Special events project

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The Wiley Event Management Series Series Editor: Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP • Professional Event Coordination, Second Edition by Julia Rutherford Silvers, CSEP • The Complete Guide to Greener Meetings and Events by Samuel deBlanc Goldblatt • Special Events: A New Generation and the Next Frontier, Sixth Edition by Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP • The Complete Guide to Careers in Special Events by Gene Columbus • Dictionary of Event Management, Second Edition by Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP, and Kathleen S. Nelson, CSEP • Corporate Event Project Management by William O’Toole and Phyllis Mikolaitis • Event Risk Management and Safety by Peter E. Tarlow, PhD • Event Sponsorship by Bruce E. Skinner and Vladimir Rukavina • The Complete Guide to Event Entertainment and Production by Mark Sonder, MM, CSEP • The Guide to Successful Destination Management by Pat Schaumann, CMP, CSEP • The Sports Event Management and Marketing Playbook by Frank Supovitz • Art of the Event: Complete Guide to Designing and Decorating Special

Events by James C. Monroe, CMP, CSEP • Global Meetings and Exhibitions by Carol Krugman, CMP, CMM, and Rudy R. Wright, CMP

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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright © 2012 by Chris Preston and Leonard H. Hoyle, Jr. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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ISBN 978-0-470-89107-0 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-118-11071-3 (ebk), ISBN 978-1-118-11072-0 (ebk), ISBN 978-1-118-11073-7 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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DEDICATION This book is dedicated to the late Leonard H. Hoyle, whose insights and enthusiasm provided the inspiration behind this work, and whose instinct for the inherent practicality behind event marketing activities was so ably demonstrated in the first edition. Leonard will be greatly missed by his associates in the events industry, and we honor his memory. I would also like to dedicate this book to my young son, Ben, for whom everything is an event.

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Event Marketing Table of Contents

Foreword - Liz Bigham Series Editor Foreword - Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP Preface In Appreciation Of What Is an Event and What Is Event Marketing? The Evolution of Event Marketing The Theory and Practice of Event Marketing Sponsorship and Cause-Related Event Marketing E-Event Marketing Entertainment and Festival Event Marketing Corporate Event Marketing Association, Convention, and Exhibition Event Marketing Social Event Marketing Future Forces and Trends in Event Marketing Event Marketing Case Studies Resources

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FOREWORD The Potential and Paradox of Events in the Twenty-First Century Today, connecting with others through digital means is an accepted and ever-present reality. Digital interaction is like the air we breathe, invisible and natural, even when it leads to apparently ridiculous situations, such as two teenagers sitting side by side texting messages back and forth to each other. And that’s precisely why, paradoxically, knowing how to leverage events strategically is more important than ever before. The more we live in a world that is digital, the more we need live events—and the more we need to know how to use them wisely.

At regular intervals during the 72-year history of the brand experience agency I work for, Jack Morton, prognosticators and irrationally exuberant technologists have predicted that new innovations—from videoconferencing to virtual events to the Internet itself—would be the death of live events. Yet reports of events’ death were, to paraphrase Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated: exactly the opposite has happened. Events— defined as everything from small-scale gatherings for C-level executives to mass happenings that engage consumers and generate media for brands— have continued to grow in importance as part of the marketing mix. Agencies like ours have thrived. As human beings, we crave “real” human interaction. As leaders of business, we’ve come to acknowledge that we get a lot done when we gather face-to-face that we simply can’t do through other means. As marketers, we recognize that brand experiences that connect with people have an immediacy that inspires positive action more quickly than other channels, and that builds a more memorable and meaningful interaction over the long term. Along with these enduring truths about the value of live events, there’s an even more important requirement: in this digital age, brands that invest in live events must know how to leverage them strategically. This means understanding what is special and unique about live events. It means understanding what live events can do well given a particular brand’s industry, their business objectives, and the people they’re trying to engage. It means knowing how to integrate and incorporate digital interaction in face-to-face gatherings,

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as well as how to balance live versus digital moments in time as part of an ongoing campaign and related set of brand touchpoints. And, critically, it means knowing how to measure the impact of live events. All this makes a book such as this one all the more valuable and necessary.

Liz Bigham SVP Director of Marketing, Jack Morton Worldwide

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SERIES EDITOR FOREWORD It is hard to believe that over a decade has passed since the late and great Leonard H. (affectionately known to most as “Buck”) Hoyle (1939–2010) wrote what historically will be recorded as the seminal pioneering book focused upon improving marketing specifically within the events industry. Buck, a tall, warm, and gentle giant in the meetings and events industry of the twentieth century, served as an executive of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), was the executive director for many years of the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), and was a beloved and admired leader in the modern meetings and events association. One of his greatest professional legacies is the book you now hold in your hands.

Fortunately, Christopher Preston, a very experienced marketing expert and popular lecturer from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland, stepped forward one decade later to revise this book to ensure its currency and sustainability within the twenty-first century. Chris has successfully preserved the key principles, themes, and classic philosophies that Buck first developed but also greatly expanded them to embrace and provide new solutions for the new challenges facing this era of event marketing.

From emerging opportunities such as social media to the issues of measurement and evaluation of return on marketing investment and return on marketing objective, Chris Preston has transformed this book to address the major marketing paradigm shifts that are driving change in meetings and events in this new century. This new edition preserves the key classic ideas and concepts first introduced in the original book and then takes them forward with lightning speed to ensure currency with the contemporary challenges facing event marketers today as well as tomorrow.

The term event is derived from the Latin word e-venire, which means “outcome.” Therefore, every planned event must produce a desired outcome. I sincerely believe that Buck Hoyle would be pleased with the outcome of Chris Preston’s valuable contribution to his original work.

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Chris has provided you with a comprehensive set of tools to meet the marketing challenges of the second decade of the twenty-first century through a classic book that first began as part of the John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Event Management Series during the final days of the last century. I hope you will also, through the pages of this excellent book, create your own sustainable legacies in meeting and event marketing thanks in large part to the inspiration of Buck and the many new advancements provided by Chris. As their reader, you are now part of the twenty-first-century meeting and event marketing team that will help further advance this field and profession through your own innovations and creative approaches in the future.

I am certain that Buck is now smiling in amazement as the marketing of meetings and events continues to expand and grow exponentially. He would also, as many have observed after his recent passing, tell a cute story by first asking a question, such as “What is the best way to market a meeting or event?” Then he would shyly answer, “Well, I would start by producing a good one to start with.” Indeed he did this with an event he created entitled “Affordable Meetings,” which has now been produced by HSMAI for over three decades. May you have similar opportunities and success!

Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP Series Editor

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PREFACE “Reject the notion that things should always be done as they have been done before.” Leonard H. Hoyle, Event Marketing, First Edition (1939–2010)

Allow me to welcome you to the second edition of Event Marketing, which I hope you will find clear, enlightening, and useful. I would like to begin by paying my respects to the late Leonard H. Hoyle for the first edition, which was an inspirational text, and which stressed the special qualities of event marketing. His book was written with passion and enthusiasm. Hoyle’s edition focused upon how to promote events. This second edition will be more about how to apply strategic marketing thinking to events. There will be some overlap between the editions, however, as many of the excellent perspectives of Hoyle are as useful and insightful today as they have ever been.

The overarching theme of the book will be that the twenty-first-century events market is becoming overly saturated, like many other consumer markets, and that you need to use strategic marketing thinking to survive. For example, the United Kingdom (population 65 million) has more than 70 different beer festivals running per annum. I can’t say that I have visited every one of them, but everyone needs a goal to work toward. In the United States (population nearly 300 million), there are over 2,500 music festivals running in a year, reflecting a diversity of tastes and, importantly for the event marketer, a wide demographic diversity.

Planned events are everywhere and every time, and consumers now have more and more choice of which events they want to invest in and attend. This book is committed to helping ensure they choose your event. The way to make that happen is to reduce the risk that they will not. That is the essence of strategic event marketing.

Solving Problems and Avoiding Problems Like many people, I wish I had learned to avoid more problems in my life. I also wish I had seen them coming. Well, we live and learn. What if I am

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marketing a planned event in a competitive or hostile environment? What if I am marketing one of these 2,500 music festivals that run annually in the United States? Surely I want to avoid problems by anticipating them. I certainly don’t want to get bogged down with problems, and I certainly want to see them coming. What about the competitors, of which there are very many? Of course I want to outperform my competitors. I want to have the advantage. I want them to have the problems, not me. Who do you want to be, someone who spends a lot of time solving problems, or someone who learns through strategic event marketing how to avoid them?

That’s what this book is all about. Strategic event marketing is risk reduction, how to strategically reduce the risk that something will go wrong. It’s about increasing the likelihood that things will go right. It’s about avoiding problems so that we don’t spend all of our precious time trying to solve them. Sure, there are always going to be things that don’t work out. Marketing is not a magic wand that will make problems disappear, but it is a way of going about your business that will allow you to see them before they hit you, so that you can avoid them by taking the right path.

In the first edition Leonard H. Hoyle put the relationship between marketing and event management very elegantly and succinctly. Hoyle stated, “Marketing should integrate all of the management decisions so that they focus upon the goals and objectives of the event.” That means that marketing events is related to the business of planning events. Hoyle continued to observe that “the enlightened event professional will incorporate marketing at the outset of the planning process.” Again, it is clear that event marketing has a lot to do with event planning, and that it extends way beyond the idea of merely promotion. Furthermore, Hoyle profoundly reminded us of something fundamental to events: “You are in the business of brain surgery. Not as a medical doctor but as a modifier of minds. You will make people happy through celebrations; make them smarter through education; make them collaborate through interaction; make them conciliate through arbitration; make them profit through motivation . . . It’s a people business. If you are doing your job right, you are modifying minds and fulfilling dreams.”

It is with admiration of Hoyle’s wisdom that I begin the revision of this book. One of my favorite pearls of wisdom from the first edition is, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” Those of you who are producing events right now will know how true that is, and those of you who are studying planned events are becoming aware of it. In a highly competitive modern

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events market, you cannot take success for granted. Success has to be earned through hard work, and strategic event marketing.

My First Experience of Event Marketing The first event that I became aware of as having something special about it was a small agricultural show that ran annually in a rural district close to my hometown in Scotland when I was a child. There were animals and farm machinery, some fairground rides, and lots to eat. What was special about it was that it always rained. No matter what the weather was like that week, the clouds would roll in and sure enough, the heavens would open. That was what made it special. As the fateful event day approached, people would nod knowingly and turn their eyes skywards. In the days before universal social networking, people shared their common experience in person with looks and glances and the odd word or two. The turnout was always healthy, as we locals descended upon the sodden field in our Wellington boots. It became somewhat of a tradition, and its reputation grew out of all proportion to its actual content. I have often wondered whether the event would have held such affection in our hearts had it not been for its uncanny ability to influence the weather, as in other respects it was decidedly ordinary. I suppose that was its brand image, and for some reason it worked. It had that extra something that makes all the difference. Posters for the show would go up a few weeks beforehand, reminding us that the fateful day approached. The poster’s logo was a figure wearing red weatherproofs carrying a raised umbrella upon which cartoon raindrops splashed.

That is how it was that I first encountered event marketing, and I remember thinking the logo was a good idea because it focused upon how we, the attendees, actually felt about the affair. Yes, even in my childhood I began pondering the deep mysteries and strategic opportunities of event marketing.

A Brief History of Events As time rolled by and my teenage years arrived, among other things I found that I had an interest in history, soaking up all I could about times gone by. It struck me that the history of the world is largely the history of events, which have been used since antiquity to entertain and distract, to provide cultural identity, and to express our relationship with one another and with the wider world.

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Back in 2300 BC, ancient Britons were completing Stonehenge, a monolithic stadium to hold events concerning the cycle of life and death, and to relate to the mystery of the heavens. It is only by concentrating on events that the past comes into focus, as the day-to-day business of life becomes lost in time like grains of sand in a wide desert. Back in 876 BC, the first Olympic Games were held, an opportunity for rival Greek city- states to compete via athletics rather than war, although war remained popular. These events have come to define the era. In AD 80, the Coliseum of Rome was completed and citizens enjoyed a spectacle of slaughter that somehow came to be symbolic of that city and its empire.

History is the recording of many human events, and they have very often become the lens through which our history is viewed and by which we understand how the world and human civilization has evolved. There is a long tradition of events, and the events of today are something profoundly human, something that defines who we are. It is often asked what it is that makes us human, that separates us from the beasts of the field. Remarkably enough, one of these things is planned events, as they symbolize our drive to impose order on the world, to make things happen of our own design, to imprint our shared identity upon the passing of time.

When Hoyle stressed that the events industry was a people business, he got to the heart of the matter. Without events, it is difficult to imagine how humanity could have evolved toward the fruits of civilization that we now enjoy in the twenty-first century. Therefore, this book also seeks to inspire you and help you feel proud to be involved in the great history of planned events. You are responsible for bringing people together, and that is a most noble pursuit.

How This Book Will Help You Effectively Market Events In chapter 1, you will learn to distinguish between the marketing of events and the use of events as marketing strategies themselves. This has to do with understanding the purpose of your event. Is it an end in itself or is it a means to an end? That distinction has a lot to do with the strategic marketing of your event.

Chapter 2 charts the evolution of event marketing and will help you see how we got to where we are today with historic illustrations of event marketing in practice. This will provide you with a strong underpinning for the future and emerging evolutions of strategic event marketing.

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In chapter 3, we will build up a model of strategic event marketing that is designed to be both conceptual and practical. It is intended as a user guide to strategic event marketing that both reduces risk for the event and guides the marketer through a series of practical steps that define a process.

Sponsorship is central to the funding of events, and a lot of effort goes into securing the necessary sponsors to make your event work. Chapter 4 helps you to know how to approach the acquisition of sponsorship capital. There is another side to sponsorship. Whoever sponsors your event lends their image and personality to the event, so strategic event marketing also has to do with that important consideration.

Chapter 5 helps you understand how to make the most of strategic Internet marketing to support your event. Without knowledge of how to utilize search engines and how to tap into the communicative power of social networking, the strategic event marketer will be at a complete disadvantage in this dynamic environment.

A great deal of media attention goes to entertainment and festival events, and many a student is drawn toward the subject because of direct experience with this sector of the market. Chapter 6 will help you design, select, coordinate, and evaluate strategic event marketing activities for the entertainment and festival sector.

Thinking once again about the difference between events as an end or a means to an end, chapter 7 helps you understand the role of events for corporate strategy, both external and internal. You will learn to effectively and efficiently utilize events within corporate and brand marketing strategy.

The strategic marketing of associative organizations involves particular challenges and opportunities. Chapter 8 helps you focus on some of the major issues within this most specialized sector, such as the sensitivities involved with the strategic event marketing of religious associations, which rightly wish to preserve a pious veneer. Associations come in all shapes and sizes, and we shall identify and penetrate the association event marketing sector.

Chapter 9 will take you into the world of social events that are increasingly subject to professional event management. It’s the world of birth celebrations, funerals, and everything in between, and we shall take some interest in the phenomenon of the aging population and the strategic event marketing opportunities afforded by the shift in demographics this represents.

The book will continue in chapter 10 with a look at the future forces and

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trends in strategic event marketing. Knowing what tomorrow will bring is surely of great importance to us all, and it is certainly necessary for the contemporary event marketer to be able to predict trends and to anticipate change.

Chapter 11 will conclude with a selection of event marketing case studies covering a range of approaches and strategies.

The Next Frontier for Event Marketing It is clear that the role of events in twenty-first-century consumer society has become sufficiently mainstream for particular consideration to be given to their marketing and promotion. Moreover, events are heavily involved in the marketing of products and services worldwide. Think of the extent to which the World Grand Prix racing circuit is an event designed to market the merits of sponsoring brands and of the automobile industry generally. It is a symbiotic relationship, and each relies upon the other for mutual benefit. Events then are both products and services to be marketed and a means of marketing products and services.

As a contemporary consumer, you have choices as to what you consume. You may choose to consume an experience as opposed to an artifact. The world of events provides consumers with a rich and varied menu to choose from.

The twentieth-century idea that consumption largely concerns things you put in or on your body or house (or driveway) is being superseded by new ideas of consumption. Entertainment is mass consumption, information is consumption in the digital age, and other people represent a form of consumption in the social networking, not cannibal, sense. Advertising itself is viewed as something that we consume and digest, separately from those things being promoted. We consume ideas, religion, and political ideology—anything that is being offered in the great department store of contemporary life.

Events in modern society have come to represent new ideas of consumption, have become involved in the matrix of intercommunication that so typifies our age, and represent in themselves a form of consumption that provides the opportunity for social interaction, both physical and virtual. It might be said that in our world of electronic communication, events provide a much-needed opportunity for people to get unplugged from the matrix and get in touch with real people in real places, do real things, and experience life firsthand.

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I was in just that position recently, attending a musical festival held in Scotland called T in the Park, an annual event that is held in the countryside near Edinburgh, with attendance in the region of 10,000. I was attempting to catch a much-loved act, a group of middle-aged miscreants who call themselves the Alabama 3. It had been some years since I had managed to catch their act and I was keen to take the opportunity. Not being in the first bloom of youth myself, the experience was at times overwhelming and all my senses were working overtime, sometimes pleasantly, sometimes jarringly, as there were many acts that seemed dismal to my ear, yet which were being received with much enthusiasm by untrained youth. It may not surprise you that the major sponsor of this festival was a local brewer called Tenants, who was using the event as a means of communicating with the great beer-drinking public, hence T (for Tenants) in the Park. Oh, and the only beer on sale was Tenants. Was the event there to market the acts or the brewer, or both?

This is one of the major themes of this book. Whether an event has been organized by a brand owner such as Coca-Cola, or whether an event is sponsored by a brand owner such as the International Olympic Committee, events have become inexorably linked to the marketing of brands. The Olympic Games may have started off as an athletic response to rivalry between ancient Greek cities, but they have become a major brand experience these days. Brand owners, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, are competing with one another to become official sponsors of the Olympic Games, so as to be associated with the many events that compose the Games. The qualities of the event reflect onto your brand, and it is an excellent way to acquire leverage, status, and presence.

Will They Come? I would like to build upon an inspirational story that appeared in the previous edition of this text. In the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, the premise is that the hero builds a baseball diamond carved out of a cornfield on his farm, which mystically lures an assortment of people who are seeking to fulfill their dreams; the film’s philosophy is “If you build it, they will come.” And indeed, being both a fictionalized story and a Hollywood movie, they do come, and they do realize their dreams. I must admit there is something very inspiring in this haunting tale, as it tells us of the power of hope, the integrity of perseverance, and the energy and motivation that spring from the better angels of our nature when they dare

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to dream. Unfortunately, this rarely happens in modern event marketing. There is,

in fact, no reason for the mystical farmer to expect anyone to come at all, never mind in the numbers necessary to provide a return on investment. Life just is not like that. To that extent, we should rephrase the philosophy of this romantic fiction, to serve the ends of this text, as “If you build it, there is no reason to believe that they will come, and even if they do, there probably won’t be enough of them to make it worth your while.” And let’s face it, involvement and idle curiosity are different things. If you set out seeking a field of dreams and find only a field, then you will experience disappointment.

You see, Kevin Costner’s character was both naive and complacent. His dream isn’t necessarily relevant to the dreams of others. It was a mistake to think that. He thought what he was building was fantastic, and therefore naturally other people would too. This is as flagrant an example of product orientation as you are likely to encounter. What he really should have done was find out if his idea of a baseball field in the middle of nowhere was something that appealed to anyone else. He should have conducted some research to ascertain whether it was worth doing in terms of a viable customer base. If this was so, he should have used research intelligence to fine-tune the event so that it would turn out to be appropriate to the expectations of attendees, and he should have promoted the event in appropriate media so as to reach potential customers with an informative and persuasive message. This would not have made such a successful Hollywood movie, of course, but this book is not a guide to writing a screenplay.

This book is about applying strategic event marketing orientation to the management and promotion of planned events. That is not to say that you shouldn’t have your event dream. It doesn’t mean you should fail to be inspired and inspiring.

Of course, you want to generate excitement, creativity, and infectious enthusiasm about your events. Therefore you should be bold and never shy away from putting your dreams into action, and by no means should you avoid the magic of creativity and innovation. In a competitive environment these are the qualities that will set your planned event apart from others, the ingredients that will infuse your event with the correct ingredients for success. However, you should also make sure that what you see as being wonderfully creative also corresponds with the attitudes, values, and beliefs of your current and prospective event customers.

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That is what is called marketing orientation. It is just about reducing the risks that you will not be giving people the magic ingredients that your event customers will value. It’s about maximizing the positive experience in their terms, not in yours.

The future frontier of modern event marketing is ready for you to design, plant, fertilize, and harvest. Hoyle planted the early seeds nearly twenty years ago. Now, it is your turn. Good luck to you in achieving a rich and long-lasting harvest of strategic event marketing by using the second edition of this book.

“Sometimes a field is just a field.” C. A. Preston

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IN APPRECIATION OF Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP, who has become legendary as the world’s advocate of the power of events, and who has provided essential guidance to the completion of this book.

Thorben Grosser, who has worked his socks off to provide so many examples of event marketing in practice, and who has been my technical expert throughout this enterprise. Thorben is a master of organization and the owner of a cool head.

Jess Knapper, who has been so helpful in ascertaining the whereabouts of event marketing organizations and institutions, and for being willing to work off her own back.

Liz Bigham, who has written the inspirational foreword to this book, and who has also contributed throughout on the advantages of events to marketers. Liz is the Director of Brand Marketing at Jack Morton Worldwide.

David Zolkwer, who has added some profound insights into the way that events connect peoples and cultures, and on how events provide a narrative of human experience. David is Director of Public Events at Jack Morton Worldwide.

Michael Payne, who has contributed on the complexities of association marketing. Michael is the Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Smith Bucklin, the world’s largest association management firm.

Barbara Pomerance, of Pomerance Associates, who has contributed on the power of events as branding agents, and who recognizes planned events as receptacles for a range of marketing activities.

Joan Eisenstodt, who has added a perceptive insight into the effects and influences of technology upon associative events. Joan’s business, Eisenstodt Associates, is involved in conference facilitation and training consultancy.

Hugh Wakeham, who has provided valuable insight into the role of event sponsorship in the achievement of corporate objectives. Hugh is President of leading sponsorship marketing group W.A.M.

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DeWayne Woodring, who has added his unique perspective of the ways in which the religious world has evolved to embrace modern technology in order to create congregation. DeWayne is the longtime Director of the Religious Conference Management Association.

Paul Bush, who has contributed on a range of event and tourism issues. Paul is the Chief Operating Officer for Event Scotland. I feel duty bound to add that Scotland is the world’s best tourist destination.

Reggie Aggarwal, who has contributed some very interesting perspectives on technological matters affecting the events industry. Reggie is CEO of Cvent, a global event marketing solutions company.

Steve Winter, who has contributed on event public relations, both the use of events for PR and the use of PR for events. Steve is President of Brotman Winter Fried, a communications, public relations, and media promotions company.

Christine McKnight at John Wiley & Sons, Inc., who has been a steady hand throughout, the very model of calm.

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Chapter 1

What Is an Event and What Is Event Marketing? “Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you’re doing the right thing.” John D. Rockefeller, oil magnate and philanthropist (1839–1937)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Make practical distinctions between the marketing of events

and events as marketing strategies themselves, • Understand the wide scope of various event marketing

activities and the multiple elements of their makeup, • Describe and effectively argue to other stakeholders the

importance of marketing through and with events, • Develop an understanding of the diversity, scale, and variety

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of events that require marketing strategies, and • Comprehend how event marketing is expanding globally and

improving to benefit events themselves and the numerous products and services marketed through events.

Strategic event marketing is doing the right thing and letting people know you are doing the right thing. The difficult part is to know what the right thing is and knowing the best way to let people know. For example, would an event supporting ecology sponsored by the oil industry be a good thing, and if it is, who should be informed, and how?

The application of strategic marketing concepts to the organization and promotion of planned events is concerned with overcoming a range of difficulties. Put simply, it will help you to design the event that is most likely to meet its objectives, and to manage the communication of the event to its best advantage. It involves only straightforward thinking and will appeal to you by being described in plain language without recourse to specialist terminology.

Creativity, Excitement, and Enthusiasm Are Prerequisites History is rich with examples of creative geniuses who have dreamed beyond the borders of the conventional in order to develop awareness and increase sales of their planned events. For example, in 1951, Bill Veeck, the owner of the Cleveland Indians, hired the services of Eddie Gaedel, an American with dwarfism, to become the shortest player ever to play in the major leagues. This proved to be a great success. What should we make of such bold operators? Perhaps they were brilliant, or perhaps they got lucky. While we can learn from their unique and sometimes outrageous stunts and attractions, we should not let mavericks be our inspiration, although we will pay homage to their innovations in chapter 2. They all wanted to entertain, and so should you. Like you, they wanted to create excitement, and they were certainly enterprising characters, as no doubt you are. What, however, of the many more whose enthusiasm led nowhere?

Now would be a good time to draw a line under something. Events are about excitement, creativity, and enthusiasm, and the generation of experiences and memories. These things are really prerequisites to a

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successful planned event. They almost go without saying. Without creative flair, it is difficult to imagine an event of any kind engaging attendees, but event marketing is not merely about creativity and enthusiasm, as they are not enough in themselves to deliver a successful event.

Marketing requires creative minds to come up with interesting things, but at its heart it is about making sure that what’s on offer is going to be wanted in numbers sufficient to make the event worthwhile, and to find a way of attracting sufficient attendance and involvement. If your event seems great to you, that doesn’t mean it’s going to seem great to anyone else. You have to find out whether your creative genius is seen as being such by others before you can call it that. Moreover, the sheer number of events on offer today has created a difficulty in getting noticed and attracting sponsorship. How robust is your promotional program? Is it going to make you shine or is your message going to be submerged in the ocean of marketing communications that pervade the traditional and electronic media? Strategic event marketing is about reducing the risk of a negative outcome through the application of marketing methods, which can be stated bluntly as using market intelligence to correctly position your event in a competitive market and utilizing appropriate communications to promote your event to the target audiences you have identified. No doubt that seems straightforward enough, as indeed it is.

The Intercommunications Context of Modern Marketing Hoyle argued in the first edition of this book that people have so much entertainment and communication at home that they need to be compelled by an irresistible event to get them out and about. If the entire world is accessible without leaving the house, there is less impetus for people to go looking for diversion. That may apply in many instances today, but there has been a fundamental change in behavior that has superseded that perspective.

In the twenty-first century, communication has morphed into intercommunication. Never before in human history have people been so able to communicate with each other so easily, and so readily with professional purveyors of information. It has been, and continues to be, a quiet revolution. This is the smartphone generation. Now home entertainment happens everywhere. That’s not to say that in-home entertainment isn’t still big business, but that’s only because people spend

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some of their time in the home. They don’t rely upon static devices that are plugged into the mains. Developments in battery technology, the advent of the ubiquitous laptop, and most importantly, the evolution of the handheld device, have changed the face of entertainment and communication most markedly.

In the past, home entertainment was viewed as competition for planned events and represented a point of resistance to involvement with things happening outside in the world. That was pretty much the view of filmmakers to television when it arrived, and later to the video and DVD markets. Yet the cinema is thriving. Perhaps these developments should have been looked at as drawing attention to cinema, not away from it. Mind you, it’s easy to be wise after the event, and things always seem simpler with the benefit of hindsight.

FIVE WAYS TO BENEFIT FROM INTERCOMMUNICATION 1. Make your event a virtual experience online for the benefit of

attendees and nonattendees alike. 2. Post videos of your event on YouTube, and be sure to make them

interesting. 3. Insist that your online event information is compatible with handheld

devices. 4. Invest in your event web page so that it is interactive and involving. 5. Use social networks to advertise and promote your event.

We will examine the integration of fingertip intercommunication with events in the minds of contemporary consumers and explore the idea that rather than being an impediment to involvement with events, technology is the event marketer’s friend—as indeed events have proven to be the brand marketer’s friend. More than ever, brand owners are turning to events to boost the power of their offerings in the marketplace.

Events as a Marketing Tool For the purposes of this text, the term brand will be used at the widest level to cover all kinds of available choice. We know that, for example, Ford and McDonald’s are both well-known and long-established brands. Barack Obama, the president of the United States, is also a brand and the Democratic Party too is a brand. Ireland is a brand and Catholicism is a

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brand. Oxfam is a brand and Hilton is a brand. Evolution is a brand and so too is creationism. Where there is choice between things, we can consider these things brands. To that extent, we can consider ourselves as brands, and indeed we do fit the criteria, and as we will discuss later, consumers use products, services, and experiences to brand themselves as particular kinds of people.

Brands have certain characteristics that make them identifiable, and they promote their virtues to further their ends. As an example, consider the Red Bull brand, a high-caffeine energy drink that has achieved a premium brand status and that supports a heavy price differential in the marketplace over near-identical products. Red Bull is very identifiable, has become associated with a certain energetic lifestyle, and is very often used by young hedonists as a vodka mixer that merges alcohol intoxication with a measure of wakefulness. The brand uses events to add status and excitement to its image. They sponsor a Formula 1 team for the International Grand Prix circuit, an event of some glamour and prestige, which ensures international promotion and media coverage. Their slogan that Red Bull “gives you wings” is mirrored in the adrenaline of the Formula 1 experience. There is also the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, featuring the world’s best race pilots in a motor sports competition that combines speed, precision, and skill; touching down in six cities worldwide, each Red Bull Air Race is unique. From the heart of the city to the open countryside, over land or water, a Red Bull Air Race can take place almost anywhere (see www.redbullairrace.com). Spectacular backdrops and jaw-dropping action guarantee that spectators experience one of the most innovative and exciting new sports around today. This event really does give you wings and is an example of a major international premium brand using events as the major aspect of their image-building promotions. Red Bull, of course, also advertises, enjoys widespread distribution, has an iconic packaging design, and as mentioned has managed to maintain a remarkable price premium. The events approach to brand building has allowed the brand to maintain a level of differentiation from near- identical competitor products that supports their pricing policy. For Red Bull, and major brands throughout the world, planned events are an integral component of the marketing mix.

To see how seriously Red Bull takes their strategic use of event marketing, visit their events web page for an example of first-class consumer involvement that does much to supplement the traditional on- site advertising and product sampling techniques that we have grown to expect. Their worldwide events strategy is to be enjoyed by live

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participants, and also to be followed online as a brand narrative that provides powerful communication of values.

(www.redbull.com)

Events Within the Marketing Mix It is increasingly likely that a brand owner might very well decide that some kind of event would be useful in the marketing of their brand. It is unlikely that they would use an event in isolation, but would rather think of it as an aspect of their marketing mix. This is common practice. This scenario has a brand in a busy competitive market wanting to have the edge on competitors by influencing the thoughts and behavior of potential and actual customers.

Marketing interventions concentrate around key activities, and this is most clearly illustrated with reference to a basic product. Let us examine oatmeal, or porridge as it is known in Scotland. I will try to make perfectly clear how events integrate into a traditional marketing mix with reference to this plain cereal product.

What does a brand owner actually do with oatmeal? Well, they start at the beginning and package it, to keep it fresh, and they design the packaging to be recognizable, perhaps with a Scotsman in a kilt tossing his caber. Then they will find a level of distribution that matches their production capacity; they will make it readily available. They will price the oatmeal to optimize demand. They will have used research to inform all of the above, and all being well they will have a brand. That’s the way it is for most brands in the market, a distribution- and price-based proposition. The term marketing is often used by the general public and the media to denote promotional activity, often specifically advertising, yet most commonly it reflects the business of securing distribution.

The promotional aspect of marketing generally reflects a brand’s effort to achieve growth in market share, and expenditure on promotional activity in turn is relative to the ability of the parent organization’s capacity to invest in this growth-orientated activity. It also becomes appropriate to invest in brand building through promotion when competition is intense.

Therefore, when there are many brands of oatmeal in the market, or when there is a general competitiveness within the cereal market, the brand owner might decide to advertise, to stress some aspect of the brand, to infuse some positive associations, and they might sponsor something appropriate. This is all standard brand marketing activity. In promoting by

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these standard means, the brand owner is attempting to position their brand. That is to say, they seek to provide a means of positively differentiating their brand from the competition. They will furthermore most likely develop a website to engage consumers to support their marketing mix.

There will be a variety of ways to position a brand. In the case of an oatmeal product, they might decide to go for the anticholesterol angle, marketing oatmeal as a kind of health food. But the competition is, well, being competitive and will be offering similarly positive messages. How to generate a competitive advantage? How to differentiate yourself from those other brands?

A smart brand owner might very well decide to invest in an event to give it additional appeal or edge. What about a cholesterol check road show in support of the brand? Take the brand to the people; generate some interest and excitement. Generate some media exposure via the event to further support the brand proposition. It is clear and straightforward that a brand owner would want to get involved in events. It adds a further persona to the brand personality. To put it bluntly, it adds another string to its bow.

In 2008, Emmi UK ran an eight-week road show for its cholesterol- reducing healthy cheese alternative, miniCol. The campaign, aimed predominantly at the over-55 market, involved a team of trained brand ambassadors, chosen to appeal to the target audience, and toured the major UK grocery multiples. A mobile stand was placed at the entrances to stores where brand ambassadors interacted with consumers, explaining the scientifically proven benefits of the product before offering them a free sample.

Consumers also received a leaflet containing insights into cholesterol reduction, healthy lifestyle advice, meal ideas, and money-off coupons. To add to the experience, a theater chef prepared a selection of recipes, demonstrating the wide uses for the product in everyday cooking. This experiential marketing campaign utilized the road show event format to differentiate their product and their profile.

(www.emmi-minicol.ch)

How much more difficult it would have been for this brand to create such impact by less outgoing marketing tactics. The use of this event road show managed to create interest and trial, provided samples, and connected with real people.

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Steve Winter is President of Brotman Winter Fried Communications, an agency specializing in public and media relations as well as promotions. Winter comments on the emergence of events as an integral aspect of the marketing mix: Event creation and production is a critical element to an overall marketing and communications program. Years ago, marketing was very much segmented by channel. You either required advertising, public relations or promotions as a channel to reach the consumer, but as the industries converged through the years, so too did the individual elements. As a result, events are as important a part of the process as is the art of publicizing and promoting what those events are designed to do.

For example, Diageo-owned Smirnoff Vodka makes good use of its popular “Be There” experiential campaign, involving sponsored parties and events. This major international brand markets itself traditionally based upon distribution, sales promotion, and advertising, yet it is through the use of events that they are able to add an exciting layer of hedonism appropriate to the core values of the product, namely intoxication. This is how they are able to use event marketing methods to bring the consumer into sensory contact with the brand.

Although events have been marketed and used for marketing purposes for many years, their integration into mainstream marketing has been a recent evolution, in part driven by industry fusion, and by those who have been brought together within the marketing world. Development therefore happens at the ground level, driven by market forces. For example, Smirnoff’s white spirit big-brand rival, Bacardi, also uses event marketing to further the aims of their famous brand, and brands such as these are competing with one another on the basis of their event programs, as market forces shape and refine their marketing strategies.

Events and Public Relations Organizations similarly will use events to support public relations, which can be considered as a type of reputation management. Steve Winter explains its development.

I started in public relations and staging, and implementing and managing special events emerged as a major by-product of our

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skill set. It started by creating special events in order to generate media coverage, publicity stunts, if you will. Eventually, that grew into the creation and staging of charity fundraisers which eventually evolved into full-scale event management. Today at BWFC, we create events and campaigns entirely from scratch. Events have truly become a major strategic element in the field of public relations.

In creating a well-received event, it is possible for an organization to target a number of important audiences with positive public relations. Take, for example, an alcoholic beverage corporation. They will provide events to promote their brands, aiming their efforts at the end user. There are, however, other audiences to be taken into account. What about a government or regulatory body, which may be less than positive about the relationship between alcohol and antisocial behavior and crime? A suitably sincere event to which potential legislators are invited may achieve some legislative delay or sense of working together that will be to the corporation’s advantage. Similarly, events are appropriate perhaps to the medical profession, where the positive benefits of moderate drinking could be stressed and media opportunities created and acted upon. The world of exhibitions and conferences are regularly utilized by organizations to create positive relations with suppliers and clients.

McDonald’s uses event sponsorship as a means of public relations. Whatever one’s opinion of the food being sold by this corporation, it has become the icon of unhealthy fast food. They are somewhat scapegoated in this respect, perhaps due to their ubiquity, as they are certainly not alone in the provision of this kind of nutrition. Nevertheless, the brand has a vested interest in overcoming negative perceptions of their operation. The sponsorship of arguably the world’s biggest mega-event, the summer Olympic Games, allows McDonald’s to be associated with healthy living and an all-inclusive, global community, which of course is useful for an international brand. This helps shift negative public perceptions and boost sales. How this works is subtle, as on the face of it one’s opinion of the brand is not going to be consciously altered by seeing their logo at the Olympic Games.

On one level, this sponsorship represents a simple association, an abstract correlation between two disparate elements. This association permits the Olympic logo to be integrated into advertised promotions and product packaging and sundries. More importantly, however, it

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operates as the development of a new social representation of the brand. It therefore changes the meaning of the brand. As all brands are collections of meaning, the addition of Olympic sponsorship adds a weight of Olympic meaning to the McDonald’s brand. It doesn’t alter the burgers, but it alters what they mean.

The reputation of McDonald’s rests upon what their burgers mean, not how they are manufactured. The PR value of Olympic sponsorship represents a kind of background radiation of fitness, competitiveness, international harmony, and importance, values that will be infused in each bite of the burger bun and emitted from the air-conditioning vents in the restaurants.

(www.olympic.org/sponsor-mcdonalds)

The Advantages of Events to the Brand Marketer So what are the advantages of using events as a marketing tool? They are many and varied. Before we consider the nature of events and why they are so useful to the marketer, there is one consideration, however, that is somewhat overwhelming. Your competitors may well be using events to get the better of you. The use of events by brand owners and organizations is becoming more popular, as the advantages in doing so become more clearly defined. Ever heard of having to run fast just to stand still? If you are operating in a market where your competitors use events, consumers will become accustomed to that as a kind of norm. It is what they will come to expect. As events become a norm in the marketer’s toolkit, the question becomes, can I afford not to use events to market my brand or support my organization’s profile?

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FIGURE 1.1 Especially in Europe and America, there is a strong culture of popular music festivals. It is striking that many of the major open-air music festivals in summer are sponsored by beer brands. Beer brands cover two bases by interacting with music festivals: For one, music festivals promote a hedonistic lifestyle. They are, indeed, a purely intrinsic and hedonistic activity for most people, offering this kind of easygoingness, relaxation, and freedom. On the other hand, this lifestyle promoted by festivals is the perfect opportunity for beer brands to sell their products. As a matter of fact, beer might be the most widely sold drink at open- air festivals, where excessive consumption and inappropriate behavior seem to be good manners. That way, a beer brand can attach itself to a certain image while selling a lot of their product.

That is the rub for marketers. Often it can be a disadvantage not to be involved in a certain activity, rather than necessarily achieving an advantage by being involved. Such advantage can only be achieved by devoting time, energy, and resources to making sure you are getting it just right.

Events present a tangible, real-world presence to brands they support in any sector of the market, and they have the capacity to orientate themselves toward a number of different audience types, which makes

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them a particularly flexible method of marketing.

Based in Atlanta, Pomerance and Associates was founded by CEO Barbara Pomerance, a senior practitioner with extensive industry experience. She makes clear that events can be at the heart of marketing strategy, and illustrates their usefulness in converging upon significant audiences. Special events are strategic in building brand awareness, creating excitement and developing tactical alliances in a marketing program. For example, in an upcoming Green Business Expo Event, we are aligning government, industry, media and corporate representatives to convene for a three day program for brand awareness, credibility and media attention. As in this case, the event is the driving mechanism for the media relations and marketing objectives for the client.

Clearly, the use of events is becoming mainstream. Given that reality, the question remains: what can I do to make my event better than the others? The best answer is to use information and research to find out what will be better. If you think that this cautious approach goes against the spirit of adventure and showmanship that is inherent to many events, remember that you are out to impress your customers, not your own ego. How do you impress someone? You find out what impresses them; otherwise there is an unnecessary risk attached to your venture.

This message appears pretty regularly throughout this text. If you want to provide adventure, for example, find out what constitutes adventure in the mind of your audience. Your idea of adventure may not correspond with others’. Some people take adventure seriously, and some are easily pleased. Know your audience.

Events Bring Marketing to the People Brand marketers use planned events to subtly alter our thoughts about their brands, so the event is a conduit through which brand meaning passes. Thus, the event is both an end in itself and a means to a wider corporate end. Importantly, an event is a medium in itself, a channel through which brand information may be passed.

If, for example, a bank organizes a classical music festival, it is designed to influence the ideas we have about the bank, and perhaps to attract a wealthy and cultured demographic. The event would be a strategy apt to

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the corporate aim of attracting wealthy depositors. Whether attending the event or knowing of it through media exposure, the target audience, in associating the bank with cultural superiority, is able to differentiate the bank from others on a meaningful basis.

FIGURE 1.2 These are 10 different types of events. For each event, we chose three traits that one might naturally and instinctively associate with it. There may be others, or you may disagree with some. However, every event has a personality, a collection of traits, and a character. If you are looking to market with events, think of the personality of your company, and think about what kind of event might fit.

In this increasingly virtual world, it is important to remember that events are happenings that people can become physically involved in. They involve human interaction. They give people the opportunity to be somebody and to be seen being somebody. They are fun, and they can brighten up your day. The choice to become involved is ours. This gives consumers a sense of belonging and empowerment. People like events. There is nothing false about them, they are not contrived, and they represent the way people have been behaving since records of civilized behavior began. That makes them inherently powerful as a means of influencing people.

If managed properly, and marketed thoughtfully, events are really giving people what they want. Perhaps that is their greatest strength. It is surprising, therefore, that planned events have not been more central to

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mainstream marketing thinking all along. Isn’t marketing supposed to be something to do with giving people what they want? A casual glance at human behavior tells us that people want events and have been enjoying them whenever they have been organized for ages. They have been growing in prominence of late, however. What has brought events into the limelight?

The Transformational Experience of Events Much was written as the twenty-first century dawned about a new experience economy. The term came to the world’s attention in an article published in the Harvard Business Review in 1998 by B. J. Pine II and J. H. Gilmore, titled “The Experience Economy.” We will cast a critical eye over this proposition, which basically espouses acquired memory of memorable experiences as being a product that people would be willing to purchase.

It is a simple enough idea. People will pay to have good experiences. It may be a simple idea, but it’s certainly not a new idea.

Was there ever a time when people would not pay to have good experiences?

Nevertheless, it deserves some scrutiny, as the idea of an experience economy is largely behind the expansion of event use by marketers, due in no small part to shifts in consumer behavior toward the consumption of events as products in themselves.

Often writers use words to create profound differences between things in order to draw attention to the idea that they are promoting. That sounds a lot like marketing. So when we hear of the experience economy, we should ask critically, what does that mean? We are told that the old service economy of the late twentieth century was based upon the idea that we would pay to have activities performed for us. That might be something such as the rise of the fast-food industry, where the bother of having to prepare and cook nutritious food for our families became an activity we chose to have performed for us by industry.

So a service economy sounds like we stop doing things for ourselves and pay to have someone else do them for us. It also indicates that profit is being generated by the provision of services, a rebranding of the erosion of production capacity. A service economy is one where gross domestic product is positively influenced by the provision of services, and where

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subsequently there are more services on offer. More services were being provided to enable us to do less and less

ourselves. We were spending our time and money having experiences, merely mundane ones. Something was missing. Where was the excitement? Increasingly, consumer society was becoming jaded. It was just more and more difficult getting satisfaction from these run-of-the-mill experiences. There had to be something more. I guess that’s the downside of the instant gratification mentality. It gets more and more difficult to find satisfaction, and what was good yesterday isn’t necessarily good today.

Increased satisfaction has been generated by superseding services with events. Going to a restaurant is enjoying a service, which may be deemed mundane. Going to a food festival is experiencing an event, which may be deemed exciting. Increased consumer expenditure on events has been hailed as the experience economy, where consumers are willing to pay for the feelings and memories generated by a transformational event. There must be something straightforward behind this bold and evocative terminology. There usually is. Let us continue with the proposition that everything is an event and see where that takes us.

FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE THE EVENT MARKETING EXPERIENCE 1. Identify the experience you wish your guests to have before, during,

and after your meeting or event. What do you want them to see, smell, taste, touch, hear, and feel?

2. Conduct research to discover whether your guests have had similar experiences in the past.

3. Conduct a focus panel or interviews to determine how you can bring their previous experience to a new and more effective level, or introduce a new experience that will be memorable and influence their positive response to the event.

4. Script the experience as though you are writing a play. Start with the introduction of the scene, then present the characters, next introduce an activity, and finally, remind them with a gift, or further purchase, of what they experienced.

5. Provide postevent experience reminders by using Facebook and other social media sites to post photos and other reminders of the live event.

Everything Is an Event

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When my wife received flowers on her birthday, the flowers performed a transformation upon the occasion. I daresay that had flowers not been provided, or had they been drab, the occasion would have been transformed in another, less positive way. There were even feelings and memories involved. The same goes for reading this book. You will be transformed from someone who had not read it into someone who has. The experience of reading this book will generate feelings, and some of it will become part of your memory.

And so it is for every aspect of our lives. Transformation is one moment becoming the next, based upon change, so unless a person remains psychosocially static, transformation is an everyday occurrence, and unless that person is emotionally sterile there will be feelings associated with change. I think, therefore, what we are looking at here is something more than experience and transition, because everything is an experience and life necessitates transition. To suggest that all of a sudden people are interested in experiences and the feelings and memories associated with them is not sensible. To say, however, that business has become interested in managing our experiences, feelings, and memories is closer to the mark. We have always enjoyed the truly transformational experience of weddings; it’s merely that we now have wedding planners. The experience economy is therefore an extension of the service economy.

Pine and Gilmore make an interesting point when they write about experiences and transformations. They stress that consumers are themselves the product and that the event marketer is using the experience offered to inflict change upon the willing recipient of transformation. They suggest that the consumers are actively seeking transformation and that they use events to facilitate this.

Increasingly, activities that we traditionally organize for ourselves are being organized for us. Moreover, people are being encouraged to do what people do best, which is to get together with other people. Hoarding products in the isolation of our homes is becoming mundane. Investing our capital in acquiring memories is catching on. While not wishing to be too philosophical, what’s more real, the thing or the memory of the thing? People appear to be voting with their feet on that thorny issue. People are investing in their memories, and planned events are attempting to provide particularly vivid memories in order to attract that investment.

The Marketing Mirror

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“Historians and archaeologists will discover that the advertisements of our time are the richest and most faithful reflections that any society ever made of its entire range of activities.”

Marshall McLuhan, communications theorist (1911–1980) The reason marketers are turning to events to promote their brands, organizations, and enterprises is obvious when considered from a marketing perspective. Marketing reflects society. Whatever people are doing and thinking becomes the substance of marketing communication. Let us consider the nature of advertising communication for a short while, in order to learn something about the nature of events in a wider marketing context.

Advertising in its simplest sense means drawing attention to something. Advertising has, however, been creatively constructed and is invariably drawing our attention toward the central object of the message, the brand, by an idea or a proposition, or imaginary virtue being promoted. These will in turn reflect upon the object of the advertising in some way that will be appealing to those to whom the advertisement has been directed.

Market segments are the target of advertising. These are groups of people who have something in common. The something that they have in common forms the basis of the targeting. This can be a demographic, a behavior, an attitude, a social circumstance, or a need or vulnerability, and invariably is a combination of these. The demographic variable could simply be for gender and age, such as advertising for stair lifts, which are generally targeted at elderly females.

Behavioral variables concern common forms of behavior that are referred to in advertising, such as “effort-avoiding” behavior of characters in cleaning product commercials. Targeting by attitude can be exemplified by advertising for Lexus cars where the status of the brand is stressed rather than technical detail. The social circumstance of being in an airport, for example, could be used as a targeting mechanism for reaching potential fragrance consumers. The need to reduce monthly expenses is used as a targeting mechanism for credit providers, for example, and the array of advertising for cosmetics aimed at even young women are based upon vulnerability to anxiety about aging. When advertising is coded in a particular manner it is because the advertiser wishes to appeal to a particular consumer segment in a particular manner so as to achieve a specific outcome.

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This essentially boils down to the meaning that has the strongest appeal to the identified audience. It is entirely possible to generate and transmit that meaning through association with a particular event, one that reflects something of the consumer’s active experience. Just as we view advertising as a designed method of marketing communication based upon particular variables, so also should we view brand-sponsored events, for they serve a similar purpose.

If people are getting into spending more time and resources on events, then marketers will follow where the consumer leads. If you want to be in with the in crowd, you have to go where the in crowd goes. Just to be clear about this, if for some reason we all got into tapestry, marketers would start using tapestry to get their message across. So there are very clear reasons for marketers to use events to market things. They do so because their target markets use events for their entertainment and edification, so it naturally occurs to the marketer to communicate with consumers via the medium of the event. This concept was touched on earlier. A medium is that through which something passes. It is a common enough word and has many applications. Newspapers are a medium, Twitter is a medium, and those people who claim to channel messages from the departed are mediums. A medium is something through which to communicate. For the marketer, therefore, a planned event is both a means and an end. It is a thing in itself to be enjoyed and a medium through which to communicate with consumers.

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FIGURE 1.3 Event marketing has grown into such a huge market that there are whole web portals and sites dedicated to the art of event marketing. Whether one is an industry professional or an enthusiastic amateur, the web is bursting with ideas and information about the world of events.

If marketing is a mirror, what does it reflect? I would go so far as to say just about everything. The consumer research industry knows more about us than we do ourselves. Our hopes and dreams, our ambitions and fears, our habits and inclinations, not to mention our aspirations and weaknesses have been researched over the years. The twentieth century spawned a research industry that turned over every stone and looked in every window to find out as much as possible about consumer tastes and preferences. The twenty-first century has pushed the envelope further through utilization of Internet search details as research data, and social network communication is an abundant source of trend intelligence.

It has not been difficult for the marketing industry to discover the role played by events in the lives of many and to throw it right back at them in the form of brand event management.

The Value of Events to the Economy The city of Edinburgh in Scotland is home to many world-class events and attractions and serves as an excellent example of the value of attractions and events to the local economy, in terms of direct and indirect income. It is recognized that the value of an events culture is not purely financial, yet it remains an important consideration.

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FIGURE 1.4 Event value of the city of Edinburgh.

Clearly, for the city of Edinburgh, events represent considerable value through direct income, support services, employment, and tourism. The same can, of course, be said of thousands of towns and cities worldwide. These figures apply only to major events and do not factor in the city income generated by the minor festivals and entertainment, conventions and conferences, corporate entertainment, and the myriad social events that take place throughout society.

As a fragmented industry that is not ring-fenced as an identifiable entity, events activity represents diversity of happenings and by understanding that, we see that events when viewed holistically form a whole of serious economic importance. The events industry would benefit from some centralization of perspective in order to pull it together into a quantifiable mass.

A Variety and Diversity of Events While earlier I suggested that everything is an event, we need some differentiation. What have become generally understood to represent planned events? There is such a wide diversity of events that it is useful to serve broad categories and understand the fundamentals of their appeal. Each variety of event is rich in tradition, and its popularity is longstanding. Events that have stood the test of time and continue into the twenty-first century have the advantage of having persisted and have deep roots in our social fabric. There is an established basic demand worldwide for events, and it is upon this platform that competition strives to tap into that demand. Each event sphere represents an opportunity to the event planner.

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The categories outlined here will be developed in chapters to follow. At this stage, we will look at the nature of demand for a number of event types. There are, of course, overlaps between categories of events. A festival may be organized as a form of corporate marketing, for example. Nevertheless, events fall into a number of broad categories, and it is to these that we will refer briefly at this stage.

Festivals have a singular significance to the history of culture the world over. The earliest festivals were primarily religious. For example, the modern marketing push of Halloween began as a pagan festival of the dead in pre-Christian Europe, and trees inside dwellings in winter were part of a similarly ancient festival for the gods of the forest, which persists today as an aspect of Christmas. Festivals are as old as the hills. They are for congress and celebration, often involve feasting and merrymaking, and increasingly are associated with entertainment. There have always been festivals and they appear in every epoch and straddle all social manifestations. The nature of demand for festivals is therefore ingrained in all cultures.

Festivals cover all aspects of behavior. There are festivals of speed, food, horses, and quilts. Enthusiastic crowds flock to festivals of antiques, dancing, popular music, and science. We find festivals of comedy and remembrance, jazz and new age mysticism. And we still have festivals of the equinox in old Stonehenge and the festival of light at the pyramids of Cairo. For all their antiquity, festivals are intrinsically linked to popular culture, and the entertainment industry, and are a major channel for talent. At one level, therefore, festivals are a branch of the global entertainment industry and are carefully managed to generate income.

Just as there are festivals that represent the mainstream of popular culture, there are also many local events the world over that play a special role for these communities, a testament to our need to have fun, to take a holiday from seriousness. Take a visit to the wife carrying world championship in Sonkajarvi, Finland, or try your hand in the world cow chip throwing championship in Beaver, Oklahoma. Festival organizers find something to celebrate in everything.

Major entertainment events represent a distribution system for global talent, a circuit around which celebrity acts race from venue to venue. The mass entertainment industry that developed during the twentieth century and the events it spawned are a significant aspect of consumption with youth cultures in particular. There are hot tickets to be had, and event marketers need to know how to warm their tickets up in a hotly

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competitive environment. Some corporations have a turnover in excess of most countries. They are

of such social and economic significance that their utilization of events requires particular focus. Whether as originators or sponsors of events, corporations, public and private, have been intrinsically linked to the production and delivery of a wide variety of event types. When considering corporate events, we need to make a distinction between the role of events for internal and external marketing strategies. We will illuminate the role of events within the corporate world with respect to their role as a means of workforce integration, communication, and motivation, such as the challenges facing incentive travel event marketing. Alternately, events are an aspect of the corporations’ external marketing strategy, a means of promoting themselves or their brands, often thought of as falling within the PR camp. The extent to which events are utilized by corporations should tell us something about events themselves, as the most influential organizations on the planet clearly believe that they work as a means of persuading consumers and motivating personnel.

