it comes to marketing for external or client-facing events, users should be given the option to receive communications during the time leading up to the event, and if so, whether monthly or weekly, via snail mail or e-mail.

Consider not only the frequency of marketing initiatives, but also their timing, especially when promoting incentive trips. For example, an e-mail with a video related to the destination or a motivational voice-mail message from senior management should reach the recipient at a critical juncture. A good example comes from Anne Parsells, director of channel communications for Pitney Bowes, who is responsible for all the communications that go out to the firm’s field sales organization, including teaser campaigns for incentives: “If we know people are at certain thresholds, say 75–80 percent of their attainment target, they might have one message. If somebody is on the fence between 90–100 percent, they would get another message, and if somebody is on target, they would get a third message. So depending on where they are we would send customized messages.”

Whether the project is to stage an event that markets a company’s offerings, or to market an upcoming meeting, the most successful approaches actively engage the target audience. This trend is evinced by marketing events that enable an attendee to try out a company’s products and services in a relevant and memorable setting, as well as by event Web sites that allow for a prospective or registered attendee to generate some of the content and interact with other participants in virtual forums. Planners who support these experiential and interactive marketing initiatives are ultimately supporting a stronger ROI for their programs.    C&IT