Corporate Special Events are an increasingly effective way to get face time with your target audience. Special events help your staff and your brand take center stage and capture your audience’s undivided attention. Especially in the cacophony of advertising in email, tweets and other media, event marketing is an effective way to stand out, get your message heard, and be memorable.
Some successful types of corporate events include grand openings, open houses, new product launches, dealer meetings and awards ceremonies, just to name a few. The type of event depends on your objective, but as you start the planning process, be sure to think about what your audience will find to be worthwhile. As hosts, of course you will make every effort to ensure your guests enjoy themselves, but also be sure to build in value so that they benefit from their time investment and leave enriched in some way. Often for B2B events, this means that they learned something. For B2C events, it could be the caché of being the first to learn about a new product, or a special offer for your products or services
Partnering with an exhibit and event design agency will help you pull off your event, both from a logistics and planning perspective, as well as an aesthetic one. Exhibit design and planning firms are seasoned professionals accustomed to the rigors of deadlines and coordinating the services of multiple vendors such as caterers, AV, and entertainment. Organizations that already exhibit at trade shows often combine their existing displays from their trade show marketing program with event-specific graphics, rental staging and special lighting. Additional rental display elements and floral decoration tie it all together. Event marketing firms can help you efficiently use what you already own, and incorporate rental properties into the design.
Offering wonderful hospitality is the foundation to a successful event, but take every opportunity at the event to reinforce your brand and message before, during and after the event. If the event is focused on a product launch, consider putting the product line brand out in front of the corporate one, and promote the event as an exclusive “unveiling” or even a “sneak peek” opportunity. Event-only graphics, giveaways or impressions go a long way towards making it a “moment in time” happening not to be missed. That said, there is every reason to broadcast the event afterwards online, in the media and in promotional materials. Get as much mileage out of the event as you can by distributing photos, video clips and press releases immediately.
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Just wondering if you feel it’s time to start doing things like this again for some companies? You see so much bad press these days when companies have extravagant parties when their bottom line is suffering.
I think you’ve hit on some great ideas for events such as grand openings, open houses, new product launches, dealer meetings and awards ceremonies but wonder if you have any recommendations on how to handle this from a political standpoint?
Justin,
Special events for clients or employees don’t have to be extravagant, and with today’s technologies such as dye sub printing and tension fabric, plus the flexibility of rental properties, event design firms such as Exhibit Resources can help produce events for a fraction of what it would have cost with older fabrication techniques. A careful management of promotion of special events is also wise. Event design firm professionals can also advise companies or their PR firms in how to promote their event so that it strikes the right balance.