FIGURE 1.5 The French mobile phone company Orange uses event marketing with a special focus on movies as their trademark consistently throughout Europe. That way, they organize open-air cinema events in Luxembourg or Switzerland and offer two-for-one ticket deals for their customers in different European countries.

American Express served a classic marketing campaign that was linked to a nonparticipatory event and demonstrated a leap in brand marketing thinking. American Express is widely acknowledged as the originator of

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today’s cause-related marketing. In 1983, after a few pilot programs, American Express launched a short-term campaign to donate a penny for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty every time an American Express transaction occurred, and $1 for each new account opened. The three-month campaign ended with $1.7 million for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. American Express transactions increased by 28 percent in the first month alone, and new card applications increased by 45 percent.

The restoration was there for all to see and of course gathered much media attention. While there was little personal involvement by consumers, there was a great deal of emotional involvement in this event. Corporations now routinely think in these terms. Trees being planted, babies in developing nations being inoculated—these are events that invite emotional participation and that are understood by corporate marketers to represent powerful promotional messages to approving consumers.

(www.americanexpress.com)

Just as the origin of events lies in the organization and expression of culture, so their modern roots as planned and managed occasions are evident in the evolution of social and professional associations. This is a natural outcome of having large numbers of associated individuals scattered over often large distances, the event being in the most fundamental sense a gathering. There is something quite powerful in the convergence of like-minded people, or somehow related individuals. Associative organizations are therefore heavily involved with events and represent a major component of the events marketing world.

Take, for example, the major religious event sphere that operates in multimedia formats and requires particular treatment for the sensitivity of its branding. It would not do for such an event to be thought of in the wrong way by clumsy communications. A religious congregation, which is to say gathering, needs to be marketed in a manner that reflects the ethos of the faith. The marketing of events therefore is not merely concerned with process and information channeling, but with subtlety and tone whereby the feelings and emotions that we want to generate about the event, and the idea of the event, become a focus of marketing communications. All associations have their reason for being. It can be commercial in nature, bringing together people from different walks of life in order that supply chain networks are formed through social interaction. They can be social in nature such as when those with a cause to promote form official gatherings to strengthen and focus their efforts. Whenever

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there is a common denominator between geographically scattered individuals, the event-based association is the mechanism for congress and exchange.

There are a wide variety of social events that are increasingly subject to professional event management. These range from the celebrations of family life that play such an important role in cultural identity to the increasing opportunities afforded by the phenomenon of an aging population. Social events are a kind of infrastructure. Social event marketing therefore has a low-key pervasiveness in everyday life. Nothing typifies this phenomenon more vividly than the emergence of the wedding planner, a role that has come to dominate the preparation of nuptial celebration. The growth in this business is a classic representation of marketing dynamics. Once the wedding planner was the preserve of the wealthy who had a need of professional intervention due to the scale of their operation, and through the social necessity of perfectionism in this respect. Slowly but surely the uses of professional intervention trickled down the social ladder, as a means of expression of perceived social classification. What began as middle-class aspiration became social necessity. Now the use of wedding planners is fairly widespread. It’s not that families are no longer able to muck in and get the thing done, but that social mores dictate that professional intervention is expected if one is to be considered a certain type of person. Then, of course, as with any manifestation of consumer behavior, it becomes not a matter of whether a wedding planner is being used, but which one, and so on and so forth. Ultimately, aside from the business of actually getting the wedding organized, the wedding planner represents a price tag that is visibly attached to the event. Social events are therefore being branded by their professional management.

As we live in continuously dynamic times, and as behavior patterns are changing so swiftly from generation to generation, we need to be up to date with changes in consumer behavior regarding events, since marketing must perpetually study consumer behavior if it is to remain relevant. Take, for example, the influence of eco-concerns among young consumers who look to the future with concern as to the world that they are destined to inherit. If an event is held to have green credentials, it can act as a potent targeting mechanism for a certain cross-section of the population.

Dramatic shifts in demographics, in particular the extending of the active life span, have given us an ever-expanding senior sector, which itself represents an ever-fragmenting landscape of senior cultures and

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subcultures. To merely classify a consumer as being over 60 makes about as much sense as classifying a consumer as under 60. Nevertheless, the aging population combined with advances in lifestyle, medicine, and social outlook has spawned an events industry geared up to cater to the needs and interests of this active and demanding population.

We have to confront the influence of technological forces upon event marketing theory and practice, as communication isn’t what it used to be. The evolution of the phone into a mobile multimedia communications device has had the most profound effect upon how people relate to one another, and consumer behavior patterns continue to change before our very eyes. As well as the newfound rapidity of intercommunication and its significance to the manner in which event marketing is performed, technological advance in this respect poses new challenges to the event marketer in terms of keeping up with the dynamics of change and trend. Increased speed of intercommunication makes it all the easier to become out of touch with what is happening in rapidly evolving culture.

Events Are Becoming Everyday Occurrences Planned events are consumed just like any other product or service, and in the experience economy they are becoming increasingly commonplace. To produce an event and expect it to be intrinsically interesting because it is an event would be like producing a shoe and expecting it to be intrinsically interesting because it is a shoe. The implication of this is that consumers are more likely to be critical and demanding, and less predictable in their choices.

The events market has become just as difficult to capitalize upon as any other mass market offering. When events were less common, consumers were more likely to be in awe of the special excitement represented by something out of the ordinary. Today, events are a mass market experience commodity, and subsequently, we cannot take for granted that consumers will be impressed by what has already been done, or from their view, what has already been experienced. Event planners have been striving to provide more and more opportunities for transition and the acquisition of memories. It has caught on, to the extent that they have become ordinary. How long will it be before consumers are looking for something more? Should we look beyond the experience economy to predict what will come next? How, therefore, should we think about planned events? Yes, they are

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all different, sometimes unique even, but we live in a world of unprecedented choice and unprecedented communication about that choice.

FIVE WAYS TO MAKE YOUR EVENT STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD 1. Find out what event consumers want that they feel they are not

getting and give it to them. 2. Think of the ways that your event positively differs from others, and

base your communications strategy upon those differences. 3. Take a global sweep of event practice and innovate in your market

based upon what you discover. 4. Think of new ways to describe what your event is about to

differentiate it from other similar events. 5. Maximize your promotional effort—appear unique.

There are always alternatives. It would be folly to assume otherwise. Just because you have organized an event that is in most respects excellent does not ensure success, any more than a restaurant with an experienced and skilled chef can guarantee customers. How many cherished enterprises have hit the wall? That is the nature of our efforts; if misdirected they will not bear fruit. Why should events be any different?

Someone out there has to decide to attend or wholeheartedly participate if they have to attend. Someone has to choose you, and moreover choose you over something else, be that different events, other forms of consumption, or distraction or lack of involvement. What do you have to offer that’s so special? How do you know you are doing the right thing? It’s a crowded marketplace and you are going to have to get noticed for all the right reasons. The need to get serious about event marketing is pressing. Only the fittest brands survive in the marketplace. Many new offerings fail quickly due to the pressures of competitive markets.

This is a sobering thought. As the events market becomes increasingly competitive, you have to fight for your share of the event spending and have to outmaneuver your competitors in order to survive.

The Scope of Event Marketing Activities In the chapters to follow, we will be taking an in-depth look at how to market a number of event types. In each case, we will be drawing from a range of initiatives that represent the scope of event marketing activities. It

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is time to introduce them so that we will be able to juggle them later without having to pause and define them all the time. I have been trying to stress that marketing is central to the planning, delivery, and promotion of a planned event. In chapter 3, we will go into some depth about the theory and practice of strategic event marketing; at the moment, I just want to familiarize you with the tools of the trade. In many ways, marketing is like chess. There are a few easy-to-understand rules, but it’s very difficult to play well, and you are unlikely to win against someone who knows how to play better than you do.

Liz Bigham is director of brand marketing with Jack Morton Worldwide, one of the world’s leading global brand experience agencies. JMW works with many of the world’s leading brands and organizes a wide range of events, including Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies. Bigham comments here about the role and strength of events in corporate branding. Events are almost impossible to tune out. You cannot change the channel or press the skip button. That’s a distinct advantage over other forms of marketing.

The commercial sponsorship of events has become a central role of the events marketer and is recognized as the major component of fundraising to provide profit or income-generation targets. Event sponsorship and event marketing are often spoken of interchangeably. It is therefore necessary to define sponsorship as a subset of strategic event marketing practice. Event sponsorship is of particular relevance to cause-related events, which have become an established practice. The brand identity sought by corporate marketers is connected to the positive meanings associated with popular causes. How should we best go about raising sponsorship? If we consider the growth in popularity of event consumption, we must face the fact that there are ever more competitors out there looking for sponsorship, and when increased competition becomes a factor, event marketers need to consider how best to market their event to potential sponsors, who may well be in a position in which they will choose you or somebody else. The question must therefore be, why should they choose you? Given the centrality of sponsorship to the funding of planned events, this becomes a very important question.

The Internet defines the modern age. Having been around before it became mainstreamed, it seems awesome that such a thing could be—how

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so much information can be instantly available to everybody. It seems almost incredible yet has quickly become entirely ordinary, as things do. Of course it brings its own problems, but its capacity for social interaction, albeit virtually, has revolutionized the way we live. When air travel became commonplace, people began to talk of the shrinking world and the global village. The Internet has rendered distance irrelevant. Children, and adults who should know better, play computer games online against people from all over the world. However that may be, electronic marketing is an integrated and mainstream aspect of any event marketing communications activity, and as such deserves particular attention.

The communications potential represented by the variety of social networking channels, and electronic personal communication generally, has been particularly relevant to the success or otherwise of planned events. Experience of this has evolved the marketing concept in terms of the relationship between the senders and receivers of marketing communication and represents an exponential acceleration of consumer word of mouth.

Take viral advertising campaigns, for example. It’s all about how to turn people into media channels. We know that if something is interesting enough, for whatever reason social networkers will pass it on, and so on and so on. The message spreads like a virus from individual to individual. It’s not just viral advertising that spreads this way. Word gets about, just as it always has, only now faster and over greater distances. Event marketers therefore use consumers to do their communication for them. This is not so radically different a system as it might at first appear, as word of mouth has always been of great importance to marketing communications. It does, however, accelerate the process. If an event appears to be a viable proposition, word will get out that this is indeed so, and increasingly electronic communications are what makes that happen.

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FIGURE 1.6 Experiences being absorbed, memories being formed.

That is not to say that online marketing has entirely superseded traditional promotional activity. The Internet has become a terribly crowded place, and there are some advantages to be had for the event marketer by considering traditional media channels and long-standing marketing methods. Posters are still being produced, flyers continue to be distributed, and advertisements in a variety of media regularly appear. Nevertheless, the electronic media pull like-minded people together, and traditional promotional activities work upon the platform of intercommunication provided online. For event marketing, electronic platforms have become the baseline.

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CHAPTER SUMMARY From a consumer perspective, it can be difficult to distinguish when an event is part of an overarching marketing strategy. When I attended the aforementioned “T in the Park” music festival (see the preface), what was the nature of the thing? It certainly represented an aspect of the brewer’s marketing strategy, a particular attempt to associate the brand with youth culture. The music business uses festivals to make money, alongside concerts, music sales, and downloads. The musicians involved in the festival were using it in conjunction with a number of other festivals; it was one aspect of their promotional activity, and indeed their income. When mass entertainment is inherent to an event, it is invariably part of a wider marketing strategy.

There is, in other words, an events industry, just as there is an advertising industry and an alcohol industry. We began this introductory chapter by stressing that planned events represent things to be marketed and a means of marketing things. This is about looking at events in different ways rather than looking at different kinds of events. Take the National Religious Broadcasters Convention and Expo 2010 held in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the premier events in the U.S. religious industry’s calendar. On one hand, this is an event to be marketed, and the use of high- profile players in the religious market as celebrity attractors is central to its appeal in acquiring attendees. On the other hand, the event can be considered as a means of marketing certain broadcast channels, particular evangelists and their wares—books, DVDs, educational programs, religious tourism organizations—and a host of other products and services.

We have to therefore see events as being two different things simultaneously. They are things to be marketed and a means of marketing things. This is a commonplace idea that surrounds us all the time. Retail chains fall into this category. They market the goods they distribute and are themselves marketed to maintain market share and profitability.

If you think of your event, whatever it may be, in this dualistic way, you will maximize the benefit of the event to both the event organizer and the attendees. You will appreciate a convenient truth. Any event will be most effectively marketed by thinking of it as a means of marketing something else. That something else can be tangible components, such as a leading TV evangelist. On the other hand the something else can be a meaning, such as fundamental Christianity.

The last word in this chapter is therefore that you should consider your event as a means of marketing tangible and intangible benefits. Strategic

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event marketing is about assessing the optimum event content in both these respects.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • How are you adding the appropriate excitement, creativity, and

enthusiasm to your event? • How will you manage to get your event noticed by the people you need

to reach for your event to be a success? • Are you up to speed with e-communication for your event? • Do you understand the development of events as promotional devices

for brands? • Are you able to effectively integrate your event into the marketing mix

for brands? • Are you conversant with the advantages of events as marketing vehicles

for brands? • How do you go about providing a transformational experience for your

event attendees? • Are you aware of the nature of the experience economy and its

implications for event marketing? • Have you considered the role of planned events in the lives of a variety

of consumer types? • Are you aware of the wide diversity of event types on offer in the

contemporary events market? • How, when events have become common occurrences in the lives of

many, are you going to make your event special? • Are you aware of the range of event marketing activities at your

disposal?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://marketing.about.com

A lot like the For Dummies guides, about.com provides clear, straightforward insight into marketing. If you are new to the area, you might want to check this site to become comfortable with some of the key ideas.

http://www.pcma.org

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PCMA, the Professional Convention Management Association, is one of the world’s largest professional bodies for event managers and meeting professionals. Their website provides useful and valuable resources for event managers.

http://www.eventia.org.uk Eventia is a British professional body for event managers. Their site contains a blog with helpful articles as well as recent news about the event industry.

https://www.cognizantcommunication.com/journal-subjects/event- management

The academic journal Events Management is a really useful resource. http://eventsecrets.com/

Eventsecrets offers useful information about event management and inspiration, in particular for trade shows and smaller events.

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Chapter 2

The Evolution of Event Marketing “All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.” George Bernard Shaw, playwright and political activist (1856–1950)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Apply the historical development of the event marketing

phenomena to current and future event marketing opportunities,

• Contextualize events within the consumer socialization of the twentieth century,

• Emulate and build upon the innovations of historic and iconic event marketing leaders of past eras,

• Analyze trends in event evolution, focusing upon general principles in event marketing, and

• Advance the field of event marketing through a thorough understanding of past successes and future opportunities.

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The Evolution of Marketing The most important thing to understand about marketing is that it is a formalization of ordinary and commonplace human activity. Evolution is essentially adaptation in relation to prevailing environmental conditions, and as such what we refer to as marketing today represents a way of thinking and a series of activities that have manifested in a number of forms and contexts throughout recorded history. The term marketing wasn’t really widely used until the 1950s, and the history of formalized marketing thought does not extend beyond the twentieth century. That, of course, does not mean there was no buying and selling happening beyond that time. It does not mean that people were not consuming and differentiating themselves by their consumption. It does not mean there were no advertising and promotion in the premarketing era. Most certainly it does not mean there were not events to be organized and promoted. The formalization of various practices did not become a discipline known as marketing until the twentieth century, but the practices themselves had been established long before. When we therefore consider the evolution of marketing, we will be looking at activities that were called something else at the time but commonly involved promoting the interests of individuals or organizations, as well as the patterns of consumption in economically and culturally diverse populations.

It is important that you appreciate this; it will de-stress the topic. When the term strategic event marketing is used, it sounds terribly exclusive, as though it harbors some elusive secret known only to the initiated. It is my intention to debunk that perspective. As we will see in the next chapter, twenty-first-century event marketing is a skill already within you with which you live your life every day. You will see that the appliance of marketing to the management of events is straightforward and sensible, however exciting and inspiring it might be.

We will begin this chapter with a little detour into history. Clearly established marketing practices not only are ordinary but also were being used by our predecessors in ways similar to today, albeit not wittingly under the umbrella of the marketing concept.

Meet the Ancestors The first thing we thought to promote was ourselves. It looks as though we have come full circle in that respect in this age of personalized websites. Anthropology tells us that in early hunter-gatherer societies, males would

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string the teeth of animals they had killed into adornments that advertised their prowess as a hunter, and which acted as an advertisement for their advantageousness as a mate. Inherited genetic features like strong bodies, large breasts, symmetric faces, and so on appeared in early fertility artifacts and are believed to have been connected with self-promotion and ensuring reproduction. Our tendency to market ourselves with merchandise clearly persists to this day. This is an interesting take on consumer culture. We use marketed items and activities to market ourselves. You attend a conference to promote your knowledge and skills. The music festival allows you to promote your subculture. Membership in a professional association amounts to promotion of your career aspirations. Use of a wedding planner promotes your social standing. Being invited to an art showing in a prestigious Manhattan gallery is a promotion of your social status. Attending a charity event promotes your values.

All of this is capped by the arrival of the Facebook phenomenon, where we literally use a media to market ourselves to the world, not to mention blogs and Twitter. It is incisive to think this way. Consumers are not just recipients of marketing activity, a mass of people on the receiving end of a tidal wave of incentives to purchase. Consumers are using marketed products and activities to market themselves, just as our ancestors as mentioned used artifacts and ornamentation. More of this in the following section, but for now here are a few examples from the distant past to illustrate that as ever there is little new in the world.

The use of symbols to communicate ideas and to promote values is absolutely coexistent with the dawning of civilization. While the advertising industry does this today, it is not a novel concept. For example, when we consider the symbol of Christianity, the cross, it is interesting to note that it was not until the fourth century that this became used as the official logo of the religion; previously it had been the sign of the fish. The cross was held to be more universally representative of the central message of the emerging church, and as a symbol it contains no ambiguity. The power of symbols to communicate ideas was appreciated at this time just as it is today. Consider how the polar bear has become the global symbol of climate change. Symbolism just refers to meaning. We are told that brands are filled with meanings that consumers relate to. This is not surprising, after all, as everything is filled with meanings that we all relate to. Why should brands be any different?

One of the fundamentals of marketing philosophy is the influence of price upon perception and demand. How can it be thought that pricing

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policy represents anything new? Was there ever a time when those with more money did not enjoy products and services that cost more? Was there ever a time when the poor consumed products and services that cost less? It is difficult to see how the concept of pricing as a means of differentiation can even be considered as evolved at all, as it has always been a constant feature of trade. On one hand, there is what people can afford to pay. On the other hand, there is what people are willing to pay in order to get what they want. Inherent to this is the idea of self-promotion, as individuals may feel that in order to project the right image for themselves they have to spend a certain amount. Nowhere is this clearer than in the market for clothes. Certain labels are merely significant because of the price tag implicit to their purchase. But it was ever thus.

Central to early representations of differentiation is the idea of status, and the artifacts, adornments, and services that people used to differentiate themselves from one another. In that respect, consumer culture of the twenty-first century is but a manifestation of practices evident in the earliest cultures—the idea of status being demonstrated by what people were able to afford, the houses they lived in, the food they ate, the clothes they wore. That sounds like what we call marketing and consumer behavior. Another term for this is life as we know it. Examples of this kind of thing are simply too numerous to contemplate. Marketers did not invent social differentiation by consumption. They merely capitalize upon it.

Social differentiation expressed by one’s ability to have certain things that most importantly other people are not able to have is the way things are today and the way things have always been. Consider an exclusive membership club offering easy access to exclusive social events and activities that literally exclude all but a particular social circle. Such event organizations exist everywhere. Their purpose is to channel status, promote differentiation, and stress exclusivity. To return to the familiar theme, they exist to permit individuals to market themselves to particular audiences. Differentiation by social status is evident in the world of planned events just as it is in every product, service, and walk of life. In the experience economy, certain experiences are inherently more status driven than others. While it is, of course, possible to demonstrate social status by the car one drives, this has limited impact in the days of leasing and credit agreements. On the other hand, the attendance of an exclusive event cannot so easily be imitated by class imposters, and therefore it is a more potent symbol of social status.

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What Did the Romans Ever Do for Us? Commercial promotional activities appear to be rather antique. Rock and wall paintings represent one of mankind’s earliest representations of activities and ideas and were one of the most emotive indications of our emerging humanity. This was the method employed in the earliest examples of advertising that have been discovered by archaeology. Take, for example, the famous advertisements in the ruins of Pompeii, preserved under volcanic ash when the city was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, for the official lupanar (brothel) that involve the use of engraved phalluses upon paved surfaces and buildings in order to promote and provide directions to the establishment. The logo for this commercial operation follows all the modern notions of brand personality appropriateness, although it is difficult to imagine it finding a role in most branches of modern commerce. Moreover, clients would indicate their satisfaction with their visit by scratching reviews in the form of graffiti upon the walls of the establishment, much in the manner and function of Trip Advisor in online tourism services of the present day. When we consider the impact of technology upon communication in the twenty-first century, it represents an intensification and extension of established practice rather than the introduction of new practices.

In the same time frame, there is evidence of posted advertisements for circuses and gladiatorial games, just as there would be today for popular events, whether on poster sites, in printed or broadcast media, or online. Moreover, there was a natural tendency to provide entertainment that had been shown to be the most popular, so there is nothing new in the idea of giving people what they want as a means of attracting custom. These events were essentially marketed in much the same way as they would be today, again if we look beyond the innovation of technology. However repugnant these bloody games may be to our modern sensibilities, they certainly thrived on the provision of excitement.

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FIGURE 2.1 The birthplace of mass entertainment.

The promotion of political initiatives is also a long-standing tradition, as is the use of events as a means of connecting with citizens. The National Socialist Party in prewar Germany was extensive in its use of mega-events to market its notorious political cause. We cannot consider the history of events without facing the dark motives behind some of the most extravagant examples.

Politicians in the Roman world used posters to further the ends of their campaigns. Julius Caesar famously posted regular bulletins throughout Rome concerning his campaign in Gaul to maintain his reputation while out of the city. Octavian Caesar (Augustus) used an astonishingly extensive poster campaign to malign the image of Antony and Cleopatra while planning the annexation of Egypt. This campaign was so powerful that it has influenced our perceptions of the last queen of Egypt to this day. Clearly this was propaganda, yet as is clear from these examples, the utilization of familiar promotional devices occurred thousands of years ago. The idea of organized promotional activity is just so necessary that it has always been used. How else would people be able to communicate en masse? This was not thought of as marketing, but plainly that is what it was. This kind of activity carried on for centuries in all cultures, and by the time of mass marketing in the twentieth century, promotional practices

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were long established. I have mentioned these antique methods in order to stress that it is not

accurate to think of marketing as being a twentieth- or twenty-first-century phenomenon, and therefore something somehow modern. It has, of course, become associated with the development of twentieth-century consumer culture due to the intensification of consumption and the expansion of populations that occurred in this time. It also reflects increases in relative prosperity, as without money to spend or credit to enjoy, consumption remains mundane, whereas with access to funds and an industry infusing consumption with a myriad of meanings it becomes elevated to the sacred.

David Zolkwer is Director of Public Events for Jack Morton Worldwide. From the Hong Kong Handover, to the ceremonies for the Manchester and Melbourne Commonwealth Games, the Athens Olympic Games, and the World Cup in South Africa, he’s brought to life some of the most notable ceremonies of the last decade. He reflects on their place in the modern world and the potential they have—now more than ever—to share authentic stories with global audiences, and here he looks to native Australian culture for insight. The Australian Aborigines have stories that go back 65,000 years —the longest continual cultural history of any group of people on the planet. For them, everything in the world was created in the “Dreamtime” and has its own story—a story that tells us not just how it became, but what it is, and how we can recognize it. So in the Aboriginal sense, stories build understanding and empathy. Each one is distinct, but also part of a wider, interconnected and interdependent world.

There is more to marketing than promotional activities. It really is cultural glue and vividly reflects the personality of a society. This tends to be obscured by standard definitions, which concern the need for organizations to match their resources, offerings, and aptitudes to the needs of their customers within the context of a dynamic and competitive environment. It is by observing, measuring, and understanding the world that organizations are able to mold us and their brands to correspond with its demands.

Marketing therefore evolved into a philosophy of management, whereby the needs of consumers drive the activities and direction of business. It has long since ceased to be thought of as a purely promotional function.

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Marketing evolved into a formalized activity concerned with analysis and planning that becomes manifest through operations and promotion. When events are marketing led, it means they are managed in a consumer- focused manner. It means you have to be able to tell the right story in order to be listened to.

David Zolkwer on brand experience: Here in our own smart, brand-soaked 21st century world, brands are jostling and elbowing for attention, all day, all night. They come knocking, and we let them in. Because they come to us with a story to share, an experience to feel, and a dream to believe in. But it can’t just be any old story. This approach to branding only works if at the core of the proposition there’s something truthful— something authentic that really can be substantiated. This is no different for the countries with a story to tell—a point that was brought home to me when I saw firsthand how Dreamtime can really come to life. It is the night of 15th September 2000, the opening ceremony at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Australia has been looking at its past and especially at its treatment of the indigenous population. Across the nation there is a desire to find reconciliation and move forward with honesty, hope and celebration, into the new millennium. In the stadium a single female figure approaches the Olympic cauldron. It is the indigenous athlete and darling of modern Australia, Cathy Freeman—even her surname appears to be on brand. She climbs the steps, stretches out her arm and, in a gesture loaded with incredible emotional resonance, 100,000 Australians in the stadium, 20 million around the country and billions of people around the world, watch the night sky come alive with light. A whole new idea of Australia—what it is, what it wants to be—explodes into life. Here is the connection I am talking about. Because in that one amazing moment, the Olympic ceremonies became a shared, global brand experience. For the Olympic ideals of course, but also, critically, for the entire host nation—and indeed the whole of the watching world. Here was the new, the confident, the reconciled, brand Australia 2000, reintroducing itself to its own people, and to the rest of the world.

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In a world that is growing increasingly cynical and media-savvy, these moments still carry extraordinary power to connect and unite. They are the only occasions humanity has to experience in one moment, through one host country, a common set of values and goals for a world that is continually being ripped apart by its differences. At their very best they represent the biggest opportunities countries have to say to their own people, “This is who we are” and to the rest of the world, “This is what we all share.” We are talking about a genuine brand experience that tells an authentic, relevant brand story. Get it right and you define the way ahead, not only for your own country, but also for the entire watching world.

Consumer Socialization in the Twentieth Century “I shop therefore I am.”

Barbara Kruger, conceptual artist (Born 1945) How do we define who we are? The famous witticism of Barbara Kruger lampoons the philosophical insight of Descartes, who maintained, “I think therefore I am.” Kruger’s satire concerns the extent to which our self- definition is bound to the way we spend our money or use our credit. Consumer socialization is a serious subject, and it is of the utmost importance to marketers the world over. People are largely defined by their consumption patterns in a consumer society, an intensification of deep- rooted human tendency. This has become the defining philosophy of our age. The term consumer socialization refers to the processes and influences upon us in our development into consumers. As we experience the shift toward an experience economy, consumers will become socialized into associating themselves with particular event types, influenced by culture, subculture, and the media.

The term consumer socialization has been with us only since the mid- 1970s, yet it clearly concerns a phenomenon that has been observable for a very long time. It maintains that our consumption dispositions are primarily, if not wholly, influenced by our continuous interaction with other people. This is merely to say that people tend to converge upon shared behaviors and common means of expression. One’s choice of events is therefore going to be influenced by others’ choice of events, and these others are people with whom one associates, or aspires to associate

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with. That sounds a lot like ordinary life, which has been generally understood long before the concept was formalized.

Our socialization into consumers is necessary given the capitalist system’s need for future expenditure. As is only too painfully evident in these economic times, a capitalist economy requires growth, and without growth comes stagnation and recession. The expenditure approach to the calculation of GDP indicates the importance of consumer expenditure to the economy. In light of this, consumer expenditure on planned events not only serves the needs of individuals who seek meaningful experience, but also serves the needs of the economy. To that extent, the events industry represents the vanguard of economic development, as it is a form of consumer expenditure that represents growth, and a pattern of consumer expenditure that is not dependent on importation.

Consumer socialization is most often used as a term describing the integration of young people into the consumer economy. Young consumers use marketing to learn of the tools of social interaction that will facilitate self-expression and social conformity, both for themselves and their family, and also to find out about the social significance of consumption. Young people do not, of course, have an interest in marketing because of its role in their socialization. There are simple pragmatic reasons for interest. They use it to find out what brands mean, and what events can add to their lives, and their social standing among their peers. Young people want to have fun, of course, but they want that fun to be approved of by those who they think matter. It is very natural to learn of the meaning of things, and the things that most of us come into contact with all the time tend to be things that we buy or have been bought for us, the experiences we enjoy and the memories we cherish. A young person will therefore want to know what different event options mean so that he or she will be able to make the right choices—events that both satisfy his or her personal interests and will provide the opportunity for social expression.

Consumer socialization is an intensification of our self-expression via consumption based upon the management of consumer behavior by providers of financial services, products, services, and activities. This intensification is what is generally known as the marketing industry. Marketing theory tells us that the most efficient way to sell people something is to find out about them and base the sale on that information. Another way of expressing this basic marketing ethos is to find out what people want and provide them with it, as the most efficient way of doing

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business. If people want to see their favorite musicians rewarded for their efforts,

provide them with an award ceremony and give them the satisfaction of seeing their favorite musicians being rewarded. If people want to alleviate mundane lives, encourage them toward hero worship and work toward the provision of an awards ceremony that feeds that adulation. This view of the ethos is about the use of brands as mediums for (sometimes pseudo) satisfaction of needs and wants. Consumer socialization is very much concerned with this consumption orientation as a way of life, entwined with all the complexities that life brings.

The Homogeneous Markets of Today Given the homogeneous utility of the vast majority of consumption choices, it is essential to understand the extent to which reflections of our selves are used to provide differentiation. Due to decades of aerodynamic refinement and mechanical engineering, most cars are very similar to most other cars. Their differentiation does not generally come from anything inherent to the tangible machine but rather from the kinds of people and/or attitude that has become associated with particular models and brands. When we therefore apply the concept of differentiation to consumer socialization, we find that as ever it is based upon the fundamental human characteristic of self-differentiation.

This directs event marketers to considering that their point of differentiation from other, perhaps similar, events is to be found in the manner whereby their customers and potential customers differentiate between things. I may find it difficult to tell the difference between one popular music genre and another, but there are many music fans out there who have inflated whatever difference there may be to a level of high importance. Their socialization has been different from mine and has resulted in different forms of differentiation. As society is steeped in diversity, consumer socialization is a representation of that diversity. Events become representative of abstract values.

Marketing indicates what things mean, things you can buy, and things you can do, such as a planned event. Marketed products and activities are closely associated with how people spend their time, and subsequently their behavior. Marketers essentially promote behavioral norms, their motivation for doing so being purely profit driven. While marketing therefore manifestly has an agenda of advocacy, it can be held to perform a social function given the predomination and significance of brand meaning

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in our materialistic culture.

Social theorist Richard Brodie considers the influence of peer pressure: When people get immersed in a culture with strong new memes, it tends to be a sink-or-swim proposition. Either you change your mind, succumbing to peer pressure and adopting the new memes as your own, or you struggle with the extremely uncomfortable feeling of being surrounded by people who think you’re crazy or inadequate. The fact that you probably think the same about them is little consolation.

Demand for marketed products and activities is more immediately connected to peer influence than as a direct influence of marketing communication, which rather provides a repertoire of potential demand within which peer influence operates. Importantly, peers operate as both negative and positive reinforcers of marketing messages and are thus arbiters of acceptability. When we consider the use of social networking systems in the marketing of events, it is evident that event marketing practice is well integrated in the consumer socialization process. That is to say that event marketing methods online are well placed to participate in the socialization process, which happens a great deal of the time online.

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FIGURE 2.2 Who are we behind the brand?

Marketed products and activities are demanded with sustained regularity and can develop to a level of strong importance in people’s striving for self-definition. It is difficult to take seriously that marketing is irresponsible for promoting materialism, as some critics suggest. Our society is intrinsically materialist, and marketing is operating within this context.

It is interesting to consider the idea of consumer socialization with reference to planned events, as it is not clear how they relate to the idea of materialism. Is expenditure dedicated to the acquisition of memories through the transformational experience of an event classifiable as an aspect of materialism? Perhaps that is a debate for another time, but I wonder whether a move away from focus on artifacts toward a focus on experience may represent a shift in emphasis away from materialism, or at least a change in its expression.

FIVE WAYS THE PAST CAN INFORM THE FUTURE 1. Events have always been used to allow people the opportunity to

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escape their mundane everyday lives. In what way does your event offer this?

2. Events have proven adept at promoting big ideas. What big ideas are represented by your event?

3. Events have been used as a means of demonstrating social alliances and cultural expression. Does your event targeting reflect this?

4. Events have long been a means of providing entertainment. Whatever the nature and purpose of your event, is this fundamental aspect in place?

5. Events have shown themselves to be a means of communication and influence. Is your event selling itself sufficiently to sponsors?

The Development of Event Marketing In the first edition of Event Marketing, Hoyle provided some vivid examples of event marketing activities in years gone by that illustrated the need for event organizers to grab the attention of potential customers with activities that were designed to have maximum impact. Let’s take a look at just a few of these event marketing pioneers.

They are clear examples of innovative thinking and action-oriented activity. Most importantly, they tell us that doing things differently, and knowing and understanding your customers, can get you the attention and results that are the object of event marketing activity. These activities are appropriate to their day and were effective in their time. The general lessons that we may learn from them are appropriate to any event in any age, and they stand as a warning against complacency and sameness. It is also telling to consider the sense of purpose behind these examples of event marketing treatments, as all actions are set against specific aims.

The Extravagance and Influence of P. T. Barnum “Every crowd has a silver lining.”

P. T. Barnum (1810–1891) Phineas Taylor Barnum set the stage in the 1800s for using the outrageous and bizarre in attracting attention to his enterprises. He was responsible for developing methods of advertising and promotion that became known as ballyhoo, a term synonymous with attention getting. That is, of course, a basic aim of all advertising and promotion, so Barnum was doing what all promoters do, only with more gusto. Businesses around the world still employ his principles of entertainment, excitement, and enterprise. He was

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an example of maximization of impact via his promotions. Barnum created his own “stars” and then promoted them through advertising, flyers, and posters as he brought them to town. He was also a pioneer in the concept of public displays of his attractions, building his reputation and profits through museums and road shows. In his day, therefore, Barnum was a multimedia marketer, using a rich mix of channels to reach his potential audiences. When we look beyond the rather seductive glare of modern technology, we find that it accelerates already established practices and cannot be thought of as a new idea, but rather new technology.

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FIGURE 2.3 The extravagant P. T. Barnum.

Among his feature attractions were General Tom Thumb (the world’s smallest human), Jumbo (the world’s largest elephant), and the golden- voiced Jenny Lind (the “Swedish Nightingale”), whom he introduced to

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American audiences with great fanfare in the 1850s. It’s interesting to note that his promotions left a permanent impression on the American lexicon. In addition to his Jumbo elephant attraction was a “genuine” white elephant named Toung Taloung. Barnum spent a fortune trying to convince audiences that Toung was not a fake, to little success. To this day, “jumbo” connotes bigness. And “white elephant” defines anything that is expensive to maintain, but yields little or no benefit, although the latter is not entirely attributable to Barnum.

He and his partner, James A. Bailey, took his menagerie on the road, combining the wild animals with other circus acts. They were convinced that success lay in taking the enterprise to the people rather than waiting for audiences to find their “Greatest Show on Earth.” This represents an aspect of marketing thinking that has become quite complex in the modern age. Should an event wait to be discovered by potential customers, or should it take a proactive approach and reach out to gain attention? With reference to electronic media in particular, it is difficult to assess whether the social networking approach represents the passive former or the active latter.

If anything it most resembles the former as by seeding event information into the social networking matrix, event marketers are waiting for customers to come to them. In many ways, the traditional marketing media approach is more active in attempting to grab the consumer’s interest. Moreover, the digital environment is becoming supremely crowded and as such plunging into the electric waves of online marketing may represent a passive approach to acquiring customers that Barnum would doubtless find most unenterprising.

Barnum and Bailey honed this energetic approach to a fine art of promotion and marketing after merging with the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1919. They built circus wagons for the tour, gaily painted with promises of amazing feats and attractions. In time, they began loading their wagons onto railway cars and then began purchasing freight cars themselves, again painting them in bold colors so no one could mistake the fact that the circus was coming. Barnum and Bailey were already practicing marketing planning, although the term had not been invented at that time. They knew that the communities their show visited needed to know that entertainment was on the way, that excitement was right around the bend! Thus began the marketing techniques that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey practice today: publishing a road schedule, sending advance press releases to pertinent media sources, and announcing the exact train schedule so that

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people could gather with their “children of all ages” at train stations along the route to watch the circus cars roar by.

Their markets were not just the destination cities but also the public at large. They included every town en route. People who could not attend the circus performing miles away could at least be a part of it as it graced their town by just passing through. This was a brilliant marketing strategy, designed to attract national attention despite the fact that it was essentially a product that was offered locally. And then, to gain even more publicity, their producers staged a parade from the train station to the circus site, bringing throngs to see the animals, costumed performers, and clowns up close—even before the first tent had been erected. To this day, this combination of street “stunts” and parades attracts the attention of millions, most of whom cannot attend the event itself. In many ways, the theories that the Ringling Brothers and P. T. Barnum began developing in the 1800s are even more effective today. Never could they have dreamed of the new technologies that we take for granted, making even more productive the marketing concepts they practiced then—entertainment, excitement, and enterprise, and an understanding of marketing planning. This marketing strategy quilts a fabric of awareness not just on the show site but throughout the countryside, and it creates a warm and fuzzy consciousness of earlier, more carefree times. And that is what P. T. Barnum and the Ringling Brothers had in mind in the first place.

More than anything else, Barnum understood the importance of being noticed. He chose to utilize the superhighway of his time to achieve this, the railroad. His promotions were entertainment in themselves, and this was an idea ahead of its time, as today the difference between entertainment and promotion is blurred. The ballyhoo of Barnum, equivalent in our day to making a lot of noise in order to get noticed, is not exactly a subtle approach, and certainly this is not the only way to get noticed. Nevertheless, it persists as an aspect of event marketing. Flash mobs, for example, are a modern manifestation of ballyhoo, as are intensive poster campaigns in the sense of visual noise. When we consider the sheer volume of marketing communication in our world, I am sure it would be a future that P. T. Barnum would recognize.

The Research Approach and High-Impact Strategy of Bill Veeck “I try not to break the rules but merely to test their

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elasticity.” Bill Veeck (1914–1986) Bill Veeck is considered professional baseball’s pioneering promotional genius. As owner of the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Browns, and two minor league teams, he was a showman without peer. He understood that in the 1930s and 1940s, a country coming out of the Depression and war years needed something more than the game on the field in order to spend precious dollars. This is a cautionary scenario for event marketers. Is there an upward trajectory of expectation in terms of what consumers expect and demand in exchange for their expenditure? In times of economic hardship, are people demanding more, not less?

His greatest strength was his ability to determine what the fans wanted and were willing to pay for. He constantly mingled with spectators in his ballparks, prompting his son Mike to comment, “I think people looked at it as quaint, Dad sitting in the stands. It was just his way of doing market research.” Veeck learned, for example, that many people in Chicago worked afternoons and nights in the factories and stockyards. So he scheduled a number of 8:30 a.m. starting times for games, attracting national attention when he personally served coffee and cornflakes to the early risers. Now to Veeck, it was intuitively obvious that it was a good idea to understand his customers and to modify his business in light of the intelligence he gleaned from his casual yet effective approach to research, yet it was by no means typical of the commercial mentality of the time, which was more “build it and they will come.” Consider the production mentality that predated the formalization of marketing. Veeck was an evolved business operator who appeared to have a genuine customer focus mentality that made him smarter and richer. The evolutionary nature of human insight always begs the question, why didn’t people get that? Those who did were often at odds with the received wisdom of the day, and doing things differently from your contemporaries may seem strange until it catches on, by which time the advantage of your innovation will have evaporated, so keep innovating.

A visit to his ballpark offered constant surprises, including live music and dancers, giveaways of everything from lobsters to boxes of nails that he bartered from others, and the first “exploding scoreboard” where a home run by the home team ignited fireworks over the outfield fence. He planted the ivy on the outfield wall of Wrigley Field in Chicago, which even today is a nationally recognized landmark of that facility. If, as we

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have established, brands are a conglomeration of ideas, keep making that idea bigger, keep adding to it. In a world of diminishing returns, that is where the excitement is going to come from.

His most famous (or notorious, depending on your perspective) stunt occurred during his ownership of the Cleveland Indians. With much fanfare, he hired a little person to join the Indians. Eddie Gaedel stood 3 feet 7 inches and weighed all of 65 pounds. When he was sent up to bat to draw a walk during a critical part of the game, the crowd went wild. The perplexed pitcher couldn’t find the tiny strike zone and walked Gaedel on four pitches. Veeck claimed that this wasn’t a stunt, but a “practical idea” he would not hesitate to use again. The president of the American League was not amused and barred Gaedel from playing again. But this unique marketing ploy certainly fulfilled the criteria of being memorable.

FIGURE 2.4 Attention-seeking behavior.

Fifty years later, it is still an event that is remembered by sports fans everywhere. Today the cynical use of a person of short stature for such promotional uses could be frowned upon as being in bad taste, so it is not the actual content of the stunt that should interest us but its significance and effect. It was significant because of the novelty of the idea. It was unexpected and represents a visually interesting joke, like using drag

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artists for cheerleaders. It got people talking and is the kind of thing, were it to be a viral advertisement, that would be passed on from person to person or posted on YouTube. Times change and the world is awash in strange and interesting images that circulate, so the bar is set rather high in terms of being able to create a genuine talking point these days. Nevertheless, that is one of the challenges for the event marketer: how can you develop a high-impact strategy in a world saturated in novelty?

The Consumer Orientation of Jay Lurye If there ever was a master of integrative marketing and creative thinking, it was Jay Lurye, the founder and president of Impact International. Based in Chicago, his company was among the first event production and marketing firms, and many of his principles innovated practices that are common in the industry today. Much of his work centered on association conventions, but his greatest contributions were in building attendance through marketing partnerships and the creation of ancillary activities. For example, Lurye instituted the spouse and youth program as a major part of the convention itself. He understood that if an organization could attract spouses by marketing unique programs to them and their children, chances were that the association’s members would feel more compelled to register. For example, Lurye created the “meet a celebrity” event and promoted the “mystery guest” luncheon or reception where spouses would buy tickets based on the promise that they would not only see each other, but also mix with celebrities as well. Then, through his contacts with theatrical agents, he would determine which celebrities would be in town at the time of the event, hire them for a moderate fee to spend an hour socializing with the group, and watch as the spouses lined up for a chance to chat with the famous actress or singer. Photographers took Polaroid pictures as keepsakes, and autographs were traded. There are many companies today that hire look-alike celebrities to perform the same function, and it still works to build attendance and excitement. Jay Lurye started the concept, but he used the real McCoy!

There are a number of ways to consider this event marketing strategy that will prove most instructive to the contemporary event marketer. Firstly and most straightforwardly, Lurye was adding value to his event. The association meeting was the product, and the use of celebrities can be considered as an extension of the product. This begs a question, however. If the association meeting was servicing a genuine demand, why did it require embellishment in order for it to thrive? An unimaginative event

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might very well just stick to the core product, which might be very good in itself, something that does the job. Embellishments could be considered as a needles expense. Well, there is certainly a role in life for the basic and the mundane. Not everything has to be interesting, but an event that hopes to succeed in this day and age really does. The embellishments innovated by Jay Lurye have one way or another become the norm in event management and marketing.

The way in which Lurye targeted the family of attendees was way ahead of its time and resonates with customer orientation insight into the psychology of delegates. So much time spent away from the family can be alienating. The inclusion of family members in the event was clever in using family influence upon a purchase decision, utilizing the family as a medium in which to persuade the customer to become involved. This is a common practice in advertising programs, for example. Marketers are known to target children because of their influence upon decision making for that family expenditure, so Lurye had tapped into what was to become a sophisticated marketing practice, thinking of the family unit as being targetable in order to reach the motivation of the decision makers and influencers.

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FIGURE 2.5 The family is a targeting unit. Think how many decisions are family decisions.

At one point in his career, the Mechanical Contractors Association of America was his client and was struggling to get support from its state and city chapters to attend the annual convention. Lurye’s concept was to change the association’s chapters from passive to active marketing partners. He would give them a proprietary interest in the enterprise. So he created a major reception and dinner as a highlight of the convention and challenged the chapters to be among the first twenty to sponsor “hospitality centers” in which they would offer food and drink indigenous to their localities, giveaways of memorabilia, and costumed characters reminiscent of their state’s history. Only twenty theme centers were available. First come, first served. They clamored to get on board. Their pride swelling, the chapters immediately began trying to outdo each other. The Kansas City chapter proudly served barbecue and gave away miniature Kansas City Chiefs footballs. The Louisiana chapter served fried oysters and crawfish and tossed Mardi Gras doubloons and masks as a Dixieland band regaled the crowd. The Seattle chapter drew a crowd with its smoked salmon and Washington State wines. Seventeen other theme

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stations competed for attention. The party became a living, exciting montage of the association’s width, breadth, and diversity. But while the event was a marketing marvel and a great success, Lurye had a subtle strategy. The association itself saved a fortune on food and beverage expenses and entertainment costs that the sponsoring chapters covered, all of which would have fallen on the association for a more standard party.

In time, Lurye expanded his creativity into corporate meetings and product launches, and ultimately conceived a service company producing college and fraternal reunions with the same cutting-edge creativity he used to bring association events into the modern age. Many of his marketing and management principles still form the basis for contemporary event production and promotion. He introduced new ways of doing things and based his decisions upon his understanding of the way people think and how they are likely to act given certain carefully devised involvements and impacts.

Liz Bigham on event strategy: Any marketing strategy is only as good as it is specific to the brand, the product and the kind of people involved. The use of events should, indeed must, reflect that specificity. But while there’s no silver bullet approach, events are primarily about engaging people and using the resulting understanding and belief to stimulate action.

The Brand Building of George Preston Marshall “Pro football today does in many ways reflect his personality. It has his imagination, style, zest, dedication, openness, brashness, strength and courage. We all are beneficiaries of what his dynamic personality helped shape over more than three decades.”

Pete Rozelle, NFL commissioner (1926–1996) There are those who can take fledgling enterprises and through innovation and customer involvement build hugely successful products. George Preston Marshall was such a marketer. In 1937, he purchased the old Boston Redskins professional football team and moved the franchise to Washington, DC, renaming it the Washington Redskins. In those days, professional football was more of a curiosity than serious sport. Baseball

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was the national pastime. Football was something to do on a cold Sunday afternoon with no great import or urgency. Marshall was a master showman, and he surrounded himself with others who shared his vision of elevating football into the national consciousness, with results that are only too obvious today as football has grown into a multibillion dollar industry and the Super Bowl is one of the most iconic events in American culture. It is astonishing to think of its comparatively recent humble roots.

Marshall realized that to build a fan base, he needed to offer more than punts and passes on the field. He needed to offer entertainment, excitement, and enterprise. Once again we encounter an individual who understood the importance of adding value to an event in order to make it shine. These accounts of event marketing pioneers tell us something profound about the ethos of our discipline. An event is the sum of its parts. It is not that we surround an event with bells and whistles, or ballyhoo as Barnum would have it, but rather that the added value marketers add to the event is part of it. This is a holistic view of events, even down to event legacy analysis. Marshall’s approach to the marketing of football is bound to what he achieved at the time and what came after, what it did for the game and how it changed the attitudes of fans, in terms of their expectations about the game. It was by raising the bar that Marshall instilled a demand for all that football has become today in the minds of fans.

He began by asking the question, what can we do to build “traditions” that our fans will take to their hearts, when last year they didn’t even have a team to root for? Through songwriter Barnee Breeskin, the conductor of the orchestra at Washington’s Shoreham Hotel, Marshall produced a fight song, the first for a professional football team. Breeskin’s opus was originally called the “Washington Redskins March.” Today, it is known throughout the United States as “Hail to the Redskins!” It became the rallying cry as crowds grew from the hundreds to the thousands, singing the song not just in the stadium but also on the streets and in bars and taverns as the popularity of the team grew. It is still a staple of the football franchise, sung by the crowd after every Redskins touchdown and field goal more than sixty years later, a lasting marketing medium. Marshall also realized that he needed an instrument to capitalize on the new anthem. He collaborated once again with Breeskin, beginning with Breeskin’s swing band and transforming the enterprise into a full-fledged marching band. The Redskins Marching Band became the first in professional football. In his marketing mind, Marshall realized that this was not just

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about entertainment. It was also about creating awareness and building attendance. The band became a staple throughout the region, performing not just in the Washington, DC, area but also throughout the South, where no competition for professional football franchises existed. The customer/fan base throughout Virginia, the Carolinas, and as far south as Georgia expanded dramatically. There were times when the musical entertainment was more compelling than the game itself. It is often credited with quadrupling the attendance in the first three years of the team’s existence in Washington, DC. Fabulous pregame and halftime shows drew the crowds more than the team’s on-field performance, some suspected. We can see from our perspective that the entertainment is part of the game, but that was a new thought at the time.

Columnist Bob Considine described it this way: “A Redskins game is something resembling a fast-moving revue, with cues, settings, music, pace, tableaux and, hold your hats, boys, and a ballet. The amazing part of it all is that there’s room left on the program for a football game!” Marshall was marketing his team as all-encompassing entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, not just a football game. He was drawing families, not just fans. A football game at old Griffith Stadium became an event. Football was just an integral part of the celebration. What is the difference between a football game and an event? I think the answer to that lies in the emotions of the attendees. What does it take to provide satisfaction, to really get under the skin of the audience? It’s the difference between “that was really something” and “that was okay.” By augmenting your event with special ingredients, you are expanding its ability to generate a positive emotional reaction.

Yet another example of Marshall’s approach to producing stunts and promoting his product was the annual arrival of Santa Claus at the game scheduled just before Christmas. There was nothing new about Santa Claus making an appearance at a game during the holidays; that was done all the time throughout the country. In Washington, DC, however, it was how Santa arrived that captured the imagination of Marshall’s audiences. Each year, speculation began in the newspapers and on radio broadcasts. People bought tickets early to make certain they were among the privileged who personally would witness the arrival of Santa Claus. Under Marshall’s creative guidance, Santa arrived in every way imaginable. Through the years, he has entered the halftime show amid great fanfare by sleigh, by parachute, on horseback, and tethered to a wire strung from the top of the stadium. In more recent years, a helicopter has landed with

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Santa at midfield, and he has even “materialized” through magical illusions. It remains a staple of the team’s tradition and Christmas entertainment.

As with any business, in the professional football industry that Marshall helped create years ago, a few Super Bowl games and other successes certainly help sell tickets. But the foundation of any enterprise is the building of brand recognition and a faithful following in good times and bad. George Preston Marshall recognized that football wins and losses would come and go, but entertainment and excitement would attract customers forever. He understood that football was not the brand but part of the brand.

FIVE LESSONS FROM EVENT MARKETING PIONEERS 1. Events will not be noticed unless you are prepared to exert substantial

effort in getting them noticed. 2. Events need to be an antidote to the mundane. 3. Find out what people really think and how they want to feel, and

translate that into a deliverable, memorable experience. 4. Surround the core of your event with auxiliary features; create an

assault upon the senses that will overwhelm nonchalance. 5. Innovate, provide novelty, avoid sameness, and generate positive

differentiation.

Trends in Event Marketing Evolution How will the future regard the state of the events industry today? We have looked at the naturalistic evolution of practices that eventually became known as marketing. Looking back, we see that it has been bound closely to how people live their lives, the ways in which people choose to express their individuality and their social status. The twentieth-century idea of marketing represented nothing more than the industrialization of lifestyle patterns that were long established and entwined with the capitalist system’s requirement for eternal growth. We see that events have always been with us, serving a variety of masters.

They have been self-generated, serving the community, instilling a sense of identity among emerging collective settlements. They have been generated by the evolution of religions, serving our dawning wonder at our place in the universe, and serving the vested interests of the religious

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orthodoxies and establishments. Events have served the interests of politicians, pacifying the masses, gelling individuals into cohesive movements for good or ill. Events have served the interests of professions, from Masonic societies to conferences in events management. Events have served the arts toward the development of the behemoth of entertainment that so dominates our cultural experience in the twenty-first century. Events have served sport, elevating it from mere exercise and leisure through a manifestation of political rivalry toward a global expression of competitiveness and solidarity. Events have served industry in the generation of capital and have served the economy in the provision of growth. Moreover, events have served humanity through the provision of social congress and through good times and the hardest of times have served our need to feel part of something bigger than ourselves.

CHAPTER SUMMARY The evolutional trajectory of event marketing is quite straightforward. Add value and continue to add value. Find out what people expect and what they will come to expect. Be aware of how people communicate and how they will come to communicate. I have approached this book with a particular purpose. Event marketing is no esoteric secret to be learned at the feet of a master; it is merely a matter of finding out what people want and giving it to them in the most exciting and imaginative way possible so that their emotions are engaged and they feel connected and involved. The chapter to follow will take a more mechanical approach to event marketing, introduce a strategic framework within which to make decisions, and summarize a range of activities that constitute the tools of the trade.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • How long have marketing methods been employed in the world, and in

what ways? • How do people use their consumption choices to market themselves

and their families? • How has marketing, as a reflection of long-standing traditions of trade

and everyday life, become central to our understanding of contemporary events?

