5 steps to creating a memorable branded event
Creating a memorable branded event is essential for businesses as it helps to enhance brand awareness, build brand loyalty, differentiate your brand, drive engagement, generate positive word-of-mouth, and support brand values and messaging.
A well-executed branded event can leave a lasting impression, foster emotional connections with your brand, and ultimately contribute to long-term business success. In fact, in a recent EventTrack report, 40% of respondents felt they became more loyal to a brand after participating in a brand activation or experience. So, investing in creating a memorable branded event is a strategic move that can yield significant benefits for your business.
In this blog, we will deliver useful tips that you can implement to ensure your next event leaves a positive and lasting impression of your brand, product, or service and has employees, industry partners, and resellers talking about it for years to come.
Know your brand
For B2B branded events, building brand awareness holds significant importance in facilitating business growth, providing the perfect platform to showcase a company’s core values in an impactful and motivational way. By highlighting your offerings and expertise, you can leverage your events to attract new prospects and strengthen relationships with staff and industry partners.
Knowing your brand also helps you make informed decisions about event design, event content, and event marketing. It allows you to create a cohesive and consistent experience that reflects your brand’s personality and values. For example, if your brand is known for being innovative and cutting-edge, you might incorporate new technologies or product design elements into your event. On the other hand, if your brand is known for being more traditional and service-oriented, you might opt for a more classic event design that encourages face-to-face engagement and conversation.
Additionally, understanding your brand helps you connect with your target audience on a deeper level. By tailoring your event to your target audience’s interests, preferences, and needs, you can create an event that resonates with them and fosters emotional connections with your brand.
Kristy Moorhouse, ETM’s Supplier Relations and Proposal Manager, AU/NZ recommends “If you know your brand is dynamic and people-focused, carefully consider how information will be delivered. Seating delegates in front of a lengthy PowerPoint presentation is one way to lose their attention. Instead, consider short bursts of digestible information presented in an entertaining video or interactive panel format combined with round-table discussions and networking breaks.”
Define your goals
Before you start to execute your plan, you need to set clear objectives for the event and understand why you are having the event, and what its purpose is. Understanding the purpose will be the roadmap to every decision made about the event, from the format to content to design. Understand the purpose from the start and stick to a strategy that supports delivering on clear objectives throughout the event planning process.
Identifying your target audience and their preferences
It is important to understand who your audience is and what information you want your audience to know, then offer different ways for them to learn it. This could be through interactive exhibits, workshops, panel discussions, demonstrations, presentations, polls, printed material, or social media campaigns. Understanding their preferences and arranging content delivery methods that align with their specific needs puts the company in a position to drive more engagement for a successful event outcome.
Determining the desired outcomes and the return on your investment
How you measure your return on investment will be determined by the desired outcome. Is the purpose of your event to generate qualified leads, attract new employees, build brand awareness, launch a new product or service, strengthen partner relationships, increase revenue, or boost employee morale?
How you measure this success can then range from tracking metrics such as attendance numbers, engagement, social media metrics, lead generation, and surveys. Ultimately you want to ensure that the value generated by your event exceeds the cost of putting the event on.
Implementing unique event concepts
It is important to ensure that the elements incorporated into the event reflect your company’s brand personality which helps create a connection between attendees and your brand, increasing the likelihood of brand loyalty and advocacy.
“Many automotive dealers love quality branded merchandise such as jackets, caps, and polos that they can wear on and off the job. They live and breathe their brand”, explains Moorhouse.
If you are not sure about your brand personality, as a starting point you could consider some of these questions by imagining your brand as if it was human:
- How would employees or industry partners/resellers perceive you? Edgy, fun, engaging, reliable?
- What age group would you be?
- How would you dress? Elegant, casual, expressive, corporate?
- How does your brand behave? Business professional, light-hearted, innovative, adventurous?
Providing interactive and memorable experiences for attendees
A unique and creative concept can help capture the attendees’ attention and create a memorable experience that sets your event apart from others. According to a 2023 Knowland report, 68.7% of event professionals agree that using technology to improve the attendee experience is a trend with staying power. Consider incorporating unique and unexpected elements into your event, such as interactive installations, and virtual or augmented reality experiences; this can help create a sense of excitement and anticipation among attendees, making them more likely to engage with your event and share it with others.
Another approach to creating an innovative event concept is to use unique venues, host live demonstrations, workshops, or games, and draw inspiration from current trends in your industry. Businesses may also like to consider the overall event design and atmosphere. This might include elements such as music, lighting, and décor that contribute to the overall vibe and mood of the event. Providing unique and unexpected experiences, such as surprise performances or giveaways, can also create lasting memories.
The role of event content
Creating an event program that highlights brand messaging is important to linking event experiences with business goals. Essentially, content can extend the impact of events beyond the event itself. The event might only last a day or two, but that does not mean you can’t keep the conversation going and reiterate core messaging by being intentional about leveraging content outside of the event. Aligning the right content delivery method with the right audience is also important. Finding different channels to share messaging and provide value is vital to connecting with your employees, resellers, and industry partners that have become accustomed to consuming content anywhere.
Keep it social with social media
Social media is an important platform to engage with your audience and chances are your organization is on at least one of them. One way to integrate social media into your event is by creating a branded hashtag that attendees can use when posting about the event on social media. This can help create a sense of community among attendees and make it easier for event organizers to track social media mentions and engagement.
Another way is to encourage attendees to share photos and videos of the event on their social media accounts. This can be done by setting up photo booths or backdrops that are branded with your event logo or by providing incentives for attendees who share their photos on social media. Live streaming the event on social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram can also help increase the event’s reach and engagement.
Now to put it all into action
To create a successful branded event, it’s important to know your brand, determine desired outcomes and ROI, incorporate elements that reflect your brand’s personality and story, create a distinctive and innovative event concept, and provide interactive and memorable experiences for attendees.
- Know your brand – have a clear understanding of your brand’s values, personality, target audience, and messaging.
- Define your goals – set clear objectives for the event and understand why you are having the event and what is its purpose.
- Incorporate unique event concepts – ensure that the elements incorporated into the event reflect your company’s brand personality.
- Engage attendees – maximizing audience engagement is the key to the success of your event.
- Report ROI – Ensure that the value generated by your event exceeds the cost of putting the event on.
By implementing these tips, you can create a memorable and impactful branded event that aligns with your brand’s identity and objectives. It’s important to continually evaluate the success of the event and adjust as needed for future events. By incorporating feedback from attendees and analyzing event metrics, you can continue to improve the event and increase its impact over time. By staying true to your brand and audience while incorporating innovative ideas and experiences, you can create an event that stands out in attendees’ minds and leaves a lasting impression.