Event Marketing is a very effective and popular marketing communication strategy used by present marketers. It is the process of organizing events to achieve marketing objectives by gathering existing and potential customers to one place. With the expansion of Digital Marketing, Event Marketing also takes place both online and offline mediums. Event Marketing is something beyond traditional promotional mix. It is also known as Experiential Marketing. Why is it called as experiential marketing? That is because marketers try to communicate with the consumers by giving them an unforgettable experience.
Experience is a practical and a behavioural memory. There is a high tendency that humans remember by doing something rather than listening or seeing. Most of the marketing communication tools are based on visuals and sounds targeting human seeing and hearing capabilities. But when it comes to Event Marketing, it is a multi-promotional package. It provides a practical experience to the audience while covering all the visual and sound communication modes. That experience is given through the event.
How do the event and the experience relate to products with services?
Here the event is used to gather the audience to one place. Then marketers try to relate the brand name, product, product features or any marketing message to the experience. By that people will remember the brand or the product along with the experience. And whenever they recall that experience, the brand or the product also comes into their mind.
On the other hand, marketers create the brand personality through Event Marketing. Different products have different brand personalities and marketers either should create a new event or relate an existing event to the product personality. For an example, an energy drink can be promoted through a sports event.
What is an Event?
An event is a set of activities organized in a certain time period to gather prospects to celebrate, educate, entertain or to accomplish a particular objective. And there are several types of events.
- Sports events
- Cultural events
- Scientific, medical and technical events
- TV shows
- Entertainment events
- Social welfare events
- Religious events
Objectives of Event Marketing
Every Event Marketing Campaign has a specific marketing objective. But sometimes, several events are organized to achieve even a single objective. This objective is the key purpose of doing the event and it will support to evaluate the success of the Event Marketing campaign. These are the basic objectives of Event Marketing
- Build or develop brand and product identity
- Increase sales
- Increase awareness
- Create new leads
- Develop customer relationships
- Increase customer loyalty
- Highlight the qualities of a brand or a product
In doing Event Marketing, marketers should first identify the product or the brand personality and the target customer group. It is very important to identify them clearly to create an own event or relate an existing event to the product. Most importantly companies need to understand that the sky is the limit for this process. Creativity and innovations matter a lot in this process. But on the other hand, selecting well-established events such as cultural events also could lead to achieving the objective.
Generally, companies do Event Marketing in two ways. Sometimes companies organize their own events and the total authority of the event is on company’s hand. On the other hand, they sponsor for some public or third-party event. Here the success and the standard of the sponsored event directly influence the brand and the product identity. If anything negative happens in an event sponsored by the company, it would affect negatively for the company name. Therefore companies should make sure that the sponsored event is held well.
Event Marketing is one of the best opportunity for an organization to achieve their marketing objectives. And even it is a new experience for customers. It seems that Event Marketing is an expensive way to do promotions. But it will give you results fare more worth than the cost.