• What marketing methods have been employed by politicians for

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thousands of years? • What is the importance of economic socialization through event

marketing to the economy? • What is the extent to which people are defined by their consumption

choices, and how does this relate to the consumption of planned events? • What have you learned from Veeck, Marshall, Barnum, and others, and

how has this been applied to marketing a convention, an exhibition, or another event?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://bvo.com/topics/marketing-trends-and- evolution/programmes/philip-kotler-on-the-evolution-of-marketing

An interview with Philip Kotler, famous American marketing scholar, on the recent history of marketing.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=142967 An article in Advertising Age on the evolution of marketing in an advertising context in the last century.

http://www.ptbarnum.org A website honoring P. T. Barnum, “The Shakespeare of Advertising,” describing some of his inspiring marketing stunts called “Humbugs.”

http://www.barnum-museum.org The website of he Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, featuring a virtual museum where one can explore the splendid world of P. T. Barnum.

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Chapter 3

The Theory and Practice of Event Marketing “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” Peter F. Drucker, social ecologist (1909–2005)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Define and apply event marketing interventions and strategies

to maximize return on marketing investment, • Apply and integrate general marketing concepts within the

context of twenty-first-century event marketing principles, • Synthesize traditional marketing models into a new

comprehensive and definitive model for modern event

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marketing, • Evaluate and effectively execute research, targeting, and

positioning in event marketing strategy, and • Assess and describe event marketing opportunities and

potential in terms of feasibility, viability, and sustainability by using the SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).

The Need for Strategy This chapter is a guide to the activities that constitute event marketing, and as with all worthwhile endeavors we will begin with strategy. Strategy must precede any planned event if it is to be considered of importance to those involved, participating, or attending. Another way of putting it is to know beforehand that what you are doing is the best thing to do, under the circumstances. Perhaps you know this only too well, but refer to it as thinking something through rather than strategy, which sounds rather distant and formal. You would be right to think so, as marketing is by its nature a strategic approach to meeting goals and objectives, which definitely involves thinking things through. Being strategic is natural enough then, as we all feel as though we need direction in our lives, and indeed so do our events.

If you don’t know where you are going, then all roads will take you there. Old sayings have a habit of being tried and tested. Marketing strategy for an event sets it on a road, with a specific destination, and with alternative routes identified in line with changing environmental conditions. This means that you need clear objectives and an understanding that there are different ways of fulfilling them.

Strategy is essential for survival. What of an event marketer who has put insufficient effort into devising strategy, through complacency or carelessness? Again, we can usefully rephrase this as, what of an event marketer who has not thought things through? This is an event that either does not know where it is going or is heading in the wrong direction. Let us assume that it is the latter, and consider the effect of ill-considered strategy.

This event team will work just as hard as any other, and moreover will apply their effort to the stated goals of the event. They believe that research is adding weight to their tactics, and that the marketing mix they

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apply to their event is apt to the stated goals of the event. In short, however, their efforts are in vain, as in effect they are becoming better at running down the wrong street until it is too late and they discover it to be a dead end, or they are trampled by a herd of events running in the opposite direction. The point is that if the strategy is ill devised, everything that is accomplished under its guidance will not bear fruit, so it’s important to get it right. How frustrating for event workers to find their efforts result in underachievement through no fault of their own.

A strategy is, by nature, a simple and understandable thing. The options open to you in achieving your strategic aims are many and varied. So whereas a strategy may be a simple statement, its implementation will usually be complex in nature. For example, NASA had a strategy to put a man on the moon. What an event that was! Of course, just because the strategy was simple to state, it was doubtless mind-bogglingly complicated to enact.

In 2003, the Edinburgh Festival of the Sea failed to attract sufficient visitors, and the local government was forced to bail out the organizers for a hefty sum. It seemed to have a great many attractive features: a Norwegian village and Viking longships, tall ships, military rescue vessels and ancient galleys, a huge nautical parade celebrating the maritime history of the area, the creation of the biggest sand sculpture ever built in the United Kingdom, a major maritime art exhibition, and a “sound and light spectacular” at the climax of each day. Visitors also had the chance to experience machines that simulate submarine control rooms and helicopters and meet leading whale, shark, and dolphin experts. Seafood cookery demonstrations were held, and special festival ale was brewed for the event. Despite the Iraq War, the Royal Navy sent a Type 42 Destroyer, Sea Harriers, helicopters, patrol boats, and landing craft, and Royal Marines Commandos took part in dramatic displays daily in the harbor arena. The event’s patron, the Princess Royal, headed a list of celebrity guests, and round-the-world yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur was among those invited. All in all then, everybody involved had worked very hard to put together what reads as an exciting day out for nautical enthusiasts. Only there weren’t enough of them. Not enough people in the catchment area found the idea of nautical entertainment sufficiently alluring to merit the time and expenditure of the visit. The strategy had been faulty at the outset. It should have been scaled back to proportion in line with demand, or greater demand should have been engineered through a more substantial marketing resource.

(www.festivalofthesea.net)

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Who or What Are You Up Against? Like so many terms commonplace in commerce, strategy is a military term concerning the disposition of resources as to impose upon the enemy the place, time, and conditions for fighting preferred by oneself. Taken literally, this suggests that the management of planned events is some kind of battlefield. Well, that is true insofar as competition exists, competing events can be seen as being in opposition to one another, and particularly with respect to larger events, you will be organizing an army of workers to the best strategic advantage. Whether competition is considered the enemy is quite another matter, yet you plainly want to outperform your competitors, and you would rather they had fewer customers, so the basis of the relationship isn’t exactly friendly.

Nonetheless, this perspective explains fairly accurately what is meant by strategic event marketing. It amounts to planning and marketing an event that disadvantages other events through its ability to attract customers and sponsorship. While this combative approach is standard to brand managers, it is perhaps less engrained in the ethos of event managers.

We all see that event markets are becoming competitive. The formation of an event marketing strategy begins, therefore, with analysis of who your competitors are. This has tangible and intangible aspects and involves direct, indirect, and abstract competition.

Direct competition for your event is other events that are somehow similar to your own. A country music festival competes with other country music festivals. An event marketer needs to study direct competition to his or her event to be able to understand how directly competitive events should inform marketing planning. What have they got that would be more attractive to whom? To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

In 2010, the city of New York hosted around 150 food and wine festivals alone. New York City Apple Day, for example, is a free, fun street festival held on Orchard Street between Broome and Grand Streets on the site of the old DeLancey Apple Orchard. On the other hand, you could enjoy the Great World Beer Festival (aka Brewtopia), one of the world’s largest beer events and New York City’s longest- running beer festival. If that is not to your taste, what about the International Pickle Festival? The sheer abundance of food festivals in one city alone serves as an example of a crowded events market. While some enthusiasts may enjoy such plenty, there doubtless are many who

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will pick and choose, and some events will lose out due to their inability to attract sufficient support from participants and customers alike.

(www.foodreference.com/html/new-york-festivals.html)

It will surely be entirely reasonable to every event marketer that direct competition should be appraised, and that moreover it has to be decided how we should best position our event in relation to others. In a comparative sense then, the unique selling points of an event are essentially how one event differs from another that is intrinsically similar, and how these differences can be used advantageously.

Indirect competition is more difficult to define. It can refer to another event that differs somehow from your own. In relation to the previous example, a country music festival may be up against a larger musical event that contains a country music component. It may compete with agricultural festivals on a more localized level that contain a country music component. To be brief, if people want to go out and enjoy an event that contains country music, they do not necessarily have to attend one dedicated to country music.

There are also indirectly competitive events to consider. What if the tall ships traveling event is docked in the harbor that weekend? Country music fans may feel they can do without another collection of odes to sorrow and regret, and opt instead for a jaunt aboard a nautical event that has sailed into town. After all, it’s an experience economy and people are hungry for new experiences. The event marketer therefore needs to be aware of seemingly unrelated events that could prove to be competitive.

Indirect competition also refers to other nonevent expenditure that your target market may indulge in. For example, it is likely that some event expenditure was displaced when Apple launched its iPad in 2010.

Abstract competition is apathy, lethargy, and habitual behavior. What if your competition is that some people just cannot be bothered to become involved in, as they see it, yet another event? After all, attending events involves some physical effort, perhaps some planning and organization. This is a complex type of competition. If a UFO landed in their backyard, some people would stay in and watch it on television. An event marketer has the option of treating event-avoiding behaviors as legitimate competition to be countered with targeted, intelligent, and insightful communications. The event marketer must seek to get inside the psychology of event-avoiding behaviors and use that acquired knowledge to expand his or her customer base. How exactly to do that depends upon

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the reasons different target groups have for avoiding the experience economy.

Strategies for Stakeholders Strategic event marketing is to do with the overall policy event marketers adopt, not only to its consumer markets, but also its stakeholders. This could range from sponsors, suppliers, performers, and entertainers to banks, shareholders, legislators, and government. A reasonably major event will need a policy regarding all such stakeholders for the event to hold together.

Consumer markets represent attendance, without which an event cannot be considered an event. Sponsors supply capital and materials, as well as targeting capacity. Suppliers may be ultimately responsible for the quality of infrastructure. Marketing your event to entertainers in order to acquire the required range and status of performer can make or break the success of your venture. Banks will doubtless be supporting the event through financing, and the event marketer needs to be able to produce necessarily precise information in order to secure necessary funding. Shareholders will wish to scrutinize an event to ensure that it represents a viable commercial enterprise. Legislators will influence scale and operation of an event and could be instrumental in permitting the inclusion of elements essential for success, such as the rather relaxed drug policy to be found in most mainstream popular music festivals. Government bodies will be instrumental in the provision of planning permission and licenses. All such stakeholders require being approached in an appropriate manner, gained through intelligence gathering.

Taking all of this into account, the event marketer is responsible for taking a holistic approach to the conception, planning, organization, and promotion of the event, investing attention upon all those individuals and bodies that can influence the outcome of the event one way or another. In line with the opening definition of strategy, the event marketer is attempting to elicit the response from these stakeholders that he or she prefers. Consider the following example of a global event program organized by Friends of the Earth, who aim to influence decision makers throughout the world with respect to climate change.

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH DAY OF DOING, 10:10:10

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This was billed as the biggest-ever day of positive action on climate change, from sumo wrestlers cycling to training in Japan to 10,000 schools planting trees in Croatia and Russia. From a carbon-cutting telethon on national TV in the Netherlands to the president of the Maldives installing solar panels on his roof, events were planned in over 140 countries. Across the world, thousands of people took simple steps to reduce their emissions and send a powerful message to world leaders that people everywhere are ready to tackle climate change. One huge event disseminated into a number of national and local happenings that represented a strategy designed to throw media attention upon political players who have the influence to instigate change.

(www.foei.org)

Internal Event Marketing Events are created by teams, sometimes substantial teams who need to be managed, and who will be responsible for physically creating the event. When that goes wrong, the product will be inferior to expectations and the event may fail in key areas. It cannot be ignored, therefore, that a major influence of strategic thinking and behavior will be the values and attitudes of those who have the most say in strategy formulation. In most cases, the constraints of rational behavior stop any individual from influencing events to any critical extent. As you will be able to see from the example to follow, there are occasions where things do become critical. The influence of decision makers can have a pervasive effect on strategy management.

The way things have always been done is therefore a more powerful force in event marketing than might be imagined. This attitude may prove intractable, but the event marketer is responsible for the management of change. What if the way things have always been done is no longer good enough? The event marketer needs to be able to influence the way things should be done.

Ideally the event marketer should be central to event management, using market intelligence and industry benchmark standards to guide development and implementation toward a more market-focused perspective. Problems arise when the event marketer is kept at a distance from strategic thinking and relegated to purely promotional duties. It is the event marketer’s responsibility to ensure optimum demand, and as such this requires involvement in event planning decision making. Strategy is undoubtedly event management’s responsibility, but it should not be their

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secret, as they cannot implement their strategy alone. Strategy, then, is most effectively implemented when those who have to implement it not only understand it, but also believe in it and can see where they fit in its implementation. This boils down to a matter of effective communication within the event team.

The effective event marketer should therefore be responsible for internal communication within the event team, to disseminate information throughout and to make everyone on the team feel involved so that there is a unity of effort that pulls the event together. This internal marketing team- building activity will pay dividends through getting the most from your team, and subsequently in the delivery of a successful event, especially as we will see from the example to follow; event failure can cast a shadow not only over the event organizers but also the event hosts.

The Commonwealth Games, an athletic competition held every four years, brings together nearly 7,000 athletes and officials from seventy- one countries and territories. India wanted the games in 2010, which ended up costing as much as $10 billion, to showcase its emergence as a growing economic power and possibly attract a future Olympic Games. But construction delays, corruption allegations, concerns about security, and heavy monsoons put preparations for the games behind schedule, with complaints about unfinished and filthy accommodations in the athletes’ village embarrassing the hosts. The monsoons led to an outbreak in New Delhi of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease.

The first few days of competition at the 2010 Indian Commonwealth Games proved nearly as troubled as the difficulties that plagued the run- up to the sporting event. Following a lavish Bollywood-style opening spectacle, the second day of competition attracted no more than 100 people to the 19,000-seat MDC hockey stadium. Fewer than 20 people were in the 5,000-seat tennis stadium for the first match of the tournament. Only 58 spectators watched the opening match of netball. In the 4,000-seat velodrome, only about 500 people watched cyclists circle the track. India was hosting a five-day cricket match elsewhere in the country against Australia that probably kept many locals watching their national sport on TV.

The cheapest tickets at 50 rupees (about $1) were too high for many of New Delhi’s poorest people. More than 800 million Indians survive on less than $2 a day. Organizers eventually realized that they would have to give away free tickets to children and the underprivileged to fill the stadiums. The games organizer was booed loudly at the opening ceremony because many Indians blame him for the games’

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disorganization. He also misspoke at a news conference when he was praising the opening ceremony extravaganza. In describing the show, attended by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, he said Princess Diana had been there. Diana was Charles’s former wife who died in a car crash in 1997, and who was probably the most famous woman in the world in her time.

This was a catalogue of disaster for a high-profile global event. An empowered event marketer could have communicated certain fundamental perspectives and saved face for an emerging economic world power. The key question was “What is the strategy?” Clearly it was to be India’s chance to shine on the world stage. That should have been the guiding light for all involved in planning and organizing the event. Event organization should have been viewed as an exercise in marketing communication, how to project as positive an image as possible to the viewing world. Instead, a disproportionate level of attention was devoted to the admittedly important opening ceremony, yet its impact was diluted due to deficiencies in other aspects of the event marketing mix. Although the games were hugely expensive to produce, the games’ organizers were ill-advised to attempt to claw back revenue from ticket sales in a country that while industrially expansive has a largely poor population. Their inability to attend both created an unfortunate atmosphere and drew attention to the native people’s inability to afford tickets, not the kind of image that commends itself to India’s strategy for hosting the games in the first place. Of course, this should have been anticipated and every effort should have been made to bus in crowds of spectators who would not have to pay for their attendance. Instead, the organizers opted for promotion that had little positive impact. If marketing strategy had been the driving force behind event planning and production, then the emphasis would have been upon the delivery of excellence in all aspects of the proceedings. As it is, the multibillion-dollar investment and the national PR intention became dislocated from what actually happened. India lost face.

(www.cwgdelhi2010.org)

FIVE BASIC STRATEGIC REQUIREMENTS 1. Are your event marketing activities oriented toward the fulfillment of

the stated aims and objectives of your event? 2. Is strategic event marketing the driving force behind event planning

and production? 3. Are your marketing interventions organized to manage direct,

indirect, and abstract competition?

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4. Are your marketing interventions targeted at all of your stakeholders? 5. Is your event marketing empowering event workers to meet stated

event goals?

Strategic Choices The environment in which an event operates is in a state of constant change. Change is the only constant. Strategic decisions are concerned with this process, as without doubt, strategy is concerned with matching the operations of an event to the environment in which it operates. Balancing resources is a major component of strategic thinking when applied to the marketing of planned events—what have you got to play with and how best to use it?

The process whereby event managers decide how to best implement a strategy, via appropriate courses of action, could be described as strategy formulation. This is to say that once the strategy has been agreed upon, there exist a number of possible ways to enact it. What are we going to do, and how are we going to do it? Strategy involves making choices about how best to deploy your resources.

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FIGURE 3.1 In 2008 among technology marketers, events made up the largest share of the marketing budget (22%), followed by advertising (17%), direct marketing (16%), marketing support and sales tools (14%), digital marketing (12%), PR (5%), collateral (5%), market intelligence (4%), analyst relations (2%), and other (3%).

It is essential to recognize the importance of not only the event marketer’s resource decision making, but also of the marketer’s consideration of events as a marketing resource. In Figure 3.1, for instance, we can see that among technology marketers, events are the most used media for marketing and that therefore modern marketers consider events to be a mainstream marketing vehicle for the achievement of strategic objectives. This evolving change in allocation of marketing resources is reflected in the increasing professionalism of event marketing, as they are marketing events that are in themselves marketing something else.

Marketing is an attitude of mind. This signifies that it is a philosophy of business that should exist in the minds of all event team members, whatever their role. This philosophy maintains that the existence, survival, and growth of an event business depend on its ability to give its customers what they want, or at least what they expect. This does not merely apply to the utilitarian nature of the event in question, but moreover to the way it is perceived. How it is thought of is just as important as what it is. You need

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to know what your customers want to do and how they want to feel. Commercial marketing is not, however, about satisfying consumers at

any price; it is about satisfying customers at a profit, or at an agreed level of income to cover costs and break even if an event is not profit oriented. That will be a target, which in some cases will be an aspiration and in some cases will be a necessity. It can be easily imagined that there is likely to be some discrepancy between the consumer’s need for satisfaction and the event manager’s need for profit. The customer’s need for added value is of no interest to marketers over and above the extent to which that need can be utilized or manipulated for the provision of profit or the covering of costs. The strategic role of marketing, then, is to search for and strike the elusive balance between these two demands.

By drawing together these threads, strategic event marketing is about understanding that there are a number of ways by which consumer demand can be satisfied, and that therefore, an event marketer must first analyze which route toward that satisfaction is most efficient, from the organization’s and the consumer’s point of view. We will continue with a strategic framework—easily applied to any event scenario—that will reduce risk and maximize event benefit.

Event Strategy Formulation Here you will find a process designed to make informed choices about strategy formulation so that the decisions you make about your event have the best chance of delivering success on whatever level is measured by any event type. By following the steps outlined, you will be able to formulate a marketing strategy that is risk averse. That is not to say that your event cannot be extravagant, creative, and daring, as these may very well be the qualities that represent the least risk. Risk aversion does not mean playing it safe, particularly when doing so would represent a significant risk. It is a subtle thing to assess the best way forward.

Every enterprise faces challenges, and every enterprise has finite resources to deal with them. Every event marketer has problems to solve and a budget to direct. The formulation of strategy is about how to muster resources and manage budgets toward these challenges and problems. Before we continue, however, it is vital that we understand what is meant by challenges and problems in this context. Strategic event marketing ideally begins with distinguishing between aspects of your environment that are not necessarily in your favor and those that you deem to be

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problems. To some people, everything is a problem. What they actually mean is that the life they encounter has not been designed to be in their favor. Who of us can say that the world is conspiring to make things as perfect as possible for us? In other words, an environment where everything is not in our favor is the norm, the world we live in. To expect otherwise is unreasonable. We cannot live our lives believing everything to be a problem, but we are wise to be alert to potential harm. This is the perspective of the event marketer. The world is not conspiring to make your event as perfect as possible. That is not a problem. Some aspects of the event’s environment will, however, represent potential harm.

Strategy formulation will develop via the following criteria. Use the following sections as a guide to steering your event, a risk reduction process that increases the chances that your event will be on the right track.

Analyze Event Issues and Problems Begin by distinguishing between problems in terms of their likely effect. What is at stake? Is attendance under threat due to a rival event? Is sponsorship under threat because attendance is under threat? Is advertising and promotion under threat because sponsorship is under threat? What is most urgent to you; what are the event’s vulnerabilities? Which of these ill effects is most crucial to your business? The event marketer should prioritize event issues in terms of urgency and ask himself or herself which challenges are such that marketing expenditure should be allocated in these areas. The most urgent problems will most influence your strategy decisions. Problems are usually interrelated and deserve thorough analysis.

An effective way to do this is to create a problem map. Event problems can seem scattered and unrelated, as illustrated in Figure 3.2. Analysis of event issues in a problem map considers the interrelatedness of problems facing the event, as illustrated in Figure 3.3. Have you ever seen a trick shot on a pool table where the player is able to sink a number of balls by hitting just one? That’s like studying the interrelatedness of event problems. You are looking for the key challenges that are both urgent in themselves and which themselves are the cause of other problems. This process of problem definition is absolutely crucial to maximizing the positive outcomes of your event, as it sets marketing expenditure and activity toward the points of greatest need.

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FIGURE 3.2 At first appraisal, the problems that face your event may seem scattered and unrelated, without any organizing pattern. Prior to analysis, it is not clear how to approach them with any strategic clarity. Their relationships need to be mapped.

The order implied in Figure 3.3 is indicative of analysis of the interconnectedness of event problems. Without analysis of this kind, the event marketer will merely be confronted with an array of seemingly unconnected problems toward which resources may be directed in an unordered manner. How much more efficient to identify the core problems and target resources effectively.

This is a filtering process, working through everything that can influence your event to those that have the potential to negatively affect your event, with eventual emphasis upon those that will harm your event unless their effects are alleviated. By a process of analysis and elimination, you will come to decide where to apply your marketing resources. Further to the advantages of intelligent deployment, it is essential that the event marketer understands that it is always a mistake to spread marketing resources too thinly, as impact will be diluted or lost across the board.

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FIGURE 3.3 There are two benefits to mapping out problems that face your event. First, you will be able to see how your problems are interrelated. Second, you will be able to identify key problems from which others originate.

It may be tempting to attend to every issue individually, and it may make you feel diligent. It may, however, prove to be ineffective as your budget will be overly fragmented. The better course is to decide upon key areas for expenditure and retain sufficient resources to be effective therein. It is only by accurately determining the nature of key challenges facing your event that you can enable the most advantageous deployment of your resources.

Generate Alternative Solutions to Event Problem Areas Inherent to strategic event marketing is the weighing of alternatives. Now that you have identified the challenges that by necessity and design must guide your budget allocation, it is important to appreciate that in addition to being interrelated, the problems facing positive event outcomes can be solved in a number of ways. This is your opportunity to be creative, prior to implementation. Generate a number of possible courses of action.

If, for example, a festival is experiencing poor advance ticket sales, there are a number of broad responses to consider, in relation to competitive pressures and customer motivation.

Is the problem connected to relative costs involved in attending the event? Have pricing structures been calculated correctly against consumer expectation and competitive comparisons? Are potential attendees being given every opportunity to purchase tickets by transactional availability and diversity of payment method?

Is the problem inherent to the content of the event, are the intended festivities sufficiently attractive to potential attendees, or are some being

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dissuaded from attending through lack of engagement with what is on offer? Are facilities up to benchmarked standards? If the event involves entertainment attractions, or luminaries in whatever field, do they have the pulling power to deliver event success?

Is the problem connected to ease of access to the festival? Depending on your catchment area, have you placed the event in a geographically and socially appropriate venue? Are travel plans convenient for potential attendees? Are ticket sale profiles noticeably poor in certain locations or among certain demographics?

Is the problem connected to your promotional activity, and have sufficient numbers of potential attendees been made aware of the event? Have the appropriate demographics to your event been reached? Are the sponsors or causes attached to your event deflating interest, and are the media used by and creative content of your promotions reaching the right people with the right message? Is your online marketing operation properly engineered to make the most of social networking and viral communication?

The rub is that the event marketer will have to choose what to do by evaluating the options open to him or her. If event marketers make the wrong choices, then the event will not benefit so much from the expenditure allocated to a particular activity. If they make the right choices, their marketing expenditure will provide a boost to advance ticket sales, and marketing impact will have been maximized. Event marketing is about making informed decisions and understanding that it is only by generating a number of possible marketing approaches that the best combination can be found.

Evaluate Alternative Solutions to Event Problem Areas How should the event marketer choose between alternative courses of action? Some may not operate this way, unfortunately, and will choose from a rash or uninformed perspective or will allow tradition to guide their actions. To be considered, thoughtful, and informed is surely a better platform from which to launch marketing initiatives.

It makes sense to select on the basis of limited negative. What is meant by this? Well, each alternative marketing intervention has been chosen because it is potentially a genuine solution to whatever challenges are faced. Were this not so, they would not have been considered as potential solutions in the first place.

The strategic event marketing process requires that you analyze the good

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points and bad points of each alternative in terms of its predicted outcomes. If it doesn’t have good points, strike it from your repertoire and consider it no more.

When your analysis produces a set of alternatives that each appears to be able to positively intervene upon the marketing problem, the event marketing specialist will realize that it is essential in evaluating alternative strategies to predict the outcome if they were put into action. It is better to anticipate the negative outcomes of action prior to enactment rather than be surprised and disadvantaged by their live appearance. By identifying the course of action that has the fewest negatives associated with it, you are able to reliably accentuate the positive aspects of marketing interventions.

Remember that you might think of strategy as thinking things through. Well, thinking things through is pretty much about trying to work out what will happen if you act in a certain way or perform a particular strategy. Evaluating potential marketing interventions is the formalization of what you naturally do all the time. The question is simply, what will happen if I do it this way and what will happen if I do it that way? It’s important to give yourself the choice, as it informs you and others about the decisions you make.

Predict the Outcomes of Alternative Marketing Interventions Outcome prediction represents a further layer of risk evaluation. The primary consideration is the extent to which marketing interventions deal with the problem for which they have been formulated. Verify predicted positive outcomes of event marketing by hypothetical enactment, and keep questioning whether your expectation of positive outcomes is realistic. Furthermore, you need to consider what problems will be created by the adoption of a particular course of action.

What are the negative outcomes of your possible courses of action? The answer to that question is that they are inevitable. Strategic event marketing solves problems, but in solving them you will doubtlessly create others. Consider what you need to do about them. Predict how the competition will likely react to your marketing intervention. What are the best/worst possible scenarios connected with a course of action?

It sounds like complicated analysis, but it is easily achievable if you deflate it to everyday language. You are scoring possible marketing interventions on their positive and negative outcomes and looking for

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those that achieve the highest score, taking all benefits and deficiencies into account. The best- and worst-case scenario approach represents an intensification of this way of assessing potential performance.

Positive outcomes have been anticipated from the outset, yet negative outcomes need to be teased out by taking a hard look at what can be expected to happen. To that extent, the most attractive marketing activities are not merely those that are deemed to be useful in alleviating a marketing problem, but which, through analysis, create fewer problems in turn. That is what is meant by selection by limited negative. It is a risk reduction strategy.

Once again, however, it is important to stress that this approach has nothing whatsoever to do with stripping creativity and excitement from your event. It does not mean that the most interesting or novel ideas will be somehow filtered out by a risk reduction system. Far from it. It is only designed to strip out risk. In current competitive times for events, it’s going to be the newness and freshness, the innovation and excitement that will as always make events special.

That is, of course, not to say that event marketing is about pushing your luck to make an impact, as in this litigious age this would be foolhardy in the extreme, but rather that if you’re planning something outrageous, consider outrageous alternatives to determine which is most likely to deliver the most successful event. Put this way, the considered and strategic approach will ensure the impact sought.

Every spring in Gloucester, England, thousands of people gather to watch dozens of men and women chase a seven- to eight-pound Double Gloucester cheese 200 yards down an almost-vertical slope. Records indicate that the event has been held annually for the last two centuries, whereas many others believe the race’s roots go even deeper. The goal of the contest is to see who can get to the cheese first, risking their limbs doing so. You’d think that considering the risks involved—broken bones and head trauma—the first-place prize would be great, but all the winner gets is, oddly enough, the very cheese he or she was chasing. This is plainly an event that thrives on the risk of participants coming to harm, and event planners plainly see the risk as being in diluting the event into something anodyne, as they have at times been under pressure to do. The risk event marketers are out to minimize is the risk of an event failing, or falling short of achieving its potential. As the cheese run event illustrates, sometimes that involves embracing risk of another variety.

(www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/the_event.htm)

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Organizing Information The traditional marketing tool for organizing information used in generating strategy is a SWOT analysis, as seen in Figure 3.4, standing for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is a simple mechanism. As you analyze your event’s capabilities, competitor and consumer behaviors, and the wider marketing environment, it is useful to categorize the information gathered.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES: This is a fundamental consideration that we are all intimately familiar with on a personal basis. What are my strengths and how can I take advantage of them, and what are my weaknesses and what should I do about them? This is the play of our lives, our day-to-day concern. But we can fall into self-deception and develop a skewed perception of our strengths and weaknesses. They must be appraised by a cold and careful eye. An event marketer must pull no punches in his or her appraisal of what are considered the strengths of the event. Are these what are traditionally thought of as being strengths? Have they been subject to scrutiny? What of event weaknesses? Are they a result of misconceived strengths? As ever, categorization is open to question and interpretation. It is important to challenge your assumptions, and diligence in this matter cannot be overstressed. You will be able to examine the components of your event and determine whether they represent strength to be built on and exploited or weakness to be bolstered and ultimately transformed into strength.

It is also important to be subtle about this and to realize that strengths and weaknesses are not mutually exclusive.

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FIGURE 3.4 SWOT analysis.

The premier popular music festival in the United Kingdom, Glastonbury, is situated in an extensive field in a region of England long associated with rites, rituals, and festivals. That could be considered a strength. The field, being in the English countryside, is prone to rain. That could be considered a weakness. Add rain to a field filled with thousands of festivalgoers and you have a quagmire. This certainly seems to be a weakness. Yet the media seem to revel in images of young people trudging about in the mud and have elevated this aspect of Glastonbury into a tradition, even to the extent of expressing disappointment when it stays dry. Traditions are strong. Being caked in the mud of Glastonbury has become a badge of honor, a rite of passage. Is the location of this event a strength or a weakness? Well, it is both, only the event has used public relations to accent the positive and eliminate the negative, and that’s what gets results.

(www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk)

Be clear, therefore, about the inherent strengths and weaknesses of your event, and examine the interplay between them. Above all, think creatively about whether a weakness can be transformed into a strength through positive action, and be wary of what you traditionally consider to be a strength in terms of its vulnerability.

OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS: As we have discussed, the world does not conspire to the benefit of your event, and we have looked at the

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process of identifying issues that are crucial to driving event marketing strategy. This process is best preempted by organizing information about all things that can influence the running of your event as, in the first instance, either an opportunity to be exploited or a threat to be countered.

We need to consider balance here. The event itself, its mere existence, represents a response to an opportunity, and of course it is attractive to the event manager to see capitalizing upon opportunities as being positive and proactive, as indeed it is. Whenever you see an opportunity to generate interest and attention to your event, take it. Moreover, you should be looking for opportunities wherever you can find them. Again, this kind of positive orientation seems intuitive and allied to positive action, so while not wishing to dampen any enthusiasm, it is worth noting that grabbing every opportunity can be an energy drain and can leave an event feeling full, but being vulnerable.

Strategic event marketing has it that opportunities should be targeted at threats. It may well be an opportunity if you have access to an inspirational speaker to keynote an association event, but how does that investment relate to threats to the event? Do you have access to information indicating the inclusion of this speaker will increase attendance? Why would potential attendees stay away? Is it because of who is doing the keynote speech? Is that where the threat is coming from? Or is it coming from somewhere else? You need to know, as in this example, that spending more on a high-profile speaker can’t do any harm, but perhaps resources could be deployed elsewhere. But where? The only sensible answer to that question is know your threats, and look for opportunities that will lessen or alleviate them.

The SWOT approach works, if thought through. Here we are back again at thinking things through. Given the sheer scale of information available to us through online resources, there is an ever more urgent need to organize that information for analysis. This simple method is intuitive and familiar. What works and what doesn’t? What am I good at, and what needs improvement? What should I do and what should I avoid doing? What’s good for me and what isn’t? These basic questions that we ask every day are the basis of the SWOT analysis.

Liz Bigham on the experience economy: The “experience economy” is just a way of saying, people will pay for experiences that they enjoy, and marketers can use this to their

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advantage. The part that confused many marketers about that model, which Pine and Gilmore originally wrote about some time ago now, was the notion that to truly take advantage of the experience economy you have to be Disney. That’s not feasible, of course. We talk instead about experience brands as the brands that will lead in the 21st century. Experience brands are those that put as much emphasis on the experience around their products and services as they do on their products and services themselves.

FIVE STEPS TO IMPLEMENTING EVENT MARKETING STRATEGY 1. Have you prioritized the issues affecting the success of your event in

terms of their urgency? 2. Have you considered alternative marketing interventions? 3. Have you evaluated the positive and negative aspects of alternative

marketing interventions? 4. Have you matched your chosen strategies to the issues affecting the

success of your event? 5. Have you predicted the outcomes of your marketing interventions?

The Why, Who, When, Where, and What of Event Marketing Hoyle stated that there are five Ws that will help determine whether an event is feasible, viable, and sustainable. They are the questions the event marketer should ask himself or herself: why, who, when, where, and what. These are universal methods of assessing any kind of thing and are therefore very useful. They have not been contrived, but are fundamental questions based upon reasonable enquiry.

WHY stands for why should anyone want to come to our event? This is a very important question. When you look at promotional materials for events, the most glaring omission is often this essential element for encouraging attendance. You will probably see the name of the event, the organization’s logo, the dates, and the location. That should be standard procedure. A message simply stating that “You’re Invited” or “Hope to See You” is passive and noncompelling to those who are inundated with

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print and electronic promotions. The event marketer must convince them that there are benefits that set the event outside the routine and drive those benefits into their most vital personal and professional interests. The opening message of virtually all promotional materials should feature an answer to the why question. Why should someone take the time and spend the money to come to your event? To answer that question, the marketing and management team for the event must determine the overriding reasons for the event itself. When defined, those reasons must be addressed in convincing terms.

Summerfest is a yearly music festival held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The festival lasts for 11 days and is made up of 11 stages with performances from more than 700 bands. Summerfest attracts between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people each year, promoting itself as “The World’s Largest Music Festival,” a title certified by Guinness World Records. Being the biggest in the world is a convincing reason for attendance. It may not mean anything in effect to the event experience, but it provides a resounding why in the minds of attendees and performers.

(www.summerfest.com)

Why should anyone want to attend your event rather than attending another, or doing something else entirely? Invariably, people want to attend events if they feel that they will benefit significantly from expending the energy and capital resources to do so. Do you have the answer to the why question? Remember you are marketing an event that is happening to benefit the financial or social requirements of the event organizers. If the why of the event is so that an organization can use it to their advantage by making some money, or bolstering the image of their brand, it is not being placed in the minds of potential attendees where it belongs, as it is they who are the ultimate objective of all marketing efforts.

WHO stands for who can we attract to our event? To whom are we marketing the event? For example, a national convention may be aimed at the entire membership, past and potential exhibitors, past and potential sponsors, and related organizations. A training program may be aimed primarily at those individuals whose disciplines and interests fall within the narrowly defined scope of the educational program being offered. The target marketing would avoid those whose educational needs are not

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consistent with the purpose of the program. A product introduction may be aimed at sales executives of a corporation, and at franchisees, as well as trade publications, electronic media representatives, and the consumer press. A vigilant analysis of the audience to be attracted is essential to target marketing.

Target markets are abstractions, often disparate people who share a common denominator. They do not exist as a cohesive group and may not even be aware that they fall into a target category. The who of event marketing does not so much concern the characteristics of members of society as much as the insight of the event marketer. Target markets really only exist in the marketer’s mind, and therefore it is there that the ability to define target markets is to be found. While you may observe common factors that exist between people who are associated with your kind of event, you should be inquisitive and wonder about the formulation of target groups that are not yet identified.

Who is interested in your event? There are target markets you know about, target markets you know you don’t know about, and target markets you don’t know you don’t know about. Keep looking.

WHEN stands for when should we hold the event? Timing is important. The enlightened management team should make the marketing function an integral part of the planning process in order to maximize the value of timing of an event. Strategies in planning the timing of an event are integral to the challenges faced in the marketing process. And timing should also be carefully weighed in light of the schedules, patterns, and needs of the market being served. Scheduling conflicts with attendees present natural impediments to attendance. What are the elements that must be considered by the marketer? These are practical considerations that aid the day-to-day operation of event marketing activities and which can have serious implications if unregarded.

The pope’s visit to the United Kingdom in 2010 coincided with the holiest festival in the Jewish calendar. Benedict XVI’s historic address at Westminster Hall on September 17 was scheduled on the same date as Yom Kippur, a solemn occasion marked by 25 hours of fasting and prayer. There were some controversy and calls for the speech to be brought forward to avoid excluding Jewish luminaries, such as the chief rabbi, from the audience. It may be difficult to organize timings in such a manner as to please everybody, but certainly if important persons who are able to gain media focus find themselves disadvantaged,

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communication about the event is negatively influenced. (www.vatican.va)

Time of Day. A reception, for example, used to be planned for the end of the workday, allowing time for guests to finish work and gather prior to a dinner or departure for home. Increasingly, however, receptions are planned for midafternoon until early evening, giving guests the option of (and excuse for) leaving the workplace a bit early, spending an hour or two at the event, and then leaving early enough for their evening plans.

Days of the Week. You should consider the days selected for the event carefully, factoring in the demographics of your market. A business event attracting CEOs and others in positions of authority might be much more attractive to the audience on a weekday than on a weekend because they likely have the flexibility of attending on a workday and may be less willing to give up precious personal weekend time for a nonmandatory, business-related activity. On the other hand, if you are marketing a street fair or carnival aimed at families, weekends are normally favored. Depending on the time of year, during weekdays the children may be in school (or summer school, which is becoming increasingly prevalent) and the parents will likely be at work. Therefore, weekends are more likely the most marketable option for family activities. Again, carefully consider the demographics and schedules of your audience in all your deliberations.

Time of Year (Seasonality). When dealing with specific industries or professional constituencies, the time of year during which the target market is most available may be subtle, but critical. For example, in the hospitality and travel industry, most conventions are planned for mid to late winter. Why? Because the potential attendees’ most crucial times on the job are when they are serving other groups in their facilities and on their transportation systems. Spring, summer, and particularly fall are the busiest times for transportation companies, hotels, and resorts, which are taking care of good-weather conventions, vacationers, and business meetings. Because their commerce and other business commitments are usually lighter in winter months, the potential attendees are more likely to be able to afford the time to attend your event. A careful analysis of the patterns of industry is essential to scheduling, which will have an enormous impact on marketing.

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Local, Ethnic, and Religious Holidays. When marketing an event in a location with which you are not totally familiar, consider the potential conflicts (or opportunities) presented by local holidays. National holidays, such as the Fourth of July, Christmas, and Veterans Day, present many opportunities for event marketers to promote the celebration of that holiday during the event.

Whenever marketing an event outside of your normal venue, contact the convention bureau or chamber of commerce to determine local holidays or special events, such as parades or sporting events, and their effect on the daily pace and commerce of the city. You may find that the celebration can become an unexpected asset for your event—or, in some cases, a liability.

WHERE stands for where should we hold the event? Location can be a key asset in promoting an event. A banquet event in a downtown arena may be emphasized because of the availability of public transportation or valet parking. Promotion for a golf outing at a prestigious country club may well emphasize the “opportunity of a lifetime” of playing the course, with the fundraising purpose of the event an added advantage to participating.

A company meeting held on Navy Pier in Chicago rather than a hotel or convention center was positioned by an event planner as a unique opportunity to enjoy an event “on Lake Michigan,” 3,000 feet offshore with a spectacular view of the Chicago skyline. In other words, the location of the event can be a critical element in driving sales. Among the assets you should look for as benefits to promote are, in urban areas, the availability of public transportation, valet parking, convenience, and efficiency of travel; in rural areas, a chance to enjoy panoramic views and pastoral scenery; in shopping malls, an opportunity for centralized activities, ease of parking, and ancillary shopping and entertainment features to enjoy; at resorts, the ambiance of pools, golf, upscale shopping, beaches, and gourmet dining; and at airport hotels, the inherent efficiency of getting the work done with minimum travel and commuting time because of the fly-in, fly-out design of the location.

It is incumbent upon the marketing executive to look for the unique features of the location, capture these assets, and capitalize on them in attracting those guests who might not otherwise be compelled to attend for the program itself.

WHAT stands for what are we selling? Every event is unique unto itself, or at least the marketing executives should present it as such. It may offer

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an opportunity to discover a new concept, a look into the future of the industry or trade, or a chance to view an innovative line of products and ideas. Regardless of the content you have identified, every event should be presented as refreshing and exciting.

For marketers, the purposes of the event should be interpreted to illustrate the benefits awaiting the attendee. Education and training attendees will learn how to face tomorrow’s issues. Networking attendees will meet new friends and establish profitable business alliances. Entertainment attendees will be mesmerized by the magic of the closing banquet. In planning your promotion of any event, consider the purpose of the event. Your first question should be “Why are we holding this event?” This is not only a deceptively simple but also critically essential question. Regardless of the message or messages, the marketing mix must relate the benefits that will meet the expectations of the audience being pursued.

The Six Ps of Event Marketing We will integrate the five Ws as outlined by Hoyle with the tried and tested Ps of orthodox marketing thinking. As illustrated in Figure 3.5, we will use six of them for our purposes. In this case, we will be looking at product, price, place, promotion, process, and people.

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FIGURE 3.5 The six Ps framework of event marketing.

The use of mnemonics to aid recall of information seems ubiquitous due to their ability to become lodged firmly in the mind. The six Ps of event marketing take it for granted that an enterprise will be customer focused and research driven, and build on that premise with a tool kit that basically indicates the limited number of broad areas that a marketer will essentially manipulate to create the most positive impression and achieve the most advantageous outcomes.

Just as mnemonics are useful in organizing thinking, they must be thought of as a blend of related ideas rather than ultra-distinct categories that activities will exclusively fall into. There is fluidity to marketing thinking. Take the price of a very expensive and hard-to-come-by opera ticket. It is indeed a price, so it falls right into that category. The high price is also inherently part of the event. Paying through the nose can certainly be a transformational experience. It also is a form of promotion as it describes the event more profoundly than any number of words. There is a place aspect to the price, as the high price buys a prime position. You see how it goes, so as we work through the six Ps of event marketing, remember that they are not mutually exclusive.

PRODUCT refers to what it is that you are offering. Central to this is the idea of the extended product, which is to say a conglomeration of the

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tangible and intangible aspects of your event. What is your event actually? Look beyond the obvious and think of the product in terms of what it means to people.

Standard marketing philosophy has a brand as being a collection of ideas in the mind of the consumer. How true, then, when we consider the nature of an experience. The event product can be viewed as what is on offer, of course, but to the consumer the event product is equivalent to an internal experience of thoughts and feelings. The event meaning is the extension of the offering, and it is that which consumers buy into.

The Glyndebourne Opera Festival in southern England was established in 1934 and offers a unique experience: picnic in black tie. This is an opportunity to indulge aristocratic fantasy, an idea primarily that transcends the event. The quality of the opera singers whom Glyndebourne attracts at traditional low fees is due to its unrivaled reputation. The unique old country house setting and beautiful gardens do the rest. If someone dreams of the elegance and refinement, not to mention the untold riches of aristocratic life, this is their opportunity to indulge these dreams. Evening gown and black tie are de rigueur, and if attendees are arriving from abroad and do not want to rent a car, there is a special train from London Victoria Station, which is packed with smart people and their picnic baskets. Is the product opera or social elitism? The latter forms the basis of marketing the event: that is essentially what is on offer, opera being but a means to an end. This is a common enough way of viewing events, as they offer the opportunity for congress, and moreover for a sense of otherness from the daily routine of our lives.

(www.glyndebourne.com)

It is established within the orthodoxy of event management that we are all in the business of experience and transformation. What kind of experience will you be offering and who will be transforming from what into what? Your event is many things all at the same time, and all these can be adjusted by the event marketer to achieve sympathy with the needs and wants of participants. Music festival attendees may want to see particular acts, but they also want to be able to use the toilet and to get a kind of a vibe, as they may say. Atmosphere is just as much part of the event product as infrastructure. Online tickets for home printing are part of the product. The website for an event is part of the product. An event marketer really needs to understand what the event comprises, what it’s

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made of—all the pieces of the jigsaw. As an event marketer, a useful way to look at it is that each component of

the event represents a form of experience, and you are responsible for controlling that experience as being as positively transformational as possible.

PRICE refers to how much you are charging your attendees and how much it is costing them to be so charged. A simplistic but necessary aspect of setting price levels is concerned with covering costs. The costs of holding an event are a reflection of overall management efficiency. All managerial and operational activities are therefore of direct importance to the event marketer when devising a pricing structure, as covering costs can constitute a barrier to competitiveness. There is therefore a potential discrepancy between the price structure an event marketer would like to see used and that which is possible given the constraints of covering costs.

That being so, the event marketer has a responsibility to analyze the costs associated with running an event in order to be able to influence its management. There is an inward gaze inherent to strategic event management, since if too little is applied to the costs of running an event it may be underfunded and lack the necessary ingredients. If an event is overfunded, it may have what it takes to deliver but will price itself above market expectations, however price inelastic festival attendance may seem to be at present.

Consider the implications of this blog. “Does anyone else think the prices for festivals are starting to verge on the ridiculous? Only ten years ago the prices were half what they are now—I do not think inflation has risen at quite this rate. Has anyone else noticed those little extras that they are charging for like car parking, early entry etc which by the time you get the actual ticket price you are looking at nearly £200, and that’s not even factoring in petrol or travel costs.”

It can be dangerous to alienate customers through price inflation perceived as greed. The current vogue for festival attendance cannot be taken complacently. Consumers live in a world of unprecedented choice, both in terms of alternative events and nonevent expenditure. What if the idea that festivals were just not worth the outlay spread like a virus throughout Internet communities? It is certainly the case at the moment that festivalgoers are prepared to pay high prices to attend their festival of choice, and indeed the high price is to some extent part of the experience, but a concerted attack on this matter by influential bloggers could lead to a detrimental change in attitude.

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(www.efestivals.co.uk/forums)

The profit requirements of the proprietors of the event are a further influence upon price levels. The extent to which this factor influences price setting varies from event to event. An event owner may have borrowed excessively from our friends the banks to fund the enterprise and been forced into an uncompetitive price just to break even, given costs and interest payments. An event may be family owned with lower profit requirements and therefore have flexibility as to level of profit required, and subsequently of prices charged. An event may be partly or wholly funded by investors, whose return-on-investment requirements limit creative pricing strategies. An event may be run by a public limited company and have a fundamental requirement of continued profit growth that may put upward pressure on pricing levels.

There will be market forces at play that constrain the event marketer’s ability to set price levels. Markets themselves have great influence upon the setting of prices within them, as there are established price ranges for different event types that will have become expected by customers. To what extent are your event’s pricing options limited by the market?

How are you planning to position your event within the wider market in which it operates, and are you going to use price as a means of influencing demand, by price positioning? The event marketer will reflect upon where his or her event positions itself within a category, and the influence this has upon the price that can be charged. If price positioning is inconsistent with overall product positioning, then consumers may well react negatively to this inconsistency.

Variable pricing has become established in many markets, such as air travel and hotel bookings. This appears to have become intensified by the dominance of the Internet as both an informational and transactional forum for tourism. As you will have noticed, there is marked variation in how much one has to pay for a hotel room, depending upon what website is used to generate room rates. Different prices attract different consumers, so an event marketer can consider adopting a variable pricing structure in the marketing of his or her event, using online targeting mechanisms in combination with price differentials.

PLACE factors are intrinsically bound to the idea of “product” for most events. The venue of the event is equivalent to the idea of packaging for supermarket brands. Hoyle’s “where” factors represent a useful and practical detail concerning the influence of venue upon event performance.

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There are a few factors that we should consider further. We should look for the reasons that might drive an event into a venue that does not reflect well upon it, as when this has happened, I’m sure it has not been done in a willfully perverse manner in order to serve a negative outcome.

There will have been pressures at play that have forced the event into the wrong place. There is always the problem of cost. It might be ideal to hold an event in just the right place, the venue the event marketer is well aware of but simply cannot afford. Sometimes the plain facts of cost will push an event marketer into a position of compromise. Similarly, there is the issue of availability. A venue that is geared up to holding events, and has proven itself to be slick and professional in its management and operations, may well become booked due to its reputation. If time is a constraint, you may be looking for a venue that is available, never mind one that is perfect. The real world does tend to get in the way of perfection.

Suffice it to say that there are many qualities that an event location can add in a positive way. Some years ago while attending an academic conference in Austria, the event location was quite outstanding: a hotel literally perched on top of a mountain. The bus ride up was breathtaking and when we reached our destination, we were literally on top of the world. The effect upon attendees was palpable. On another similar occasion in a rather gloomy, gray modern hotel lodged within a likewise uninspiring shopping precinct in the Netherlands, exacerbated by low- hanging drizzle clouds, again the influence of the environment was noticeable upon the level of engagement from attendees. The location of an event holds some sway over mindset, and if your event is aiming to generate particular emotions or desired behaviors, it can be an influential factor not to be overlooked.

Event organizers generally want to provide the most advantageous surroundings. How could it be otherwise? Even if what is happening in the location is excellent, perceptions will be altered through locational influence.

As is the norm nowadays, there is a website for every eventuality. When considering a venue, you will have the opportunity to have someone do it for you, with offers such as this. “Finding a suitable venue for your meeting, conference, or event is a time consuming task, particularly when you are unfamiliar with the location. At the Best Event Venues organisation we are here to help make this process as easy as possible for you. With years of experience, we provide you with a simple means of finding venues, hotels, and local professional suppliers. From this

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page you can search for the best venue, or you can call us and speak with one of our team who will discuss with you your options and help.” It may be just a promotional facility for venues that specialize in hosting events, but you may find such services to be potentially useful. At the same time, be careful that you do not encounter a site that is just pushing hotels but is packaging itself to appear as an event specialist.

(www.besteventvenues.com)

PROMOTION refers to those activities that will bring an event forward to the attention of potential customers, as illustrated in Figure 3.6, and which in doing so will generate attendance. In an ideal world, the event marketer should be influencing all aspects of the event he or she is responsible for and should be playing a strategic role in its management. The event marketer is ideally placed to formulate an event to best suit the requirements of the market. It is often the case, however, that the event marketer concentrates upon promotional activities.

FIGURE 3.6 The event marketing promotional mix.

These days, that naturally involves participation in e-marketing. This subject will be directly addressed in chapter 5, although it will be referred to as a medium herein. You should also appreciate that mentioning word

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of mouth implies electronic word of mouth through online intercommunication as well as people actually speaking to one another in person.

The marketing communication mix stresses that all aspects of an event represent communication about that event. This is an example of what is meant by fluidity in marketing definitions, as everything, down to the grooming habits of an event operative, can be described as a point of communication. It is against this background that the event marketer allocates resources to planned promotions.

Advertising has changed profoundly with the advent of the electronic age. Whereas once the media was an industry selling time and space to advertisers, and while of course it remains so, it has begun to change into something else. Remember that a medium is merely that through which something passes. If that something is information about an event, then the traditional media remains a powerful and potentially status-bestowing means of communication. If an event marketer uses online communication, he or she is using a particular medium to reach potential attendees in order to generate attendance.

Internet marketing offers opportunities to advertise and to perform public relations. PR traditionally involves using the media, as opposed to buying advertising space from the media. It is useful, then, to think of the Internet as a means of delivering advertising and PR messages, as it represents a combination of purchased media services, such as paid advertising on Facebook, and viral marketing opportunities generated by Facebook users.

What benefits will advertising space or time from suitable media bring to your event? It has been quipped that operating a business without advertising is like winking at a girl in a dark room. You know what you are doing but nobody else does. In other words, advertising will illuminate your event and let people know what you are doing.

Advertising is effective in the advocation of ideas and meanings, as well as information and entertainment. Potential consumers of events are interested in what the event will do for them, whether personally or socially, and are looking for an experience. With so many media to choose from, and access to creativity, inventiveness, and persuasion, it has been long established that advertising can be a powerful tool—when it is done well, that is. We have all seen examples of lackluster advertising. It is analogous to believing that you will communicate merely by uttering words, rather than by carefully choosing what to say for maximum effect. It is not the mere act of advertising that gains attention and ultimately

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customers; it is the effect upon the intended audience that matters. How will you be able to tell when advertising is going to work for you? The first step is knowing what you want advertising to achieve for you. That is to say, advertising will have a specific role in marketing any particular event. It is not a broad brush, but a strategically targeted communication.

Steve Winter on the events/PR interface: Events have truly become a major strategic element in the field of public relations. When you stage a grand opening, for example, one part of the equation is the grand opening special event while the other part consists of the public relations elements required to promote it. Media events and promotional campaigns often require the implementation of activities and programs that support public relations messaging, and somebody needs to create those events. A news conference—while public relations-oriented in its base form—is also a special event. Somebody needs to secure the facility, arrange for catering, create a program, handle the audio visual, invite the media and stage the overall function. So in essence, the field of public relations has virtually required practitioners to become professional event managers.

Consumers of events are not passive recipients of messages from event marketers who wish to sell their events. In this advertising-literate world, consumers decide which advertisements they will take notice of. Ideas of advertising generating attention, which translates into interest, desire, and action, are now superseded by the idea that consumers do things with advertising rather than advertising doing things to them. At most, advertising your event will inform consumers of something they might want to become involved with, but it is not the advertising itself that will make up their minds. Consumers are far more likely to base expenditure decisions upon things other than advertising messages, particularly peer influence, whether personally or electronically. Remember that advertising provides us with a repertoire of potential demand that other factors (i.e., observation of the world around us) narrow down to specific demand.

Consumers very rarely take direct action upon seeing an advertisement. It is important to advertisers, therefore, that something of their message sticks in their audience’s memory. It is not what an advertiser puts into the ad that matters; it is what the consumer takes out of the ad that is important. Of course, hot events will merely need to advertise when tickets

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are due to become available, as a reminder to dedicated attendees. On the other hand, consumers who have not yet become involved with an event are going to need more than that.

There is customer retention and customer acquisition to be considered when advertising an event. What is the advertising for? Is it one or the other or both? These are factors that influence advertising objectives. The following paragraphs attend to this consideration.

Awareness of event advertising is the extent to which it has grabbed consumers’ attention. In a crowded media, even this can be difficult to achieve. As more events become available, more events are advertised. Event marketers should not be timid in insisting that their advertising contain aspects that they are confident will manage to grab attention. They will know about their customer base and will have investigated the characteristics of potential customers and are in the best position to understand what meanings will gain their attention. It is the job of the creative executioners of the advertisement to translate these meanings into copy and imagery, but input by the event marketer is essential in generating the meanings in the first place.

Advertising aims to provide consumers with information about an event. Potential consumers may be reluctant to acquire this knowledge, as we filter out that which we feel we do not require. Existing customers are more likely to absorb the information contained in event advertising, as they have already been involved. There are two interpretations of advertising information to consider.

Actual information is factual: when and where the event takes place, what it amounts to, what the benefits are in attending, the headline features, and links to the event website for pricing and booking information. Much event advertising seen seems to concentrate upon this particular interpretation of information.

Pseudo-information, on the other hand, is concerned with image. This is every bit as important, as the consumer is interested in the image the event will bestow upon him or her, and subsequently in the image generated by the advertisement. If attendance at a prestigious association conference lends a certain gravitas, the imagery in the advertisement should reflect this by use of graphics, typography, and images. If attendance at a festival is considered rather countercultural, then the advertising should contrive to provide the requisite suitable cues. This is known as pseudo-information because it does not describe the event but rather the experience of the event. The term is therefore understandable but misleading as the

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experience of the event is what is most real to the attendee. That is what they are looking for and it is what they will take home with them. Why, therefore, would event advertising neglect this most important aspect of the message? It reflects the mindset of the consumer and will attract attention and generate awareness.

Carefully thought-through advertising will help consumers develop positive feelings about an event. Will you attend an event that you are either neutral or negative about? A positive emotional reaction to advertising is generally linked to its success in affecting sales.

In the increasingly competitive nature of the events market, often advertising will be strategically used to counter competitive threats. Of course, the overall management of the event is responsible for the attractiveness of the overall package, but advertising is at the front line in generating consumer preference. In these circumstances it is not enough that potential attendees develop positive feelings about an event; they must be partial to it more than they are to your competition. Also, liking counts for very little. It is possible to like the idea of something without wishing to become involved in any way. Preference implies differentiation. Event managers must understand their competitors, be aware of their most attractive features, and know what it is that engenders positive feelings among their customer base. This knowledge will lend power to competitive advertising if it can be incorporated into its information content, both actual and pseudo. What information will be able to nudge an event consumer to develop a preference for your event?

Barbara Pomerance, a senior practitioner with extensive industry experience, outlines her thoughts on events marketing: Special events are strategic in building brand awareness, creating excitement and developing tactical alliances in a marketing program. For example, in an upcoming Green Business Expo Event, we are aligning government, industry, media and corporate representatives to convene for a three day program for brand awareness, credibility and media attention. As in this case, the event is the driving mechanism for the media relations and marketing objectives for the client. Events are a magnet for the brand and the cause. Nonprofits traditionally fund raise all year, but it is the annual fundraising event that brings in the financial base for the organization. An event, properly planned and executed, can integrate all forms of marketing into one

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project/program. Events capture the heart and soul of marketing programs and its multi-layered approach can reach many of the brand’s publics.

(www.pomeranceassociates.com)

There is no longer reliance upon the traditional media to spread good news about your event, as online communities can spread it themselves. Of course, there is online advertising, which is fast on the road to becoming a traditional media industry itself. On the other hand, seeding positive event information into social networking environments is akin to a form of public relations.

Nevertheless, traditional media channels and publications represent a powerful means of getting good news about your event out into the world. Moreover, given the profusion of information flowing around the digital matrix, there is, perhaps ironically, something rather established and static about traditional media channels. It maintains a gravitas and authority that has been almost homeopathically diluted online.

When using journalists and the media, editorial policy needs to be comprehended. Media outlets have their priorities and perspectives, and they are interested in stories that correspond with these. Successful PR requires that event marketers understand the special interests of individual journalists. Within that context, media PR can be based upon knowledge of what particular journalists are into, things they are for and against, things that will give them a story and that will reflect well upon them. In terms of circulation and audience, patently, the greater the viewer/listener/readership, the longer the reach of the story.

Media PR involves analysis of audience/readership profile. In exactly the same way that marketing thinks of target markets, PR thinks of audience profiles. Who are we trying to reach, and to what extent will a media outlet reach them?

Public relations stories are invariably fed into the media via a press release. This is your opportunity to gain some attention. What is the interest level of a press release? This will depend upon spin and writing style and content. Over and above these considerations, remember that events are always interesting one way or another. Compare the public relations opportunities open to a garden festival as opposed to a brand of toothpaste. Events are naturally sympathetic to media public relations, as unlike the majority of brands on the market they are inherently interesting. People use the majority of branded products because they need to, whereas

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they attend events because they want to, and they want to because, well, you know the answer to that.

Whatever the story, whatever the audience, and whatever the media outlet, is the press release interesting? The skill of the event marketer is to make it interesting, to think of ways that it could be spun to be interesting. What is the newsworthiness of a press release? What makes something newsworthy? Is it the tradition of the media? Is it anticipatable? Is it obvious? It is not going to be the only press release to land on the journalist’s desk, so make sure that yours is the one that stands out as being just the kind of story that the journalist wants, spun in such a way as to bring out the most newsworthy elements. In the first edition of this book, Hoyle pointed out that a promotional campaign may include a wide range of marketing tools, or as few as one, depending upon resource capability and the needs of individual event types. Moreover, Hoyle stressed that there were many promotional vehicles from which to choose. Promotional techniques for event marketing may include advertising, public relations, cross-promotions (partnership marketing), street promotions, stunts, and public service “cause-related” events, among others. You may find a promotional campaign for a national association convention or corporate meeting, for example, to include brochures, prepared speeches for chapter presidents and franchise leaders to deliver to home audiences, direct mailings, offers of prizes and vacation trips, and telemarketing efforts.

Some major events have become so integrated into the working lives of those involved that their promotion has become disseminated into the employment remit of participants. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (New York Fashion Week) relies heavily on celebrity involvement and its place in the social calendar for promotion. The event marketing strategy is to make sure that it maintains its social status. The event is therefore something that is advertised as such in terms of attracting custom. Currently major designers are only too happy to participate, and it is this that event organizers work to maintain. The acquisition of celebrities thus becomes one of the major tasks to be undertaken; if big names stay away, the cachet of the event is diminished. It would not look good for New York Fashion Week to attract celebrities of modest proportions. Celebrities are a promoted commodity and are commonly ranked according to their pulling power, from A-list all the way down to virtual obscurity. It goes without saying that New York Fashion Week needs A- listers to add the necessary sheen to proceedings. Moreover A-listers

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will not be happy to share the limelight with D-listers, as they will feel it reflects poorly on them. Pity, then, the event manager who has to organize such egocentric narcissism.

Like many sports events, it is an institution and does not need to rely too heavily on traditional forms of marketing. Being more of an industry event, it does not need to attract many members of the public for ticket sales. However, it does rely on media coverage, celebrity endorsements (e.g., front row), celebrity parties and ancillary events, and TV tie-ins to ensure a wider audience is aware of the importance of the event, even if they are unlikely ever to be involved in it.

(www.mbfashionweek.com)

A promotion for a local fundraiser may be limited to personal phone calls to potential benefactors and community leaders, enlisting their support for the event. We have already discussed the circus parades staged by P. T. Barnum, which certainly increased public awareness that the circus was in town. But the promotional effort was much more than the parade itself; it also included the posters, press releases, advertising, requests for press coverage, press kits, and advance publicists that called attention to the entire enterprise.

There are many tools to be considered for use in a promotional campaign, among them letters, flyers, brochures, mailing inserts, advertising, posters, speeches, postcards, street demonstrations, radio and television commercials in the host venue, public service announcements, e-mail, e-commerce, tent cards at the host facility, bus and subway signage, and press kits. These and other types of promotions should be selected on the basis of how you define your market or event. In addition, the amount budgeted to fund the effort will assist you in making that decision. Because the full range of promotional tools can be enticing to marketing executives, it is essential to determine which of these tools will be most cost-effective and generate the greatest return on investment.

Hoyle reminds us that spreading a promotional budget too thinly will result in diluted impact across the board, and that it is the responsibility of the event marketer to determine the objectives of promotion for his or her event and to invest in only those promotional types that are likely to meet these objectives.

The National Football League Super Bowl is perhaps the largest annual event held in the United States. According to the National Football League, this event markets itself through ancillary events. An event

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being used as a promotional vehicle for another event demonstrates the holistic nature of event marketing. Super Bowl parties are held throughout the United States and beyond. The Super Bowl 2010 London party managed to attract around 1,000 attendees, for example, whereas the Miami Beach events were important for generating a bigger buzz about the Super Bowl. Moreover, the Super Bowl halftime show is a way of using an event to garner promotion for whoever gets to perform on the show. In 2010, the Who used the occasion to promote their greatest hits release. The Super Bowl Fan Jam is sponsored by Pepsi and amounts to a music festival being run to promote the acts, Pepsi, of course, and ultimately the Super Bowl. This multilayered event complexity illustrates the integration of events into the wider world of marketing. It is interesting to note that an event can be thought of as a promotional media in itself. Our definitions can dominate how we think of something. There is no reason, for example, why an event could not be organized to operate purely as a medium. Like any promotional medium, it has to provide entertainment or edification, like TV channels or magazines, but its fundamental objective is to generate income through its ability to reach consumers. The entertainment, in other words, is but a means to an end. Is the Super Bowl phenomenon therefore primarily intended to provide sport or to provide marketing opportunities?

(www.superbowl.com)

PROCESS refers to the mechanics of booking and using an event. As most events will have a website for booking, it goes without saying that the quality of a website suggests the quality of an event. Does it go without saying? For events the website has become what packaging is to supermarket brands. It is, along with price, what consumers use to infer the quality of the product. If the website is shiny and fresh, then that’s the impression a browser will get of the event. If it is dull and monotonous, what are people going to think? Perhaps more than advertising, the event website is your opportunity to express the components and values of the event, and it can be as creative and exciting as you make it.

Not only, however, does it have to be aesthetically pleasing, but it also has to work properly and provide a smooth informational and booking process. Everyone and their dog has a website these days, and it is not difficult to generate something workable if you are marketing a small event on a restricted budget, and if you want to include payment and booking facility you can use PayPal, so there is a lot that can be done on a small scale. For medium- and large-scale events, the website will be the

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first point of contact for customers, and as such investment in processing and payment technology is necessary. Online consumers have had the bar raised pretty high by service providers, and the online community expects a certain level of process competence. To put it bluntly, if your website is not process perfect, those encountering it will not think better of the event, or could even be put off it.

The orchestration of process within the event itself may not come under the remit of the event marketer. Operations management may see it as their domain and might take exception to what they see as interference from marketing. With the greatest tact possible, it is the event marketer’s duty to disabuse them of this opinion. The extent to which an event runs smoothly is very important for repeat attendance, and poor experiences involving uncoordinated and sloppy operations will hinder the ability of marketing communications to convince affected attendees, and their network of online acquaintances, that the event should be on their repertoire. To separate the process of operations from the remit of marketing is unwise. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The most powerful marketing communication comes from those who have experienced events themselves, and it is they who will add or detract validity from marketing messages. Operational process is therefore directly linked to an event marketer’s ability to generate sales.

PEOPLE refers to all those event operatives who come into direct contact with attendees. It is difficult to think of anything that influences our impression of experiences more profoundly than the people we encounter. As marketing is about customer acquisition and retention, given the costs of recruiting new business, it makes sense to retain as many customers as possible. Even for one-off events, positive encounters with event personnel are a necessary prerequisite if standards are important to event organizers. For repeat events that seek to maintain customer loyalty, or for an event business for which repeat business will come as a result of its performance, having the right people in place will create the best impression. This sounds like a personnel concern, but ultimately it is a marketing problem if poor staff generates negative word of mouth, which as we all know spreads like wildfire in the digital age.

The best staff are those who have been trained to understand what’s important about the job they are doing in the eyes of customers. In a well- managed event, that should exactly correspond with what’s important to their managers. The event marketer should take interest in this aspect of personnel management, since if management practices are antagonistic to

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providing attendees with the best possible experience, it weakens the marketing effort. You should not be averse to suggesting event personnel protocols that you see as providing this.

People pay attention to people, are most likely to be helped or hindered by them, and are geared to make judgments about an event by the people they encounter. To that extent, there is something terribly important, but a little delicate, to say about the people factor. The attendees of your event speak volumes about your event and are ultimately the most powerful and profound communication imaginable as to what essentially is on offer, so make sure that your marketing and promotion attract the kind of people you want to be there. This applies in diluted form for mega-events, of course, but for less mass-oriented events with a particular flavor or appeal, the event manager should consider the impact upon his or her event of the attendees themselves, as they will essentially become the event.

CHAPTER SUMMARY Strategic event marketing is about striving to make the right decisions and deploying resources where they are most needed, in the manner most likely to generate the most positive impressions in your attendees. Moreover, it is about doing these things better than the competition. I have stressed that it is about thinking things through, and about the process of weighing alternative courses of action.

Every event is different. What is best for any event differs on a case-by- case basis. That is why the approach outlined here bows to that knowledge and has provided a framework that can apply to any event scenario, so that event-specific information, known only to individual event marketers, can be effectively processed, and good decisions can be made that will benefit the event. Importantly, I have avoided telling you what to think, but rather provided a conceptual structure within which to think, in your own terms, using your own language and geared to maximizing your experience and knowledge.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • How will you develop your event marketing strategy beforehand to

make sure you have clearly defined event objectives? • How will you define your event’s direct, indirect, and abstract

competition? How will you channel your energies to meet them head-

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on? • What methods will you use to communicate effectively with all event

stakeholders? • How will you perform internal marketing communications within your

event team? • How do you constantly analyze change in your market and decide how

you want to respond to it? • How do you analyze event issues and problems and concentrate upon

those that most threaten your vulnerabilities? • How will you create an event problem map? • How will you be prepared to consider alternative event marketing

activities and weigh each by their merits and deficiencies? • How will you predict the outcomes of your event marketing

interventions? • How do you construct a SWOT analysis for your event marketing

campaign? • How will you apply the six Ps of event marketing? • How does the event product match consumer expectations? • Are you using price to your best advantage? • In what respects do place factors advantage your event? • Is the promotion of your event reaching the right people with the right

message? • How smooth is the process of event booking, and how thought-through

are operational processes? • Do you have the right people, and are you making the most of them?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://www.eventmanagerblog.com

Started by Julius Solaris in 2007, Event Manager Blog provides practical, hands-on information and inspiration for events and events marketing. It has an innovative take on the use of social media and is a useful everyday read.

http://www.adverblog.com Adverblog has a very diverse approach to advertising. This includes events advertising. Try this blog for information on the subject and inspiration for challenging event marketing tactics.

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http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog Duct Tape Marketing is a very practical blog by marketer John Jantsch. It has a special focus on marketing on a small budget, which, for many events, is likely to be a problem.

http://www.bonjourevents.com Bonjour Events has a particular take on local and small events, social events, and celebrations. Apart from events tips, it will inspire you to take your social event to the next level.

http://joelewi.wordpress.com Joe Lewi, founder of the Lewi Group, analyzes challenges in events marketing and might help you grow further in your next event.

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Chapter 4

Sponsorship and Cause- Related Event Marketing “I get to choose whom to sponsor, and I like to give to the areas that I know something about.” Gordon Getty, billionaire philanthropist (Born 1934)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Comprehend the strategic nature of commercial sponsorship

within event marketing and its overall income-generation strategy for event properties and their sponsors,

• Carefully and strategically integrate commercial sponsorship within the event marketing mix and understand its important and critical role,

• Establish effective practices for managing sponsorships to

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promote retention, • Overcome the objections of commercial sponsors, • Measure and evaluate commercial sponsorship benefits and

features, and • Link causes to commercial organizations through planned

events for mutual benefit.

Understanding the Perspective of the Event Sponsor In recent years, there has been significant growth in expenditure on sponsorships, a reflection of the ever-present need for differentiation in increasingly competitive markets. Sponsorship involves investment in an event in order to provide the sponsor with the exposure to the benefits of the event. Events all project an image as brands in themselves, and it is this image that sponsors seek to capitalize upon. If an event marketer is to successfully attract sponsors in a competitive market, he or she must be aware of the image factors that his or her event possesses in order to be able to sell that image to potential sponsors. Moreover, the event marketer needs to be aware of the multiple uses to which an event can be put for a sponsoring organization, an aspect of sponsorship that will be discussed in the following section on event practicalities.

FIGURE 4.1 Sponsorship expenditure has enjoyed healthy growth in the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Organizations that aim to improve their market position intend for the

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events they sponsor to enhance their image and reputation. The event marketer must therefore prepare materials and presentations that make clear the meanings and perceptions that are associated with the event, as it is at that level that potential sponsors will consider whether to become financially associated with the event. It is not so much the content of an event that is of interest to potential sponsors but what these contents represent in the minds of consumers. Take a medium-sized sporting event, for instance, such as a state-level soccer competition for teenagers. The event is wholesome and is associated with sports, families, responsibility, and the good life. Think what that represents for parents. It is emotional for them, tied up in their parental concerns, their aspirations, and even their dreams, perhaps tinged with a flavor of their disappointments and regrets. That is what the soccer event represents. These emotional components of the event are what are on offer to sponsors, and if sold on that basis they will find a match with organizations and brands that would like to tap into these associations and emotions.

By understanding the buying patterns that are linked to these associations and emotions, the event marketer is poised to target the most appropriate sponsors and latch on to their mindset in a manner more immediately vivid than that on offer by competitors. Event marketers are therefore responsible for the marketing of events to sponsors in such a way as to correspond with their needs, a concept that permeates all marketing thinking.

Liz Bigham on event marketing advantages: People often say that advertising and PR have the advantage of guaranteed exposure to a large audience, but that’s less and less true. And even if events reach a relatively small audience, they have the advantage of guaranteed engagement. In my book, engagement matters more than exposure. And it costs a lot less! To some extent, as consumers get used to the idea of brands using events as a way to reach and engage them, there’s a danger of diminishing returns. But that danger exists with any medium if you are not working hard enough to be original in your thinking and creative solutions. That is one of the reasons we’ve invested so heavily in building the strongest creative strategy team in the business.

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Stressing Mutual Interest It is possible, even likely, that event planners will represent a different organizational culture than the sponsoring organization and therefore it is all the more necessary to find a common appreciation of what the event represents to each; this is most readily done by focusing on what the event means to the attendees. The experience of the consumer is thus the common denominator that will bring such potentially divergent organizations together at a point of mutual interest. The event marketer needs to have a strong understanding of both brands to be able to identify and emphasize the match. This understanding is, of course, to be gained through obtaining and analyzing market and consumer research intelligence. It is interesting to consider the relationship between the world’s foremost soft drink and the world of sport.

Coca-Cola sponsors major soccer events such as the World Cup and European Championship. The brand continues to invest in sports, notably soccer, at the top end and grassroots level. The United States aside, soccer is a major global phenomenon. The brand considers itself not so much a sponsor but a partner. This is a telling perspective, as partners tend to have mutual interest and some equity in authority.

As global finance has caused marketing budgets to come under pressure, sporting organizations have been concerned over companies rethinking their investments in sport, yet Coca-Cola has remained steadfast, firm on its fundamentals and supporting the core sports like the Olympic Games and soccer. This is an essential part of their brand image, and they are dedicated to continuing with sports sponsorship. Coca-Cola has agreed to extend through 2020 its membership in the International Olympic Committee’s worldwide TOP program, involving major corporations, which is the IOC’s most lucrative sponsorship program.

Coca-Cola also continues its investment at the local level in sport in a bid to reduce the problem of obesity, for which the soft drinks industry receives some criticism. The World Health Organization classifies about 400 million people as obese, with 20 million of them under the age of five. The condition raises the risk of diabetes and heart problems. Coca- Cola uses participation with mega-events and grassroots sport to, as they have suggested, push kids and teenagers to participate more in physical activity. This may very well be so, as there is no reason why the consumption of this beverage need be in accompaniment to a sedentary lifestyle; yet the brand is associated with fast food, and fizzy drinks generally get bad press.

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The association Coca-Cola has achieved with soccer as a brand strategy, and its involvement with events large and small in this respect, achieves a connection with something complex. While soccer is a game that can be played, and indeed is played, by millions of people throughout the world, it is also an industry that makes its money through television broadcast deals, and watching television is a sedentary activity. Through this complexity, however, Coca-Cola has managed to have some of the more active aspects of soccer rub off on it, thus maintaining the high levels of social acceptability that the brand enjoys.

(www.coca-cola.com)

Organizations and brand owners see sponsorship as another branding opportunity, another way of adding value to the brand, and it has become a strategic aspect of maximizing the sponsor’s marketing impact. In many instances, organizations see sponsorship as being central to their endeavors to position themselves or their brands in the minds of consumers and to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.

The business of sponsorship, however, has proven to be a prime example of the law of diminishing returns. There was a time when an organization could make itself appear different by sponsoring, a time when many organizations and brand owners did not invest in sponsorship activity, and in these circumstances there was a genuine opportunity for differentiation via sponsorship.

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FIGURE 4.2 Red Bull shot a video with Internet legend Danny MacAskill, a Scottish BMX rider, doing spectacular stunts in front of scenic Scottish landscapes. A video like this would likely cost tens of thousands of dollars, but in only two months, the video reached 6 million viewers. Red Bull has not branded the video as an advertisement; however, it has placed some minor Red Bull references (e.g., sticker on helmets) in the clip.

As time has passed and as more and more sponsorships have become evident, so the opportunity for differentiation via sponsorship has diminished. It has become a fairly commonplace marketing activity these days, and seemingly everyone is the official sponsor of something. The question becomes, If everyone else is doing it, can we afford not to? Those brands that extensively sponsor clearly consider that if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well. The following example illustrates a portfolio of sponsorships carried by an international luxury car brand.

Mercedes-Benz has stated that it intends to shift its sponsorship

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emphasis toward golf, soccer, and equestrian activity, as well as increasing its lifestyle and fashion involvement. New York Fashion Week was the first organized weeklong fashion event, conceived to draw attention away from French and European designers in the 1940s. Mercedes-Benz has been the primary sponsor since 2009. When one considers the nature of the brand—high-quality German auto engineering allied to status—the sponsorship of New York Fashion Week clearly aims to add further eminence and glamour to the brand. Involvement in soccer corresponds with the profile of its home nation, which has a proud soccer lineage, and equestrian activity is allied to an economically high demographic. Clearly, event sponsorship is integral to the way this major brand communicates its values to potential customers and existing users alike, very much within a wider traditional marketing communications framework. It is interesting to note the popularity of sponsorship programs to well-marketed brands that are able to integrate sponsorship within their marketing mix.

(www.mercedes-benz.co.uk)

FIVE WAYS TO ATTRACT EVENT SPONSORSHIP 1. Learn what prospective sponsors need from their sponsorship

investment. 2. Understand the role of sponsorship within a prospective sponsor’s

marketing mix. 3. Develop a range of sponsorship packages for different sponsor

requirements. 4. Reflect upon what your event means, or could mean, to a range of

consumer types as applied to potential sponsors. 5. Analyze the commercial or reputational needs of potential sponsors

and market your event to them accordingly.

Event Sponsorship Practicalities Event sponsorship provides the opportunity for a brand name or logo to be visible in a location so as to be visible to an anticipated audience. This may be in a location only or may involve media opportunities, such as sports celebrities wearing sponsors’ logos on their kit. Merely displaying a brand logo may not seem terribly sophisticated, but remember the brand name or logo is a symbol that communicates many brand virtues, and its

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mere presence is thought worthwhile by some of the world’s major brands. It would be standard practice to display brand names or logos on event signs, buildings, equipment, programs, uniforms, and/or promotional materials. Target markets for brand owners are to be found at events, or viewing events either on broadcast media or through online sharing, and event sponsorship is a way to reach such an audience. There are, however, a range of practical benefits to event sponsorship that can be stressed by the event marketer as and when appropriate. Gauging the most attractive method of describing your event to potential sponsors is geared to understanding their needs.

An event can be viewed as a method of generating store traffic. An event sponsor is able to use proceedings as an opportunity to offer special deals to both customers and retailers. There is therefore a sales promotion aspect to the sponsoring of events, which would of course operate within the context of a wider marketing program. In the following example, a major sponsored event attracts large numbers of members of the distribution network for jewelry. It is not entirely clear why a nationalized British news service chooses to sponsor this event; perhaps they use it as an entertainment venue.

Event sponsorship provides organizations with a venue to entertain clients, suppliers, and distributors. This aspect of trade marketing can be very attractive to organizations that seek to present themselves with a modicum of cachet. Consider the extent to which sporting events are sponsored so that organizations may use them for entertainment. A day at the races, for example, utilizing a sponsor’s access to the best restaurants, a private viewing suite, and comfortable and elegant surroundings is going to create a good impression. Sponsoring an event, therefore, can provide the sponsor with a facility to be used to further its own ends.

Basel World is sponsored by Swiss International Airlines, BBC World News, and FedEx. Each spring, some 2,000 companies from the watch, jewelry, and precious-stone industries, together with related sectors, showcase their latest developments and innovations in Basel, Switzerland. The world’s most renowned brands display their collections exclusively at Basel World. About 100,000 visitors from the specialist retail and wholesale trade make their way to Basel from all over the world to discover the current trends and view the latest creations from the watch and jewelry sectors.

(www.baselworld.com)

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Sponsors regularly use events as a way to encourage product/service trial, either by offering samples at the event or by passing out coupons. They will see that the event attendees represent a captive audience of target consumers with whom they can interact, conduct ad hoc research, and actively sell. Event sponsorship is an attractive opportunity for a client to sound out the market, investigate the viability of concepts and developments, and blatantly push wares.

Some companies cite public relations value (i.e., the newsworthiness of the event and/or the sponsorship) as a reason why they are sponsoring an event. They expect to see their company, brand, or product mentioned in media coverage of the event. This may be a broad presence that merely enables visibility, or a specific association with an aspect of the event, such as an ecological message that has attracted media interest, the coverage of which will reflect appropriately upon the sponsor.

Events can be of great interest to the media, as they provide one of the few opportunities for the reportage of good news and happy people, the subsequent PR opportunities being of great interest to sponsors. Interesting events are simply going to be intrinsically attractive to media professionals in the interests of getting an easy story and having a good time. The following example allows the sponsor to both communicate directly with its customers and capitalize on the PR opportunities its sponsorship bestows.

It is possible to use an event as a theme for consumer contests or competitions. Such sponsorship is essentially a cover for information gathering, an aspect of a customer acquisition program. Similarly, event sponsorship may enable the sponsor to conduct marketing research upon a specific market segment as represented by attendees. Given the highly targeted nature of many events, this is a useful selling point in gaining event sponsorship.

Mobile network O2 has taken the bold step of buying the naming rights sponsorship of the O2 Arena in London. Since its launch in 2007, the former Millennium Dome has been transformed by O2 into Europe’s finest event and entertainment destination. This is a truly staggering event venue, an interior space twice the size of the Georgia Dome, and to have their name on the door provides O2 with both the venue and the events it carries, a marketing message of gigantic proportion in the United Kingdom for this telecommunications organization.

O2 customers can get priority tickets to the O2 up to 48 hours before they are released for general sale, along with better experience at the

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venue. O2 ensured the creation of exclusive O2 customer spaces, including the blueroom bar and the O2 lounge, where access is granted through new mobile technology bar codes. Once inside, O2 customers can change their experience of these areas by dictating wallpaper designs and jukebox requests through text. O2 also contributed “O2angels,” a team of people trained to greet and direct visitors, providing a warm human face to the brand. Other smaller touches included changing the lighting, carpets, and seats in the arena to the O2 blue.

The benefits of attending O2 events are therefore clear and present, yet the high-profile nature of the venue and the attention it attracts from the media ensure that the sponsorship rubs off on O2 customers throughout the United Kingdom.

(www.o2.co.uk)

Some companies use event-connected athletes or celebrities for corporate appearances. This permits the sponsor to benefit from the image and meanings attached to the big names who are taking part. Some companies plan to use an event to demonstrate or display their products/services. On one hand, this represents the event as a communication medium to promote existing lines, and on the other hand, it can be considered a research opportunity to gain feedback on product developments and service extensions. In a related sense, an event can be utilized for on-site sales or to generate sales leads, an opportunity open to the sponsor, which aids the perception that event sponsorship can be both image and sales management.

Event sponsorship can represent a strategy to benefit employees (i.e., as a morale builder, a production incentive, or an entertainment vehicle). As it goes without saying that people enjoy social congress, what better way to build strong teams or to reward a motivated workforce than to sponsor an event that they will enjoy, and allow them to attend and take part? The extent to which companies want their employees to be exposed to enjoyment and excitement will vary from company to company, as the conservative organization may view this as unwarranted frivolity, so a measure of circumspect targeting is necessary to match what an event has to offer to what different organizations are prepared to offer their workforce. As many organizations are unwilling to let their employees loose without a specific agenda, it can be helpful to generate a training enhancement perspective as a lure to prospective clients who may hold out for an official hook upon which to hang the event.

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Siemens has benefited greatly from its Expo sponsorship over the years. It has sponsored 16 World Expos and has an established connection with and a good image among World Expo followers. On May 1, the Expo 2010 in Shanghai opened its doors to the world. About 70 million visitors were expected in the Chinese metropolis. It was the first green world exhibition in Expo history. As a global Expo partner, Siemens supplied technology used in more than 40 projects on the exhibition grounds. In addition, Siemens supplied infrastructure that made this event memorable for all its visitors, including technology for rapid mass transit, clean air, cleaner water, and ultramodern health care in Shanghai. “Our green technology will continue to upgrade the city’s infrastructure well after the Expo. Thus, it is a triple win for Expo visitors, for the host city of Shanghai and for Siemens,” said Richard Hausmann, CEO of Siemens Northeast Asia and President and CEO of Siemens Ltd., China. Considering the market potential of China to a corporation like Siemens, this deep involvement in Expo 2010 in Shanghai has been a shrewd investment in event marketing.

(https://www.siemens.com/press/en/events/.../2010)

An organization may want to sponsor events as a way to enhance relationships within a community. This allies itself to the reputation management concept of public relations and may often be reactive to negative perceptions of particular communities. For example, a supermarket multiple grocer who moves into a town, causing disruption to established local traders, resulting in closures, may sponsor a local event to pour water on the flames of resentment.

Event sponsorship can be thought of as a way to market to other businesses. An electrical goods manufacturer could sponsor a tech event in an attractive location in order to market to the retail trade. Similarly, sponsors can reach top executives in other companies as a result of event sponsorship for whatever organizational purpose, even to the extent of considering an event as something that could enhance their recruiting efforts.

Many of the objectives listed above fall within the four major marketing/marketing communication vehicles: sales (e.g., client entertainment, sampling and couponing, demonstrations and displays, on- site sales, mailing lists, business-to-business contacts), promotion (e.g., promotional tie-ins, product usage, contests), advertising (e.g.,corporate identification, target marketing, awareness, image, athlete and celebrity tie-ins), and public relations. Sponsorship money to achieve these objectives would most likely come from a company’s marketing or

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marketing communication budget. Other objectives (e.g., employee incentives, community relationships, reaching other executives, enhancing recruiting, increasing consumer involvement) are goodwill measures. Sponsorship money to achieve these objectives might come from a company’s human resources, community relationship, or philanthropic budget. They all, however, fall squarely within the remit of the event marketer, whose role is to maximize the value of the event by looking to emphasize the number of ways in which event sponsorship can prove beneficial to the sponsor. To that end, sophisticated events marketing utilizes the sponsorship package as a means of targeting potential collaborators according to their needs, as illustrated by the following example.

According to the South by Southwest festival (SXSW), Miller is one of six high-profile sponsors of the SXSW festivals. Referred to as a “Super Sponsor,” it demands pride of place in all promotions in the run-up to and during the festival. A SXSW Super Sponsorship delivers the greatest impact and visibility possible—leading up to, throughout, and following the SXSW music, film, and interactive events—providing seamless promotional exposure, aligning your brand with SXSW as a top promotional partner, and delivering lasting impressions. Super Sponsorships allow customized sponsor elements and programs to be integrated into sponsorship activations based on each sponsor’s objectives. Sponsorship packages are customized to meet client-specific marketing objectives.

It can be recognized, therefore, that an event such as this offers a sophisticated marketing opportunity for a brand such as Miller Lite beer. Association with entertainment in itself is healthy for the brand, and event attendees are mixing with like-minded people through which brand attributes are able to permeate. The idea of sponsorship packages illustrates that the event marketers are aware of the need to tailor aspects of their event to the singular needs of event sponsors. This amounts to a form of marketing that designs and describes the event in a manner that corresponds with sponsors’ expectations.

(www.sxsw.com)

Sponsorship in a Communications Context Often sponsorship is present to augment advertising and is frequently included in the content of advertising. An advertisement for a brand of watch, for instance, would always include reference to the sponsorship if it

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were the official sponsor of the Olympic Games. To that extent, sponsorship can be viewed as an aspect of integrated marketing communications. When a sponsoring organization fails to integrate a sponsorship within a wider communications mix, the benefits of the sponsorship are weakened. The event marketer should be well grounded in this and should actively promote the use of advertising, public relations, point of sale, and other promotional activities to maximize the benefit of the sponsorship. An event marketer is therefore optimally operating as a sponsorship consultant to prospective sponsors, with a confident grasp of how the investment can be best supported to the benefit of the sponsor organization. Such a professional approach will act as a point of differentiation from other event organizers and will therefore make the sponsorship of the event marketer’s event a more attractive and commercially astute proposition. The sponsorship should thus be sold as an integrated package, and the event marketer should be perceived as an expert in the maximization of event benefit.

FIGURE 4.3 A list of the London 2012 Olympic Games top sponsors. It is interesting to see that these companies have no relation to sports in a real sense. It is notable that brands such as McDonald’s or Coca-Cola, which have reputational issues with regard to their products’ nutritional value, are among the top sponsors.

Sponsorship is held to provide weight or status to an organization’s marketing presence. In these days of pervasive sponsorship, however, it becomes a matter of what is being sponsored rather than whether an organization sponsors. Some sponsorships seem to be a comfortable and reasonable partnership. The example to follow has an airline necessarily bound to the stress of modern air transportation partnering with a hot air balloon festival, and over and above the obvious airborne connection, it adds tranquility and silence to the brand, qualities all too lacking in the hurly-burly of airports and check-in.

You have to ask yourself, then, what does my event have that would attract a sponsor? Remember to thoroughly analyze what your event means

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to those who participate. What you have that is going to be of interest to sponsors is intrinsically linked to what you have that is of interest to consumers and why.

It is a buyer’s market for sponsorships, and if you seek sponsorship for your event you should appreciate that you are one among many available to the potential sponsor. Why should they choose you?

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is sponsored by Continental Airlines. Corporate sponsors have played an intricate role in the development of Balloon Fiesta and have helped it to become the largest ballooning event in the world. In supporting Balloon Fiesta, corporate sponsors strengthen their own corporate image while promoting their brand identity. What could be more elegant than having one’s brand name associated with the sight of many hot air balloons as they soar through the sky? For an airline, the association is obvious for all to see.

(www.balloonfiesta.com)

The basis of branding philosophy has the brand as a thought construct in the mind of the consumer, and sponsorship adds substance to that thought construct. Sponsorship lends everyday ordinariness to a brand that ironically makes it more special than others. There is therefore a kind of status attached to brands that sponsor.

Think of the brands that sponsor major sporting events, such as soccer’s World Cup. To be associated with such a global phenomenon is to elevate a brand above the herd and to infuse the brand with all the meanings that are attached to the sporting event itself. It is the difference between lightweight and heavyweight brands. What meanings will you be able to offer to a sponsor?

Global brands are heavily involved with the sponsorship of major international events, as they are held to particularly stress and fortify the global status of the brand. It is a form of marketing in keeping with the stature of the brand, one that reflects its standing on the international commercial stage. Such sponsorship is, however, vulnerable to ambush marketers who will attempt to have their brands associated with a major event, yet who are not official sponsors.

Synergy Between Sponsor and Event We need to think carefully about the idea of there being sympathy between the sponsoring organization or brand and the event being sponsored, particularly when we consider major international events. It is important to

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stress this point with clarity. Major sponsors of the London 2012 Olympic Games, for example, represent the soft drinks, confectionary, and fast-food industries; airlines and car manufacturers; oil companies and financial institutions. There are, of course, some high-profile sportswear brands in there too, but the idea of sympathy between the event and the sponsor has to be appreciated in the context of the sponsor seeking the media coverage represented by the event, and seeking the consumers of the event. People watching the Olympics on television will include those who consume soft drinks, confectionaries, and fast food. They will fly for business and leisure, will probably have a car, and will likely use plastic to pay for their gasoline. Such major sponsorships are therefore a broad mass marketing opportunity when major brands meet substantial audiences.

It is clear that mega-events are able to attract a major sponsorship auction, with the biggest bidders getting the status. When these occasions are considered, it does pose interesting questions about the idea of sympathy in relation to sponsorship. The common denominator seems to be one of critical mass; the event and the sponsors are all major players.

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FIGURE 4.4 Orange is sponsoring a weekly two-for-one cinema day in several countries across Europe. In addition, they are also committing to several PR stunts. To promote the launch of their Orange Wednesdays iPhone application, Orange had usherettes distributing popcorn samples that contained a leaflet with the app download instructions. These so-called cigarette girls were popular in the cinemas in the 1950s, selling cigarettes as well as candy.

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Paul Bush, chief operating officer for Event Scotland, a national agency that works to promote Scotland as an event destination, comments upon sponsorship expenditure issues: There is a proliferation of international sports events in the market and excessive fees are being sought by some governing bodies.

Sporting events such as the Olympics therefore attract a substantial amount of sponsorship money in return for positive brand associations and a huge world audience. These events hold some considerable power in negotiation and bidding processes. Big brands tend to signify heavy international distribution and promotional presence. Big brands need to be thought of as being more substantial than their competition. Associating oneself with something big like the Olympics makes one seem bigger than those who are not so associated.

The Chinese New Year Parade in Hong Kong is sponsored by Cathay Pacific Airways, culminating in a spectacular Cathay Pacific International Chinese New Year Night Parade with illuminations and fireworks. In 2010, this represented the twelfth consecutive year Cathay Pacific Airways has been the title sponsor of the parade, illustrating a real commitment to the event. When major organizations like this plainly perceive there to be a value to such association, the nature of sponsorship as a brand booster is clear.

(www.cathaypacific.com)

Sponsorship, of course, does not just apply to global events and multinational brands; the concept holds at any level. A local flower show sponsored by a local hotel benefits the hotel in much the same way as a hotel chain benefits from sponsoring a major televised cultural event. The hotel is promoted, associated with a positive happening, and differentiated from hotels not sponsoring the flower show. The difference is merely a matter of scale.

Identifying Potential Sponsors Before you begin to identify potential sponsors that would be a fit for your event and marketing strategy, remember that sponsorship is neither benevolence nor philanthropy. While you can have both sponsorship and philanthropy (donors), to support the revenue side of your budget, each is a

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very distinct organization. While philanthropic gifts are given out of a sense of altruism, sponsors are looking for a return on their investment. That return is not entirely linked to immediate financial return, particularly when big brands and organizations are involved, but also linked to the image factors to be gained by association. When selling sponsorship opportunities, be aware of the idea of return on investment that is in the mind of the potential sponsor, as an inappropriate approach will not correspond with their expectation of involvement with the event. It is important to distinguish the type of return the sponsor has in mind, as it will help in identifying potential sponsors. This may be immediately financial, or it may be image improvement, or it may be to access new markets or to gain media coverage. In other words, the return on investment sponsors seek differs, and event marketers should be aware of the range of benefits to be offered when targeting sponsorship opportunities.

Another distinction that needs to be made in identifying potential sponsors is the type of event. This is particularly important when you begin to eliminate potential sponsors from your list based on their corporate policy of types of events they do and do not sponsor. Nevertheless, organizations may have preconceived ideas of what certain event types represent, and the event marketer has the opportunity to present his or her event in particular ways to particular sponsors. This creative selling approach will widen the availability of sponsorship. When looking for sponsorship, an event marketer should also be prepared for disappointment. Especially when targeting large companies, keep in mind that they may receive hundreds or even thousands of sponsorship proposals a year. Limited budgets make it important to match up with your sponsor.

Once you have decided on the type of sponsor, or, more likely, the combination of sponsors, you can begin your research into organizations that are interested in sponsorships and are a match with the audience and type of event you are producing. When you begin to brainstorm for potential sponsors, you must be aware that sponsors are everywhere; they are not located just among the large multinational corporations but also can be found in small and medium-sized enterprises. Do not eliminate sponsors from your list because you think they are too small. Depending on the size and scope of the event, it is sometimes more cost-effective to have several smaller sponsors than one or two large sponsors. You must remember when you are looking for sponsorship that one of the first rules

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of thumb in budgeting is that everything has a price. This includes sponsorships.

Again, the sponsorship is not a donation. It is a business deal in which you are agreeing to promote the sponsor’s organization or brand in return for the value of your event to them. Not only does the servicing of this agreement have a price tag that impacts the expense side of your budget, but it also has costs associated with it. Budgetary issues then become one of the first items to review when looking at potential sponsors. Is the ratio of expense to revenue to service the agreement worth the effort to secure the sponsorship? You are seeking sponsorship to further the financial objectives of the event, so that must be foremost in your mind when considering options.

The next step when working with an organization to develop potential sponsors is to ask, “Who are your friends?” and “What are their interests?” The best opportunity to develop a relationship with a potential sponsor is to already know someone involved with the sponsor. Organizations may not even realize the potential. It is almost always the case that there is someone within the organization who knows somebody at XYZ Corporation. This can be a great help in getting that first sponsorship.

MasterCard is the official payment system and sponsor of the PGA TOUR and Champions professional golfing tour. The multiyear agreement makes MasterCard the preferred method of payment at PGA TOUR shops, Tournament Players Clubs (TPCs), and other locations. Tom Watson and Natalie Gulbis are global spokespersons. Tournaments sponsored by MasterCard include the Senior Open Championship presented by MasterCard, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, the MasterCard Championship, and the MasterCard Classic. Given the international popularity of golf, this represents a sponsorship that keeps MasterCard firmly in the public eye. They do not, however, limit their sponsorship arrangements to golf. MasterCard also sponsors the European Champions League Soccer Tournament, Major League Baseball (MLB), the BRIT Awards, Jazz at Lincoln Center, MasterCard Luxury Week Hong Kong (fashion), and the Australian Fashion Week, among others. This brand uses sponsorship of events as a major component of its marketing communication.

(www.mastercard.com)

The value of research cannot be stressed enough when you are identifying potential sponsors. Without proper research of companies’

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values, core concepts, and marketing strategies, you are bound to fail in an attempt to secure sponsorship. If you don’t have a researcher on staff, hire one, even if it’s on a part-time basis. A researcher finding that a CEO or president of a company has a favorite pastime, hobby, or cause has developed many sponsorship relationships.

Your research should also include the information needed to qualify any potential sponsors. What, if anything, have they sponsored in the past? Are they currently sponsoring any events? Your research should also determine the marketing strategy of the company, including the company’s goals and objectives and the manner in which they might match the goals and objectives of your event.

It is important during your research phase to make sure that the organization sponsoring your event doesn’t have any hidden agenda that would be detrimental to the event organization. Finally, your research should verify the economic viability of the potential sponsor. The marketer must make certain that the sponsor has the financial means to back this business arrangement.

The next step in the process is to develop your approach strategy for each sponsor. Because potential sponsors have their own needs, wants, and desires, when approaching them you must create an individualized appeal. Event marketers often find the most loyal sponsors closest to home. Members, exhibitors, wholesalers, and distributors are among those who are already committed and who have a financial stake in the welfare of the event organization.

If you estimate that a potential sponsor wants, and expects, a quantifiable return on the money it has invested in your event, the event producer needs this information to enhance your ability to attract sponsorships in the future. There are three broad methods to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) for the sponsor:

• Measuring awareness levels achieved or attitudes changed about the sponsor’s products or services

• Measuring increase in sales of sponsor’s products or services • Comparing sponsor-driven media coverage to the cost of equivalent

advertising In the first two methods, the sponsor must follow certain requirements.

To measure awareness levels or attitudes changed, the sponsor needs to have a pre-sponsor level of awareness or consumer attitude about the sponsoring corporation and its goods or services. The sponsor also needs to maintain the current level of marketing of its goods or services so that it

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doesn’t influence the outcome of the ROI. Finally, the sponsor must decide which objectives it wishes to measure—such as increase in sales, increase in brand awareness, and consumer attitude change—and should attempt to track only one variable at a time.

It is also important to be aware that the sponsor’s involvement with your event is unlikely to be an activity performed in isolation of other marketing variables, and any dealings you have with sponsors should be carried out in full knowledge of their broad marketing approach so that sponsorship effects can be isolated.

Impact Measurement The sponsor has to have a pre-event level of branding to compare to the level of awareness both during and after the event. This type of measurement is typically used for sponsors with a long-term commitment to the event and is done over several event cycles. The sponsor needs to have defined goals as to the amount or percentage increase that it desires in brand awareness or attitude toward the brand. There are many choices on which a sponsor may focus in measuring sales, beyond the obvious of increasing the sales of its goods or services to the consumer. A sponsor may also want to track an increase in distribution channels, generate better positioning at point-of-sale displays, produce new leads in a niche market or lifestyle market, or increase the volume of sales to current users.

Some of the methods that the sponsor can utilize to measure these types of increases in sales are as follows: comparing sales for a specific time around the event to previous years, comparing sales in the geographic area of the event to national averages in similar markets, analyzing proof-of- purchase promotions (discount tickets with proof of purchase or discount purchase with ticket/coupon), and tracking increases in distributors before and during the event. Finally, the sponsor can measure the amount of media coverage that the event generates. By tracking the amount of time the event has exposure on radio and television as well as column inches in print media, the sponsor can assign a value to this exposure in comparison to what the price of this exposure would have been to buy outright. The sponsor may also be interested in the type of media exposure (e.g., national news vs. the local six o’clock news, mention in a national publication vs. the local weekly newspaper).

Bupa Health Insurance is an organization that supplies private health services in the United Kingdom and that sponsors the Great North Run,

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a mass participation mini-marathon-type event that receives strong media coverage. Bupa is the title partner of the Great Run Series, with events from 5 km to 13.1 miles throughout the United Kingdom. It is interesting to see a private health provider sponsoring something that amounts to preventative therapy, as it gives the impression they are interested in the prevention of disease as well as its treatment. Now clearly disease prevention is not actually in the interests of Bupa, yet being associated with a health-promoting activity provides a caring persona.

(www.greatrun.org)

Practical Sponsor Incentivization Besides the return on investment, event sponsors look for other incentives that will increase their exposure at events and help with their overall marketing strategy. Some very effective incentives include media buys, cross-promotions, hospitality events, and product samples. Consumer research media buys allow sponsors to buy advertising to promote their affiliation with the event and any sales promotions that are running in conjunction with the event.

An even greater incentive to the sponsor would be for the organization to buy a block of time and resell it to the sponsor at a discounted price. Cross-promotional opportunities allow sponsors to work together to market to niche or lifestyle markets. An example of this type of promotion would be a sporting goods company and a sports drink company combining their efforts; with proof of purchase from the sporting goods company, the consumer would receive a coupon for a free sports drink.

The creative marketer will look for these types of opportunities while doing research to increase his or her sponsorship potential. Hospitality opportunities are probably the largest incentive for potential sponsors. The opportunity to entertain either client or staff allows the sponsor the chance to increase market share in existing markets, build new relationships, or thank employees and distributors. These types of activities can run the entire range, including a private hospitality tent, cocktail party, VIP seating, parking passes, or special valet parking.

Any activity that is special to the sponsors and makes the event more enjoyable for them and their guests is an added incentive. The ability of a corporation to utilize your event for passing out product samples, whether an existing product or a new product rollout, is a value-added incentive. Along with consumer research, it allows the corporation direct contact

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with the consumer. It can also help establish a new consumer database through information gathered as a result of on-site surveys.

FIGURE 4.5 Sponsoring this parade certainly brought Mega Bloks close to their target audience.

The more incentives that you can offer a potential sponsor, the better the chances that you will seal the deal. As with all business arrangements, each party is looking for the best possible advantage. Through the use of incentives, you can offer value added to that which the sponsor receives.

In-Kind Sponsorship An area of event sponsorship that is sometimes overlooked is that of nonfinancial sponsors, or in-kind sponsors. This amounts to a variety of barter, and this type of sponsorship is particularly appealing to new or small businesses and applicable to small and medium-sized events. If it is not possible to secure sufficient capital sponsorship, the event can provide the opportunity for showcasing services and talent that is to the mutual benefit of the event and the sponsor.

Consider as an example two nonprofit clients who have not paid for centerpieces for their annual fundraising dinners in the past year. They were matched to a florist and designers who supported their causes and

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thought they couldn’t afford the price of a sponsorship. By doing an in- kind sponsorship (also known as a trade-out), they could afford to trade products or services for the sponsorship. These kinds of arrangements enable smaller events. In both cases, the business entities increased their market share for very little expense, and, at the same time, the organizations saved thousands of dollars in centerpiece expenses, as it allows them an inroad to markets that otherwise might be unattainable for them. A new business might not have the capital to invest in a sponsorship but could supply its product.

The same is true of an existing but small business that has cash flow committed to other activities. This type of sponsorship is particularly effective when working with cause-related nonprofit organizations, although this aspect of the event world offers particularly powerful targeting opportunities for corporate marketers wishing to seek new markets.

Barbara Pomerance on event magnetism: Events are a magnet for the brand and the cause. Nonprofits traditionally fund raise all year, but it is the annual fundraising event that brings in the financial base for the organization. An event, properly planned and executed, can integrate all forms of marketing into one project/program. Events capture the heart and soul of marketing programs and its mutli-layered approach can reach many of the brand’s publics.

Cause-Related Event Marketing There are two ways to consider cause-related events. In the first instance, the event organizers choose a cause to attach to their event. The cause is therefore being utilized to support an event. When consumers can see the need for help in relation to a good cause, they are more likely to respond positively to a cause-related event. The causes that are more widely publicized are therefore more likely to be recognized as representing a genuine need and held to produce valuable and important assistance as regarded by particular market segments.

Subsequently, there are likely to be certain hot causes that will be more firmly lodged in the zeitgeist and that will have stronger consumer pulling power in that people will be motivated to lend their assistance to their important cause by attending the event, and perhaps by becoming more

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active through that involvement. Moreover, the professional sponsoring organization has selected certain causes to support as part of its integrated marketing communications strategy. You are looking to meet its expectations in terms of the causes being supported by the event.

Of course, there will be many cause-related events that will not be planned that way. This is when an event is chosen to facilitate the promotion of a cause, in order to help elevate the cause more vividly in the media and in the collective consciousness. Contrary to the previous event type, here the cause marketer will be looking to choose the right kind of event with which to appeal to the demographic most connected with his or her cause. Some cause-related events will lack broad-based consumer support and may not be able to generate significant support, as many consumers will insufficiently value the cause as being something worth becoming involved with. In these wide-ranging cases, relationship marketing and database management of devotees are required over and above any other activity in order to instill and maintain a sense of attachment to the cause. If brands are ideas, then attaching a good cause to the brand expands the idea in an appealing manner.

The question is whether an event is being used to market a cause, or whether a cause is being used to market an event. In either case, the same marketing principle of targeting applies: targeting opportunities for organizations seeking to associate themselves with certain types of consumers. It is important for the event marketer to be aware of such opportunities. This may involve targeting new segments and new customers. Cause-related events are therefore useful to organizational and brand marketers because of their access to an expanding customer base.

Québec Winter Carnival is sponsored by Loto-Québec, Canada. For two and a half weeks, Québec celebrates with winter style, with events ranging from dogsled racing and sled rafting to snow sculpting and outdoor dance parties. And while there may be no leggy Amazonian beauties scantily clad in strategically placed sequins, this carnival celebration offers snow baths and arctic spas. Loto-Québec supports and promotes a variety of popular events that contribute to the community spirit in localities across Québec. More than 100 festive events are offered up to the public. These events are selected based upon their tourism potential and their ability to create social and economic benefits for the local community, just as indeed the Loto is designed to do, so this is a sympathetic event sponsorship program based upon business opportunities and worthy causes.

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(www.carnaval.qc.ca)

Genuine and Calculated Philanthropy The relationship between sponsorship and cause-related marketing is often described as corporate giving, the opportunity to associate an organization with what is considered by its customer base as a worthy cause. Generation of direct and quantifiable return on investment is not a factor in an organization’s decision to become involved in cause-related sponsorship, yet it may be a factor behind their motivation. It may be described by the organization as social responsibility, or as giving something back, but their motivation may be ultimately commercial and is an aspect of their public relations policy. The cause-related event marketer therefore has to indulge in potential doublespeak and play the game, as the sincerity of the potential sponsor must remain implicit to negotiations.

Does this sound cynical? You may be of the opinion that many organizations are socially responsible. Look at the huge contributions to social welfare that have emanated from Microsoft over the years, for example. Bill Gates must be recognized as one of the greatest philanthropists of all time. Microsoft has been constantly pursued by antimonopoly legislation, so philanthropy in such a grand scale may be considered as a shrewd marketing strategy, to alleviate this potentially damaging possibility. It may, of course, be a reflection of genuine philanthropic sentiment. Essentially it acts as both, regardless of the motivation.

Organizations may undertake sponsorship in cause-related events as a comparatively inexpensive alternative to traditional marketing methods, or they may indeed have a genuine ethos of social responsibility. This should not be entirely discounted. The concept of corporate social performance is wider than shareholder-oriented profit maximization and suggests that a sponsor perceives itself to be part of society and wishes to be seen as participating in society’s self-betterment. Received wisdom therefore suggests that cause-related sponsorship is not designed to have a direct impact upon attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately, sales. The key word in this definition is, however, direct. Much mass media advertising is not designed to have a direct influence upon sales, for instance, and there is no doubt that this is a commercial activity. It is important to appreciate these subtleties when communicating with sponsoring organizations, as their tone will be philanthropic, and they will expect that attitude to be

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reciprocated by event marketers. This attitude applies, of course, to circumstances when there is genuine philanthropy at play. The event marketer will never really know, so he or she must always behave as though it were so.

The sponsorship of cause-related events differentiates organizations and brands in the minds of consumers, and it is not unrealistic to expect a proportion of consumers to support brands that associate themselves with a charitable or otherwise good cause; a proportion of consumers is likely to develop positive attitudes toward organizations and brands that associate themselves with particular issues. This is a heavily targeted phenomenon. There are a great number of causes of importance in the world and a number of overlapping target groups to whom these causes are deeply felt. Cause-related targeting is something that the events world can use to acquire sponsorship that is of mutual benefit to participating organizations, not to mention the causes themselves.

FIVE THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT CAUSE- RELATED SPONSORSHIP 1. Sponsors want to appear socially responsible, and look to events as a

means of achieving some measure of this. Make sure your event can provide a media-visible opportunity for your sponsor to look good.

2. Be on the lookout for up-and-coming causes to add value to your event, and be seen as an expert on issues viewed as being media- centric.

3. You need to analyze commercial sponsors to ascertain the causes that are already in their repertoire.

4. When attempting to secure sponsorship, tailor causes to individual organizations; target your prospects appropriately.

5. Never appear cynical or arrogant about cause-related marketing techniques; always appear entirely sincere.

CHAPTER SUMMARY Many events rely on sponsorship to break even. The use of sponsorship as an elaborate targeting mechanism for a corporate event is part of a wider strategic approach, but in many instances acquiring a sponsor is more a matter of getting some funds to support the event. Whichever is the case, the principles outlined here hold true. For the larger event it is a necessity; for the smaller event, taking a focused approach will help to raise

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investment. Your event must be seen as representing an opportunity to a potential sponsor. It is when that becomes evident that an eagerness to help the community, or otherwise philanthropic sentiments, will be more likely to be expressed by those enterprises that might otherwise have been reluctant to spend on sponsorship. The last word therefore should be that your event represents an investment opportunity via sponsorship.

It is clear that events are multilayered phenomena and that they can be broken down into constituent parts, each of which can be presented as a potential benefit to the sponsor, a package of benefits that can be stressed in terms of both their overarching and disseminated effects. Over the years, corporate sponsorship objectives have changed. Sports sponsorships used to be seen as a way to gain visibility for companies, such as cigarette manufacturers and distilleries, which couldn’t or chose not to advertise on television. Sports sponsorships, especially golf and tennis tournaments, were a popular way for CEOs to rub shoulders with their favorite athletes. A common perspective was to view event sponsorship as an alternative to rising television advertising costs. As sponsorship costs increased and companies become more sophisticated about event marketing, the focus began to shift to view event sponsorship as an integral aspect of the marketing mix.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • How do you market your event to potential sponsors? • How does your event offer branding potential to prospective sponsors?

Is branding potential an aspect of your event marketing? • What entertainment is available at your event for your sponsors and

their acquaintances? How is this entertainment suitable for your event? • How will you market your event as a PR opportunity for potential

sponsors, and do you alter the pitch on a case-by-case basis? • How will you cater to sponsors who are interested in using the event as

a market research opportunity? • How will you engage employees of your sponsor who are going to be

involved in the event, and in what capacity? • How may your event represent an opportunity for community relations

for your sponsors? • What is the capacity for direct sales for your sponsor during the

proceedings of your event?

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• Which worthwhile causes would attract the involvement of sponsors to your event, and do you know why?

• How can your event be described as an opportunity for philanthropy, and do you market it that way?

• What meanings and values does your event communicate to the customer base of your sponsors?

• What aspects of your event will be attractive to which sponsors, and why?

• Have you translated the meanings inherent in your event into a potentially sympathetic repertoire of sponsors?

• How will you measure and communicate the impact of your event for sponsors?

• How will you develop, solicit, and measure in-kind sponsorship?

USEFUL WEBSITES www.sponsorship.com

Sponsorship.com is run by the IEG, an international authority on sponsorship marketing. Keep in touch with industry news and find inspiration for finding the right sponsor or in order to sponsor the right event.

http://marketing.about.com/od/eventandseminarmarketing/a/sponsorship.htm About.com provides a straightforward definition as well as an introduction to sponsorship marketing and how it can be used to bring forward your product, brand, or company.

http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=98 Ambush marketing is a particular aspect of sponsorship marketing. As a marketer, you should be aware of it and consider how it could affect your organization.

http://www.sponsorscape.com Sponsorscape is an international sponsoring database. Publicize sponsorship opportunities or find sponsors for your event.

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Chapter 5

E-Event Marketing “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.” Bill Gates, computer mogul and philanthropist (Born 1955)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Effectively and efficiently utilize e-marketing for events and

contextualize e-marketing within the event marketing mix, • Analyze and improve e-event marketing targeting to maximize

e-marketing for events, • Examine and effectively utilize the development of word-of-

mouth (advocacy) communication within the context of social networking,

• Develop an effective, integrated, comprehensive, strategic e- marketing strategy, and

• Identify and effectively utilize the myriad of modern promotional tools required for an effective e-marketing campaign.

Why Focus on E-Marketing? Electronic marketing is an integrated and mainstream aspect of any event marketing communications activity, and as such while deserving particular

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attention within this chapter, it will also permeate the entire text as a fundamental aspect of event marketing. E-marketing for many event specialists is just marketing, the “e” being a tautology. Those who are involved in marketing events will find e-marketing to be something that by necessity they will be doing. That is why we need to focus upon it. It is established practice, and very much the norm.

Particularly when resources are limited, the Internet and the social networks within may represent all that is being accomplished to market an event. On the other hand, a larger event with a multiplatform marketing approach will be looking to integrate Internet communication within a wider marketing mix. At whatever scale and to whatever extent, event marketers are e-event marketers.

The Internet has changed the relationship between you and your customers and potential customers. The growth and importance of e- marketing require that this particular aspect of marketing theory (Internet and social media) is described and analyzed as it concerns the role of the consumer in marketing communications. This is particularly relevant to the marketing of events, where word of mouth is recognized as being on the front line of event choice.

In practical terms, how should you approach the Internet with respect to what it can do for your event? It can be the primary medium for distribution of information about your event, and it should be the primary point of distribution of event-related paraphernalia. You can use the Internet as a means of developing a relationship with event customers both in terms of customer acquisition and retention. The Internet is increasingly the location for transactions, and it is increasingly likely that event payment will be conducted through electronic funds transfer.

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FIGURE 5.1 This is a screen grab from the website of the Toronto International Film Festival, with “Buy Now” and “Share This” buttons on your right. Visitors may have a short attention span. Offering immediate buying possibilities raises the chances of sales. The “Share This” icons generate a message to different social networks (in this case, a tweet on Twitter, a link on Facebook, a bookmark on Digg, or a link on MySpace). In addition, a click on the “+” button opens access to share this content in more than 300 social networks.

The Internet is a burgeoning advertising medium for events, and it can be used as a means of gathering information about consumers through online research mechanisms. It also, of course, is the medium wherein social networking channels operate. All in all, it represents a powerful marketing engine for the event marketer.

Barbara Pomerance on new media: Event planning involves the use of traditional and new media to reach target audiences that can include community, business, trade, employee and external relations. Viral media is contagious and can have exponential effects for brand strategy, taking advantage of quick multiplication to explode the message to thousands of consumers. Social media and new technology have the ability to energize the positive exposure you can receive and the scope of this universe is abundant! There are social news sites like Digg and Newsfine, social sharing at Flickr, Snapfish and YouTube, social networks in Facebook and LinkedIn, social bookmarking by Faves and Delicious, and Search Engine Optimization, which is the science of getting your information at the top of the internet search.

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Were it not for the intercommunication of the Internet, it would just be another screen-based channel, somewhere to advertise. It would be a finely targeted channel, representative of media and consumer fragmentation, useful for reaching both macro and micro audiences, but a channel nonetheless. As it is, it more resembles a labyrinth of complexity, as online information flow is disseminated throughout the world in countless interlocking connections. Intercommunication to the degree offered by the Internet has resulted in a revolution in marketing practice, but only when it represents an improvement over alternatives. Airline tickets are almost entirely online business today, yet most soap continues to be distributed in supermarkets. The Internet is very dynamic and is in a state of constant change. Event marketers who use the Internet as a major aspect of their marketing effort should keep up with innovation through spending time on research and even consulting relevant blogs (such as Mashable).

The communications potential represented by the variety of social networking channels, and electronic personal communication generally, has been particularly relevant to the success or otherwise of planned events. Why is this so? Well, firstly, it facilitates opinion sharing, which has always been an aspect of event consumer behavior. Secondly, it works as a ticket site for events, and ticketing has become very much an online delivery system. The Internet suits events.

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FIGURE 5.2 Google Blogger has a feature that allows bloggers to track their key metrics for their blog on their dashboard. Not only does it allow each blogger to see how many page views his or her posts have generated, but he or she is also able to understand where in the world the most interest for the blog is coming from, and which browser and operating systems are most frequently used to view it. This feature is extremely useful for event organizers, as it allows them to understand where the most interest is being generated, which is where the potential audience is, so organizers can collect geographical data to target their interests. Additionally, it allows organizers to understand where they are losing out on audience levels, allowing them to strategically plan to target those latent markets.

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According to Facebook, the role of the social media marketer is similar to that of an event planner. Both require the attraction and entertainment of guests and retention of the guests after the experience. Well, that’s true, but it equally applies to shops and restaurants and leisure clubs, so a more acute observation is required. The social media marketer is required to tap into an existing flow of information and seed positive communications between individuals and groups in virtual social networks.

There has long been an understanding of the influence of word of mouth as a result of marketing communications, particularly with events. Social media marketing operates along the lines of word of mouth as being marketing communication. Experience of this has evolved the marketing concept in terms of the relationship between the senders and receivers of marketing communication and represents an exponential acceleration of consumer word of mouth, and in the context of event marketing, this deserves particular attention due to its influence upon how events are regarded.

FIGURE 5.3 Astonishing levels of communication—accelerated word of mouth.

Technological Convergence The handheld device is the ultimate representation of technological convergence. It is a telephone or a videophone. It downloads high- definition movies. It is a still and video camera. It is a computer. It is a television. It is the Internet. It offers just about any communications

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application that can be imagined. For all intents and purposes, it is an extension not only of technology, but of the human brain. It is not static, but goes everywhere with you and puts you in touch with everybody and everything. You might also have a laptop or a touch-screen computing device, which are being slimmed down and powered up to give you even more technological oomph on the move. This revolution has taken place, or rather is taking place, and undoubtedly will continue to develop. Innovators and early adopters have established the norms that are now becoming established in the mass market. Even technological laggards have mobile phones. The convergence of technology and communication into the handheld device has profound implications for the marketing of events. Wireless communication is fast becoming the norm. The air we breathe is thick with digital information flying from device to device; it has veritably become the sea in which we swim. Communications is everywhere and the virtual and real have become so intermeshed that it is not easy to tell which is which. All this might sound like a marketer’s dream world, limitless communication potential with information-hungry consumers who live their lives through technology.

FIGURE 5.4 The rise of the smart phone generation.

Remember when people thought that urban freeways were the motorist’s dream, and when the notion of multicar families offered the ultimate in transportation freedom? The reality is somewhat different: bottlenecks and congestion. Those willing to pay can access slightly less congested routes, but they are filling fast. More cars added to more roads do not combine to produce the motorist’s dream.

What then of more communications and more handheld devices being the event marketer’s dream? The answer is startlingly similar to that of

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transportation congestion. With so much digital traffic, it is really difficult to stand out and be noticed. It is very important, therefore, to fine-tune your e-marketing and make sure that you apply some care to its conception and implementation.

FIGURE 5.5 Online marketing is a strategic process.

Web Page Requirements What is your event website for? It is understandable that it seems to be a prerequisite, and that it goes without saying that the Internet is the primary communications vehicle of our age, so asking what it’s for might seem like a dumb question. In fact, it is a necessary question. Is your web page primarily for the provision of information, an electronic bulletin? On the other hand, are you using your web page as a means of gathering information about customers and potential customers? Is it there to retain customers who have already associated with your event, or are you hoping that it will act as a means of attracting new customers to your event? What methods of communication will you be integrating into your online home page? Is it an electronic advertisement, or a presence in the blogosphere? Is it a means of providing event news or an e-mail facility? Does it act as a portal into social networks? Is it easy to find in the labyrinth of online information—does it appear according to a variety of keyword criteria? Is it both simple to use and infused with modernity? Does it look good and add status to your event? Is it able to provide you with detailed information about who has been accessing the site, and when, and why? The answer to all of these questions needs to be yes.

Your web page is a representation of your event in a world that we can hardly call virtual any longer, as it has become so established as an ordinary and ubiquitous aspect of everyday life. It can be a workhorse for you, performing many marketing functions as indicated above, and you should take advantage of its potential.

A web page should also be considered as somewhat of a safe port. While

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social media like Facebook and Twitter cannot really be controlled, websites represent the control of their creators and can be presented or modified in a manner preferred by the site owner. In addition, search engines are likely to produce the official website as the first hit, so long as the website is carefully conceived in order to be picked up by search engines.

Internet users have developed a very short attention span, or patience facility, and generally speaking, if they don’t encounter what they are looking for within a few clicks, they may migrate elsewhere. Therefore, regardless of what the event marketer wishes to achieve with his or her website, basic event information should appear first and foremost—the what, where, and when along with ticketing information. Invariably, this is the information most users will be looking for and hoping to find as quickly as possible.

A proper web page can be a big investment for a modest event and should be considered a prerequisite investment in the event. As the spreading of event information is virtually free, much emphasis needs to be put on the preparation of the information. This is a different model from traditional advertising application, where the largest cost comes from media buying. With e-marketing, the cost should be loaded upon the message, which will be disseminated by an organic social media network. In addition, if an event marketer chooses to engage in social media, there should be a strategic planning time frame. The timing of social interventions should not just be something done on the side, but rather an activity entered into actively as an integral part of the process. This means not only time of year, month, or week, but also time of day, as time compression in the age of real-time communication requires a finely tuned intervention schedule.

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FIGURE 5.6 The Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair is an annual event that runs its course throughout the 23 major cities in the United Kingdom, from London to St. Andrews. The event’s website, which is updated before, during, and after the event, is an excellent example of informative and promotional e-marketing. The website’s design is simple and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer, with a simple navigation bar top center that allows the viewer to gather information concerning dates, times, and locations of the events, shop for items online, and also subscribe to the fair’s blog, which is regularly updated to keep viewers aware of the latest events, promotions, and testimonials from organizers and attendees alike. Note the two portals linking to the event’s Twitter feed and Facebook page.

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FIGURE 5.7 While websites need to be informative for the viewer, they also need to be straightforward. Here is an example of an ill-conceived web page design. There is no structural flow or clear explanation of the company or its services. There is too much going on visually; the viewer cannot concentrate on attempting to find what he or she is looking for, making it extremely likely that the viewer will look elsewhere for a more easily accessible website.

Web Page Involvement You want your website to have charisma, that certain something that invites attention and involvement, and which grabs the browser into wanting to stay on the site and navigate around. Your event is potentially going to be part of his or her life, so the website should be too. Does it go without saying that your web page should be enjoyable to use, self-evident to navigate, and instantaneous in its operation? Anything less falls below established industry standards. The Internet is a primarily visual medium, so your web page should be visually interesting and aesthetically pleasing. These really are prerequisites. Much is said about interactivity in web design. It really just means you should give people visiting your site something to do when they get there. Web browsers are visitors to your home, so you don’t just sit them down and ignore them, but try to engage them in conversation, join them in some activity, and find out what they would like. The same rules of hospitality apply to your home page as to your home. It should be somewhere people are happy to go and where they are happy to be seen. How can you expect people to be happy to be seen at your event if they do not feel happy to be on your website? The website is part of the event, and if visitors to your site are not getting what they are

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looking for in a virtual sense, how will they know whether the live event will give them what they are looking for?

FIGURE 5.8 The front page of the South by Southwest festival contains all relevant information about the festival, including the festival dates, current and featured news, ways to register and participate in the festival, and sponsorship endorsements.

Web Page Accessibility The concept of flow management in web design has been proposed as the key to involvement, and concerns the feeling of immersion in the web experience; this is of particular relevance to event web pages, as experience is your business. There is, however, an element of conceit on the part of web designers with respect to the concept of flow, as the stated aim of flow management is to provide web users with the sense that they are controlling their interactions on the website. Flow managers will find that people actually do control their interactions online and should remember that it is in the nature of servants to offer assistance to their masters who control them. Nevertheless, you are trying to make the site visitor well disposed toward your event, to feel involved in it merely by experiencing the website. This is to be achieved by offering the opportunity for smooth click progression through a series of fluid,

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interlocking paths that take users where they want to go and offer them the opportunity to go where they want to go.

In order to keep the web page accessible, the event marketer must consider technical standards. Whereas in the past it was considered fashionable to design web pages with as many features as possible, and to tailor them to one specific browser version that it would work on, we now exist in a multiplatform world wherein your website will be accessed via a number of systems and devices. An event website is of no use whatsoever, for example, if it will not work on a smartphone, as this is the standard mechanism whereby many event users both investigate and communicate about events. The challenge is to create a rich and interesting flow-positive website where the user experience is exciting no matter what device the consumer uses to visit it.

FIVE MAJOR E-MARKETING INFLUENCES UPON YOUR EVENT 1. The Internet, through web pages, advertising, and social media, has

become the primary source of information about your event. 2. Social media has become the platform upon which consumers will

communicate with one another about your event. 3. Mobile technology has blurred the distinction between the virtual and

the real. 4. Your event website should be considered a multifunction marketing

vehicle, not merely an electronic poster. 5. Point-of-sale decision making and transactional behavior for your

event now mostly occur online.

Contextualizing Online Marketing Online marketing represents the culmination of marketing thought and is considered by some to be marketing at its most sophisticated. That is one point of view. Perhaps they mean technically sophisticated.

The micro-marketing model of consumption represented by online activity has, however, been the ultimate goal of marketing philosophy in the twentieth century. The trajectory has been from mass markets to segmented markets, smaller and more defined customer groups being served by increasingly fragmented specialist media. Market segments have been getting smaller and more specialized as time passes. It is straightforward why this should be.

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If everybody in a market segment shares a similar demographic, outlook, or disposition, it makes marketing messages more powerfully targetable. While the mass market most certainly remains at the center of the entertainment and current affairs industry, it is surrounded by a myriad of highly targeted channels, which are themselves surrounded by a vast array of individual addresses. Marketing to a segment of one is the inevitable conclusion of media fragmentation. A segment of one is as small as a segment can be.

The Internet has revolutionized the idea of media. Each web address and mobile number is unique to the individual, and Internet users are themselves part of the media, due to the amount of sharing of information that commonly happens online. It seems that the result of this marketing evolution is increasing levels of complexity. That appears to be the result of evolution, generally speaking.

How, then, does e-marketing fit into a wider marketing program for the event marketer? The six Ps of event marketing help us to reflect upon that question, and to think about e-marketing in different ways, and from different perspectives.

The web presence of your event is part of the product, part of a holistic experience. Your e-marketing effort is consumed along with the event happening. Consumers should enjoy their interaction with the e-product as much as with the tangible event.

Most commonly, your e-marketing will be attached to the idea of price, as it is the environment where transactions are carried out. It is at that point of contact where the price is justified, and the event marketer has an opportunity to stress value added to the event in relation to price. This is the location where consumers will decide to buy or not, and the price of the event should be used to its greatest advantage. If an event has a complex pricing structure, then e-marketing will be the medium where this is communicated.

Websites are destinations, places to go. This perspective is at the heart of the virtual paradigm. How easy is it to get there? A website that only appears when it is specifically asked for by designation is easy to get to if you know the exact coordinates.

If I Google “a particular event.com,” then I find my way there directly. What if I Google “things to do in Seattle this weekend”? Does that direction go directly to your website? It is worthwhile to invest in the keyword architecture surrounding your event so that it’s a place that’s easy to find.

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In that context, the e-event marketer should be aware of the concept of search engine optimization (SEO). While the mechanisms inside search engines such as Google are the company’s most valuable secret, it is also true that by the way a marketer designs his or her web page, influence can be exerted upon the way search engines perceive it. The thinking behind SEO is basically an understanding of how search engines work combined with an idea of what event users are searching for. The objective is to have your website appear at the front of the queue when searches are being conducted. The basis of this is thinking about the content of your web page in terms of making it applicable to anticipated keywords and phrases, both narrowly applicable to your event and broadly in line with what your event represents. You will find by examining a number of event websites that there tends to be a particular event industry norm in language use that you should conform to as a baseline, which will align your event within established parameters. You should make sure that the most powerful keywords and phrases are loaded into both the title and description of your web page, and you should load your site with background content containing more peripheral associations. Remember to include the title and location and date of your event in the title and description. The simplest way to test your design is to perform research upon the keywords you have used to code up your site and see where they take you. If they are wide off the mark, then rethink and keep at it until you find your site becoming more visible. An honest appraisal of what your event contains and what it means will yield the best results.

Given the ubiquity of the Internet and the complexity of search engines, medium to large-scale events may benefit from the services of professional search engine optimizers, consultants who specialize in increasing the relevance and visibility of websites, and smaller events should consider gaining the services of an enthusiastic amateur. Again the key word is honesty, as deceptively attempting to steer web traffic toward your site may result in search engine management removing a site from its system.

To promote is to bring forward, and in the context of marketing this refers to activities that bring something to the attention of an audience. Clearly, event marketing utilizes the Internet to do this. If we consider, however, that SEO is commonly appreciated within the wider marketing sphere, and within the narrower event marketing community, the advantage will go to the brand or event that knows how to optimize better than the next guy, and therefore a level of, or access to, technical expertise is becoming a prerequisite to e-event marketing.

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Web Analytics If a well-crafted web page represents a promotional and transaction- processing capacity for your event, it also can operate as an information system for event marketers. At the most basic level, you will be able to measure traffic to your website, how many hits and the search criteria that brought people knocking on your virtual door. This is generally known as on-site analytics. You will be able to see which words visitors typed into the search engine before arriving at your website. This is something you should pay close attention to, as it helps a great deal in refining your web page vocabulary and in improving your search engine ranking.

This will be a familiar enough idea to anyone who uses a search engine such as Google to access information online. The words and phrases used as keys to a search completely determine where you end up, and often one has to alter the phraseology to orient oneself toward the desired information. It is like the stubborn guru who waits to be asked the right question before bestowing wisdom.

Of course, it will be immediately apparent that this is going to be heavily influenced by SEO, as outlined in the previous section. Nevertheless, every event website can access analytics capability for free, as the web page for Google analytics makes clear. There is really no excuse for failing to analyze web traffic and marketing effectiveness. The answer is only a click away, and the most humble event marketer with the most basic web page is still able to use analytics to advantage his or her enterprise. If an event marketer does not analyze hits upon his or her site, you have to ask why such instantly actionable information is being ignored.

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, and strengthen your marketing initiatives, and in doing so create higher-converting websites.

(www.google.com/analytics)

You will also be able to use your website as an indicator of the effect of other marketing activity. Analytics will tell you whether or not hits on your site increase during and after advertising your event, either online or

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in traditional media. It is in the nature of events that the Internet is the first port of call for an interested party who will be looking for information on the event. If your advertising is at all sensible, it will give you information about or instant access to your web page, so web analytics are very useful in gauging the effectiveness of your promotional activities.

Another aspect of web analytics concerns listening in on the Internet, eavesdropping on the social networking system and finding out the extent to which your event corresponds with what people are talking about—the positive and negative comments about your event. Off-site analytics includes the measurement of a website’s potential or opportunity audience, its visibility, or its wider relevance to the web community. Again, these services are easily obtainable for a modest outlay. As will become apparent to the interested e-marketer who investigates the analytics sector, and the service providers who populate it, this analysis can be performed to sophisticated standards and represents a powerful market research opportunity.

You will, of course, be able to use your website as a direct research information-gathering tool by the inclusion of feedback mechanisms within its structure, using surveys, qualitative feedback statements, chat forums, and the like. As event attendees are going to talk about your event anyway, both positively and negatively, why not invite them to do so within the environment of your website so that you are able to learn how to improve your event, but more importantly, be seen as interactive, responsive, and open to suggestion? If your customers feel involved enough that they feel able to influence the event, then a certain attachment will have been achieved.

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FIGURE 5.9 On Wednesday, November 10, 2010, Ralph Lauren staged a massive light and sound spectacle in London and New York. Using the so-called architecture mapping technology, they made their stores come alive. Architectural mapping is a projection technique that uses buildings as the projection surface and takes their architectural features into account, thus creating spectacular displays (see http://4d.ralphlauren.com/). In the lead-up, Ralph Lauren published videos from the making of the animations on video platforms such as YouTube and launched a website promoting the event. In only five days, a keyword search for “ralph lauren 4d” came up with 800,000 hits. The table below shows a search on Google Trends for Ralph Lauren from mid-October to mid-November. This first graph indicates only whether Google searches are relatively above or below average, and the second one displays the coverage in the news online. The search volume increased noticeably on the day after the event, probably due to users looking for video coverage. What is really impressive is how the news reference volume exploded after November 7 and peaked on the day of the event.

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FIGURE 5.10 This shows that user search and user interaction are faster than the media coverage, and that even if only thousands attended the events, several million have been made aware of these two events and thus the campaign had a huge impact.

Diffusion of Innovation in Social Networks Due to online social networking, peer influence extends way beyond the idea of one’s immediate associates, a forum wherein events are considered, their social appropriateness gauged, and their desirability assessed. The importance of word of mouth in consumer behavior has been underplayed in marketing writing, yet it has always been there. The spread of information among consumers about what’s good and what’s not, what’s in and what’s out, has always existed at the local level, and indeed still does.

According to EventScotland’s chief operating officer, Paul Bush, There is an increasing trend to audiences buying late and making decisions based on factors beyond the control of event organizers. As a result of this time shift by decision makers, the Internet plays an

important role in enabling last-minute registrants and ticket buyers to attend your event.

The Internet, with its access to chat spaces and social networks, allows information to spread like a virus. This has been likened to biological meme theory wherein ideas and fashions are likened to genes. Successful

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ideas behave like successful genes in their ability to replicate themselves from host to host, moving from brain to brain in an imitative process that results in a virus-like spread. The Internet enables good and bad ideas about events to replicate, and the role of the event marketer in this process is to set the ball rolling and to provide general guidance to the broad directions in which event information spreads. There is a need for a light touch here, as by trying to control it, marketers often actually stop the flow of information, as social media are more of a dialogue than anything else, and people do not appreciate talking to people who are not perceived as being authentic. The communication flow works as long as marketers are not seen as interfering with it. It is therefore extremely important that social media communication is perceived as being generated by the users rather than by marketers.

Due to this increasing ease and scope of communication, word of mouth is more important than ever with regard to consumer behavior. Word of mouth equates to shared experience and risk, and an event’s endorsement by peers is the ultimate measure of its worth. Expensive advertising extolling the merits of an event is weak in comparison to what people are saying to one another about that event, and it should therefore be oriented to influence what people are saying to one another. Online advertising, whether openly viral or just utilizing the channel, is a portal into a fluid and fluctuating network of contact communication and should have as its aim influence upon the information flow.

Ultimately, what are you providing that will be interesting enough for people to pick up on and communicate to others? Unlike other media, people have a choice about whether they allow information to pass through them, so you need to be aware of what people are likely to pass on and why.

Diffusion of innovation in consumer markets concerns how innovative consumers influence early adopters, who in turn influence further less innovative consumers, and so on. This observation of consumer behavior predates the digital age and was borne of the way people personally interact, with trendsetters in the consumption vanguard and the rest bringing up the rear. The interesting thing about this view of market dynamics is that people emulate other people, and that is where their motivation for expressive consumption is shaped. On a more general level, it tells us that consumers are variously inclined to take the initiative. When we consider virtual interaction, the expression of this tendency is accelerated and less linear. There is faster and wider communication, of

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course, but the interesting thing concerns the way innovation diffusion has expanded. It has shifted from a linear progression of decreased risk behavior to a more role-based facilitation of information spread.

Rather than there being only leaders and followers in the consumer process, we can identify specific types of people who have different motivations and roles within the word-of-mouth process. These are terms to describe characteristics rather than people, as one’s role within social networks will vary from topic to topic.

Connectors enjoy interaction with others, spread ideas and information, and connect disparate parts of society. Spreading good news about your event will involve identifying information disseminators, whether amateur or professional, and using them to increase your reach. This connecting behavior is equivalent to the organic nature of information flow online as links are not static but fluid and changeable. People with extensive contact potential are therefore capable of spreading news about your event far and wide. Such behavior is widespread, and although the connection function is essential to information flow, it does not act as an advocate for or against anything.

Mavens, on the other hand, enjoy influencing people through their knowledge and tend to accumulate knowledge in order to be able to enjoy doing so. It is one thing to merely pass information on but another to do so in order to influence for or against your event. Maven behavior is closely linked to the idea of the innovator, as it is closely linked with those who are among the first to pick up on new trends, fashions, and behaviors. Innovation may, however, be domain specific, and an individual may be technically innovative, but musically antique. The online mavens then have influence that diffuses through communication networks. They are personally motivated to be authority figures and like to stand back and watch the fruition of influence. However, the digital world is not short on people telling us what they think about one thing or another, and the maven tendency may be diluted through commonality. When everyone is busy having his or her say in such abundance, who is to know whose influence is worth paying attention to?

Some rise above the crowd. Some people gain personal satisfaction from convincing people of the merits of consumption choices, and in order to achieve satisfaction will advocate the merits of your event in a credible and compelling manner. Mavens may be too passive to get the job done, and may make generally positive or negative noises about what’s hot and what’s not, but it takes a salesperson to convince people to get involved.

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This is what I was referring to when mentioning that social networking roles designate behaviors, not people. The maven mentality is certainly common enough online, but there will be domains of interest and expertise that facilitate the expansion of the role to that of advocate or salesperson. Those domains are the activities that the mavens themselves are actively participating in, and their positive observation of an event will accelerate into an active attempt to populate that event to validate their status as a trend influencer.

While these are variations on the theme of innovators and early adopters, the interesting development concerns the personal motivation of influencers in word-of-mouth communication as crucial links in the chain. Influential people and sites therefore form a portal-based media structure, as information is seen to flow, or be blocked, by the dispositions of those who actively spread information around in the networks. There are so many interconnections in this system that it can be difficult tracking information dissemination.

It is to be expected that not all comments about your event within the social networking environment will be positive. It is as much a forum for criticism as anything else. Moreover, those innovative types, as mentioned, will be either a force that advantages your event or one that damages it. Event marketers should be prepared to handle rough criticism. Ignoring or trying to delete criticism can result in even stronger reactions, whereas a few well-thought-through actions and responses may stop or alleviate the criticism. When it becomes clear that negative information about your event is originating from particular sources, you should try to gain them for the cause instead of disputing or discrediting them. The social network is not something that can be blocked—it is out of your control to that extent—rather, it should be influenced respectfully in order that the alpha- types who play such a pivotal role in information dissemination are brought on message.

Paul Bush states: The Facebook group created for the World Duathlon Championships, held in Edinburgh in September 2009, was initially set up as a promotional tool for the Championships to talk to competing athletes and those interested in the sport. However, this became a much wider marketing platform as members of this group started asking questions about “what can we see and do in Edinburgh?”, “where’s a good place to eat?” and “how do I get

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to the city centre from the airport?” Immediately this Facebook group became a “sell” of Edinburgh and of personal opinions, from locals and visitors alike, about the great things to see, do and eat when in Scotland’s capital city. Social networking tools are starting to be used by events for marketing purposes. Raising awareness of events, and more importantly selling tickets, remains (for the time being) the domain of more traditional forms of marketing, i.e., advertising and PR; however, being able to talk directly to your audience through mediums like Facebook and Twitter means that the sell, or marketing, of a destination—be that the wider country, or the more specific town or venue—becomes a much more persuasive thing as it’s based on personal opinions and recommendations. Moreover, these tools also provide an opportunity for the events to work towards marketing the destination. A quick search of “Fort William World Cup” on YouTube finds 455 search results. From footage of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, which has been held at this venue since 2002, to homemade footage of riding the downhill tracks at Ben Nevis, each video provides a glimpse of what mountain biking enthusiasts can expect from a visit to Fort William.

Online Network Contact Points Your website should be designed for potential event attendees and attendance influencers. While the look and feel of the website from an aesthetic point of view is extremely important, the event marketer is concerned with information dissemination and the site’s connection to social networks.

Your event website should operate as a portal into a social networking site connected to your event. Just as marketers have long disguised information-gathering campaigns as sales promotions, so websites that have been specifically designed for the marketing of events are being used as a means of gathering personal details, as a front therefore for direct marketing interventions. Just as social networkers pass event information to one another, the event marketer has the opportunity to be proactive with consumer information management. In other words, the event marketer may use social networks, but he or she can also manage them.

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If an event is a regular occurrence and a following can be established, online marketing facilitates a network of central and peripheral consumers with whom involvement can be gained through extension of the event beyond its occasion, into a prolonged experience of interaction by those who have become involved. This is built upon direct marketing retention principles. The difference is that with traditional direct marketing via mail, for example, there is no interaction between customers, whereas online, prospects beget prospects as long as the network created is engaging and oriented toward experience and transformation. The event-specific network is itself a portal into other networks, and so information spreads. What is meant by an event-specific network? This needs some explanation; the answer is quite complex. The first thing to appreciate is that such a network is not a defined entity, as it exists within the larger social networking system, but it is not identifiable by a perceivable boundary. It could be a Twitter account with followers (as the network), a Facebook page with fans (as the network), or a Facebook/Bebo/MySpace group with members (as the network). In other words, it exists within a larger whole but is not labeled. This is quite a familiar idea in marketing, however, as the idea of the market segment corresponds very closely as a concept. Market segments are hidden within a larger population, and are not in any way separate from wider society, but part of it. So it is with the event-specific network. It’s there but hidden within the wider social network.

Event marketers need to actively reflect upon what Internet channel they are going to use. It is a matter not only of targeting information, but of getting the right channel. While sites like Facebook have a universal character, this also makes it very difficult to get noticed or be heard. Different subcultures use different channels, and this goes beyond what is popularly perceived to be social networks. There are, for example, still many people, for instance those in technical jobs, who use newsgroups for information exchange. There are also social networks for music (such as Ping or Last.fm) or arts professionals (such as LinkedIn or Xing), so the choice of social network should be considered in the same manner as traditional media selection and involves understanding your customer’s communication media use.

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FIGURE 5.11 Example of James Franco’s Twitter page during his hosting of the 2011 Oscars. While hosting the 83rd Academy Awards, James Franco simultaneously was utilizing the social networking site Twitter to share his experience of the event. This was a first in Oscar history and fit into context with the Oscars’ new direction to choose fresh-faced hosts to allow the event to appeal to a wider and younger demographic. Franco’s new spin on promoting the event (and himself) brought the event to a completely new platform, providing a completely new experience of the Oscars.

In the twentieth century, the mass media became ever more segmented into more easily targeted subgenres. Consider the expansion of television channels from a few to the huge selection of today and the explosion of the magazine market into every conceivable interest and predilection. Media fragmentation is a symptom of complexity. Is this what we should expect in social networks? Time will tell. Already some specialization is evident.

Online Tactics Fake friends on social networking sites are a known phenomenon to users of these online facilities, and users are savvy to the practice of infiltration. In order to access the society of online networks, brand advocates are

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posing as ordinary people in an attempt to influence attitudes toward a brand. This form of marketing is closely related to ordinary people being recruited online to become brand advocates. It is somehow considered underhanded, but it happens and can be effective. As peer influence is known to be a crucial aspect of brand popularity, marketing firms have taken to the online recruitment of consumers who act on behalf of the brand within their social network. If they identify with the brand, and if the brand enters the dialogues they participate in, they can become brand evangelists.

So whether through an infiltrating marketing specialist or a recruited individual, social networks can be opened and information can be circulated and hopefully distributed. The skill in this is not to be discovered, and as you can imagine it would be all too easy for this to be done clumsily, with negative consequences, as bad news travels fast. This warning cannot be repeated enough, as there is a real necessity that using social networks to disseminate event information be handled with subtlety and sensitivity. The social network marketer must be invisible within the virtual environment in which he or she operates—a stealth marketer, if you like.

Viral marketing is a cover-all term for the utilization of social networks, yet it has its roots in the practice of viral advertising, where in order for a video clip to be interesting enough for people to wish to pass it on to a friend, it has to have sufficiently interesting content. If this can be accomplished, then the message will spread like a virus. The question is therefore, what kinds of things are interesting enough for people to pass on, as it is a reflection of the sender? To stress the point, people encounter a lot of online stuff, and there really has to be a reason for forwarding images and clips to one’s network acquaintances.

To take a broad sweep at that, it seems that the viral has to be somehow interesting, strange, amazing, funny, gross, or sexy. That’s the kind of content that people send to one another. The rules that apply to standard media advertising are doubly so with regard to virals. It simply has to get noticed, and something about it has to be outstanding enough for someone to be motivated to share.

If an event marketer decides to try viral communication, a bland message will disappear off the radar. It may be artful and informative but ultimately not motivating. In this respect, virals have a tougher job than standard advertisements, as they, unlike their counterparts on standard media, are required to generate direct response through sending it on to others. It is

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therefore quite a hard trick to pull off. Advergames are elaborate online advertisements that allow visitors to

interact with an entertainment system. It is not new to create entertainment to promote merchandise, such as the Pokémon cartoons being primarily advertisements. Online advergames are interactive entertainment and at the same time interactive advertisements. As events are all about experience, it is sensible to consider that promotions for an event should also provide an experience. The extent to which this is apt will be a reflection of the stature of an event and of the resources available to event marketers. When it is a feasible approach, then it is possible to capture some of the experience of an event and incorporate it into some form of enjoyment for the people who join in.

You want people to become involved and feel they are part of something. If your promotions can achieve this for you, then it is an activity that can be useful for both customer acquisition and retention. Those who have not encountered your event will gain a positive impression of it, and those who have already attended will be able to relate to the experience via the interactive aspects of the promotion. The bar as to what constitutes entertainment is set pretty high these days, so some care has to be taken to comply with industry standards.

Research is available today based upon interrogation of computers by analyzing search parameters. Computers may be accessed by marketing operators and preferences and interests analyzed. This is known as behavioral advertising. It follows the same basic principles of standard marketing behavior: finding out about people and marketing to them accordingly. There has been some controversy about this way of doing business with regard to our right to privacy.

One high-profile operator, Phorm, has been regularly challenged by citizens and media about the legality of acting this way, but no clear outcome is evident. Nevertheless, there will be online segments available that will match some of the criteria of an event that the event marketer should be aware of. If someone regularly accesses information or chats about horses online, then he or she would be a sensible choice to communicate with concerning a horse show in his or her vicinity. It is a new technology, but established thinking.

FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR EVENT’S ONLINE PRESENCE 1. Use SEO to allow your event to emerge more frequently from

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consumer online activity. 2. Analyze traffic to your event website to inform you about SEO

criteria. 3. Use web traffic analysis to measure the effect of other event

marketing activity. 4. Access social networks by both casual observation and defined

research to improve your understanding of consumer attitudes toward your event.

5. Actively seek consumer input via your website as a means of event improvement and as a high-profile way of promoting inclusiveness and involvement.

Online Purchasing Behavior There are a number of Internet search and purchase patterns that should lead an event marketer to consider the integration of online communication within a wider media plan. That is to say that the Internet exists alongside the traditional media, which are still enormously evident and powerful, and most consumers are involved with both. To that extent, therefore, event marketers should consider their customers’ interplay between the two systems.

A low-interest Internet user may use the Internet as a source of information about events to some extent, but his or her main way of acquiring information is through traditional media, and he or she will prefer to make purchases offline. Fears about security and unfamiliarity with online payment systems may apply to some of your potential attendees, and you will fail to reach them if you rely totally upon online marketing and process. An event marketer needs to be aware of the way that customers prefer to use the Internet, and how it interfaces with the flesh and blood, brick-and-mortar world that they are used to. It may be that event customers use the Internet as a primary source of event information but prefer to make their purchases by other means. This may make it prudent to offer ticket sales via means other than the Internet, especially if your target audience contains low-Internet use segments, such as the elderly, or those without the means to pay online through lack of the appropriate payment mechanisms.

Another way to consider ticket purchases is to use the services of an external partner for ticket sales. Many consumers will trust big names like Ticketmaster or Eventim for their tickets, rather than an unknown and potentially risky credit card facility run by unknown characters of

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unknown origin, particularly in light of many consumers’ concern about online security.

On the other hand, some use traditional media sources, or even retail outlets, to gather information concerning their expenditure but for convenience prefer to purchase online, so they use Internet sites to make an order, not to search for information. Again, it can be limiting to rely overly upon a website or social sites to actively promote your event, as there may be a contingent of consumers who will be looking elsewhere for information about events that might interest them. This is a matter of straightforward media scheduling. To that extent and in this context, you should consider the Internet as part of a media mix, being aware that you may have potential customers who can be reached through traditional media.

The full-on Internet user implements all phases of information search and purchase transaction process using an e-commerce site—maybe someone who is heavily into computer technology, who is into modernity, who is very short on time, who doesn’t like shopping, or who doesn’t get out much. It may also simply refer to youthful consumers who channel all their enthusiasms via online services. It is slowly but surely becoming more and more mainstream for event users to behave this way, but other modes of Internet integration need to be taken into account, as mentioned above.

Paul Bush observes: Where viewing an advert in a magazine for mountain biking in Scotland might give the reader awareness of Scotland as a mountain biking destination, watching and looking at spectacular footage from others doing what you might be thinking about only serves to increase the intrigue in visiting.

There are a great diversity of event types and subsequently ages and demographics incorporated into event audiences, so event managers would do well to question the received wisdom of relying soley upon the Internet, as their customers may wish to do business or receive communications via another means.

Online Advertising “In the absence of communication amongst your customers,

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advertising rules.” Don Peppers, consumer marketing authority (Born 1951?)

The perspective of Don Peppers, above, is interesting, as it tells us that word of mouth is a more powerful force than advertising, but in e- marketing terms it reminds us that advertising and word of mouth have become interrelated due to the rise of social networking.

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FIGURE 5.12 These are eight Twitter messages (so-called tweets) from a Scotland-based cinema at a random point in time. Among eight messages, only one relates directly to the cinema and its activities. The other messages contain other information, such as replies to customers or sharing (so-called re-tweets) of other people’s tweets. This is an example of how the host is engaging in the conversation instead of leading a classical top-down monologue. In addition to this, the cinema also shares less directly related information, ranging from film reviews, both good and bad, to film-related news, links to videos, or even links to other cinemas and festivals. This gives the brand a human touch, making it easy to interact with and thus making it easier for the patron to identify with the brand.

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FIGURE 5.13 All Tomorrow’s Parties is a popular series of music festivals curated by popular artists such as Matt Groening (The Simpsons) or the creators of South Park. Their Facebook page offers basic information about who they are and what they do, their most recent events, videos, a message board, and a more casual chat space where messages from the festival and messages from fans seamlessly blend in.

Online advertising platforms such as Google AdWords or Facebook Adverts are highly efficient and effective in reaching appropriate consumers. Facebook, whose advertising platform started off weakly, has now become a considerable source of advertising communication and revenue. These platforms have two advantages: first, they most likely work on a pay-per-click system. This means that the customer only pays if his advertisement is clicked. This motivates the advertising seller to promote the advertisement as well as possible. It also means that the person who is advertising actually pays only if there has been some kind of success. This makes Internet advertising for smaller events extremely affordable and a quite safe card to play. Yet companies with large marketing budgets can

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buy sizable amounts of adverting and flood the Internet with their information, just as they would with magazine advertisements or billboards. The other advantage of online advertising is the extreme scalability and precise targeting that can be achieved. Google AdWords are based largely on the keywords someone types into the search engine. Facebook ads are targeted based on user profiles and access demographics and psychographics such as common interests (people who like beer in Milwaukee).

An emerging trend is the addition of geographic information to these advertisements. Where classical advertisements are often only able to track your position to the precision of a city or maybe a suburb of that city, new location-based advertising can refine this to 10 meters. Imagine you are on your mobile device, looking for “a jazz club in the West End of London,” and your mobile device was aware that you were still in the West End and would produce an advertisement such as “Looking for a jazz club? Take this advertisement to a particular West End venue and get a glass of wine for free.” This kind of advertising can be extremely powerful and even more affordable because it can be targeted more precisely.

CHAPTER SUMMARY For many, event marketing is e-marketing, yet as we have seen there are ways of working with online marketing that can provide advantage. By the same measure, as it is so ubiquitous, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. At the time of this writing, the Internet, aided by the emergence of social media, was beginning to emerge as the predominant media for communication about events, and there is no reason to assume that it will not continue to be, although as discussed in chapter 10, there can be a need to add traditional marketing methods to the mix to offer the possibility of creative differentiation. For as long as people continue to network via computers and handheld devices, e-communication will be the word of mouth that events need to generate interest, and while there will be subtle shifts in how social networks develop, the basic concept has been normalized in an incredibly short time.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • Do you already concentrate on electronic marketing, and is it working

for you?

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• How would you use e-marketing for customer acquisition and retention?

• How do you utilize social networks to generate communication about your event?

• How slick is your website, and what do you use it for? • Are your e-communications compatible with handheld devices and

phones? • How is your website virtually representative of your event, and will it

remind people of your event? • Is your online presence interactive and involving—does it do things or

does it just sit there? • How do you employ SEO and web analytics? • How do you use online advocates? • Is there an online community connected to your event? Would you like

for there to be? • How do you infiltrate social networks? • How do you use viral advertising to reach online audiences? • Do you use behavioral advertising to reach online audiences? • Are you well versed in online purchasing behavior?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://mashable.com

Mashable is the premier resource for social media. This blog, updated several times a day, provides brilliant insight into what happens in the social media world and should be your everyday read.

http://sxsw.com/interactive The interactive section of the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, contains podcasts and blog entries in relation to SXSW. SXSW represents one of the major festivals for the Web 2.0 community and is the birthplace of services such as Twitter.

http://www.wired.com http://www.wired.co.uk

The American and British versions of the magazine Wired keep you in the loop about trends and developments on the web and about social media in particular. The print version is also worth a shot.

http://www.eventmarketer.com

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The magazine Event Marketer has contained valuable resources since 2002 and offers event marketing–specific information.

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Chapter 6

Entertainment and Festival Event Marketing “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’” Jack Kerouac, novelist (1922–1969)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Assess the changing role of live entertainment and festivals in

twenty-first-century consumer culture,

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• Design, select, coordinate, and evaluate the event marketing promotional mix for event marketing for entertainment and festivals,

• Generate process and design for event marketing practice in the entertainment and festival sector, and

• Develop new techniques for using e-marketing to effectively and efficiently reach this sector.

Festivals and Human Identity Entertainments (e.g., theatrical productions, cultural events, and sporting events) and festivals (e.g., music, art, dance, and other) have a singular significance to the history of culture the world over. In this information- saturated age of the global village, it is easy to forget the essential role festivals played in the sharing of experience and the expression of values when the world was young. There is an important lesson to be learned by considering the past. It is not merely for idle curiosity that we should look to the past when considering the future, as there is much to learn.

The earliest festivals were oriented toward the heavens and the soil. They were both the stuff of life and of mystery. If we look back as far as our gaze will take us, we will find activities both familiar and strange. The Akitu festival, for example, is one of the oldest recorded festivals, some four thousand years old, and was agricultural and religious. One of the most important factors in the establishment of the calendar throughout ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq) was marked by the spring and autumn equinoxes, the periods of time when the moon and the sun are in balance with each other and mark, respectively, the beginning and completion of the agricultural year. The deity who ruled both the passage of time and the fertility of the land was Nanna, the Sumerian moon god. The religious and mythological themes for the festivals were essential for the marking of the agricultural year. Such a festival was both a celebration and serious business, as it was by festivity and worship that continuing agricultural abundance would be ensured by the grace of the gods.

The important message for festival event marketers to be gained from considering the ancient origins of festivals is that they were performing a serious social function, and that however extravagant, artistic, hedonistic, and enjoyable they may be, they are important to the attendees and represent expressions of identity and community. Back in the day, festival

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organizers were going out of their way to ensure that the proceedings were sufficiently lavish and symbolically elegant in order to impress the gods, or so it would seem to our twenty-first-century eyes. It would be reasonable to assume that they were furthermore designed to provide a social cohesion to the populace, and that their experience of events was just as important as other more ethereal considerations.

Look online for Passover and you will find a modern multimedia festival associated with the Jewish faith, with accompanying commercial services, a fully integrated, modern, managed, and marketed event. This festival has, however, been celebrated for almost three and a half thousand years and is in response to a biblical event. That is a long time for a festival to persist and is testament to the importance of its role for the community it serves. Consider how such festivals have bonded cultures through time. Festivals are the glue that binds people together. Once again we must force ourselves to see the world before the advent of mass media and instant communication, before the days of ease of transportation and global information networks. Festivals provided common and shared experiences. They still provide an opportunity for social interaction, and more importantly, provide an excuse for social interaction. Festivals break down barriers, making it effortless to enjoy social congress. The festival takes on the responsibility, provides the reason for togetherness, and is the cultural expression of mankind as a social animal.

According to Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies producer David Zolkwer: It’s easy to see the corollary between conventional brands and the evolving notion of national identity. This, after all, has become a central preoccupation of every nation in the 21st century. Who are we as a culture, and what role do we play in the wider world? In much the same way that a brand needs to forge connections with consumers and employees, countries need to engage with residents and potential visitors alike. In essence, it must give people a reason to believe. How does a country do that? Well, just the same way a brand tries to do it: through the creation of distinctive experiences that entertain us, inspire us, and give us that all- important sense of belonging. Ultimately that’s the opportunity a host country has when faced with the task of presenting itself to the rest of the world. A large-scale public event or ceremony, such as the Commonwealth Games or the Olympics, offers a singular

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moment in time and space when it’s possible to communicate directly with millions, maybe billions, of people. More importantly, these people have all come together with the desire to share an experience, hear the same story.

Festivals and Entertainments There is, of course, an overlap between festivals and live entertainments, and the terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive. What is commonly referred to as entertainments includes sporting events, theatrical productions, musical concerts, comedy venues, award ceremonies, and the circus, for example. While these can be part of wider festival proceedings, they can, on the other hand, be stand-alone events. The World Cup could therefore be described as a festival of soccer, whereas my son’s team, Liverpool FC, playing a home fixture would be more of an entertainment. A festival is therefore a collection of entertainments.

Washington, DC–based advertising and public relations executive Steve Winter argues: I don’t think the public cares much either way if an event is a recurring event or a spontaneous activity. After all, annual events have truly become the norm in today’s society. As we all know, such events serve to help promote a mission or cause, tell a story or—in some cases—simply make money. Let’s take an annual “Taste of Edinburgh” event or an Annual Jazz and Blues Festival. Such events become part of a city’s cultural landscape and people become as used to attending such events as they are to the annual stop on a professional golf or tennis tour or an arts festival.

Whether we talk of festivals or entertainments, however, is probably immaterial to consumers of them, to whom the distinction will be semantic. Where a definite distinction became very real during the twentieth century was the difference between live and broadcast events. The distinction was that of firsthand and secondhand experience. The growth of particularly the recording and broadcast media of the twentieth century meant that increasingly, entertainment was a secondhand experience. Popular music sales became dominated by recordings, theatrical performances became the province of the movies, and the influence of television was absolutely astonishing in the extent to which

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entertainment arrived in our sitting rooms. To the mass market, entertainment became something that was delivered into homes filled with products that were advocated during the ad breaks. There was always the local football team to permit some social congress, and the shopping mall to distribute advertised products, but twentieth-century entertainment was to be typified by the Simpsons on their sofa, those resilient icons of consumer culture.

That is not to say, of course, that firsthand experience of festivals and entertainment has long been evident, but rather due to the population explosion of the twentieth century, coupled with the development of broadcast media, the majority of people mostly received their entertainment secondhand as viewers, remote and separate from proceedings, viewing in isolated units, part of an audience of millions, but to all subjective extents, alone in their homes.

David Zolkwer further observes: In many ways, a public event is ultimately a different kind of brand launch. And like any other brand, its stewards need to be clear about the story they’re telling. This was brought home to me exactly two years before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games in 2008. Since I was acting as a consultant to the Organizing Committee, I was invited onto Chinese television to talk about the Olympics. Before the program I was given a tour of the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing. Even as a building site as it was back then it was an inspiring technological wonder, and I initially assumed that this was what they’d probably want to talk about during the interview. However, scale, spectacle and the use of technology are all ceremony prerequisites. They’re nothing more than the means to a storytelling end. What I really wanted to do, was explore a simple, but crucial question. . . . When over four billion people tuned in to hear what Beijing had to say for itself, what was it going to say? Despite its vast size and influence China was a country that the rest of the world barely knew. And there was that brilliant, empty stadium, like a giant film set waiting for a script. To me it wasn’t going to be the spectacle and technology and pyrotechnics that were going to matter most—it would be the story.

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Entertainment in the Twenty-First Century In many ways, entertainment remains what it has always been, a means to delight and distract, a means of both conformity and self-expression. Two broad sectors, sport and show business, developed within defined parameters that have since become blurred. The entertainment industry today has subsumed these distinctions, so that movie stars, musicians, and sporting heroes are equally managed to support the media-based celebrity culture of the twenty-first century. In the recent past, entertainment was something that happened to people; now it is something that people use, as the idea of the passive consumer has been replaced with the interactive consumer to whom entertainment is something that flows through them into their social network. In other words, the twenty-first-century consumer of entertainment is not a receptacle but a channel.

The development of wireless digital communication and handheld communication devices, the seamless blending of the virtual with the real in our concept of experience, has rendered a widespread mergence of the consumption of entertainments with the experience of that consumption. This phenomenon can be thought of as primary and secondary experience. In straight event language, this means that those who experience an entertainment firsthand act as a channel for those who experience it secondhand, due to the increasing tendency of modern consumers to share their experiences via technology.

While it is therefore valid to express the philosophy that there is nothing new in the world, it is equally valid to see that the only constant is change, and with respect to entertainment, we are still being amused and distracted by the same kind of performances, yet the role of the consumer has become altered. We are now part of the show. This is mirrored in the rise of audience participation in popular entertainment, the reality show format, where it is our dreams and dramas that enthrall the nation. It is the ultimate marketing heist: give consumers the impression that they are part of the product. Perhaps the ultimate marketing objective is to get consumers to believe they are making up their own minds while being expertly managed.

FIVE WAYS TO CONSIDER FESTIVALS AND ENTERTAINMENTS

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1. Your festival must satisfy a particular need for your target audience, and you must understand what that need is.

2. Your attendees are using your entertainment event to brand themselves, and you need to understand and control the brand meanings that are you providing.

3. You are in a highly competitive market, and your festival is but one of many and therefore needs to be differentiated from others that may be very similar.

4. Your customers are the ultimate marketing communication for your event and should be considered as your premier media channel.

5. Festivals and entertainments are themselves a medium for the promotion of sponsors.

Festival Marketing Fundamentals Today’s festivals and entertainments are varied and sophisticated, come in all shapes and sizes, and are concerned with entertainments, sports, and a wide range of activities that people feel are worth celebrating.

Marketing these seemingly unique types of events requires understanding that they are not likely to be so unique after all, and that it is a competitive marketplace. In other words, the success of an event may not depend on the type of event, the star attraction, or the cause of the event, but on how well a marketer is able to motivate a potential festival audience. Let us consider some aspects of festival marketing as expressed by Hoyle in the first edition of Event Marketing that are fundamental to success.

Location Factors. The selection and marketing of location has a significant impact on attendance and the resulting success of a festival. Is it centrally located or in a distant suburb, or in some far-flung field? Is there easy road access from interstate highways or is there a subway stop within walking distance? Promoting easy access, a central location, or a new venue can contribute to greater attendance at your event. In addition, marketing the convenience of the location can increase acceptance of the event, and combining historic or resort attributes can excite the potential attendees. Sometimes, therefore, event consumers will have basic considerations in mind when assessing an event with which they have a somewhat casual affiliation, and how convenient it is to access will certainly be in the minds of many. As discussed in chapter 5, the website for an event is integral, and when considering event location matters, the ease of location of the event web page is just as important a criteria as the location of the event

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itself.

FIGURE 6.1 A right of passage, a promotional event, a talent showcase, and a national treasure: The many faces of a multi-faceted event.

Hoyle tells of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team that played its home games at Memorial Stadium, an outdated stadium located in a rough neighborhood. When a new stadium was built in the rejuvenated Inner Harbor area of Baltimore and was designed to look like the ball fields of yesteryear, the stadium and its location became a bigger attraction than the team itself. The team sold out most of its home games the first year not because of a winning team, but because of the buzz created by the new stadium and its location. In the promotional messaging the ball club used in selling tickets, one of the key marketing messages was for Oriole fans and nonfans to come out and visit this new masterpiece. The location was such a success that other Major League Baseball teams, such as the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers, copied the Orioles’ marketing strategy with the same success. This is a telling example, since if an event

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location itself is a major draw to attendees, it should be central to marketing communications for the event. A rock music festival in Scotland, aptly named Rock Ness, takes place in the vicinity of the famous Loch Ness, of Loch Ness monster or Nessie fame. The location of this festival is not merely incidental to the draw of the event, but has been integrated into the name.

There can be practical aspects to the choice of event location that are linked to ease of access. Every attempt needs to be taken to ensure that those who wish to attend are given every opportunity to do so in as convenient a manner as possible.

Religious festivals represent a great draw the world over. At the time of this writing, the pope had recently visited Scotland; the papal mass was held in Glasgow, a major event attracting many tens of thousands of attendees, many of whom arrived by coach. The location of the event therefore was of some importance as a logistical consideration. The park that was chosen had the advantage of being close to a quiet stretch of freeway that was closed down for the day to be transformed into a coach park, allowing pilgrims to walk a relatively short distance to the event (www.Vatican.com).

Competition. Promoting your festival as seeming unique, different, and better than the competitors’ can be as important as the event itself. A marketer needs to advertise and promote the advantages of the event by showcasing those aspects of the event that offer the most identifiable competitive advantage. This requires a fully prepared marketing strategy, which has been discussed in chapter 3. The unique selling point of a festival will vary on a case-by-case basis, and event marketing in its strategic role is about weighing the alternatives to find the most persuasive description of your festival.

Using a marketing strategy in which you point out your differences directly against competition can be tempting, but there is a risk in doing so. To name the competition can give these competitors credibility and recognition. You would be in effect drawing your target audience’s attention toward your competitors. Unlike some consumer products and services, it is hard to use this as a marketing advantage in events. Traveling carnivals may be tempted to promote the fact that they are a better value than a full-blown amusement park; however, it may become evident to the consumer that millions of dollars of investment in rides and attractions may be a better experience. When an event is successful, there can, and will be, imitators who market their festivals and entertainments

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the same way, copying advertisements and themes as well as the look of the events. This can not only add to confusion for the public, but also hurt both the original event and the imitator in the end. Lollapalooza, a summer concert tour featuring a diverse assortment of musical rock groups attracting fans in their teens and twenties, became a surprise runaway success in the concert business, breaking attendance records across the United States. After the second year of the tour, there were countless imitators marketing their tours in similar fashions, eventually giving music fans comparable choices.

It is therefore the norm not to be overtly competitive in festival marketing communications, but rather to be powerfully competitive by knowing your competitors, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, and creating an event that has important advantages over theirs, and at the very least matching their competencies when resources are tight.

It is also imperative that festival marketers make informed decisions as to whom they deem their competition to be. This could be other festivals happening at the same time, both directly and indirectly competitive. Direct festival competition will not necessarily be happening at exactly the same time as your own, but rather within a broader time frame, such as during the summer, or even at the end of the month, coinciding with available funds via the paycheck. Inasmuch as social media, as discussed in chapter 5, are central to the marketing of festivals and entertainments, there is a need to determine the options open to your target consumers that may draw attendance away, so that the appropriate dialogues are encouraged.

Weather. Unlike a consumer product that is marketed on its own virtue, the weather can be an advantage or a disadvantage in selling a special event. Weather can set the mood for the participants or consumers of the events. For example, consumer ski and travel shows typically take place in early November, a time that enables attendees to preview the latest ski equipment and ski resorts. Research has shown that when the weather was cold, the show’s attendance increased measurably. On the other hand, when the weather was unseasonably warm during the show, attendance declined dramatically. In these cases, the weather had a significant effect on the outcome of the event. Weather also plays a big role in sporting events. Opening day of Major League Baseball is a unique event in which fans come outside to enjoy the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Professional beach volleyball’s success has to do, in part, with the fact that the competitions take place in warm-weather areas where spectators can

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feel comfortable attending in a bathing suit or shorts to watch volleyball, complete with sand that is sometimes brought in to re-create a summer beach scene. Indoor shows or events can be adversely affected if the weather is ideal. However, when the weather turns undesirable, it can keep people from outdoor leisure activities and bring them indoors to special events. A sophisticated marketer will be ready in these situations with communications on standby.

When rain is forecast, the marketer will run communications that the public should come indoors in the wet weather. There are hundreds of arts- and-crafts shows that are held in outdoor locations with exhibitors under portable pop-up tents. The success of these festivals and entertainments depends on good weather, but everyone participates in these events with this understanding.

One way marketers can ensure their success in promoting festivals and entertainments that can be affected by the weather is to presell as many tickets as possible, sometimes, but by no means always, at a discount, to guarantee attendance at these events. At the Vintage Virginia Wine Festival, tickets at a discount are sold in advance to guarantee substantial attendance. Part of the allure of the Super Bowl is that the event takes place in the middle of the winter in a warm climate or at an indoor venue. The success of marketing a golf tournament is better in May than in November. The success in selling concerts under the stars at outdoor amphitheaters has created a national summer concert season at such venues, both new and old, across the country.

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FIGURE 6.2 Beer, community, tourism and trade. Opportunity Fest!

Cost. If the word free is used in fair, festival, and other special event advertisements, it attracts attention. With so many on limited household incomes, something free can be most appealing, even if the free entry is a lure to encourage expenditure in situ. So whether genuinely free or at an

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inviting pricing strategy, festivals and entertainments represent consumer expenditure, and that can be off-putting to many, especially in comparison to the entertainment available via broadcast media or the interactive world of gaming and online attractions. A free festival therefore will attract some, but put off others whose attitude may be, if it’s free, can it be any good?

If the cost of a festival is set at an attractive level, and that is intended as an inducement, it needs to be stressed on the web page or in the advertising. When advertising a show, a marketer wants to be able to attract as wide an audience as possible to the event. For this reason, some events and shows that sell front-row seats at a premium do not even list the price of these tickets in advertisements but instead say, “special seating available.” Like all markets, festivals and entertainments express a pricing agenda where generally speaking, price is indicative of quality or desirability.

Event marketers have to be careful, therefore, how they pitch price for their festival, as it amounts to a potentially strong aspect of their targeting. Pricing low or promoting a free event in a competitive market may not necessarily be an attractor, yet plainly there are a multitude of reasonably priced and free festivals on the go.

On the other hand, the cost of festivals and entertainments can represent relatively heavy consumer expenditure, and we should consider that there is a status attached to paying high prices for important things, particularly when demand for tickets outstrips supply. A seat at the Super Bowl can cost more than $200. A good ticket to listen to the vocal talents of Barbra Streisand can easily cost more than $500. Festivals and entertainments are no different from branded consumer goods in this respect, as the more you pay, the more kudos is involved. In an experience economy, the fundamental rules of consumer behavior have not changed.

People still want to impress other people through the way they spend their money. Only recently an acquaintance attempted, in vain, to impress with an account of front-row seats at a Rod Stewart concert, and moreover was able to produce a visible artifact of the experience via iPhone, wherein Rod could be clearly discerned strutting his not-inconsiderable stuff. These seats would have been fairly expensive, and not so easy to acquire, and naturally were being exhibited as a means of impressing.

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FIGURE 6.3 Business meets ecology, consumers meet suppliers. Events like this generate momentum.

It would therefore be unwise to make assumptions about how much an entertainment or festival audience is willing to pay. Market analysis and consumer research combined with an analysis of demand should inform the event marketer as to how much attendees are willing to pay.

Entertainment. The success of a festival is also dependent on the marketing of the entertainment. There are many types of entertainment that can be marketed in a variety of ways. For big-name stars, a media interview and a press release announcing tickets going on sale are effective for a quick sellout. Footage of such media interviews, if audiovisual, should be posted online. Different and new types of entertainment, on the other hand, may require larger marketing and public relations budgets. When Defending the Caveman, a one-man comedy show, started playing in Washington, DC, there was a need for numerous newspaper advertisements and a public relations campaign to promote this alternative to the typical comedy club

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show. At the onset of the show, there had never been a truly successful one-man comedy show outside of Broadway. After the show ran in five cities and began to receive strong public relations support and word of mouth, it began selling out across the country, leading to Broadway’s longest-running comedy show. As the show moved from San Francisco to Dallas to Washington, the marketing was altered and became more sophisticated. What started with newspaper advertisements eventually moved to radio and direct mail. The show is still running and has become established.

FIGURE 6.4 The sun shines here, providing warmth in a cold economic climate​—the emotional sustenance provided by festivities should not be underestimated.

Media. Determining appropriate media for a festival requires appreciation that certain types of media help elevate the excitement of festivals and entertainments. Cirque du Soleil, a new wave, rock-and-roll Canadian circus, is difficult to describe. Through the use of colorful print advertisements, however, prospective spectators can gain a sense of this

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type of event, and the numerous clips of their performances on YouTube and the like offer ample opportunity for prospective attendees to get a flavor of what to expect. Radio can be important for marketing musical festivals and entertainments, as sound is the key to these types of programs, yet the Internet has become central to the music industry via downloads and should be utilized to generate interest.

If you are marketing the annual home and garden festival, do not randomly run advertisements in a local newspaper. Instead, target media that have a connection to the event, and access social media networks that express an interest. If utilizing newspapers, target the weekly home and garden section. On radio, promote the event on gardening shows. On television, target cable TV networks like the home and garden network. By spending advertising dollars on media that relate directly to the product, you are being efficient with your media dollars. The marketer must look at the event and find the advertising opportunities that fit the event the best.

Ideally, festivals will use a mixture of online and traditional media to promote themselves. When the festival is modest in scope and traditional media costs are prohibitive, see chapter 5 for advice on utilizing the Internet.

Established and First-Time Festivals and Entertainments In promoting first-time festivals and entertainments, one needs to educate the public to promote the new event. First-time festivals need to cut through the clutter of marketing communications in which they will have to get the message across. This applies as much to online promotion as it does to traditional media. Ideally, the consumer needs to be exposed to many different media, ranging from radio advertisements that heighten interest, to TV advertisements that visualize and excite, to print advertisements that give information, to websites that provide a comprehensive overview and social networking interventions to generate word of mouth.

In contrast, an established event, perhaps having a big-name band or movie star as an attraction to contribute to its success, needs to be promoted in a different way. There is a seesaw effect in scheduling a proper marketing program for this type of event. You may want to allow extra time to promote the event. If promotions start too far out, however, it will be difficult to get the market to focus on the event. If promotions start too close to the event, there will not be enough time to educate the audience about your event. Let’s look at two similar events with different

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histories. Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian circus, has been touring in North America

for years and has built up a huge following throughout the world. When this attraction comes to town, there is much more demand for tickets than supply of seats; thus, Cirque’s promoters put tickets on sale over six months before the show comes to town. This strategy is successful, as most shows sell out months in advance due to prior knowledge. Barnum’s Kaleidoscope, a similar circus attraction, had no history and had to resort to a larger marketing effort. This show’s sales were more dependent on word of mouth and reviews after the shows had begun. More marketing efforts were undertaken during the entire run of the show, trying to build on the success of the earlier shows. If the run were successful, eventually Barnum’s Kaleidoscope would be able to mimic Cirque du Soleil’s strategy.

The media play an important role in marketing festivals and entertainments. The media face stiff competition from other media outlets, both print and electronic, and one way to set themselves apart is to become a media sponsor of festivals and entertainments in their community. An early example of this had WRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Washington, DC, realize the importance of this type of sponsorship. On one three-day weekend, the station was the official media sponsor of AIDS Walk, Taste of DC, and the Rock ’N Race. With the use of on-site signage and banners as well as news personalities on-site, the television station demonstrated its commitment to the community while setting itself apart from the competition. How much does this cost the media? Typically, advertisements are placed into time slots that have not been sold or station promotional mentions are aired, which don’t count as advertisements, thus not depriving the media of revenue. The media can help play a critical role as unsold advertisement inventory can be used to ensure awareness of festivals and entertainments.

A common promotional vehicle for fairs, festivals, and other special events is working with the promotion department of a radio station to become a partner in an event. Not all festivals are especially major, of course, and radio marketing costs are comparatively low. Typically, one radio station will want exclusivity as the radio partner or sponsor and, in exchange, will work with the promoter to market the event to the public. The radio station will run a series of commercials, promotional spots, and, in some cases for nonprofit entities, public service announcements. To add more credibility and enhancement, radio personalities from the stations

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either act as emcees to the events or appear live at the events to give away radio promotional materials or, in some cases, autographs. For the National Race for the Cure, a breast cancer charity event, an adult contemporary station is the exclusive radio sponsor and, as part of its commitment, the station continuously promotes the event as its major radio promotion for the year. The station is credited by the organizers with helping to make the race the largest 5K in the world, with over 60,000 runners. If the event is broad enough and big enough, more than one radio station can be brought on for each category of audience. This might include formats such as news/talk, Top 40, urban, adult contemporary, and rock.

Besides broadcasting advertisements and promotions on television, a TV station can integrate information about a festival into its news coverage by doing actual news stories about the event and also coordinating live shots at the event. For example, at an annual food event attended by over one million people and as part of its partnership, a local television station runs stories about the event in advance. Then live newscasts occur during the events. The station could also have a booth at the event in which it promotes its personalities or programming.

The true success to marketing entertainments and festivals is to combine the strengths of advertising, public relations, and promotion to reinforce the special event. To implement a successful marketing campaign, a marketer must create aspects of advertising, public relations, and promotion that complement each other. The key is to time the advertising to create awareness in conjunction with a public relations campaign in order to maximize impact. Promotions should be incorporated into the marketing mix.

Stunts, Street Promotion, and Guerrilla Marketing When thinking of a stunt or street promotion to promote an entertainment or festival, appreciate that it requires careful preparation and must still be noteworthy and interesting. Remember that to make the promotion successful, you have to keep it legal. Additionally, location of the promotion is critical; if you are doing the promotion for public attention, pick a central location or an area that has high visibility and large amounts of traffic. Alternatively, virtual stunts designed for online posting can enjoy more latitude as to the where and when of proceedings.

Every year, to announce the fact that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus is in town, the circus does a street promotion called the

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animal walk. Depending on logistics and neighborhoods, most of the animals from the circus are paraded from the circus train to the venue in which they will be performing. This is a tradition in every town the circus tours and has been going on for many years. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey created an old-fashioned circus parade, similar to the ones that occurred more than 50 years ago, featuring circus performers, animals from the show, old circus wagons, marching bands, and lots of horses.

The Pennsylvania Boat Show created a promotion in which a contest was held and 10 listeners of a radio station were invited to come out to the show and kiss a boat continuously. The last person left kissing the boat won it. The promotion took place over a three-day period and was continually advertised by the radio station, as well as in all advertisements placed for the boat show. This helped to create a situation that was ripe for public relations. Through press releases and the awareness created from the advertising, stories on television, in newspapers, and even on a competing radio station, a wide audience was obtained. The need to utilize social networking communications to generate interest in such goings-on is really a given for the event marketer these days.

To get attention, a festival marketer may need to be unique and creative. As people see increasingly outrageous TV shows and contests and have the world of weirdness at their fingertips through YouTube and viral communications, marketers have to continue to stand out to grab the attention of their target market. When planning a street promotion, you must consider weather, risk, and outside influences that might disrupt the stunt. Not everyone may be as excited as you about your promotion. If it is raining, you may not draw as many spectators as you had expected. If the promotion causes traffic jams, the people stuck in traffic will have other thoughts about your promotion. People love to get something for free, whether it is big or small, so when you think of street promotions all it may take for a little attention is to give something away to the public. By giving away something for free, you guarantee some type of interest and excitement. Make sure the freebie has a connection to the event.

You have to be careful about how wild your stunts can be, as the real world obeys different rules than the virtual world. When you come out of a successful brainstorming session, there may be a temptation to do a stunt or street promotion that may be too bizarre or may not be legal. You have to remember that if something goes wrong or the stunt alienates the public, there may be more negative attention or publicity that could then end up harming the event.

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For example, to promote the opening of a boat show, which took place in the middle of winter, a stunt performer water-skied wearing just a bathing suit on an almost frozen river. In the end, the promoters were lucky, as the water-skier did not fall into the freezing waters, which could have produced a dangerous situation. He did not, and hundreds pulled over to the side of the road, a little confused as they watched him perform tricks in front of photographers and reporters.

Sometimes the act of giving something away can be used to get media coverage. Whenever there is a chance to win a large sum of money or a trip to an exotic location, people will be attracted in large numbers. Also, if there is a chance for someone to win a car or a million dollars, both the public and the media will take notice. But remember, by holding one of these contests, you will create a lot of awareness as well as a lot of disappointed people who did not win. As a result, you may damage your event.

In the 1990s, Foot Locker created the first Million Dollar Shot, which took place during the rookie game at the NBA’s All-Star Weekend. One person was chosen at random to take a half-court shot for the million dollars. National publicity prior to the event included a story on the front page of USA Today and an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. When the winner, a 15-year-old boy, missed the big shot in front of millions of people on TV, his immediate reaction was to cry in the arms of his parents. The public’s reaction to his crying was not the best publicity for Foot Locker.

Guerrilla marketing involves the use of unorthodox and sometimes unusual methods whereby marketers try to get attention for their festivals and entertainments in front of a live or online audience. Since there are so many efforts to reach the target markets of festivals and entertainments by using traditional media, you have to look for unique ideas to draw attention to the festival or event. Consumers are assaulted by hundreds of advertising messages per day on- and offline. Through the use of guerrilla marketing, you can make your advertising message and event identifiable. This can also be called “in-your-face” marketing because one takes immediate notice of the guerrilla marketing tactics. In order for guerrilla tactics to succeed, you must have the element of surprise, create attention by doing something unique, have something that is attention getting to promote, and find an area where there already is a large built-in audience. When you have these elements, you can successfully pull off a guerrilla marketing exercise. An increasing number of mainstream marketers are

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using guerrilla marketing tactics to draw attention. There is somewhat of a crossover here in terms of how viral marketing can be classified, as the real-time dissemination of interesting or outrageous clips through online communities seems to be a virtual manifestation of the guerrilla marketing approach.

The Celebrity Factor We live in a celebrity-obsessed world, and festivals and entertainments are particularly prone to the involvement. Celebrities come in all shapes and sizes and are ranked with almost military precision according to their media worth, from A-list all the way through to Z-list. It should go without saying that celebrities do not enjoy mixing publicly with those lower down the pecking order.

The use of celebrities and VIPs at events and festivals can be a beneficial factor in raising the success of festivals and entertainments. Well-matched celebrities can add credibility and enhance image. For example, when you have a big-name athlete or Hollywood star, the public associates that with the event and perceives the event as first-class in nature. This may help differentiate the event from others, enabling the event organizer to attract more sponsors as well as use the celebrities for hospitality purposes. In addition, celebrities can draw media coverage as the media is always looking for celebrity appearances. The annual Best Buddies Ball, a charity event that raises money for programs for the mentally challenged every year, brings in a star-studded cast to mingle with the attendees. When the media is alerted to the fact that big names are in town, there is extensive national and local interest and media coverage. It is straightforward to consider celebrities as a quick fix for gaining media attention for PR and promotion.

However, celebrities can cause problems. They do not always listen to instructions, promote the right sponsor, or give the proper message. Nor can they always be relied upon to behave themselves. You, as a marketer, have to do research and talk to others who have used the celebrities in the past. The celebrity’s agent is looking for the bookings and may not always tell you the whole story regarding his or her client. When you have celebrities, you need to maximize their use. By doing advance media with the celebrities before they arrive in town, you can help create the extra excitement that makes for a successful festival. When the celebrities are in town, they can do live TV interviews from the venue, stop by TV stations the morning of the event, or do a photo shoot at the venue. By setting up a

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predinner reception or a luncheon with sponsors or VIPs, you can add to the viability of having the celebrity at the event. The organizer can take instant photos with sponsors and VIPs and then get personal autographs, which can go a long way in motivating the sponsors to sign up again in the years to come.

Although having a celebrity may get everyone excited, the bigger the star, the harder it is to handle and control the influence he or she will have on the event. If it is important for the star to know the details of your event and praise the sponsor, you may look to a star who is less famous but more cooperative. When working with major stars, you have to do intense preparation. Do not assume that the celebrity, equipped with just a brief description of his or her “role,” will perform all the duties that are required. Be prepared to give the celebrity a crash course on why he or she is at an event, what he or she will do, background on the program, and a briefing of the sponsors and other VIPs involved in the event. This can mean sending background information or a brief video to the celebrity one to two weeks prior to the event. Then a member of the event staff should accompany the car or limousine that is picking up the celebrity. This person should carry an aide-mémoire with brief points and information on the event. He or she should also show a brief video to the celebrity in the car, provide a summary of the events, and conduct a question-and-answer period.

The saying goes you get what you pay for and, when using celebrities, this is often the case. Celebrities do not like to say no to public appearances, but they do like to be compensated. Celebrities are also more responsible when they are being paid to be at an event. Many festivals and entertainments have had a celebrity donate his or her services only to cancel at the last minute.

Hoyle reminisces about when a number of years ago, a promoter organized a charity tennis tournament. He looked around town to find an honorary chairman—a high-profile celebrity who played tennis and would lend credibility to the event. The promoter did some research and discovered that a popular local news anchor was an avid tennis player. The promoter contacted the news anchor, who agreed not only to serve as the honorary chairman but, more important, to play in a lunchtime celebrity tennis match against one of the event’s sponsors. A week before the event, the promoter confirmed the celebrity’s participation, but when it came time for the tennis match, the celebrity did not show up, disappointing all the participants who were looking forward to meeting him and watching

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him play tennis. However, during the past two years, the promoter has paid more than 200 celebrities to make appearances at his events and in only two cases has he had no-shows.

The Washington, DC, Scope It Out 5K Walk/Run for Colon Cancer has an interesting history. In 2000, NBC’s Today Show cohost Katie Couric decided to get together with Lilly Tartikoff, widow of former NBC head Brandon Tartikoff, to create a brand-new special event to raise awareness and funds for colon cancer research. Ms. Couric’s husband, Jay Monahan, died in 1998 from the affliction and she was looking to do something to make a difference in battling the disease. Ms. Couric and Ms. Tartikoff looked around at all of the big charity events in the United States and saw that there were already many charity runs and walks across the country. They realized that they wanted to create a big event, but it had to be different. They both had relationships with celebrities and musicians who might add something extra to a fundraising walk or run. They developed the idea of having a 5K walk featuring some celebrity friends of theirs as well as ending the event with a postwalk concert. They then tied in with the Entertainment Industry Foundation and created one of the nation’s most successful first-time events. After research, it was discovered that colon cancer typically attacks men and women aged 40 years and older. The target was to reach this audience. The event was to take place in Washington, DC, because it was the hometown of Katie Couric and also because political efforts could be pushed to coincide with the event. Event organizers coordinated advertising promotional support from the Washington Post and WRQX- FM, an adult contemporary radio station. The paper agreed to give them free space/available ads to support the event. The first ads appeared two months prior to the event with a push on getting people to register to walk and to solicit pledges. Then two weeks prior to the event, the ads in the paper started to reflect the entertainment side of the event. The Washington Post contributed more than $100,000 in advertising support. The radio station ran ads and public service announcements for a two- month period, totaling over $30,000 in value. Four major sponsors were brought on board, each receiving signage at the event, logo placement in print ads, and VIP hospitality at the event, as well as announcements during the event. Sponsors were also interviewed and reported on by the media. While ads were reaching the papers and radio, Katie Couric, TV star Dennis Franz, and baseball star Eric Davis were doing interviews with the Washington Post and numerous radio stations. To elicit excitement about the event, there were registration parties at Bloomingdale’s, one of the event sponsors. Because of Ms. Couric’s

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connections, Dennis Franz from NYPD Blue; Eric Davis from the St. Louis Cardinals, who had recovered from colon cancer; and singer Paul Simon were brought on board. This helped to make this event a high- profile occasion, as well as a major musical extravaganza. Because of the success of the first year—over 25,000 walkers and over 100,000 concertgoers—the event proved so popular that it has spread to other cities.

(www.runwashington.com)

On occasion, using a local VIP such as a politician may be desirable to attract attention and add credibility to a festival, particularly if it promotes an issue or a cause that the politician is happy to be associated with. You must be careful when using politicians, as they may bring in people and add credibility, but they also may bring controversy. Let there be no doubt about it, politicians are celebrities, or as Frank Zappa put it, the entertainment branch of industry. In addition, although the program may call for a brief speech, politicians sometimes do not know the meaning of the word brief. For an annual Help the Homeless Walkathon, the event was scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. with brief speeches by sponsors and politicians for 20 minutes. The event organizers were prepared for the walk to start at 10:20 a.m. with hundreds of event staff in place. At 10:40, politicians were still rambling on, and in order to get the event going, organizers had to literally walk on the stage and cut off the last speech. Moreover, what was being said could very easily have gone off message from the aims of the event.

Trademarks and Logos The most famous sports entertainment event is the Olympic Games, the world’s foremost festival of sport. The branding of this event is so important that unless a company is a sponsor of the Olympic Games, it cannot use the term Olympic Games in any advertising. In fact, the Olympic Games protects its name to such a high degree that the Olympic committees even trademark other similar names, such as the Sydney Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). The goal of an event organizer is to have a branded event that is so popular that the mere mention of the name brings instant recognition, awareness, and attention.

After putting together a successful event, others may look at that event and say, “We could do one better” or “There is a big market for this type of event. Why don’t I get my share of the market by duplicating the event?” The important thing to remember is that now, by creating a name,

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a logo, and a concept, all with trademark protection, you can brand the event.

There are many circuses across the country, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey—the world’s largest—but when the Canadian circus troupe Cirque du Soleil came up with a unique, artistic, nonanimal, avant- garde circus, it became a success. To make sure that Cirque du Soleil kept its market, it quickly set up year-round versions in Las Vegas, Orlando, and Louisiana, in addition to its traveling troupes. Not content to sit back and lose that part of the market, Ringling Bros. created its own one-tent circus, Barnum’s Kaleidoscope, in an attempt to compete against Cirque du Soleil.

To secure the branded event, a marketer must create an identity both graphically and descriptively. One could begin by creating a logo. Today, corporations can spend upwards of a million dollars to create a logo. They do this because a logo creates an image that one respects and understands, and this helps brand the event. The public may stay away from something unfamiliar. Just look at the success of McDonald’s and T.G.I. Friday’s. Although they are popular in all their locations with respect to product, they deliver consistency in a package that large numbers of people want. The same can be said about events and festivals. If there is a successful branded event in one area or during a specific time of year, the public will come to trust in the event, guaranteeing the longevity of the enterprise.

David Zolkwer recalls the Athens Olympics and cultural DNA: Before the games the Greek brand was suffering. As the date for the opening ceremony drew nearer, doubts about the ability of Greece to deliver turned to fever pitch. Much of the media feeding frenzy centered around the stadium, which seemed to fall ever more hopelessly behind schedule. Standing in that stadium it felt to me like the Greek brand promise was coming apart. It wasn’t just the foreign stakeholders; it was the people of Greece who were losing faith in their own country. If you believed what you read in the papers, failure—a Greek tragedy—seemed virtually inevitable. Only, Greece and the Greeks didn’t fail. Instead they were magnificent. The day after the opening, the London Times carried a headline on its front page that simply read, “From Tragedy to Triumph.” But they weren’t talking about the stadium and the sporting competition had yet to begin. They were talking about the amazing experience of an opening ceremony that the

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Greeks had dared to deliver to its people and the wider world. That ceremony was made up of many remarkable moments, but one specific moment comes to mind for its simplicity, truthfulness and relevance. It presented us with the image of a pregnant woman and a spectacular depiction of the stuff of life—a single, spiraling strand of DNA. That DNA would make her child unique, as it makes us all unique. But it is also what all of us share: each different, all the same. Overnight the Greek brand was transformed into something people could believe in, something to be respected, something that they wanted to be a part of.

FIVE BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT MARKETING YOUR FESTIVAL OR ENTERTAINMENT (FOE) 1. Is the location of your FoE maximizing opportunity for attendance,

and does it add something positive to the experience? 2. Is your pricing structure, and are your pricing packages, attracting

both the number and type of attendees who are required and desired? 3. Is the content of your FoE such that you are doing all you can to

make it a sufficiently attractive proposition to prospective attendees in a competitive market?

4. Is the online presence of your FoE sufficiently developed to be able to outperform your competition?

5. Is the offline marketing of your FoE such that you are able to achieve excitement, interest, and differentiation?

For established events, the logo incorporates a great deal of meaning. Think of all the associations incorporated within the interlocking disks of the Olympics. It can be a useful brand builder for less established festivals to generate a visually interesting logo, which when observed by potential attendees contains a coded representation of all that the festival has to offer.

Appraising Festival Performance Festivals and entertainments thrive with respect to the unique anticipated qualities of the event. As we have discussed, marketing these special events requires not only traditional on- and offline methods, but also nontraditional marketing techniques, such as street promotion and guerrilla marketing. Unconventional methods are apt to attract attention from the

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consumer and spread through electronic word of mouth, resulting in online and traditional media exposure. Perception of the public and the coverage by social media, however, are not always positive. Thus, a marketer should understand that unusual approaches are always accompanied by risks as well as opportunities. To that extent, there is a need to be aware of the positive and negative impacts of both the event itself and the methods employed to promote it.

Determining whether a festival or other entertainment event has been successful can take many different approaches. Clearly, whether attendance levels permit the event to reach its financial or other goals is an immediate barometer of how well it has performed. However, unless the festival is to be a one-off, mere attendance levels will not inform the event marketer about how well it might be expected to perform in the future.

A festival marketer needs to identify the goals of the festival, and these can be many and varied. If the event is a commercial enterprise, analysis of attendees, geographic and demographic characteristics, booking and payment methods, transportation arrangements, and event information routes must all be analyzed. Festival marketers need to know who their customers are through time. A suitably formatted booking page, should the event operate in this manner, can be utilized as a customer information system.

If an event is intended to raise awareness for a cause, the organizer will typically interview attendees prior to and during the festival as well as at the conclusion. Typically, organizations are looking for volunteers to disseminate information about the cause. By interviewing individuals who are familiar with the event and the cause, insight can be gained into the approximate number of people interviewed, informed, and successfully solicited for volunteer positions. From this comes not only a parameter of participation statistics, but also general feedback regarding attitudes and interest levels.

When one is trying to promote goodwill in a community, such as by having a Fourth of July fireworks festival or an open house at the local fire station, one looks to feedback from the community in local newspapers or on talk radio shows, as well as through doing interviews with people in the community. In some cases, one can judge by increasing attendance as the festivals become larger. At fundraising entertainments, the bottom line is how much money was raised for the cause, as well as how many people were recruited to raise more funds on their own. When looking to see how successfully a sponsor’s name has been promoted, one can look at the

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advertising and public relations and assign these two a value. For advertising, wherever a sponsor’s name or logo is used prominently, an advertising value can be determined by obtaining advertisement rates for the specific advertisements run and then combining the costs of all the advertisements. On the public relations side, one can look at the comparative advertising value. This figure is obtained by collecting all press clips of the event in which a sponsor is mentioned or featured in photos and determining what this would cost if one had to pay for all of the exposure.

It is reasonable that a festival marketer will want to conduct research concerning what has been on offer. If the budget allows, a combination of a statistical survey questionnaire and exploratory group discussions can be used to ascertain what was valued, what was not, and subsequently why. As the Internet is so integral to festival marketing, why not integrate a survey within your web page and invite comment? As outlined in chapter 5, the social networks, Twitter, and the blogosphere should be used as information sources concerning what went right and wrong with your festival, and you should be seen as embracing criticism of the festival, incorporating positive and constructive response to feedback on your website and other promotional vehicles.

Festival Marketing Basics You should define the consumer types that your festival will appeal to and form them into a target or cluster of targets. This will lead you to choose media channels to meet the target, or a media mix to reach multiple targets, and devise the appropriate creative messages designed to appeal and motivate. You should make a point of gathering information about other festivals and events that are associated with your targets and assimilate knowledge of the basic offerings that form the prerequisite level of infrastructure and content expected by your potential customers. As is common throughout all markets, constant benchmarking is a necessary process in the maintenance of established industry standards. In selecting a possible festival venue, you should consider alternatives unless your festival occupies the same site on a regular basis, and even then, nothing is set in stone, so the advantages of shifting venues should not be altogether disregarded. Not least is the consideration of cost, whether you are aiming at profit or breaking even, as alternate sites may be willing to offer you a financial incentive to switch. Whatever the nature of your festival, it will

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involve what might be considered the talent, a show business phrase used by technical and production staff to describe performers. Very often the talent will be at the heart of the viability of your festival, and the involvement of particular artists, artisans, performers, and personalities needs to be established. Agencies exist to act as an interface between festival organizers and the talent, and very often they should be contacted to provide the necessary content.

As a festival marketer, you are intimately involved in the planning process and on an ongoing basis should schedule activities, project deadlines, and human resources and funding needs. As there is such a crossover between the marketing and planning of festivals, it will be beneficial to keep abreast of current event management practices from trade publications and academic and industry research publications. It will be necessary to develop a budgeting system for all festival production costs, including venue, content, staffing, and marketing. As outlined in chapter 4, there may be a significant emphasis upon acquiring and retaining sponsorship, which will both contribute to the marketing costs of the festival, and whose own marketing can be channeled into drawing attention and traffic toward your festival. You will use audience profile intelligence to attempt as far as possible to coordinate sponsor types with aspects of your audience characteristics, but it is sensible to admit that when acquiring necessary sponsorship is an uphill struggle, such thematic sophistry may bow to expedience. In a related sense, you should consider collaboration with travel and tourism services, as well as organizations within the vicinity that are likely to benefit from the event.

Festivals and Social Networking Of all event types, festivals have become most associated with social networking, especially among the broadly younger consumer, whose involvement with festivals is central to popular ideas of the experience economy. It is in this context, therefore, that some aspects of social networks are considered. Without dwelling overly upon sociological perspectives, suffice it to say that humans are a social animal, and connections to and cooperation with others are fundamental to our development into civilized forms of existence. Social networks exist everywhere and are not inherently to do with technology at all. It is how society functions, how ideas spread, how organizations came to be formed, and how cultures evolved, so it is pretty basic really. The modern

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phenomenon of social networking, involving online communication communities, has merely accelerated and accentuated the very fabric of life. Festivals themselves, in their deepest historical roots, are a representation and means of social networking, so it is unsurprising that their modern form should be so interwoven in technological communications systems.

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FIGURE 6.4 Social networks feed into the world of events, but it is a crowded house.

As an indicator of festival popularity, consider the recent appearance of outdoor and camping retailers in UK malls, which has been identified as being in relation to growth in the festival market as opposed to a desire to commune with nature, although perhaps the two are related in a sense. Festivals are performing a role of social cohesion for many younger consumers, and as they used to say in the sixties, one has to be there or be square. It is fast becoming a matter of not whether one attends a festival but which festival one attends. When considering festivals and their interplay with the young people who attend them, consumer

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intercommunication, through the use of handheld devices, tablets, and laptops, needs to be comprehended. In chapter 5 we discussed how an event marketer can utilize social networking. Here we will look at how consumers utilize social networks, and the implications of this for festival marketers.

Here’s a short rundown of how young women are utilizing Facebook and social media in general: women in the 18–34 range are focused on their Facebook accounts. More than half of young women (57 percent) say they talk to people online more than face-to-face. A full 39 percent proclaim themselves Facebook addicts, with 34 percent of young women making Facebook the first thing they do when they wake up, even before brushing their teeth or going to the bathroom. Twenty-one percent of women ages 18–34 check Facebook in the middle of the night. Sixty-three percent use Facebook as a networking tool. Forty-two percent think it’s okay to post photos of themselves intoxicated. seventy-nine percent are fine with kissing in photos. Fifty-eight percent use Facebook to keep tabs on “frenemies.” Fifty percent are fine with being Facebook friends with complete strangers.

(www.mashable.com/2010)

The data above, taken from a 2010 survey, show that Facebook is nothing short of a communications phenomenon. Online communication is beginning to eclipse physically present communication. This has happened very quickly as Facebook is, at the time of this writing, under a decade old, and use among many is substantial. As festivals thrive on word-of-mouth endorsement, or suffer from word-of-mouth denouncement, the festival marketer now faces the reality that increasingly this is being performed online.

By professing themselves to be addicts to the system, however loosely the term is being applied, people reveal their extensive use of the system and their anxiety when deprived of it. Like heavy smokers, many are turning to Facebook as soon as they wake in the morning, some even having to get their fix in the middle of the night. Being connected is therefore becoming a more acute concern to many. As the term addiction has been touted here, let us draw a parallel. Most people want happiness and contentment. If that becomes encapsulated in a single thing, such as opium, then a desperate expectation is loaded into that thing. One cannot achieve happiness and contentment without that thing. Similarly, most people want to be socially connected. When that becomes encapsulated

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within one thing, such as Facebook, then a desperate expectation is loaded into that thing, and one cannot achieve connection without that thing. That represents a serious need to use technology to meet a craving for social connectedness.

The communication involved can be intimate, and the level of freedom and lack of inhibition exhibited by most users is notable, as is the extent to which the medium is being used to keep friends close and enemies closer. It seems that human nature has slipped seamlessly into Facebook. For festival marketers, the message is resounding; this is the medium through which younger consumers will be expecting to find information about what people are doing, and it is consumer-to-consumer information. If a traditional media advertisement for a festival does not correspond with the festival being talked about on social networks, it will have little impact. It is accentuated and accelerated consumer power. If a festival finds a broad consensus of approval within social networks, it will find itself popular.

The sheer extent of the Facebook network is astonishing. Here are some statistics from Facebook.com.

Facebook has over 500 million active users, of whom half log in on any given day. The average Facebook user has 130 friends, so plainly many have more. Worldwide, people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

Facebook users interact with over 900 million objects, such as web pages and event and community pages, with the average user connected to 80 community pages, groups, and events. The average user creates 90 pieces of content per month. Subsequently, more than 30 billion pieces of content, such as web links, news stories, blogs, notes, and photo albums, are shared each month. Thirty percent of Facebook users are in the United States. That’s 150 million users.

Every month, more than 350 million Facebook users engage with platform applications, and there are around 550,000 active applications currently on the Facebook platform. More than 1 million websites have integrated links with the Facebook platform, and more than 150 million users engage with Facebook on external websites every month.

There are over 200 million (at the time of this writing) mobile users accessing Facebook via their mobile devices, and they are more than twice as active as nonmobile users.

(www.facebook.com)

To be writing in the midst of dynamic change is to be running fast in order to stand still. The mobile device is developing apace, and by the time

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you are reading this, it is safe to assume that the use of what are rather inadequately called phones for social networking will be increasingly commonplace, due to wireless formats becoming the norm. Tweets, blogs, videos, e-mails, and socially networked communication on Facebook, and its inevitable imitators and successors, will be streaming into and from festivals so that the festival itself becomes part of the communication, with traditional concepts of product and promotion being blurred.

Facebook is a generalist social networking site, and being mass market, it is the biggest and best known. No doubt as time passes the market will fragment. A visit to Wikipedia will illustrate that there are now many social networking systems available and that they are becoming more oriented toward specialist interests such as activities and subcultures. If one has an interest in the behaviors of the Gothic community, for instance, the social networking site to get into is Vampirefreaks.com. This subculture is represented by various festivals, and it would not merely be to Facebook that a Gothic festival organizer would look for communication and feedback, as it would be seen as too mainstream. As fragmentation in broadcast media and printed media has been shown to provide ever more precise targeting, this is what we should expect with social broadcast media, although at the time of this writing, Facebook is extremely dominant. When television began, the channels were few, and while the major networks persisted as being more mainstream, the market today is a multiplicity of interests, genres, customs, and perspectives. There is nothing to suggest that social media will not develop in a similar manner.

CHAPTER SUMMARY Entertainments and festivals are what the public most associate with what we refer to as events. Going to a poetry festival feeds the soul. Attending a music festival asserts youth and freedom. The summer solstice festival in old Stonehenge connects to the past. People want to be entertained, and people like to get together. It doesn’t sound like a hard sell. The market for entertainments and festivals is thriving. Event marketers in this field are oftentimes able to sell out hours after tickets become available online. There is a competitive edge to popular markets, as they attract attention and are seen as a low-risk method of making money. If it’s what people want, then give it to them, right? Well, up to a point that makes sense, but popularity breeds saturation and people may want to be entertained, but

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will they want to be entertained by you? People may enjoy a good festival, but will they want to enjoy yours? As ever, event marketers look to perfect their offering through understanding their customers and analyzing the market to gain a competitive edge, and to keep doing so, year in and year out. Nothing stands still. Yesterday’s popular festival will be replaced by tomorrow’s. You need to make sure it’s yours.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • Have you considered that your festival is performing a serious social

function, and how does that inform your marketing communications? • Is your festival an entertainment or a collection of entertainments? • Do you consider consumers to be a receptacle or a channel for

entertainments, and how does that inform your marketing communications?

• How does its location benefit your festival? • How do you position your festival in relation to your competitors, and

how do they position themselves in relation to you? • How could the weather affect the success of your festival? • How much does it cost to attend your festival, and could that be too

much or too little or do you have it just right? • What kind of entertainments does your festival involve, and what kind

of people would be interested in that kind of thing? • Do you use events to promote your festival, or have you gone totally

online? • Does your festival have celebrity pulling power? • Does your festival or entertainment have a logo? • If you use e-marketing to promote your festival, are you sufficiently e-

communicative and networked?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://ifea.com

The International Festival and Events Association is a global network organization for the festivals and events industry that promotes the interests of the sector worldwide and has a number of national and regional affiliations.

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http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk Edinburgh Festivals is the umbrella organization for the festivals in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. They offer an interesting insight into how to market festivals together, instead of being each other’s competitors. Edinburgh has one of the most demanding festival scenes in the world.

http://www.artslaw.com.au The Arts Law Centre of Australia offers advice for the Australian cultural and artistic scenes. Despite being nationally focused, they deliver checklists and guides on how to promote and organize festivals.

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals This website is an example of the extent to which the festivals market is being organized online. This is a multimedia guide to festivals in the United Kingdom that contains everything the festival consumer needs to know about the festival scene, and it is a format that is repeated throughout the world.

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Chapter 7

Corporate Event Marketing “Corporate event marketing methods need to be innovative and inventive to keep current with the new realities of the landscape our clients compete in.” Josh McCall, CEO, Jack Morton Worldwide (Born 1960)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Understand the role of events to corporate internal marketing

strategy, such as incentive travel and product programs, • Effectively and efficiently utilize events within external

corporate and brand marketing strategy, • Incorporate public relations in corporate event marketing

programs, • Exploit the branding potential of events in their role within the

event marketing mix of corporate brands, and • Integrate cause-related marketing within corporate image

building.

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Corporations are of such social and economic significance that their utilization of events requires particular focus. Whether as originators or participants in events, corporations, public and private, are intrinsically linked to the production and delivery of a wide variety of event types. Here, we will stress the distinction between the role of events for internal and external marketing strategies. We will examine the changing role of events within the corporate world with respect to the changing paradigms as means of workforce integration, communication, and motivation, as well as the challenges facing incentive travel event marketing. Alternately, corporate events are a growing aspect of corporations’ external strategic marketing strategy and a critical means of promoting themselves or their brands.

Hugh Wakeham is president of leading sponsorship marketing group WAM and has worked on a wide range of international events with major corporate clients. He will comment throughout this chapter concerning the relationship between events and corporate marketing.

On corporate sponsorship authority, Hugh Wakeham states: Corporations that consider event marketing as part of their marketing mix are increasingly requiring a strong business case to be made prior to moving forward. As an event marketer, it is critical to understand the corporation’s desired ROE (Return on Event) and how the company sees the event as helping them to achieve their business objectives. By understanding the point of view of the corporation, and the desired outcome, the event planner can structure the event accordingly, and create the appropriate tools to ensure success. Corporations approach event marketing from many different perspectives, and a successful event marketing campaign is contingent upon understanding the company’s particular point of view.

Corporate Culture Event marketers sell their wares like any other business professionals. The market for corporate events is competitive. If you seek to acquire such business, you need to understand the corporate culture of your potential client or employer. Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines culture as “the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts, and depends upon man’s capacity for learning and

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transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.” In addition, it cites “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.” To that definition, we could add “or corporation.” Employees are imbued with the ideals, slogans, and symbols of the company.

Corporate events will often personify these cultural identities. For instance, a highlight of events produced by Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc., is the moment when its distributors stand en masse and sing the corporate theme song with such enthusiasm that passersby stop and watch through the ballroom doors. This particular corporate culture is based upon emotional commitment, and if attempting to secure the contract to organize such events, the event marketer needs to understand the emotional tone of the culture to be able to communicate at that level of understanding with the potential client. This cosmetics corporation is unlikely to respond favorably to an event marketer who does not embrace the corporate spirit, and moreover, it is a prerequisite that he or she should be aware of it.

Other less emotive manifestations of the corporate ethos are widespread. If corporate culture is about shared values, then corporations use internal events to imprint and solidify these values. One must not get the impression that corporate events are so simplistic as to merely have employees sing a song, although such an approach has a certain raw appeal. Corporate culture delivers the corporate message to both its employees and its customers. You may find that older, more established companies are known for their dress codes and conservatism. While their regimentation has been relaxed somewhat in recent years as younger generations enter their workforces and markets, the image of a strong business focus remains embedded in some cultures and the perception of their clients. If you are looking to acquire the contract to conduct such corporate events, knowledge of their ethos will permeate your approach and your way of communicating, and it will inform the details of the event that you present. This is marketing strategy, but it is also pretty fundamental to the way people naturally behave. We naturally present a different persona to people we encounter depending upon who they are, where we meet them, how well we know them, how important they are to us, and so on. Why should it be any different for an event marketer seeking a corporate account?

Not to tailor your approach to a potential client would be almost inexplicable. Some more newly established corporations embrace casual

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dress and a work hard, play hard philosophy. Employees are encouraged to take time out for exercise, to stroll through the office park, to participate in family days, and even to bring their dogs to work. Understanding the underpinnings of a corporation’s behavioral expectations is essential in marketing its events. Management and decision makers will help you understand not just the nature of the culture, but also the reasons for which that culture exists. If you are marketing that corporate message to its employees, shareholders, customers, and allies, ask decision makers the following types of questions.

Where did the company come from? How long has it existed? Where does it expect to go? This trajectory underlies corporate strategy. The event that you wish to organize for a corporate client is part of where it is trying to get to, so to have an understanding of its past and future will assist you in being able to pitch an event as an element of that journey. What has worked? What has not? Any corporation will have enjoyed successes and endured failures, from which it will have learned. Knowing about a potential client’s strengths and weaknesses helps an event marketer stress certain messages inherent to their event, to communicate with corporate executives from a position of empathy and awareness.

What is the corporate working environment? A casual, dress-down company executive will likely welcome a casual, less formal approach. The converse will probably be true with a more tradition-oriented enterprise. As noted earlier, a corporation is an entity with certain norms and codes of conduct that an event marketer would do well to understand. It really amounts to getting to know someone before asking him or her for something.

Who are the major competitors? How do their values and corporate philosophies differ? Your analysis of a corporation’s market, and the dynamics within it, will impress upon them that you understand the conditions that they operate in, and a major aspect of this is how they are positioned in relation to their competition. Being able to communicate to a potential corporate client about the nature of competitive forces, the issues that arise because of them, and the role of your proposed event in connection to such issues will provide the impression that you are already part of the team.

Who are the corporate heroes, past and present? How can we honor them to set standards of performance for our employees who gather at the event? Again, this is an aspect of researching a potential client. There may have been particularly influential individuals in the past whose ethos still

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permeates management thinking today, and whose presence needs to be integrated into a suggested event format. Similarly, who is considered to be influential today, and in what way? There will be internal politics to consider, corporate relationships to understand, and egos to be massaged.

If there are any traditions or rituals that must be presented to project the corporate message, such as company songs and slogans, festivals, contests, sports and recreation activities, and family-oriented activities, they should be built into your proposed event. Again, the more you appear to know about a corporation, the more likely you are to be perceived as one of them.

Is there a formal set of policies and procedures establishing corporate behavior? Elements such as internal standards of addressing other employees of different rank and other interactions, decorum for public behavior, and requirements for meeting preparation and participation are essential to understanding the profile of the company and the expectations of its employees.

It is essential, therefore, that you do your homework. The diversity of corporate cultures and messages is complex and wide. Apply one set of marketing strategies to one company’s needs, and realize that it will not apply elsewhere. The successful marketing executive reads the needs of the corporation before prescribing the marketing plan. This is a familiar marketing mantra. Find out about your customers before attempting communication with them. Find a way into their values. It is a universal mantra for human interaction, so it is only to be expected that it applies when seeking corporate business.

Hugh Wakeham further states: Marketers will conduct a valuation of the benefits of sponsoring an event or program, and compare the cost of such a sponsorship to that of creating a bespoke event marketing program. They will then consider the ROI of each option in order to make their determination as to which direction to pursue. A valuation of a sponsorship property takes into consideration the discounted value of each tangible marketing asset being offered by the property, and then considers the intangible value of association with the property in order to determine its value. Event marketers might want to keep this in mind when developing a bespoke event marketing program, and be prepared to defend the option they are proposing. Appropriate activation programs and legacy initiatives

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will be critical to establishing credibility among target consumers. With the increased fragmentation of media audiences, and the focus of many consumers away from traditional media, event marketing is a highly effective way of engaging with target audiences and building relationships that can ultimately become highly profitable for the company undertaking the program.

The Role of Events in Internal Corporate Marketing The creation of goodwill, understanding, cooperation, and shared vision within a corporation is generally referred to as internal marketing, and has long utilized planned events as a means of achieving these ends. These are very much hearts-and-minds operations, the objective being to bring people on board. They also act as useful feedback to corporate executives who should wish to engender a positive and productive workforce through knowledge of their experience and working practices. Any strategy is only as good as its enactment permits.

It would not do to be naive about such matters. Just as consumers will not react favorably to being misinformed or patronized, so too will personnel be averse to clumsily or cynically presented corporate events. To be brutally honest, we should acknowledge that oftentimes employees are disgruntled. The workplace is not famed for being a garden of delight. People work hard, get pushed to do more, and often see more of their fellow employees than they do their family. Kindness and compassion are not universally built into human resource management programs. The cost of living keeps rising, bills are accumulating, and time is rolling on. The pressures inherent to being an employee are substantial and sometimes severe. But people want to get on, and they shoulder the burden in order to aspire. Or maybe people just think they are lucky to have a job in these hard times. It would be wrong, therefore, to underestimate the potential for resistance to corporate events by employees.

Thus, the event marketer’s role is to manage internal marketing in such a manner as to communicate corporate objectives acceptably. The parallels with consumer marketing are palpable, as just as consumers are attracted to the meaning bestowed upon them by a brand, so too will corporate personnel be motivated by corporate events that provide a framework wherein their efforts are favorably contextualized within the corporate

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whole.

Liz Bigham on events and employee engagement: Events work very well at the moment of launch, when brands always need to engage their own employees to understand the new product and share their belief and enthusiasm very quickly with customers and consumers. At the same time events work extremely well throughout the product cycle as a way to engage customers and consumers to gain an edge over the competition and stimulate sales very quickly.

Marketing Incentive Programs Incentive programs are designed with one element in mind: to reward exceptional sales performance and other levels of achievement by employees during a defined period of time, in order to meet corporate goals and objectives. Standards to be achieved for an employee to become eligible often include sales, but they also may involve production levels, tenure with the company, new ideas and concepts, or cost-saving strategies. More than any other type of corporate event, the incentive program demands that effective marketing be utilized from the beginning to emphasize the levels of performance required to win a trip to an exotic location (often with a spouse or guest) or a special award or bonus.

Extensive promotion should begin at the time the goals of the company and the rewards available for achieving those goals are established. It should continue throughout the campaign to keep those targets in front of employees and remind them of the deadlines toward which they are working to be eligible for that odyssey to the South of France or that “Employee of the Year” award with a generous bonus. Typically, incentive programs involve an all-expenses-paid vacation to lavish resort properties or overseas destinations and are proven strategies in fulfilling corporate goals and objectives. They differ from other corporate events in that the primary reason for holding them is fun, not work. Nevertheless, a portion of the itinerary will often be devoted to workshops or general sessions, and these should be promoted as such in the corporation’s internal communications, but in most cases, and unlike most other corporate events, these “working” sessions are not compulsory for attendees and are short in duration (or canceled entirely).

Corporations will hold meaningful business sessions during incentive

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trips, primarily to announce industry innovations or new products and reestablish the corporate culture and employee loyalty. An incentive group on board a cruise ship, for example, offers a tempting “captive audience” for management. When you are marketing an incentive program, be certain to understand the real intentions of management in the program mix in order to establish your promotional priorities. Remember these basics of marketing incentive programs. They are simple but critical points of emphasis, and they are increasingly important when negative pressure is being applied upon the cost of running incentive travel programs. Describe in glowing terms the rewards and venues/destinations. These need to be made self-evident, and if their value is not immediately apparent they need to be worked up. Emphasize the monetary value of the prize or trip if that is something to be sensibly worth bringing forward. If it is not, be wary of mentioning it as that approach may actually lessen the perceived benefit. Clearly prescribe the levels of achievement necessary in such a manner as to make attainment achievable to personnel involved. It could be counterproductive to make light of harsh targets. Identify timelines and deadlines so that all personnel are aware of the specific requirements that apply. Always remind employees where the benefits are coming from. It must come over that the corporation is rewarding its own for good work well done, and it is hoped that this will subsequently create employee goodwill and loyalty. In harsh economic conditions, inevitably there will be strong demands upon staff to deliver, often under pressing conditions, so the incentivizing event will have to be able to ease the concerns of staff and involve them in corporate needs, rather than further alienating an already hard-worn and skeptical workforce.

FIVE QUESTIONS TO IMPROVE THE OUTCOME OF INTERNAL EVENTS 1. Are your internal corporate events oriented toward the resistance of

attendees who may be cynical and difficult to persuade? 2. Are the incentive programs being touted at your event actually

incentivizing anyone, and are you working to make them as appealing as possible?

3. Are your corporate meetings designed to merely facilitate, or are they geared up to engage and motivate?

4. Do you consult with all necessary corporate functionaries to maximize the value of your corporate event to them?

5. Do you translate corporate objectives into easily digestible and

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palatable goals?

Other Types of Corporate Meetings There are numerous purposes for which corporate events are planned, many of which incorporate the same marketing principles described earlier. Among them are the following.

Training Seminars. Similar to association seminars and workshops, these sessions incorporate speakers and panels discussing specific subjects such as industry trends, new scientific discoveries and theories, and changing market demographics. A clear concept of the topic and the benefit (e.g., what the participant will learn) is an important goal of marketing the message to participants. Again, training seminars can be a method of asking more of people, so these events need to be created with some sensitivity and certainly must have the ability to enliven and motivate. If participants are unwilling attendees as a result of understanding that the seminar is packaging and the product is a request for extra effort, there will be a level of resistance to proceedings, a cynicism about corporate methods. In such circumstances, the research you will have conducted about corporate conditions will be useful in positioning the event within a context of realism. The more candid the event appears, the less likely it is to hit serious levels of negativity.

Product Introductions. New product introductions are multipurpose events. They are primarily educational events, designed to teach salespeople and corporate officials the benefits of new products or services they must sell. In addition, the gathering may be used for ancillary management meetings. Product introductions may also feature celebrations of new products and corporate innovations, aimed at corporate employees as well as wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and even the general public. Dramatic presentations, complete with cutting-edge audiovisual extravaganzas, elaborate staging, music, and entertainment, are often the platform upon which new products are displayed and described. What does this mean to those who market such events? Obviously, the nature and level of sophistication of the event will bear on the marketing approach, yet as a general principle, it cannot be merely ordinary, as to underwhelm an invited audience of business stakeholders is patently counterproductive.

Management Meetings. Often a mixture of executive-level interaction,

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symposia, and recreation, these events may require little marketing because attendance is a badge of achievement in the corporation. Still, a major part of the educational content may be intensive discussions of corporate philosophies and values, problem solving, and new organizational strategies. Advance information should prepare participants for the challenges and anticipated results of those discussions so that contributions by attendees will be maximized. The marketing effort here is not to acquire attendance, but to engender acceptance and active participation. Management meetings are important for the generation of strategy and procedures. If attendees are not engaged, then the thinking is going to be muted, negative even, so it is in the interests of the corporation to communicate the benefits of taking part with integrity and enthusiasm. It is straightforward to acquire bodies, less so with enthusiastic minds.

Sales Meetings. From a marketing perspective, national and regional sales meetings usually combine the promotional approaches required for both educational and training events and those for product introductions. The purposes blend the sharpening of sales skills, the reinforcing of corporate values and philosophies, and the learning of new features of products and services to be sold. These are typically work/play events, designed first to educate and then to recreate and entertain in order to bolster enthusiasm and send the sales force home with new dedication to moving the product to the consumer. Given the importance of acquiring distribution to brand marketers, the importance of sales management cannot be overestimated. Sales management events are therefore particularly central to generating a cohesive approach to goal setting, and most importantly the open and willing sharing of knowledge. Again, the marketing role, apart from the mechanics of attendance, is to generate motivation to sales professionals to advantage the group rather than solely themselves.

Stockholders’ Meetings. Stockholders are major “stakeholders” in the corporation. Corporate constitutions and laws usually require at least one meeting of stockholders per year. These meetings are held to apprise stockholders of corporate success, or lack of it, and to invite stockholders to ask questions, offer advice, or just complain to company management. They may be highly celebratory in good times or deeply adversarial in bad times. The format of these meetings, and the degree to which they are promoted, is a sensitive management issue. It behooves the marketing executive to carefully follow the directions of management in developing a marketing approach, if any is required at all. It can be useful to think of

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stockholders as a type of customer, as without their investment in the corporation it is not possible to function. Their needs may be primarily financial in terms of their return on investment, or dividends, yet other factors such as sustainability, ecology, ethics, and corporate social responsibility can be important to investors and should be accounted for in the manner whereby shareholder events are communicated.

Internal Corporate Event Inclusiveness Whether a corporate event is the grand opening of a new shopping mall, the introduction of an upcoming auto show, or the organization of a sales conference to introduce tough new targets, a corporate event is most effective when input has been acquired from key personnel. For example, focus group reaction may be invited and adjustments made to a program prior to enactment. It may well be the case that the term focus group will not be used, instead being referred to as a meeting. Be wary of imposing terms upon the unwilling, as many personnel will be happy to attend a meeting but may feel intimidated or irritated by having the meeting dressed up as research. The eternal mantra of the marketer: know your audience. The typical internal departments that should be considered for information input may include the following.

Executive management, those ultimately responsible for making decisions, should be included in research concerning their decisions. Good executives will be only too happy to gain insight into the effectiveness of their strategy, knowing that it will help them to make better decisions. Those executives who are reluctant to consider the outcomes of their strategies rather go against the grain of their corporate role.

Public relations operatives need to be able to assess an event, understand the aims and objectives of proceedings, and anticipate resistance behaviors to attendance and participation in order to be able to communicate benefits in a manner that will attract enthusiasm and commitment.

Marketing management within a corporation oversees a wide range of disparate activities, a corporate event being but one of many marketing activities that corporate marketers will naturally wish to organize holistically to ensure overall control of corporate identity. They may well wish to learn about your event and suggest alterations to bring it into line with corporate communications strategy. Moreover, their inclusion in the process can bring great benefits of professionalism, insight, and practical assistance. The marketing function tends to be particularly central in

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corporations that are very market driven, and senior marketing executives will be closely involved in the formulation and enactment of corporate strategy. Marketing management will be particularly focused upon event marketers who make the effort to substantiate the benefits of their event to corporate clients, as an event that is able to measure its own worth to a corporate marketer, and to be able to report on that basis is an immediately more attractive corporate proposition.

Barbara Pomerance on corporate focus: Special events will continue to be an important option for marketers. It is a total lifestyle and/or business building experience. But just as concerts, plays and festivals have experienced some downturn in the current economic climate, the importance of return on investment has been magnified. Measurement is important in all forms of marketing. By strategically planning the event using focus groups, Zoomerang studies, surveys of your potential or current audience, national research reports like Scarborough, etc., you will be able to increase attendance, and enhance the success of the event. You can monitor traffic, reach and influence with your blogs, website, social media and press inquiries. Simple tools such as Google analytics and Google alerts are extremely helpful. Proving value to your clients ensures your importance.

Human resource management balances personnel costs with corporate benefit, and as such needs to be convinced of the importance of your event to the fulfillment of corporate objectives. When we consider the importance of having the right people running an event—knowing the extent to which having the wrong people can be disastrous to positive outcomes—it is clear that incorporating human resources management into the event planning process is a means of successfully delivering an effective corporate event. Human resource management also tends to organize training and development initiatives and as such should be convinced that event management training is in the best interests of the corporation.

Sales management is a rather loose term covering those who are responsible either for the optimization of distribution or the achievement of sales targets within a corporation. Internal corporate events will often be organized for sales executives, and of course their feedback will be

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required on such occasions. On the other hand, sales management should be offered the opportunity to provide input to any kind of corporate event, as ultimately everything that happens within a corporation is potentially useful to salespeople when attempting to acquire business.

Hugh Wakeham discusses sales: A company may be strictly focused on utilizing event marketing as a tool for generating sales leads—or direct sales. In this case, it will be important to understand how the product or service is sold, and to whom. The demographics and psychographics of the targeted consumer must be taken into account when planning the event marketing campaign so that it attracts targeted prospects, and builds an appropriate connection with them. It will also be important to understand how sales and/or sales leads will be tracked so that appropriate systems can be put in place to be able to assess the success of the event marketing campaign in meeting the objective.

If a procurement team is involved in an event to facilitate synthesis of margin enhancement practices, for example, a sales executive may be able to contribute to proceedings via their intimate knowledge of competitive sales practices. If, on the other hand, a brand is being promoted via an event, the salespeople should know all about it in order to be able to add to the weight of their sales positioning, and moreover, they could usefully advise as to some aspects of the event that would be most impressive to the distribution system.

Suppliers and distributors range from component and ingredient manufacturers to merchandise and infrastructure provision in the retail and service sector. Corporations have traditionally organized and been in receipt of events and hospitality. In days gone by, these were often lavish events and were considered an essential incentive provision. Some time ago, for example, a retail buyer was treated to a trip down the Nile along with a number of electrical retail competitors in pretty luxurious circumstances, which culminated in a product launch of small home appliances in a palatial hotel in Cairo. All of this was provided by a major electrical products manufacturer to generate a warm feeling toward them, to increase the chances of advantageous distribution. It sounds over the top in today’s more accountable world, but the principle remains intact, albeit served up with less relish and overt sumptuousness. The accountability

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factor has led to a change in tactics, and suppliers and distributors are taken on board as partners and events are organized to provide forums for mutual benefit. There is wisdom in such an approach, as the more you understand suppliers and distributors, the more able you will be to do business with them in a manner that satisfies their organizational needs.

Finance divisions within corporations are all about accountability. What will be the outcome of expenditure and how will it contribute to income and profit? These are, of course, terribly reasonable questions to be asking, and it is important to be able to provide equally reasonable answers. It is even better to be able to preempt the perspective of finance by bringing them on board, getting their input, and showing them how the event is positioned to benefit the corporation. Given the nature of corporate accountancy, it is unreasonable to accuse finance of not being creative, and given the ultimate reason for being of corporations, their influence can be powerful. If cuts in expenditure are being proposed by finance, make sure they are in support of your event and see it as a valuable contribution to corporate culture and goals.

Media Interest in Corporate Events If you are responsible for marketing a corporate event, you can generate added benefit to the corporation by impressing upon media channels that the event is “newsworthy” and of importance in providing benefits for those interested in the product or service. To achieve this, the marketing professional will identify the elements of the event that will have a positive impact on the community at large: a unique product introduction, a community service, and financial contributions to or corporate investment in a city asset are among the approaches that will grab the attention of local print and electronic media. On the other hand, simply issuing a press release that your company is holding its national sales meeting at the local convention center probably will not raise the eyebrows of the news editor. You are therefore engaging in spin of sorts, working out different ways of looking at the event that will have significance to wider and more diverse audiences. Conduct research into the media options within any geographic area being targeted. There exist numerous media alternatives in which awareness, and even personal relationships, may be established and reinforced. A careful analysis of the markets reached by each of the media is necessary. Larger events may target national newspapers and television/radio outlets with broad demographics. Marketers of smaller

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corporate meetings will seek relationships with state or county newspapers, regional or local broadcasters, local shopping guides, and merchants who may hold an interest in the purpose or products of the corporation.

Steve Winter on events and media coverage: As an agency, we are often engaged to handle and produce an event in its entirety, but when that’s the case, it’s rarely a stand- alone program. More often than not though, we create an event for the sole purpose of generating media coverage or some other form of exposure. A publicity stunt or a news conference may be necessary to generate media coverage, a grand opening may be critical to introduce a new product or service, while a community event might be necessary to produce grassroots awareness. So, it’s definitely more a matter of how you create and deploy events in order to generate coverage than it is to create an event for the sole purpose of, well, creating an event.

Often, establishing media relationships requires personal intervention. City editors and news desks receive bundles of press releases and product announcements, a burdensome mountain of materials to review each day. It is too easy for your pronouncement to get buried in the pile. There are some strategies that will help in establishing media relationships that can be personal and enduring.

Find an ally who can facilitate the right contacts. Think for a minute. Which franchisee in the target market is influential in the community? Which distributor serves on the city council and knows those who influence attitudes? Who is capable of carrying the flag locally, providing the marketing department with inside advice and paving the way to new media relationships? Media relationships may begin with allies and supporters not necessarily directly connected with media outlets themselves. In this case, it is not what you know, but whom you know. Determine the message and match it with the medium that will be interested in that message. A newspaper’s executive editor may or may not be caught by your message. A television producer may or may not pass on your press release to the right desk. The message should be targeted as precisely as possible to the party most interested. For example, if your message is financial, make sure it reaches the financial editor; if it can broadly be described as entertainment, make sure it reaches the

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entertainment editor, and so on. In other words, the more specifically the target may be sighted, the more

enhanced will be the chance that the communication will be greeted by a receptive media representative. With this in mind, your allies and supporters in the market locale may help you in making the right contact at the right time. Ask for and get permission to use their names as references. Send a personal letter, perhaps with a press release, to the proper media contacts, illustrating the mission and the message of the corporate event, and alert them that you will be calling to offer additional information and answer questions. This further creates awareness and is a considerate business practice. A “cold call” often is not an effective method of establishing a relationship with media representatives unless your message is truly “hot” and of community interest. If the message is sufficiently compelling, the marketer will often get an uninitiated phone call from the news editor or a reporter assigned to follow up on the story.

Maintain the contacts after the coverage. If the event is reported on the local newscast, or coverage has appeared in the print or electronic media, or local merchants and franchisees have distributed materials and posted signage in their windows, let your contacts know the importance of this to the corporation. While they may not be marketing targets at future events, they probably know people who are. They may well become additional allies in the effort to attract key media players and maximize new relationships. The marketer will be practicing the impersonal disciplines of the profession, such as analyzing the costs of urban/suburban coverage, the validity of discounts and coupons, and return on investment for the campaign. Nevertheless, he or she must never forget that establishing and maximizing relationships with the media implies considerate and continuing interaction with people. Personal and peer recognition, whether it is a professional letter or a birthday card, is priceless.

The value of media PR is based on what people say about your corporation, rather than what the corporation says about itself. PR therefore is a marketing activity that aims to manage what people are likely to say, through what they encounter in their immediate society and, of course, what they encounter online. When accomplished well, the gain in credibility among the client/supplier/customer universe is obvious.

Corporations and Event Branding Potential

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Whether an organization owns and promotes brands or is itself a brand to be promoted, the corporate mindset considers branding to be of prime importance. The process of branding can be described as activities that alter people’s thoughts about a thing in such a way as to produce positive associations. What strengths, therefore, do events possess in this context? If an event specialist is to successfully pitch his or her business to a corporate client, what benefits can be described in terms of ability to add value to their brand?

FIGURE 7.1 Corporate branding is an essential aspect of event marketing imagery, with logos being integral to the adornment of marketing communication.

The answer has everything to do with the nature of brands as a collection of associations. If a consumer is in the market for a German car, for instance, he or she has choices. The Mercedes brand contains certain solid conservative values, the Audi may represent ideas of engineering prowess, the BMW might be considered a status-laden driver’s car, and the VW represents solid dependability. Within a certain price band, however, they are all but identical if we consider the cars themselves. They all have a similar build quality, performance, fuel consumption, carbon emission, level of comfort, and body shape. The brand therefore is a representation not of the car, but of the associations that consumers have with the car. All other things being more or less equal, the brand is representative of people’s thoughts, and branding is about the management of these thoughts.

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Corporate marketers are therefore thought managers. They realize that the price they attach to their brands or their services creates a certain impression in the minds of consumers, and that the nature of their front- line service provision or brand distribution arrangements represents certain meanings to consumers. They understand that brand advertising is a meaning-transfer process designed to generate a good impression, and that public relations is useful to brand reputation. Corporations understand that word of mouth within the context of social networks is representative of active discerning and socially mediated consumer power. All of these influences upon how they or their brands are perceived constitute brand marketing. How do events fit into the corporate marketer’s mindset?

Hugh Wakeham on shifting brand perception: If the corporation is seeking to align with an event in order to shift perception of its brand to align more with that of the event, it will be of primary importance for the event planner to understand whose perception of the brand the company is seeking to shift— employees’, existing customers’, new customers’, or trade partners’? It will also be critical to understand how the shift in brand perception will be measured. It will be important to establish a set of criteria for assessing brand perception, and apply it to the target group prior to the event, during the event, and during a prescribed period after the event in order to establish a realistic picture of whether or not the event was effective in achieving the desired outcome. Marketers will need to clearly identify the brand attributes they desire for their company, and then select an event marketing platform that clearly illustrates those attributes.

Events are unique in that they are created by consumers and therefore possess an authenticity superior, yet complementary, to other forms of marketing activity. Event organizers lay the stage, but it is the attendees who create the event. This is an important and powerful distinction that involves the blurring of terms, as consumers are in effect operating as a means of promotion.

If a German car manufacturer sponsors a science festival in an eco- friendly exhibition center, it adds sustainable development to its brand persona. The attendees of such an event are the event, they are the necessary ingredient that makes it happen, and it is their involvement that

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creates the energy. Their attendance is the factor attracting media attention and driving the public relations potential. This corresponds with that other shift in perspective, social networking, where people themselves have become elements in a media channel. Infiltrating social networks is a delicate business and must not seem forced or contrived.

Consumers need to feel that they themselves are generating communication. When they decide freely to attend an event, therefore, they perceive themselves to be the instigator of communication about their experience and the thoughts that are generated from their involvement. It is the responsibility of event organizers to provide the context for an excellent experience, and in so doing devolve responsibility for communication of the event to attendees, which will spread throughout the interweaving channels of communication that exist within their overlapping networks.

Contextualizing events within this paradigm and positioning their events to reflect emerging consumer empowerment will make sense to corporate marketers, who more than any will be well versed in consumer culture. As an event marketer, you will be in the position to market your events to potential corporate clients. You have the opportunity to express that the promotional activity represented by your event is both sympathetic to the marketing interventions they already operate, and at the same time is at the cutting edge of value-added branding due to the consumer-generated energy inherent to the experience.

If you encounter corporate marketers who already see it that way, you will be speaking the same language. If you encounter corporate marketers who do not, you have the opportunity to bring them up to date.

FIVE BRAND MARKETING EVENT BEST PRACTICE QUESTIONS 1. What positive associations is your event able to provide to its brand,

and how can you communicate these to brand owners? 2. How will your brand marketing event feed into positive online word-

of-mouth communications about its brand? 3. What level and kind of media attention will your event provide for its

brand, and how will this be engineered? 4. What kind of audiences, consumer and stakeholder, will be accessed

by your brand marketing event, and to what effect? 5. Which causes have you attached to your event, and are they able to

positively differentiate its brand?

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Cause-Related Events People have a social conscience and are willing to support causes that they feel are important. That is of interest to corporations. As a public relations tool, such events have become a staple in positioning corporations as community-oriented entities, sensitive to their role in assisting efforts to promote the common cause. As a means of seeding social network communication, they evoke powerful emotions and reflect values that lend themselves to consumer-generated communications.

Hugh Wakeham on building affinity: The most successful event marketing programs are those that build affinity for the company’s brand among the company’s target consumers. When a consumer has a strong passion for something, and that passion is shared by a company, an emotional connection is developed between the consumer and that company—what we refer to as the “Passion Point.” Research has shown that consumers are oftentimes more likely to purchase a company’s product or service if the consumers feel that the company shares their passion for a specific cause, sport, performance, or other item. In some cases, when there is a shared Passion Point, consumers will even pay more for the company’s product or service, when similar products or services are available for less money elsewhere.

Whether employed as an ancillary feature of a corporate sales meeting or product introduction event, or as a stand-alone event that has been designed to contribute a proportion of profits to a cause-related charity, corporate sponsorship of an activity designed to call attention to a social need helps to establish the sponsoring company as a sensitive contributor within the country or the community.

Raising money for a charity results in being perceived not just as a seller of products or services, but also as a partner in the more altruistic purposes embraced by the target audience. In a public relations sense, few opportunities exceed cause-related marketing in gaining access to the press, community leaders, churches, charities, and the socially networked consumer. The range of causes that attract event involvement is extensive. There are some that due to their wide appreciation will attract the attention of large corporations wishing to tap into the wider consciousness of

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society at large, and less well-recognized causes may be thought of as a means of targeting smaller, more specific consumer groups.

FIGURE 7.2 Brand marketers may choose to ally themselves with “unplanned events” to demonstrate their social responsibility.

Targeting by cause affiliation makes sense, as it involves the better angels of people’s nature, which they will be keen to identify with, and which they seek to make a significant component of their character. As well as reaching out to the more altruistic aspects of people’s value system, cause-related targeting represents a form of compliment wherein a corporation seems to recognize our better selves, to which there will be little resistance. The example to follow illustrates that even event locations can represent a form of cause-related marketing.

Cause-related programs are fertile fields in which to develop cross- promotions with others. Related companies, associations, community groups, and religious organizations may welcome the opportunity to join the effort. This can measurably increase the impact and acceptance of the cause, as well as the response of the target markets being invited to participate. Additionally, cause-related promotions are an effective public relations tool in softening attitudes toward a corporation that may be attempting to overcome negative public opinion. Tobacco companies are

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an example of such an industry. The Philip Morris Companies produce many food products unrelated to their more recognized tobacco products. With sensitivity to the debate and negative public image of the tobacco industry, Philip Morris ran national television advertisements illustrating its airlifting of foods and other products to aid the war-ravaged people of Kosovo during the dark days of that conflict. It was an effective campaign that not only positioned the company as humanitarian and community spirited, but also illustrated the breadth of its product line. Perhaps they managed to imbue some positive meanings upon their tobacco products. Such cause-related campaigns may be global or local in scope. But they are almost guaranteed to gain positive public relations value and corporate recognition.

The Melbourne, Liverpool, and Cape Town convention centers have joined together as the Global Green Alliance. The alliance seeks to develop new ecological practices and services. They aim to create an industry alliance to ensure global customers are provided with a professional and innovative environment, which ensures that their sustainability expectations are met. Each venue has a number of highly regarded industry Green Awards and certificates specific to their country. In what it claims is a combined effort to promote industry best practice for hosting sustainable events across the globe, the alliance sets out to achieve a number of goals. The core aim is to promote sustainable convention centers. The idea is to open the alliance up to other continents once it has been established for a year. Ideally, additional venues would be from the remaining continents that are not already members of the alliance to cover all the regions in the world for sustainable meetings. Sustainability is not only a necessity, but also something that will grow in importance for businesses over the coming years. While of course cause-related marketing for corporations may involve supporting populist causes to influence consumer perceptions, employee, stakeholder, and industrial community relations can be aided by choice of cause-related venue. As larger corporations are terribly keen to wear their environmental hearts on their sleeves, a cause-related venue will stand out as an advantageous choice.

(www.green-alliance.org)

The food industry itself, of course, comes in for a lot of criticism, particularly with respect to the ill effect of nutritionally problematic food on children, with the obesity epidemic both diminishing life experience and expectancy. The McDonald’s corporation receives a lot of flack on

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this front, perhaps unfairly, as they have been singled out due to their corporate ubiquity amidst a food industry generally overdosing on sugar, salt, and fat. McDonald’s has become both the emblem of industry malpractice and rather a scapegoat. This corporation needs good PR, and event sponsorship provides the perfect opportunity. The case study on the following page is an example of their approach.

The causes that attract corporate attention are media driven. Medical matters like AIDS and breast cancer get a lot of sponsorship, of course, as these diseases are attended to by the media and can draw good coverage, as well as being thoroughly worthwhile. Events that raise money for scientific research into disease gain corporate sponsorship due to the opportunity to be seen contributing positively to society. It could, however, be awkward to sponsor an event for an illness that was connected to a corporation’s activities, such as an automobile manufacturer sponsoring an event to raise money for respiratory disease or a fast-food corporation sponsoring an event to raise money for heart disease. It might look too cynical. These things have to be done with some finesse. Ecological concerns, whether obliquely veiled under the banner of sustainability or more specifically identified with reference to global warming, are not only integral to the shaping of future economic impetus, but also reflect well upon corporations that identify themselves with events that are deemed important to citizens the world over. This is corporations using events for a broad positioning platform upon which to perform more tightly targeted marketing activities.

In 2010, McDonald’s assumed the title sponsorship of the Children’s Gasparilla Extravaganza, the kickoff event to Tampa’s historic Gasparilla celebrations. McDonald’s has always sought to support events that involve children being active. The Children’s Gasparilla Extravaganza is one of the premier family events in the country. Events were broadcast live on Fox and streamed on the web. The alcohol-free McDonald’s-sponsored event focuses on family-friendly activities, including a preschooler’s stroll, an air invasion, a children’s parade, and a pyrotechnic event. Active then, but not too active, as befits the target audience. The preschooler’s stroll involves a half-mile route for children age five and under and their families and provides families with the opportunity to dress up and decorate their wagons and strollers. The air invasion features vintage aircraft, and the United States Special Operations Command Parachute Team puts on a special demonstration as they jump into the event just prior to the start of the children’s parade,

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which involves children age six and up dancing, marching, and parading down Bayshore Boulevard, followed by Tampa Bay’s largest pyrotechnic display of the year, re-creating the imaginary battle between the city of Tampa and some pirates. The key to this approach is that people get a great day out and there is some physical activity involved for children and families, reinforcing the fun of the brand and implying the corporation is somehow involved in the promotion of an active lifestyle. Keeping kids fit and active is a cause these days, due to poor diet and sedentary lifestyles—a sad reflection of our times no doubt.

(www.gasparillapiratefest.com)

A festival of alternative lifestyle that draws the attendance of forward- thinking young people who look for a different way of life in the future is an important thing, as the constant change of human development has been driven by just such people. It is important that future generations are given the opportunity to collaborate in molding the world toward a sustainable pattern of existence on their own terms.

The intelligent corporation will want to associate with such matters, as whatever the future holds it will involve corporations of one form or another, and the more closely aligned they are with the mindset of their age, the more acceptance they will enjoy from the consumers of the future. Corporate involvement with cause-related events can have a short-term expedience, yet can also represent a long-term positioning strategy.

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FIGURE 7.3 There is nothing to stop an individual seeking sponsorship for a personal event.

Just as an event marketing professional naturally accepts that he or she has to understand the culture of the corporation with which he or she aims to do business, so also does the corporation need to understand the culture of the consumers with which it hopes to do business. This culture is most vividly represented by the events in which consumers immerse themselves as an expression of who they are, what their values are, and the ideas with which they choose to associate. These two sides of marketing thought are a clear illustration of the extent to which it reflects the norms of human conduct.

CHAPTER SUMMARY Corporations became so by growth—that is their ultimate goal. Their shares will not flourish without growth, and their investors demand growth. Central to this is their use of branding to maximize market benefit. Brands themselves, in ever more competitively homogeneous global markets, are thought constructs in the mind of consumers. Event marketers are in a strong position to demonstrate how their approach to brand building corresponds with emerging consumer behavior patterns.

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Corporations rely on their employees to maximize organizational efficiency, and take employee motivation seriously, often under pressing economic conditions where it is necessary to ask a great deal from the workforce. People naturally are drawn toward community and the expression of shared experience, and they are more likely to operate as a team if genuine common understanding can be achieved. The event marketer is well placed to feed into this corporate need, as thoughtful and sensitively contrived events are a powerful tool for corporations that wish to develop their workforce into a community.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • How can you market your event to appeal to a corporation’s internal

marketing strategy? • How do you assess corporate culture, and how do you position your

event to correspond to the demands of such a culture? • How do you create events that will appeal to the corporate need for

employee incentive and motivation? • Do you appreciate potential employee resistance to internal corporate

marketing, and how will you overcome this in the management of your event?

• Are you aware of the range of internal corporate events that are used to provide incentive, training, and motivation?

• How can you market your event to correspond to a corporation’s external marketing strategy?

• How does your event fit within the corporate marketing mix? • Are you able to market your event to benefit the market-positioning

strategy of a corporate client? • How do you market to a corporate client an event that will increase

their competitiveness? • How do you market your event to maximize the corporate client’s

media relationships? • Are you able to market your event to correspond with corporate

branding requirements? • How do events have advantages over other corporate branding

methods, and how do you go about selling these advantages? • How do events fit with the corporate strategy of cause-related

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marketing activities? • How does your event offer corporate clients the opportunity to reach

new markets?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://www.cemaonline.com

The Corporate Event Marketing Association has a special focus on technology companies. They provide an interesting range of white papers and webinars relevant to corporate event marketing.

http://www.exhibitoronline.com ExhibitorOnline is a webzine with a special focus on corporate event marketing. They provide resources on virtually every event imaginable.

http://www.jackmorton.com Jack Morton Worldwide is one of the world’s leading events management agencies. Their website provides a portfolio that is a testament to how far corporate event marketing can be taken.

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Chapter 8

Association, Convention, and Exhibition Event Marketing “I won’t belong to any organization that would have me as a member.” Groucho Marx, actor and wit (1890–1977)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Benefit from the unique vertical and horizontal structure and

operations of association event marketing, • Anticipate and exploit the special challenges and opportunities

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inherent to association event marketing, • Identify and penetrate the association event marketing sector, • Develop and execute targeting strategies for association event

marketing, and • Develop and execute effective event marketing strategies for

various types of association events and programs.

Associations and Corporations Association (e.g., fraternal, religious, trade, and professional) organizations are heavily associated with events (e.g., meetings, conferences, conventions, and exhibitions), and therefore they represent a major component of the event marketing universe. Challenges in the sector have resulted in pressure upon and consolidation of association events, with resultant marketing implications. It is also interesting to note that online communication has accentuated the ability of fraternal peers to communicate with one another and has allowed the formation of new associations that are less structurally organized, yet are able to exist in a virtual sense. This virtual association has also put pressure on live event participation, as a community is able to be cohesive without the ritual of personal congregation. Nevertheless, the sector continues to flourish.

Many in event marketing find themselves in a position to market both association and corporate events. Often, independent event and production companies provide marketing expertise for their clients, and it is common for nonprofit association marketing executives to make the transition to a for-profit corporation to promote their events and vice versa. Consequently, it is essential that you, as a marketer, innately understand the significant differences between the two “cultures” and profiles: nonprofit associations and societies and for-profit corporations. The differences from a marketing perspective may be subtle, but they are nonetheless significant. Understanding both will broaden your marketing skills to attract a broader scope of potential clients. Many of the principles of event marketing are similar for association and corporate activities. But the markets to which those efforts are targeted are markedly different in many respects. These distinctions are fundamental to you as an event marketing professional, with broad appeal to both types of institutions.

Most corporate meetings and events are discretionary; that is, they are subject to the decisions of management. For example, incentive trips and

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events may not be held if employees have fallen short of quotas, or if the company is performing below expectations. Recognition programs may not occur if management deems that there is no one worthy of the award. Product introduction spectaculars may or may not be held, depending on whether there are products innovative enough to herald their arrival with great fanfare before employees and buyers. The discretionary leverage of management to schedule an event, not schedule an event, or even cancel a scheduled one is paramount in most corporate meetings. The exception may be an annual shareholders’ meeting required by corporate mandate.

On the other hand, if you are marketing association meetings, you will find the schedule much more rigid and predictable. Association bylaws normally require an annual membership convention, perhaps two or three board and leadership meetings, and even a midyear leadership conference. Committees permeate associations, and they all meet. These events are normally held at similar times of the year and with somewhat constant attendance profiles. The point is that they are stipulated by organizational doctrine and are rarely canceled. The sensitivity to economic conditions also varies between corporate and association events. In periods of economic decline, the number of corporate events tends to decline as well. Corporate profits go down, research and development for new products are curbed, and incentives for sales quotas are diminished. The market for corporate meetings is greatest in economic good times and reduced in times of recession.

Comparatively, however, association events often grow in number and scope when economic times are tough. The reason? Remember that corporations are “for-profit” entities: the bottom line means everything. But associations are “not-for-profit” institutions, where helping members solve problems is the preeminent reason for existing. People join associations to further their careers, improve their professional or business fortunes, and learn to survive economic and political misfortunes. In other words, there is comfort in the company of others when through association interaction one can find commiseration and empathetic colleagues in the face of threats. Therefore, it is not unusual to find greater marketing opportunities for association events in bad times than in good times in which the members don’t feel so urgent a need to congregate, learn, and solve problems with peers. But the association marketing message is critical in driving some to the theme “Help is on the way. Come take advantage of it.”

Still another major difference between corporate and association events

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is the decision-making organizational structure. In the corporate sector, decisions are usually made by a president, a vice president of marketing, or some such manager. The decision is usually arbitrary, unimpeded by committee interaction and passed along as company doctrine to event planners and marketers. The decision making in an association environment is quite different. One event may be the subject of preferences and debate among many committees or councils, including the executive committee, the board of directors, the site selection committee, the education committee, the welcoming committee, the exposition committee, the spouse activities committee, and many more.

Bear in mind that most of these volunteer leaders have little or no experience in event management and marketing. Even for the uninitiated, with associations the potential for confusion in direction, and delay in implementation, is obvious. If you are responsible for marketing the event, your clear tasks may become much more difficult to determine even as deadlines become tighter. Budgetary considerations also vary greatly between corporate and association events. Corporations typically develop a preset budget for events, based on overall company projections and perceived value of the event itself. No registration income is anticipated because employees attend as part of their employer’s requirements. Expense budgets are based on the overall financial operating plan and are static (unless a crisis strikes the corporation, which could affect not just the budget, but the validity of the event itself).

Association budgets are highly varied and adjusted through time as income and expense factors change. Remembering that attendance is voluntary and less predictable, associations will monitor registration income carefully and adjust expenses up or down, depending on whether revenue will either create income over expense or at least cover expenses, as the overall association budget may require. Why is this of any importance to you as the marketing executive? Because when registration fees are falling short of expectations, additional registration revenue must be generated. In addition, other revenue may need to be increased to compensate for the shortfall. This could include sponsorships, exhibit fees, advertising income, and “services-in-kind” agreements with suppliers. All of these efforts should be under the direction of the marketer and should be coordinated to fulfill the financial commitment the association staff has made to its board of directors. If a convention, for example, loses money, the association staff may be highly criticized for using dues and other funds to make up the difference and pay the convention bills. The effect of

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this is that monies intended for other purposes are being used to subsidize an event that not every dues-paying member can attend.

Michael Payne is an executive vice president and managing director for Smith Bucklin, the world’s largest association management firm. He has served as chairman of the board for the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and chairman of the PCMA Foundation and has received the award as the professional Honoree of the Year for PCMA. Here Michael asks some key questions about association marketing: It is sometimes very difficult to generalize about what works best for associations. Each is unique. This is particularly true when it comes to marketing their events. Associations have different goals and objectives surrounding their events and for most those goals are not static in nature. In order to establish the most effective marketing plan you really have to examine each situation in detail and ask key questions. Are they in a growth mode with their event? Is it international in nature? Does it have a business to business focus or is educational content the primary objective, or networking and/or all of the above? Is it their primary revenue source for funding activities, which is certainly true for many groups? Is their industry or field of specialty declining or consolidating, thereby impacting exhibitors and attendees? Who’s the competition and what are they offering? How are the demographics changing and what technology makes the most sense, including the use of social media to communicate pre-, during-, and post-show? We all know that people’s time is more precious than ever and they are paying closer attention to the reward/value proposition associated with attending a meeting. Is it worth the expense? Can I go for just part of the conference and receive the content I need or do I have to stay for the whole program? What content is going to be available online for me? Are the educational/certification credits important for my continuing education or can I do the same thing online? You have to be able to address those questions and everyone’s hot button is not the same. After you decide from a content perspective just how you want to market your event, then you need to determine how to best distribute your marketing material. Is your website robust enough

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to push it all through there or do you need to utilize another technology approach to get their attention, or hard copy or both? What makes the best sense for your group and economically for your budget? So it is one of those tough decision processes, if you build it will they come? Yes if you built the right program and it is cost- effective in their mind, not yours. What primary demographic are you focused on, all of them? Can they obtain what you are offering somewhere else or is this the only and/or best place for them to receive it? Should you merge, co-locate, go head to head? You need data to decide, you need vision to be different and offer a new “can’t miss” event. Most importantly, the prospective attendee needs to hear that repeatedly through a clever/exciting and eye-catching approach. Any recipient of the promotion material should be saying to themselves, I really need to be there. This is what it does for me and I’m happy to pay a fee to obtain the information, make the contacts, build my business, and/or enhance my career. It is up to us to clearly communicate that message. There are simply too many competing event, in competing cities and restricted budgets to not try new and innovative approaches.

Attendance provides still another stark contrast between most corporate and association events, and one that is simple to understand. When a corporation has a new product sales conference, for example, sales staff are told to be there. The marketing effort here is to convey the message and purpose of the event, but not to encourage attendance. The management will do that. Attendance at association meetings is as voluntary as the invitees themselves. They will decide whether to spend the time and money to attend. No one can force them to come. As a result, the marketing team’s primary responsibility is to use all the marketing disciplines described throughout this text to generate attendance and participation in all the event’s components.

Without attendance by an enthusiastic, excited audience, the quality of the event itself becomes academic. The same can be said of the event’s functions themselves. In the case of corporate meetings, participants are generally required to show up at all events. It is not unusual for the company to monitor employee attendance at seminars, new product

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introductions and descriptions, or sales meetings and discussion groups. They attend as part of their job responsibilities. Therefore, function participation is mandatory by the nature of official corporate meeting components. The attendees are being paid to attend, just as they are paid to be in their offices on certain days. This means that rooms will be full, guarantees will be precise and achieved, budgets will be accurately estimated, and the schedule will be tightly controlled.

Associations are voluntary. Their attendees are paying a registration fee to attend and can essentially participate in event functions to as little or great a degree as they wish. Food and beverage guarantees will carry much more guesswork (and a great deal more financial risk). Similarly, one seminar room may be overflowing while another may have barely drawn a dozen people. A dread of association event planners is to have a sparse audience for a key speaker, or a half-filled room with empty tables at the closing gala. It is the role of marketers to work with planners in scheduling events effectively and to project through the promotional arsenal at their command the magnetism and value each function holds for those who are attending the event.

As the marketing executive, you must also be sensitive to the purpose of attendance by your audience. For the corporate marketer, the purpose of attendance is relatively consistent. If the company calls its technical directors to a conference to learn about new concepts in broadband communications systems, their purpose for attending is relatively easy to define. You will want to develop a marketing approach that will clearly set forth the profile of the program, the expectations of attendee performance, and the positive results that they should anticipate. Association event attendees’ purposes for attending are much more difficult to homogenize. Why do they attend? Their emotions and aspirations may be disparate.

The marketer must determine at best the criteria for attendance and the expectations of the audience in order to develop a market strategy that appeals to the majority of the association’s members and guests. It becomes clear that the corporate market could be described as homogeneous, whereas the typical association market is heterogeneous, in terms of purpose, individual priorities, and event expectations. A few other comparisons are important to consider. For example, in “booking” or scheduling events, corporate meetings and conferences are known for relatively short lead times for organizing many events. Because of the more predictable and established timing of mandated association events and the need to promote attendance, associations are known for longer lead

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times. If you are marketing the corporate event, this means that you may be working with a much tighter timeline than your association counterpart to strategize, develop, and deliver a marketing plan that achieves the company’s objectives prior to the event date. Association marketers typically have a longer lead time, allowing a well-considered critical-path approach to promotion, public relations, and communications strategies. And, in most cases, they will have more time to make marketing strategy adjustments as variable response levels may require. Here are a few more brief but important perspectives for you to remember when marketing either a corporate or an association event.

In the corporate event world, the market is composed of one affiliation: the company being marketed. Its corporate culture, ideals, issues, and operational philosophies are relatively consistent throughout its employee family. They all salute the same flag. In marketing their events, you will want to identify those corporate characteristics clearly before establishing a marketing strategy.

Typically in the association event world, the market is composed of a myriad of cultures, issues, and ideals. You must remember that while a trade association represents a specific industry (e.g., agriculture, transportation, or paper manufacturing), its members are owners and operators of perhaps thousands of individual businesses. Many of them may even compete against one another. They join the association for many reasons, the most basic of which is to improve their businesses in order to compete more effectively and be profitable, or at least solvent. Therefore, while the association that serves them is considered altruistic and nonprofit, the motivation to attend for the association participant typically is more inconsistent, variable, and overlapping than that of the corporate event attendee. The degree to which attendance is voluntary (association) or mandatory (corporation) will affect the marketer’s message significantly.

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FIGURE 8.1 This is a photo from a conference of the Professional Convention Management Association—the epicenter of the American Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) industry.

An association event’s audience will likely be motivated by a desire to improve their individual profits, education, and competitiveness. This heterogeneous and complex mix of priorities within the association market presents a daunting challenge for you to identify and sell the benefits (before you sell the features) of the event. This is yet another argument for effective quantitative and qualitative market research. Corporations can usually take their events anywhere they want. Incentive trips will usually be booked in exotic locations in Hawaii and Florida. As companies participate increasingly in the global market, more than ever events such as product introductions and sales blitzes are held throughout the world. For marketing, this means that the promotional emphasis may stress the location as well as the purpose of the event itself. On the other hand, associations may be restricted by covenant or bylaws to certain areas. A state or county educational association may not be permitted to convene outside of its home locale. A national society in the United States may be restricted to a U.S. venue for certain events. An adroit marketer will determine this before preparing a marketing proposal that, because of this lack of understanding, may be considered invalid at the outset by the sponsoring organization.

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FIVE IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF ASSOCIATION EVENTS 1. Attendance is usually voluntary; however, some meetings may be

required for continuing professional development or educational credits, so although attendees are association members, they oftentimes have to be motivated to take part.

2. Associations genuinely exist for the benefit of their members, and as such marketing communications have a solid base of sincerity.

3. Decisions made by associations tend to be by committee, so it is important to be able to identify decision influencers.

4. There will be multiple reasons for association event attendance, a mix of motivations of which the event marketer must be aware.

5. Long lead times for association events provide the event marketer with increased opportunity for strategy formation.

Trade Associations Trade associations are funded by the businesses they represent, and therefore there is a possibility that members are potentially in competition with one another, although not necessarily so. The association acts on behalf of its members and provides a centralized service that benefits all of its members. This may include media relations, generic promotions, and political lobbying. The overall emphasis, however, is upon collaboration toward the overall advantage of its members. The members have a natural tendency toward congregation, and trade associations organize conferences and networking events and often become involved in charitable events. It is important to focus upon the funding of trade associations, as their members are contributing financially to the organization and therefore look to ensure that this represents a benefit to them.

When we consider the role of the association, which is to advantage a particular sector, the question for the event marketer is, to what extent is the conference or networking event seen by members as a useful function? In the past, such events were the only opportunity members had to get together to share ideas, yet social networks have provided that opportunity without the investment in time and money that attending an event involves. The marketing of internal association events therefore has the communication task of making such an investment seem worthwhile, and indeed beneficial.

As a provider of business intelligence and an aid to global trading

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mechanisms, this kind of association aims to provide a service to its members. The annual event is being touted as a means of networking and accessing information about members’ interests. The issue for event organizers is whether members necessarily feel the need to go to New York and attend the event itself, as the benefits of the association will be forthcoming whether they attend at all. In this respect, the Internet is a double-edged sword for association event marketers, as on one hand it makes it easier to keep a cohesive network of members communicating with one another, and it makes accessing event information and booking procedures clean and simple, but on the other hand it also makes it easier for members to access association information without actually attending the event. This being so, the benefits of attendance must be distinguished from the benefits of being a member, and it must not be assumed that these benefits are self-evident.

The United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA) has, since 1989, promoted the interests of importers and retailers of textile and apparel products. Headquartered in Washington, DC, USA-ITA offers a strong presence on the issues that affect the importers, retailers, and brands that import and sell textiles and apparel. USA-ITA represents the industry before Congress, the administration, the business community, and the public, as well as industry groups and governments around the world. Members and the board of directors are the leaders shaping the international textile and apparel industry. USA- ITA members are responsible for global sourcing, distribution, transportation, financing, and compliance. Their role is to provide members with access to the information that they need to do business and to understand and comply with complex regulations in the United States and abroad. Their annual conference in 2010 was hosted in New York City, featuring sessions on international issues, transportation, customs and regulatory updates, supply chain logistics, and a number of issues facing the sector.

(www.usaita.com)

For the association event marketer, there is a need to investigate the actual benefits inherent to attendance, as it cannot be assumed that these are self-evident. Communication with association members should therefore involve creative use of the association database so that association members are contacted appropriately to their attendance and involvement profile.

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Members are able to keep in touch electronically and access the market information provided by the association without attendance at an event. They will be able to monitor the representative activities of their association via social networks and provide feedback concerning their priorities online. For these reasons, association events, particularly during times of economic austerity, actually have to justify the expenditure of running events in relation to their purpose and function.

The historical ethos of collaboration between trade association members reflects the idea that they will be stronger together than as isolated individuals. Traditionally, collaboration involved personal involvement in shared experience through conferences, meetings, and seminars so that important issues could be discussed and alliances and understandings could be formed. How necessary is an event to this intention?

If a business is in the lift (elevator) market, then it very well might consider association with the aptly named trade association, LIFT, which promotes its body as being at the very top of the scientific and cultural events that center on the world of vertical transport, and in the manner of trade associations offers important opportunities for in-depth examination of current themes linked to technology in the sector. The LIFT association promotes itself as being at the crossroads of business, training, and information. This is undoubtedly useful to those businesses in the vertical transportation sector. The association event is open to trade only, thus stressing the seriousness of its intent; it welcomes industrial and artisan manufacturers, specialist wholesalers, trade publications, geographically centered trade associations, and servicing organizations.

The LIFT 2010 event was held in the beautiful Italian city of Milan, which offers much to delight the traveler. This location in itself is somewhere many people would like to visit. Why not add some much- needed sparkle to the world of vertical transportation manufacture by inviting those involved to an association meeting in a beautiful location? The city will be in itself an inducement to attend and will amplify commercial benefits in the reasoning processes of potential attendees.

(http://Milano/lift-2010.htm)

Certainly the association event marketer needs to continue to stress that his or her event continues to offer the opportunity for commercial benefits, but as they can be achieved without attendance it would be advantageous to hone in on other reasons for attendance and make them part of the message. The association database therefore needs to build up detailed

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profiles of attendees, gained from attendance history and preferably some research input, in order for the event to be able to attract attendees, not as a unified mass, but as a number of semi-discreet membership segments.

As the association website is the center of its communication operation, or should be, there is ample creative potential to indicate other benefits via links and imagery. Meeting people, enjoying hospitality, eating well, getting away from the mundane, being part of a group, sharing intimacies, seeing sights, and visiting an interesting city are all aspects of the association event; they stand distinct from the benefits of being an association member and should be coded into the look and feel of the website. Of course, in difficult economic conditions, this should be done with some sensitivity, as the association will not want to risk appearing frivolous.

The trade association event is a serious, commercially focused gathering, and its emphasis is organizational betterment. That is not to say, however, that attendees are not people who want to experience some enjoyment in their attendance. Knowledge of the traditional mindset of any given association will inform the extent to which the event marketer should stress these auxiliary benefits. It is also worth asking whether these are auxiliary at all, but merely are posed as being so behind the conservative mask of official objectives.

Membership in a trade association amounts to being in that trade association’s database, and it is paramount that members be understood, just as marketers have to understand consumers, and that understanding must be translated into a concerted effort to communicate with members in terms that they will recognize as being appropriate to themselves.

FIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT TRADE ASSOCIATION CONVENTION ATTENDANCE BENEFITS 1. What benefits are you communicating to your members, and are they

powerfully persuasive? 2. How are benefits communicated to members, and how is that

communication perceived? 3. What are the benefits of attending an association event as distinct

from the benefits of being a member? 4. Are members contacted aptly through database segmentation, and are

you running member acquisition and retention programs? 5. How important is the face-to-face, person-to-person contact

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facilitated by your event to association members?

Fraternal Associations As the twentieth century dawned, one of the primary sources of social assistance, health care, and insurance for the working classes in Europe and the United States was fraternal societies, or friendly societies in the United Kingdom. These were voluntary mutual-aid associations. Their descendants exist to this day in the form of associations such as Shriners, Elks, and Masons. In the early twentieth century, around one in four adult Americans were members of fraternal societies. The role of fraternal associations was to act as a representative of a group of working-class people, who would form an association or associate themselves with a branch or lodge of an existing association and pay monthly fees into the association’s treasury, and those in need would then be able to draw on the pooled resources in times of need. This cooperative approach to the organization of social welfare has a legacy of well-meaning and social responsibility for fraternal associations, whose motives are considered to be altruistic and noble to all but those who would have a person stand or fall on his or her own merits and resources.

Fraternal associations tend toward representation of the interests of defined populations. In the United States, there is a country-of-origin aspect to many, a body representing the welfare of national and ethnic groups, such as the Sons of Norway. There is often a religious aspect to altruistic association, whether via established orthodox religion, such as the fraternities attached to the Catholic Church, or a more esoteric religious perspective as demonstrated by Freemasonry, for example. Associations may be gender specific, such as the Women’s Life Insurance Society, or attached to specific causes, such as the Humane Society, which focuses on animal welfare. Yes, fraternal associations come in all shapes and sizes, but the overarching principle is helping others, for which they deserve our respect.

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FIGURE 8.2 Freemasons are a typical fraternity, having events at their common core of values.

Freemasons, in recent times, have relaxed the aura of mystique that has defined the association in order to encourage fresh membership within their ranks and to overcome the general misunderstanding that

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permeates popular culture about their aims and objectives, which being divorced from the power base of orthodox organized religion, attract lurid speculation. To emphasize their social and charitable role, Freemasons have formed several other subgroups that operate overtly altruistic programs. Ironically, this has made some even more suspicious as they see this as a shield behind which lurks their true intent. Nevertheless, this fraternal organization is clearly involved in a great many good works. One of the most high profile is the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, or as they are more commonly known, the Shriners. This high-profile organization is steeped in good works and is involved in both the organization of events as fundraisers and promotional vehicles, and also the hosting of events as a professional event venue organization.

One particularly high-profile aspect of the Shriners operation is the Shriners Hospitals for Children organization, which runs more than 20 nonprofit pediatric hospitals. It is virtually impossible to attract negative perceptions when one is involved in charitable health care for children, particularly at such an intense level. Their 2010 website contained a highly portal-active socially networked account of events that were being organized that year. They were involved with celebrity-fronted golfing events, concerts, social events, and a really wide array of happenings to support the foundation. Events are the primary marketing method for the association. That is a reflection of the fraternity, as the sense of coming together for the greater good matches perfectly with people coming together at supportive events. The following is a website statement for one of the health-care group’s events.

Grammy Award–winning singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor Justin Timberlake has teamed with Shriners Hospitals for Children to co-host the PGA TOUR’s Las Vegas golf event, the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children® Open. “I couldn’t be more excited to co-host the tournament and to be involved with Shriners Hospitals for Children®,” Timberlake said. “We will make sure this event is unique and memorable, and we will raise money for charity while participating in the greatest game ever played. I thank the PGA TOUR and Shriners Hospitals for Children® for this amazing opportunity. Raising money to better children’s lives while playing golf? I can’t think of a better way to pass the time.” As part of his involvement, Timberlake will play in the celebrity pro-am and host a concert during the tournament week. Shriners Hospitals for Children® is the beneficiary of the event, which will be televised on the Golf Channel and will reach 130 countries. “We couldn’t be happier that Justin Timberlake is part of the tournament,” said Douglas Maxwell, Chairman of Shriners Hospitals for Children® Board of Trustees.

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“Justin’s involvement brings an unprecedented amount of attention and interest to the event, which assists us in helping young people receive the quality medical treatment they deserve, at no charge.”

The previous example illustrates that just as associations have to market attendance for their internal workings, so also do associations use events as a means of marketing the causes with which they have become associated. This particular fraternal association runs hospitals and is motivated by a particular ethos of social responsibility. Being cause related therefore is central to the idea of the fraternal association, and this will be useful in attracting the involvement of cosponsors, who will share in the opportunity to associate themselves with the cause in question. It is difficult to think of a corporation that would not wish to be associated with a children’s hospital, for instance.

At the same time, however, fraternal associations may include members who are content to enjoy socially networked fraternity with their like- minded peers, and the internal events aspect of their operation is subject to the same difficulty as any association in this respect, although membership is one of active choice based upon an ethos, so internal fraternal events are subject to a measure of latent motivation, which rather than being taken for granted requires being nurtured.

Religious Associations Religious associations involve themselves in a wide array of festivals, meetings, congregations, and conventions. As described earlier, the history of events lies in religious practice, and this has persisted to this day. The religious market represents a major component of the event scene, particularly in the United States.

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FIGURE 8.3 Church services are among the most professionalized and institutionalized events in the United States.

With membership a paramount concern for religions across the country, many have adopted a proactive approach to attract and keep members, or when viewed from a corporate perspective, religion is actively involved in customer acquisition and retention programs. Religious organizations are subject to the familiar pressures of corporate reality concerning the avoidance of decline. However healthy the religious market may seem, the organizations that compose it are constantly acting to increase numbers and to optimize the benefit of membership to their congregations. If the core benefit of religion is spiritual, the auxiliary benefits are very much grounded in social cohesion and identity, in which events have their part to play. At the most fundamental level, attendance at church, or at another denominational equivalent, is an aspect of religious life that asks for involvement by worshippers, as empty churches do not engender devotion. Nevertheless, the sector continues to enjoy a great deal of support.

DeWayne Woodring is the longtime executive director of the Religious Conference Management Association and therefore has extensive experience in this sector. He comments upon how religious conferences first began. Adam and Eve came together and wrought the very first meeting in human history. From that event . . . held outdoors in a garden . .

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. has grown a special segment of our meetings industry which holds hundreds of thousands of religious meetings annually in venues around the world. To attract the multitudes to their events, religious organizations have utilized a vast array of communication tools through the ages. From the papyrus scrolls of ancient times and the lone circuit rider on horseback, to the modern day social media, the church had endeavored to spread the Word through every available means.

As the twenty-first century dawned in the United States, around seven out of every ten adults were members of a religious group, and over half of adult Americans placed great importance upon the significance of religion in their lives. This represents a huge market for religious associations and represents a substantial events industry. The United States, moreover, is a religious melting pot, containing sizable populations supporting Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam, with identifiable markets for other major world religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as many others that are not quite so popular. Some are not easily interpretable as actual religions, such as Scientology, yet they hold official sanction to be considered so. Even the Jedi philosophy from Star Wars movies has become regarded as a postmodern religion in some English-speaking countries in this galaxy, not so far away.

In 2010, the actor John Travolta and his family attended a Los Angeles gala marking the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center’s forty-first anniversary. John Travolta and his celebrity family are very much in the public eye regarding promotion of the Church of Scientology. The Celebrity Center is a distraction-free environment for high-profile people to practice their religion. Other celebrities at the event included Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson (what would Homer say?). The other major advocate of this religious belief is, of course, Tom Cruise, who is a regular promoter of the cause, and who is useful by means of his celebrity to draw attention toward the church. Celebrity endorsement has been shown to work in a number of markets, and clearly the Church of Scientology benefits from such high-profile members, both in terms of attracting media attention and in inspiring people who harbor respect for celebrities sufficient to emulate their belief structures of choice.

(www.ocala.com)

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FIGURE 8.4 Religion by size.

Most religious groups fund themselves through contributions made by those who affiliate themselves with their philosophies and beliefs, so plainly the size of the membership is equivalent to the scale of income. By the turn of the century, the top five religious groups by membership size accounted for around 60 percent of U.S. national membership. The Catholic Church, for instance, is the largest in the United States, with over 60 million members and over 30,000 churches. This is a massive operation with a huge customer base. Religious bodies receive over half of personal charitable contributions donated in the United States. Estimates vary, but perhaps around 10 percent of Americans consider themselves to be unbelievers, making that a minority position, yet associations of unbelief exist and they too try to market themselves to gain membership and support, as illustrated by the example below, taken from their website.

Alabama Freethought Association, Inc. is a local chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. We are a non-religious community who are committed to living our lives free from superstition, dogma and mysticism. By definition, a freethinker is one who forms opinions about religion, independently of tradition, authority or established belief, in favor of rational inquiry. Our members are composed of Agnostics, Atheists, Secular minded people, a few Jefferson type Deists still searching for answers and come from all walks of life. The common thread we all share is the right to believe what we choose, uphold the constitutional principles of separation between government & religion, and embracing the philosophical concepts of humanism with tolerance towards others. Living in the current “God Frenzy” era, that has been

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creeping up on us since the mid-1950s and accelerated by 9-11, it is most difficult to display tolerance toward others, when they are attempting to annihilate us with their own religious agenda. This is especially true here in the Bible Belt, where Christian Fundamentalism dominates and the political hand-holding with religion severely violates our Constitution and First Amendment. Thus we do battle through educating the public with letters to the editors and our representatives, working with other like minded organizations who share our philosophies, and legally taking appropriate action to preserve our rights. If you are a freethinker and are ready to live the rational life, please come join us at beautiful Lake Hypatia. Our meetings are held the third Sunday of each month, starting with Social hour at 11 AM, Covered Dish Lunch at noon and Speaker at 1 PM. Afterwards, folks continue to socialize, take walks, fish or paddle boat around the 12 acre lake. You are welcome as a guest with no prerequisite to become a member. For more information, contact the Alabama Freethought Association.

(www.Alabamafreethought.org)

The interesting thing to note about this association is that they have chosen their association meetings to happen at a time that clashes with their competition, yet their marketing voice is ill conceived as it comes across as a complaint, a beleaguered minority holding out against a tide of unconstitutional orthodoxy. This particular approach might well dissuade potential attendees, as the dismissive sentiments tend to reinforce potential perceptions of atheism being somehow patronizing to religious belief. Perhaps a more tolerant and accepting tone would have been more in their interests. Nevertheless, they have turned to the concept of an association holding events to attempt to gel a support base, and they are emulating the style of their competition.

Evangelical religious events are most plugged into broadcast promotion, and this branch of religion is most active in the use of planned events to raise capital. This sector has unfortunately been rocked by scandal and has been tarnished by the seemingly flagrant hypocrisy of many of its most prominent pastors, particularly in relation to their sexual and financial conduct. These scandals have done much to undermine the sector and have created difficulties for evangelistic event marketers in distancing their event from the perceptions of fiscal and moral corruption that permeate the sector. Their efforts to cleanse evangelism have been aided by an event hosted by the association of world evangelism, where tough words were spoken on the state of their organization and its role in the world.

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In Cape Town, South Africa, on October 22, 2010, theologian Ruth Padilla DeBorst of Costa Rica urged some 4,200 theologians, pastors, and Christian leaders gathered there from 198 countries not to allow “denominational and institutional preoccupations to become more important than people.” Speaking to what is reported to be the most diverse gathering of Christians in the history of the Church, Ruth Padilla DeBorst set out a vision calling for the Church to function as “welcoming communities that tear down the walls of self defense, security, and prosperity that our greed, pride and prejudice have built.” She defined this new formation of welcoming community as “Pax Christi,” which, in her words, is “a community brought together by God’s reconciling will, in Christ, and sent into the world by the power of God’s Spirit to incarnate God’s good purposes for the entire cosmos.”

The first Congress was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974, convened by Dr. Billy Graham. The second followed in Manila in 1989. Locating the 2010 Congress in South Africa is significant for a number of reasons. Since the first Congress, Christianity has ceased to be a “Western” religion. In 2010, approximately 60 percent of all Christians lived in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. By 2025, it is predicted that 70 percent of Christians will live in the Global South.

(www.conversation.lausanne.org)

This global marketing initiative is possible via a worldwide association and can be instrumental in restoring some confidence in the ethos espoused by true evangelism that has been so damaged by charlatans. If we consider evangelism to be a global brand, then there is a role for global events, to stress the universal ethos of the movement and to dampen negative perceptions generated by particular instances.

The context within which marketing operates is always considered. The worldwide ecological movement has had a marked effect upon the event world both through affiliation and sponsorship. The worldwide economic downturn in the beginning of the twentieth century has influenced attitudes toward corporate meetings. The worldwide social networking phenomenon has had an across-the-board effect upon the way that event marketers operate. So too have global perceptions of evangelistic religion influenced how event marketers in this field communicate, as there is a real need to stress integrity.

This stands rather at odds with the use of television to promote evangelistic associations, as the term TV evangelism is tinged with unfortunate associations and may be considered as a means of retaining

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some customers, but it is problematic in acquiring new ones, especially among the young, who are of course necessary for the long-term survival of any religion because if it dies out with a generation, resurrection is difficult to achieve. How then should evangelistic Christianity attempt to appeal to young consumers in the twenty-first century? The following account describes place marketing activities that attempt to promote evangelistic integrity to American youth.

Unlike the stereotypical Hollywood evangelist, Jason Powell does not stand on a box in a suit and wave a Bible in the air to get attention. He knows that would scare away many potential converts. He takes a casual approach to young consumers and attempts to enter into a dialogue. Powell heads the Students with a Testimony (SWAT) team, and each Friday and Saturday night, he and about 30 young people, most in their teens and early twenties, descend upon a shopping center to initiate conversations about God and salvation with passersby, primarily with high-school-age students, and pass out invitations to the Southern California Harvest Crusade. Harvest has helped train young evangelists in cities to spread the word about the event and create year-round outreach similar to Powell’s SWAT team. Before leaving Harvest for a shopping center, Powell trains volunteers on the body language they should use to appear welcoming and on responses to the most common questions or assertions of passersby.

(www.springharvest.org/events)

The presence of wholesome young people who have been trained to deport themselves and to interact easily with the public does much to infuse respectability to evangelistic activities. Presence marketing such as this creates an event in itself wherever it plays out, and in combination with social networking, younger audiences can be made to feel distanced from the tarnished reputations of television evangelists, whom the organizer above has been keen to avoid association with.

DeWayne Woodring on the generational issue: Although religious meetings and conventions attract those of a shared faith, the ever present challenge comes in keying communication to the multi-generational audiences. Marketing to such diverse groups can present challenges. Each generation has preferred methods of communication: i.e., phone conversations, personal contact, direct mail, e-newsletters and e-mail may be

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directed at one group while contact through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and use of customized phone apps may be the appropriate means when directed towards another.

Religious associations can come across as being very strident about what people should believe and why other beliefs are wrong. If other brands behaved in this manner, we would think of them as insecure communicators who insist that only they are real and true. They can appear more concerned about insisting that their worldview is valid than about attending to the good works that are the cornerstone of their holy books. When marketing such an association, why not concentrate on those whom it helps, the good and happiness it brings to the world, and those whose suffering it alleviates? Young consumers will find religion more appealing if it is positive and compassionate and will be repelled if it is deemed to be negative and judgmental.

Professional Associations A professional association seeks to better the circumstances of a particular profession and to provide a service to people employed in that profession. It also tends to occupy a position of authority and guidance, so as to insist upon certain standards and codes of conduct among its membership for the betterment of their reputation and for the benefit of society, although the allegiance of the professional association lies with its members. The event aspect of such associations concerns the delivery of professional educational programs and skills training, often in association with some form of qualification or certification. Many associations are attached to the academic aspects of professional education and can be influential in the formulation of educational programs. It can easily be inferred, therefore, that there is a certain status to professional associations, and this is important in terms of how they communicate with their members. As the example below suggests, professional associations also consider their membership to be a commercial asset that can be used to generate interest from potential event sponsors.

The mechanics of that communication involve association websites and e-mails to association members, which is to say that having a defined membership list and direct marketing of events from a membership database is the norm. The example below, taken from the British Dental Association (BDA), illustrates that the BDA actively seeks sponsors for their events, that sponsorship being fairly direct in terms of bringing

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suppliers to the notice of dentists, as well as offering suppliers access to members in return for sponsorship through an offer to make their marketing database available to the sponsor. This will be an attractive proposition to dental suppliers, as not only will their sponsorship infuse the association event, but also their subsequent direct marketing will have association sanction, which provides their marketing communication with a measure of status since the BDA itself is a brand that can lend its characteristics to others.

Do you want to reach key decision makers in dentistry? Sponsorship of an event is among the most effective methods of reaching your desired audience. As an event sponsor, you can benefit from the marketing power of the BDA brand, as well as our targeted direct mail and email marketing campaigns, and our website. We can work in partnership with you to tailor specific sponsorship and exhibition packages to complement your overall marketing strategy. By being associated with the right event, targeted at the right audience, we can help you meet your objectives. Sponsorship covers a whole range of options from delegate bag inserts and notepad sponsors to Silver, Gold and Platinum packages. Contact us and we will help advise you of the right package for your company.

(www.bda.org)

The professional association above exemplifies the extent to which event marketing is a well-established aspect of association business, both in terms of communication with their members and with organizations that may wish to access their members for commercial purposes.

Joan Eisenstodt founded Eisenstodt Associates, a Washington, DC– based conference consulting, facilitation, and training consultancy, and has more than 30 years’ experience in the sector. Her abiding passions for the meetings industry and for lifelong learning allow her to bring a breadth of experience and knowledge to the subject. Here Joan considers the association meeting sector. Many association meetings are held for their members to earn continuing education units; some, like for lawyers or accountants, are mandatory. That means that ensuring association people gather is not always as difficult as it is to ensure those who are not members or who are not those in need of CEUs. Associations have been, in my experience, slower to adapt to technology and to use it

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well for marketing and communications. For example, this last year, in doing interviews of key members for a professional association to determine the viability of a particular meeting, I asked questions about how the members and their businesses were using technology. Many were adapting specific applications (not necessarily “apps” as we know them) to their business models. Many did not use technology to communicate with others and thus were not building a virtual community, thus depending on the face to face meetings to ensure they could interact with their peers. Another client, a medical association, has begun to have a virtual presence and markets their meeting through their web site and limited email blasts. They have found their “senior members” (those often most active) are not as enamored of hearing from the association electronically. The association is moving forward to develop more uses, hoping to attract a younger cohort of members to their meetings. Associations are looking at better and different ways to attract audiences to their meetings and in general to their organizations. The economy has, in some cases, meant that those who might have come to meetings in the past now are not granted funds for travel. Many associations are developing different strategies—short- and long-term—to determine what best to market and where and why. On Twitter, for example, I see more hashtags for associations and their meetings and a better use of the medium.

Online Associations Social networking has afforded the opportunity for the formation of new interest groups as like-minded people find that the network naturally brings them into contact with one another, and previously geographically isolated individuals are now able to make contact with fraternities based upon whatever issue drives their motivation. Again, however, the social network provides both benefits and problems for the idea of live events within such communities, as many are online communities with members who see social congress as happening in the virtual world, and for whom getting together physically is unnecessary.

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FIGURE 8.5 When thinking about trading Business to Business (B2B), one should consider statistics such as these and think about moving parts of the budget online.

An association is something that one has in common with someone else. That can be a profession, a religious belief, a social concern, or a personal inclination. With regard to the latter, the Internet has brought together people of similar persuasions to associate and organize themselves into an association. They may never meet, other than via social networks, e-mails, and webcams. They may be scattered throughout the world, and find online association with like-minded people to represent a meaningful relationship in their lives.

In this context, we can consider association marketing from another perspective. Internet communication permits instant access to virtually anything and allows people to find other people who have shared characteristics. The Internet, by its mere existence, markets people to other people, and associations become established and sometimes formalized. New associations are being formed all the time.

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FIVE INTERESTING ASPECTS OF ONLINE ASSOCIATION EXPERIENCES 1. Social congress used to necessarily involve physical presence, yet

increasingly it is becoming an online behavior. 2. Meetings can be virtually organized via chat spaces, and discussions

can be accomplished without the need for physical presence. 3. Skype and webcams allow the illusion of physical presence online,

and they will become ever more common as a technological alternative to being in the same room with someone.

4. Traditional associations will emulate the new online associations’ use of technology and will consider the benefits of virtual meetings.

5. Association event marketers need to both compete against and utilize online methods of association.

CHAPTER SUMMARY “Whether for mutual, professional, fraternal, religious, or commercial benefit, associations are there to help. That has to be the attitude of the event specialist who works with or seeks to work with the association sector. Such events are there for a purpose, and the end they serve must be the focus of the event practitioner. Are you merely facilitating a congregation, or are you working towards the goals of the association, providing an event that actively assists in their mission? Association events are a means to an end, and whilst of course you should pay attention to the means of event provision, event marketing should be concerned with communicating the end, or the outcome benefit of the event. Your event is therefore a means of benefit provision, and the extent to which potential clients are aware of your informed perspective will be crucial to your success. There is pressure on all sectors of the association market to make the most use of event expenditure. As ever, know your customers, find out what they want and what they need, and present your event as a means of providing these things.

Without associations, we would be isolated. People want to associate with other people, for all number of reasons as outlined herein. Associations are based upon mutual interest and advantage, and they have long been a testament to the concept of safety in numbers. The event marketer is trying to bring people together in the real world, but there is pressure from the virtual world to contend with. What do you have to offer

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that association members cannot access online? How have you integrated online opportunities into your association event marketing strategy?

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • Are you aware of the range of associations that exist to offer

opportunities for event interventions? • Have you considered both the opportunities and threats posed by

Internet communications for associative events? • How do you assess the organizational motivations of associations and

the personal motivations of their members, and how do you incorporate these motivations into marketing your event?

• How do you market your events to trade associations, and are you aware of the range of activities that they participate in?

• How do you market your events to fraternal associations that need to market for attendance to their events, and who use events to market their altruistic causes?

• How do you market your events to religious associations, and are you aware of the need for customer acquisition and retention in this sector?

• Are you aware of the drive from religious associations to raise capital, and their use of events in doing so?

• Are you aware of the issues inherent to evangelistic event marketing? • How do you market educational and commercial events for professional

associations, and are you aware of nonattendance issues? • Have you considered the rise in online associations that are not based

on the concept of personal congregation, and are you aware of the opportunities open to event professionals in this development by their evolution and formalization?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://www.pcma.org

The web page of the Professional Convention Managers Association (PCMA) contains a series of freely available resources. The PCMA has a particular focus on the meeting industry.

http://www.themeetingsindustry.org The Meetings Industry is the umbrella organization of all meetings

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and conventions associations in the world, PCMA among them. http://meetingsnet.com

Meetings Net is a regularly updated blog on the meetings, incentive, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) market, providing insight into the current trends in the industry.

http://business.visitlondon.com VisitLondon Business is a great example of how big cities are facilitating conference hosting and providing free-of-charge services to stage your next event in their city. Similar services can be found for large cities around the globe.

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CHAPTER 9

Social Event Marketing “The formula for a happy marriage? It’s the same as the one for living in California: when you find a fault, don’t dwell on it.” Jay Trachman, publisher (1939–2009)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Understand and utilize the conceptual overlap in the

production and consumption of social events through effective event marketing techniques,

• Comprehend the expanding scope of social event marketing in all strata of society, the emerging role of professional intervention that is required, and the growth of self-generated events, and

• Develop new methods for event marketing within this sector to incorporate e-marketing as well as word of mouth (e.g., endorsements, advocacy) to promote attendance.

There is a wide variety of traditional social events (e.g., weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, anniversaries, and birthdays) that are increasingly subject to professional event management. These constitute the celebrations of family life that play such an important role in cultural identity. There are also increasing opportunities afforded by the phenomenon of an aging

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population. Due to this phenomenon throughout the Western world, social events are increasing in size and complexity as well as competition. Social events are a kind of infrastructure. They are the least contrived form of a planned event, as they are from the people to the people, and although professional event management has come into play in this variable sector, the events themselves would happen regardless. To that extent, social events are particularly important to the people instigating and sharing in celebrations and shared experiences. Just because they are often relatively small-scale events does not mean they shouldn’t be managed with the greatest care.

There is furthermore an emerging phenomenon that requires the immediate attention of all event marketers. The basis of social events is a measure of self-determination, something that is planned by those who participate. This does have a family character in the center, but on the periphery there have been notable social events that have been based upon movements and crusades requiring our close attention, as the event democracy ethos promoted by activists and party culture enthusiasts gives us insight about the shape of the future and emerging consumer behavior patterns.

The overwhelming marketing method for social events is the Internet. The promotion of social events fits neatly into social networks and online communication, and this applies to both familial and movement-based activities.

Producers and Consumers The orthodoxy of twentieth-century marketing provided an emphasis upon the distinction between producers and consumers. This was based on observation of marketing communication flow, with industry providing products and services for the masses. There is a level of abstraction to this perspective, however, as industry is composed of people who act as both producers and consumers, yet the model is entirely understandable when we consider that the term consumer denotes a role within an economic system rather than an innate characteristic. The term consumer behavior is almost tautological, as all behavior is linked to one form of consumption or another. To live is to consume. Nevertheless, in developed consumer societies we do not tend to produce what we consume.

Events are different, as the consumption of an event is the event. A can of soup is a can of soup whether someone buys it and eats it or not. A shop

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is a shop whether there is anyone in it or not. An event cannot be held to be so unless it is being consumed. This largely emerges from the way service marketing has been understood. As a general principle, there is a blur between the production and consumption of an event. All event planners can do is set the stage; it is the actors upon the stage who make the event. This distinction is especially blurred when social events come under the spotlight, as often the producers of the event are also the consumers.

The range of what we call social events is extensive. To merely dwell upon those types that are managed by professional event planners would be to produce an endlessly repetitive list, and this is not the approach that will be taken here.

An emerging trend is of self-forming events that are internally managed and happen because it is so easy to communicate via the Internet and wireless communication. Let us begin with an encounter with some skeptical types who have taken over your local establishment to enjoy an event of their own choosing.

Skeptics in the Pub Social events come in all shapes and sizes. Many are small-scale and represent loose associations of people who become involved in a pursuit or point of view. The number of mini-events organized by small numbers of people is incalculable, so consider one such gathering that is typical in that the attendees are just people who met up via friendship and social networking and decided to hold events to have some fun, get together, and do their thing. Distinctions between socializing and attending planned events blur at this level.

The next time you decide to go out for a glass of beer, you may encounter a particularly skeptical crowd who will be loudly defending humankind’s divine right to doubt.

Skeptics in the Pub is a social gathering promoting fellowship and social networking among skeptics and critical thinkers. It provides an opportunity for skeptics to share ideas in a casual, relaxed atmosphere, and discuss whatever topical issues come to mind, as well as having fun while promoting skepticism. The usual format is that a speaker is invited to give a talk on a specific topic, which is followed by a question-and- answer session. The groups usually meet once a month, with the venue being a local pub. There are now as many as 50 different groups running around the world for people who enjoy getting together to celebrate

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thinking they know better than everybody else and to revel in the feeling of intellectual superiority that comes with reasoned, evidence-based analysis.

(www.skeptic.org.uk/pub)

FIGURE 9.1 Skeptics in the Pub meeting in London.

The Management of Life Events from Cradle to Grave If a person doesn’t like the thought of a bunch of know-it-alls poking holes in perhaps cherished beliefs, he or she is unlikely to enjoy that kind of social event. Some events, therefore, naturally exclude those who are not in sympathy with the reason for the event. Not all social events are so exclusive, and the majority are celebrations of the stuff of life—births, deaths, weddings, and coming-of-age. Social family events are with us from the cradle to the grave, and they need organizing to create the best impression, with some effort required to get people to attend. Loss of face is just as critical as loss of profit.

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Life events are the important standout moments that people choose to celebrate. The birth of a child is accompanied by a baby shower and often a religious event, such as a christening. The years fly by and all of a sudden it’s a coming-of-age ceremony, and the next time you look it’s the high school prom, and a few years later a graduation ceremony. Then comes matrimony, and perhaps soon afterward the next generation makes an appearance, with the subsequent events involved. There may be another marriage, and more children, with birthday parties and family get- togethers. Anniversaries are remembered and festivities enjoyed. And so the cycle goes on until we reach our final social event, which unfortunately we are unable to attend in person, but which provides a coming together of one’s nearest and dearest. These events are the milestones of our lives, and throughout the world, from culture to culture and from religion to religion, they are attended to with equal measures of joy and solemnity.

These life events traditionally have been organized by the people themselves. The wealthy have always used event organizers, yet this is merely a reflection of their tendency to have everything done by others for convenience and social differentiation. In this time, an industry has grown up around the organization of life events for more and more people, and what was once a providence of the wealthy has become a means of mass consumption. This phenomenon is most typified by the wedding business. It will not be necessary to go through the family life range of events one by one, as the methods of communicating them are much the same. That is to say that a christening or a bar mitzvah represents similar processes of organization and publicity. To appreciate the dynamics of family-oriented social events, we shall look to weddings for an example, as they are particularly orchestrated and promoted.

Weddings Wedding planners in particular have raised the bar of expectation about how much should be spent on a wedding and what production values should accompany the event. It must bring tears to the eyes of some parents who may find their child’s wedding to be a financial burden, however, especially in this age of easy divorce. Nevertheless, the wedding planner is an established professional, and the business ranges in sophistication from enthusiastic semiprofessionals to full-on event planners for whom every detail deserves attention.

The marketing of weddings is about the provision of the event. A wedding planner usually begins by holding meetings with those being

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married and their parents to get an idea of what they want and inform them of how much they will have to pay to get it. There very well may be a discrepancy between these two factors, so the initial meeting represents both a research-gathering exercise and a negotiation situation. It is essential to get both costs and content signed off before commencing to organize the event. Once this has been achieved, the planner will work from a project management timeline and checklist, which for some large society weddings will begin more than a year in advance of the event, putting the concept of engagement in context.

Marketing weddings, therefore, can be a major piece of work approached with much seriousness and deployed at an organizational level. The market reflects increasing levels of professionalism, and there has been a trickle- down demographic effect as different strata in society adopt the behavior.

The major instrument in the promotion of a wedding is the invitation, which ranges from the traditional card in an envelope to more elaborate and innovative approaches. RSVPing these days is often conducted online. If you consider the care and detail involved in invitation design, it is an encoded message about the people being married. People wish invitations to reflect well upon them and to create an aura for the event to come. Here is an example taken from an online wedding invitation shop that demonstrates the care that can be taken when promoting a wedding event while still remaining tasteful and charming in the eyes of those to whom the invitations are delivered.

Guests received a box through the post. The outside address label contained the quote “A snowflake is one of nature’s most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together.” Upon opening the box, each recipient received an avalanche of snow-like polystyrene balls overspilling from the box. Then inside, under the “snow,” they found an invitation card with a photo of a heart carved from ice. On first opening, the card revealed two sides—one for the Ice Hotel wedding, the other for the Woburn reception. The card then opened out again to reveal a montage of bride and groom photos from childhood through the years. The other detail was using appropriate lyrics from Beatles songs. These were subtly printed on the cards using spot varnish so they could only be seen when light catches at the right angle. The reason for this was that we had booked a Beatles tribute band for the reception, but wanted to keep them as a surprise. (This theme was also carried through to the reception where the table names were Eleanor, Sadie, Rita, Lucy, Prudence and Martha!)

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Although they cursed us when still finding little balls of snow weeks later, the reaction was great and recipients really loved this unusual, modern wedding invite.

(www.weddinginvitationshop.co.uk)

FIGURE 9.2 While people spend the most money on the reception hall and catering, that doesn’t mean the guests will appreciate it the most.

The invitation is not merely a mechanism to inform but also the opportunity for the event marketer to differentiate the event, and to communicate the values that the bride and groom wish to incorporate into their nuptials. It is not clear whether the polystyrene balls were a good idea, however memorable their spillage may have been. Nevertheless, it was a high-impact invitation. To that extent, the invitation serves as the advertisement, and the social network serves as word of mouth in response to the advertisement. The above example is quite lavish in its execution, yet it is possible to really impress if you have the budget. This is not mentioned as a representative example of an invitation, but as a testament to social positioning.

One of the most expensive weddings in recent history was hosted by Lakshmi Mittal. Mittal owns a steel company and is considered one of the world’s richest people. The wedding of his daughter, Vanisha, in 2004 was a huge event. The first sign that it was going to be something special was the wedding invitation. Mittal’s invitations were no ordinary piece of stationery. Each invitation was 20 pages in length and included verses written by members of the family. However, what really set the invitations apart was that they were encased in silver! While the average family might be able to afford one or two of those invitations, the

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Mittals’ guest list included 1,200 people. The rest of the event was equally impressive. The wedding spanned five days and even included a reenactment of the couple’s courtship written by Javed Akhtar, a big name in the Bollywood industry. The wedding ceremony took place in the Palace of Versailles in France. Other parts of the affair were held at one of the finest chateaus in France, and the fireworks display that was part of the event was held at the Eiffel Tower.

(www.myexpression.com)

By encasing a 20-page invitation in silver, the value of wealth has been incorporated into the message. As there is a demographic slant to the use of wedding planners, the invitation should, however comparatively humble, suggest quality and expense, by the use of materials and design. A wedding is a special event, and the invitation needs to be carefully crafted to communicate that special quality. Over and above these considerations, weddings are increasingly being designed to suggest the individuality of the bride and groom, and the invitation can be used as a branding mechanism to stress their unique qualities.

It is no surprise in the age of the Internet to find that weddings have websites and that these are being used to both communicate the values of the event and to provide information to attendees. Professional wedding planners will organize a website, but people getting married who do not choose to have the event professionally managed can easily access planning websites and do a credible job themselves. Visit google.com/weddings to appreciate just how sophisticated commonly available wedding planning packs have become.

Wedding planners also look for potential venues and hire wedding professionals and service providers (e.g., caterers, photographers, videographers, beauticians, florists, bakers), and moreover, they are responsible for the coordination of deliveries and services on the wedding day. They should also have contingency plans in case something goes wrong. If a wedding is a destination event, the wedding planner will be responsible for legal documentation and translations. If the wedding requires notification to society, the wedding planner will be responsible for notifying the appropriate media.

As is the case for events generally, wedding planning typifies the relationship between organizing an event and marketing an event, as for social events they amount to the same thing, and it is representative of the service marketing philosophy wherein the provision of a service is indistinguishable from the marketing of a service. While the invitation is

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legitimately a promotional device, the entire production is in itself a device to market the bride and groom to the society they will emerge into as husband and wife.

Again, if we consider that people use brands to market themselves in a consumer society, then we can see that the concept was around long before in the idea of familial social events being a way for a family to market itself within its social context. In marketing the wedding, birthday, graduation, bar mitzvah, and so forth, the professional approach is to find out as much as possible about the clients: what’s important to them, how they want to be perceived, what their social standing is, why they are choosing to have their event professionally managed, and what they hope to achieve by the event’s execution.

Another way of putting this is to consider that marketers add value to brands, and the familial social event clients are using the event to add value to their family, as an opportunity to market their family. The kind of value will differ. In some cases, it may be relatively low-key, friendship- based value that the family wishes to promote, inviting friends and family to partake of the celebration, and in most instances there will be a tradition to be upheld. There may be a business motivation for a family event, as the guest list may contain clients and suppliers. Will you do business with a woman who invites you to her daughter’s wedding? There often is a social classification aspect to professionally managed familial events among families with social standards to maintain, who use a family event to express their wealth and sophistication. These are serious concerns, tradition and self-expression, and if the event marketer feeds into the client’s requirements therein, the endless details of event creation will be appropriately oriented.

FIVE GENERAL PRINCIPLES ABOUT FAMILIAL EVENT MARKETING 1. Social event marketers are ultimately responsible for the branding of

their clients to their family, friends, and associates, and as such are performing a crucially important task.

2. Social event marketers need to conduct a deep information search in order to be able to communicate the most appropriate values concerning their clients.

3. Enthusiastic amateurs represent serious competition for professional social event marketers.

4. Social events of some sophistication are possible to self-organize and

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market due to online service packages, with serious cost advantages to the potential client.

5. Social event marketers will be judged by the event itself, down to the smallest detail, and new business will be gained by recommendation.

Events for Society There are a great many social events that do not fall under this familiar and traditional umbrella. Increasingly, social events are evolving to reflect the changing dynamics of society. Social networks have joined the separate and have allowed mindsets to converge. The overarching principle of modernity is that people do not need other people to organize events for them; they can do it themselves. This is a critically important point for the event management world to grasp, as one cannot merely assume that the future will be like the past. The social event examples to follow are mostly the preserve of the youthful, and it is the youth who shape the future. Look at their approach to event marketing based upon technology, and their concept of event delivery. Self-management and self-promotion are being demonstrated as being essentially modern. When we consider that the professional promotion of social events was once considered essentially modern, it is clear to see that the event professional really needs to keep his or her ear to the ground to understand the shape of the future. This will be examined further in the next chapter.

The Spontaneous Party Movement Young consumers of events use Twitter, Facebook, and texts to attend spontaneous parties, which hold social status through one’s having to be in the know to be able to attend. The basic scenario is that attendees are only informed of the event very shortly before it happens, but they know themselves to be in the loop and will be ready to respond rapidly whenever the call goes out. The concept was borne out of illegal rave events who organizers wished to avoid the attention of the police, and lead time information was kept to a minimum to provide the advantage of surprise in order to remain clandestine. When that movement began to run out of steam, the concept of spontaneity remained as an aspect of excitement and exclusivity. It is notable that this form of social event uses only social networks to market its existence; otherwise they are off the radar. One particular development is the use of official events as a ground base for a further series of unofficial events. Here is a blog from SXSW 2008, which

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exemplifies the phenomenon.

On Friday night at SXSW Interactive 2008, many people were asking me what was going on that night. Aside from the official party, there wasn’t much else happening. I ran into my good friend . . . in the hallway of the convention center. On the spot we both decided to organize another spontaneous party based on the success last year’s Twittermob & Spontaneous Microsponsorships event held at Ginger Man on the last night of SXSW Interactive 2007. We both posted to Twitter that we were meeting up at Ginger Man around 10 pm. It turned out that Ginger Man was too crowded so at the last minute we moved the party to Six Lounge and started to run a tab. The system worked well once again, with many people showing up and filling up the bar.

(www.laughingsquid.com)

There is no set time for the event, no set location—it is spontaneous and fluid in its conception and organization, all made possible by real-time communication that can be managed on the move with handheld devices. If people are out to acquire experiences, then spontaneity provides the biggest thrill. If people are out to acquire the biggest thrill, then some may move beyond the idea of professionally planned events, and the spontaneous party movement represents a form of consumer empowerment that dismisses the distinction between producers and consumers.

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FIGURE 9.3 Raves have their roots in often illegal, improvised, and spontaneous warehouse parties.

As mentioned previously, there has traditionally been a blur between the production and consumption of events, and the spontaneous party phenomenon is borne of technological sophistication and real-time communication. These are events organized on the spur of the moment by attendees themselves. The instigators, of course, have to make the first move. These are the social ringleaders, the event innovators, and the hub of the thing. The spontaneous party movement is not hinged upon anything in particular; it is just about having a good time without the need for a label to legitimize proceedings. The purpose of the party is the party itself.

Community Events Many social events are, however, about something in particular, a major moment in people’s lives like a birthday or an anniversary, or about a community interest or concern, such as a clean-up-the-river event. Still more are concerned with shared experiences such as reunions. There are as many social events are there are things to care about. They are all being managed, and attendance acquired by what we may call marketing, which invariably amounts to communication within networks and friendship and

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family groups. A clean-up-the-river event could be organized by a school, for example, and organizers would try to gain the participation of parents. Event professionals could be used by a civic administration to generate wider communication for a larger-scale operation. Here is a typical example.

SIOUXLAND MISSOURI RIVER CLEAN-UP 2010 For the third year in a row, we joined the “Sioux Crew” in Sioux City, IA, to clean up the first channelized stretch of the lower Missouri River. Summer had brought on the heat, and every night, a raging thunderstorm would pop up as we slept inside our little tents and cabins, there was strobe-like lightning, thunderous crashes, driving wind, and inches upon inches of rain! But that did not hinder this group’s clean-up efforts! The weather proved to be cool and cloudy during the day, and we had a great time combing the banks for trash in this popular boating and fishing town.

(www.riverrelief.org/event/siouxland-missouri-river-clean-up-2010)

Social events of this sort are community spirited, and event marketing initiatives are bound to shared values, and moreover a chance to be part of something. These could be fundraisers for community projects, charity events to raise money for local needs, or any of a wide selection of such activities. Very often self-generated, they can become more formalized if event marketers step in and take the initiative. Community events can be built up to be symbolic of a community, and really should be viewed as potential festivals by event marketers. Which community events have the potential for expansion and formalization. Which will be most appealing to civic authorities and local businesses? Remember that major music festivals began as casual, small-scale gatherings. People used to organize their own weddings. The event marketer should be looking at what’s happening at the ground level and investigating where and how expansion of community events would be possible and popular.

Some social issues are so important to large numbers of people that they become motivated to take action, to vocally and physically challenge social norms, and to fight for change. Whenever people get together in shared purpose, we have an event.

Activism Events Getting behind a social issue and doing something about it is activism, and

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there is an events sector that serves this aspect of society. Social issues range from the mainstream, like eco-activism, to the quirky, such as conspiracy theory events about UFOs and alien abduction.

The International UFO Congress: The IUFOC was established in 1991 and hosts an annual conference on UFOs and related phenomena. The conference was held in Laughlin, Nevada, until 2011 when it moved to the Phoenix, Arizona, area. The conference boasts more than twenty speakers and a plethora of exhibitors from around the globe, and covers a large variety of topics related to the UFO phenomenon, including technology, government cover-ups, exopolitics, black projects, crop circles, alien visitation, and more. Panels of astrophysicists, nuclear physicists, abductees, and former top-secret-clearance military personnel make up just a portion of highly decorated and influential speakers. The 20th Annual International UFO Congress, hosted by Open Minds Production, will be held at the Fort McDowell Resort & Casino in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mark your calendars for February 23–27, 2011; it’s an event you don’t want to miss!

(www.ufocongress.com)

The overarching mantra of activism is that people need to be told and something has to be done, and the people involved in this cosmic conference feel that this is a serious matter that deserves exposure and debate. In fairness, it should be recalled that in its early days the eco- movement was considered quirky, yet now it has become an established orthodoxy so the term is not being used pejoratively, merely to denote a lack of consensus on an issue.

Activism is an attempt to draw attention to something important or harmful that is being neglected by the traditional media and the powers that be. It is about change, freedom of information, and enlightenment. In this information-rich age, it is all too easy to fall in with a society of people who see things the way you do. What movement could be more admirable than halting the destructive catastrophe of war?

It may be unrealistic that pacifists should expect to bring an end to the defining historical reality of warfare given their lack of power to do so, but the same could be said of early eco-activists who managed to eventually influence the giants of industry to curb emissions. The mainstream media in time came to broadly support initiatives to halt wanton pollution, and political will followed. Can the antiwar activists hope for a positive outcome to their efforts? In most recent times, the war in Iraq has induced

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some popular momentum by activists who organized one of the most cohesive and media-savvy events the world has witnessed in many a long year.

On February 15, 2003, upwards of 10 million (perhaps as many as 20 million) people throughout the world took part in an extensive antiwar protest, a concerted effort to stage a number of events throughout the world that were designed to draw attention to the imminent war in Iraq. The protest in Rome, for instance, numbered 3 million people and has been noted as the largest antiwar rally in history, and Europe generally experienced a huge surge in activism. Ironically, protest events in the Middle East were much more modest in scale. The marketing of these events involved basically organizing them, as once in place and happening, the world’s media became the promoters. Few politicians openly admit to being in favor of war, although the long, bloody history of humankind does indicate a certain aptitude at least. It was therefore a form of activism that was mainstreamed, and to which one would have expected a groundswell of support. Somehow, however, the specter of weapons of mass destruction tended to dampen the enthusiasm of the population at large, and however well-meaning and hugely organized, the event proved impotent to influence policy.

Activism events can therefore be major in scope and scale, yet there are a great number of activists occupying the fringes of social consciousness who nevertheless use online networking and web communication generally to organize events. Some are very peripheral to the mindset of most people, but due to global communications, if enough people converge upon a point of view, they will inevitably wish to get together to reinforce one another’s belief structures.

In 2010, a mass activist movement in the United States allied to the Republican Party, known as the Tea Party campaign, aimed to oppose the provision of subsidized health care to the less well off (so the group was not exactly a charitable foundation), and generally opposed the Democratic Party’s perceived liberal/socialist agenda. Their numerous events have attracted a tremendous level of support from individuals, and attention from the media, throughout the world. This form of activism is politically motivated, yet it has grassroots support focusing on smaller government, fiscal responsibility, individual freedoms, and upholding a conservative view of the Constitution. These were ideals that motivated a great many quiet conservative people to become activated, and it was via events that activists chose to communicate their concerns and their hopes for the

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future. Tea Party events were promoted on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, and major broadcast media regularly reported upon events as they happened. Urban liberal sophisticates have not, however, been attracted to the Tea Party.

Reaction to the Tea Party movement spawned more events, such as the Jon Stewart–inspired Rally to Restore Sanity. Stewart’s TV show marketed the event, and online networking took care of the logistics. The following copy has been taken from the official website of the event organizers and is notable for its lighthearted, slightly mocking tone. It demonstrates that social activists represent a point of view and that communication with them should reflect their outlook via the language being used.

I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Who among us has not wanted to open their window and shout that at the top of their lungs? Seriously, who? Because we’re looking for those people. We’re looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles. Are you one of those people? Excellent. Then we’d like you to join us in Washington, DC on October 30—a date of no significance whatsoever —at the Daily Show’s “Rally to Restore Sanity.” Ours is a rally for the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs)—not so much the Silent Majority as the Busy Majority. If we had to sum up the political view of our participants in a single sentence . . . we couldn’t. That’s sort of the point. Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement; the Million Man March, only a lot smaller, and a bit less of a sausage fest; or the Gathering of the Juggalos, but instead of throwing our feces at Tila Tequila, we’ll be actively *not* throwing our feces at Tila Tequila. Join us in the shadow of the Washington Monument. And bring your indoor voice. Or don’t. If you’d rather stay home, go to work, or drive your kids to soccer practice . . . Actually, please come anyway. Ask the sitter if she can stay a few extra hours, just this once. We’ll make it worth your while.

(www.rallytorestoresanity.com)

As it turned out, the rally managed to attract over 200,000 everyday people. These were silent moderates turned activists, who behaved in a

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civilized and rational manner as was the point of the event. It is, however, less likely that quiet moderation will attract quite so much attention as noisy extremism.

FIGURE 9.4 Even quiet moderates can make some noise with an event.

In 2010 in the United Kingdom, the government legislated that there would be cuts in the funding of the university sector, and that there were to

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be higher caps on fees a university could charge. The immediate effect of this was that thousands of high school graduates were unable to find university places, with the prospect of those who did plunging into even greater debt. It should be explained that the United Kingdom has a long tradition of free university education for all who get the grades to attend. After many years of quiescence, UK students resumed activism, and a nationwide student protest movement, involving a number of well- attended events, wrong-footed the police and created heavy media attention, with some level of civil disorder and mild chaos. An article taken from the Guardian newspaper illustrates how modern communication techniques have changed, and how that affects their response.

After two chaotic student protests in the space of a fortnight, the question police will be asking is: who are the new rebel leaders? The unfortunate answer for them is that there are none. Unlike student movements in the 1960’s and 1970’s, actions developed organically, with social media, particularly Facebook and twitter, providing an ideal platform for grassroots organisation. This has left police with little idea of what to expect, as shown during the first demonstration when just 225 officers were initially assigned to contain what turned out to be tens of thousands of protesters in central London. The so-called anarchists attached to the demonstrations appear to be growing, however, and masked figures were at the forefront of the action.

(www.guardian.co.uk)

This article is correct in saying that social networks are organic and naturally forming, but less so in that there were no ringleaders, as it is merely that the vast mesh of intercommunication makes it difficult to assess where information originates from.

Not everybody is content with the way the world is being run. Certainly the Third World must be extremely unsatisfied, and the developing world must be feeling exploited. In our society, many people, mostly young people, want to express their disaffection through protest events that are designed to disrupt and agitate. At the forefront of this tendency is the self- styled anarchist movement, which includes those who are event planners and marketers of some expertise. Their events are pretty chaotic and attendees are prepared to take on the law and face imprisonment if necessary. Here is a report about an anarchist event in Vancouver that sought to protest against the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

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We’re pleased to bring you breaking news from Vancouver, where united indigenous and anarchist resistance has disrupted the capitalist and nationalist triumphalism at the opening of the Olympic Games. For more background on why people are resisting these games, check no2010.com and olympicresistance.net. This was not “just another summit”—this was the culmination of several years of direct action by indigenous people, anarchists, anti-poverty activists, environmentalists, and others against the 2010 Olympics. One of the most inspiring aspects of this convergence was the framework that created it. Indigenous people called upon their allies to help defend their territory against further colonization, and solidarity activists answered that call. An anti- capitalist analysis permeated the entire movement and it was a radicalizing force among the broader activist community. This was not a showdown in which local issues were left on the back burner; as far as the authors know, this was the first summit in North America that was entirely focused on local issues. The movement was mostly local, as well. Although the numbers may seem small in comparison to mobilizations in Europe and the United States, Vancouver is a very isolated city and is not easy to travel to.

(www.crimethinc.com)

To many people, the Winter Olympic Games are just something on television, a winter sports event that seems benign. For these activists, however, it is plainly malign and symbolic of corporate hegemony. However that may be, what’s important for the event marketer is to notice how seamlessly different activism groups were able to coordinate their efforts upon this sporting event, and the extent to which events themselves are the focus of counterevents. This example illustrates the power of networks to mobilize and of the diversity of public mood and disposition. Corporate and mega events are not universally popular, and whereas in the past those with a grudge could only fester in isolation, now they can embrace like-minded people online and find themselves active in support of their values. This is a liberating development, as it goes without saying that free expression is ultimately for the greater good.

These are very much social events as they are about changing society, or at least making trouble through frustration with their inability to change society. Their most high-profile targets are the world’s richest countries, the leaders of which ostentatiously gather annually for a high-profile summit in rolling luxury venues—rather a red rag to a bull for the global anarchist movement. The significance of this kind of social event, albeit at

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the extreme end of the spectrum, is that events have long been used as a means of demonstrating a perceived need for change.

The Arab Spring of 2011 illustrated most vividly the power of technology to connect, educate, and communicate people’s urgent need for change, often under the threat of reprisal. The sheer ability of communication and organization afforded by online technology has created a new era of activism in which emerging generations understand the power of events to attract a worldwide audience to their cause.

FIGURE 9.5 During the protests against the government of Egypt, organizers of the protest understood the power of communication in spontaneous events. The government reacted by shutting down the Internet.

Event Marketers Need to Pay Attention to Activism and Partyism It’s not what they do, it’s the way that they do it. That’s what we need to pay attention to as event marketers. These events are not managed by professional event teams who come in, take a brief, and go ahead with setting the thing up. These people do it for themselves. It is a new breed of event that is purposefully off the radar and communicated almost clandestinely via opaque social networks. Most importantly, they are largely the provision of youth, who have found that e-communication makes it easy to self-organize.

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This issue of self-organization should be of real importance to the events industry. At the moment, the orthodox definition of planned events is still attached to the twentieth-century producer/consumer paradigm. In the chapter to follow, among other matters, this issue will be further discussed.

FIVE REFLECTIONS ON SOCIAL EVENTS 1. There is a tendency for a social event to have the appearance of a

happening, a spontaneous occurrence, however minutely organized behind the scenes.

2. Social events purely for pleasure may be self-organized and unlabeled, merely things unto themselves without the need for reasons or theme legitimization.

3. Social activism events, on the other hand, show that even huge events can be pulled together by social network communication and that media coverage can be ensured by achieving a critical mass of attendees.

4. Self-generated community events can be considered by the event marketer as a means of identifying those with the potential for formalization.

5. Social events are generally about making things better and can be considered a potential source of new causes to be supported.

CHAPTER SUMMARY To what extent can professional event specialists become involved in social events? Some markets, such as weddings, are clearly geared up for professional intervention, yet there are a great many social events that are self-generating, and emerging trends point toward self-organization and marketing via e-communication as being entirely possible, even for large, complicated gatherings. Event marketing for formally produced events has come to rely upon e-solutions, as we have seen, and the consumer learning curve has resulted in the same e-solutions for informally produced events, as outlined in this chapter. Nevertheless, social event planning and marketing provide status, and it is that which differentiates the formal from the informal, and as long as people need to differentiate themselves on the basis of status, there will be a market for professionally managed social events. It would be as well, however, for the event marketer to be aware of changing norms, especially among younger consumers.

“. . . The future of the event sector will undoubtedly be influenced by the

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youth of today. They key is effortless intercommunication, interweaving social networks and the ubiquitous hand held device. There are more questions than answers concerning the rise of the spontaneous event, yet it certainly does not appear to be the provenance of the old or the affluent. The important issue is to be able to determine the extent to which self generated event practices eat into the established events industry, and if it is to be considered a market sector, how is it to be defined and by what means can it be served?

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • How do social events contribute to cultural identity, and why is it so

important for event marketers to understand this? • Why do small-scale social events deserve such careful management and

promotion? • How has the Internet come to be so central to the marketing of social

events? • How has the planning and marketing of social events become self-

generated? • How has the Internet multiplied the range and scope of social events? • Why have wedding events become strongly associated with

professional event management intervention? • How do invitations promote the values and attitudes of social event

initiators? • What is the range of activities involved in wedding planning and

marketing? • How do families use the production and marketing of planned events to

promote their social status? • How are events utilized by proponents of social change, in both

professionally organized and casually engendered circumstances? • What should event marketers learn from the phenomenon of the

spontaneous party movement? • How do events provide an opportunity for community cohesion and

improvement? • How have events come to be planned and organized by those involved

in social activism? • Why are events such a natural mechanism for social activism?

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• How will online methods of self-generation inform the future nature of event marketing?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://www.google.com/weddings/

Google provides a comprehensive overview of how to use their products to plan a wedding. This is a brilliant example of how the Internet facilitates the emergence of do-it-yourself events.

http://www.meetup.com Meetup is a website used to organize spontaneous social gatherings. Meetings can be organized or interested persons can look for meetings to attend.

http://www.ning.com/ Ning is a website facilitating the creation of micro social networks and is also used to help social groups meet up in real life.

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Chapter 10

Future Forces and Trends in Event Marketing “When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” John M. Richardson, international development scholar (Born 1938)

When you have completed this chapter, you will be able to • Identify and utilize patterns of event marketing development

from previous eras, and identify present and future opportunities for growth,

• Understand the major dynamic forces in consumer culture that will most affect event marketers,

• Anticipate the evolution of today’s young consumers and the

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changing definition and roles of events in their lives, • Consider the life cycle of events through time via the lens of

trends and cycles, and • Predict the future influences upon events and event marketing.

The Event Marketing Trajectory How does the way things were done in the past influence the way they will be done in the present and the future? Looking back to the dawn of planned events, we have seen that they began inclusively, bound to everyday life, expressions of identity. They bound people to a common purpose or worldview, or were instigated by those in control to organize the populace. In a sense, they have not changed in their function, but have expanded in their diversity and have in the consumer society adopted consumption roles.

Event marketing development in one aspect has been about the development of communication techniques, wherein the message has remained largely similar but the means of delivering it has changed. Marketing messages have always been about generating interest and social discourse, whether via a parchment nailed to a wall in ancient Rome or a multimedia, socially networked, search engine–optimized promotion in the present day. Whatever the medium, the message is going to be about providing information, aesthetics, interest, and motivation. The development of event marketing has been about the kind of events being created, by whom, and why, and the means of communicating about them.

The trend is that more people are creating events, but their basic form remains fairly constant. Mega-events have always been with us and look to continue apace, yet beneath that the tendency is for like-minded people, who are able to find one another online, to enjoy gatherings. So as all media tend to do, events are fragmenting into increasingly specialized segments. The reason people engage in events remains the same as ever— to congregate, share, and communally experience.

The trajectory of event marketing is to continue producing and promoting gatherings that are increasingly diverse, using whatever means are best suited to reach the right people with the right message about the right event. The fundamental nature of events is unchanging, and the principle of communication remains the same. It’s not what is being done that’s changing, but how it’s being done.

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Trends in Twenty-First-Century Event Marketing This section focuses on a series of factors that are put forward as being particularly pertinent influences upon event marketing. These include the influence of ecology among young consumers that affects consumer behavior patterns, shifting demographics and in particular the extending of the active life span, and the influence of technological forces upon event marketing. We will also consider the relationship between events and other marketing mix factors, as it cannot be expected that the role of events for consumers and marketers will remain static. It is when we consider the role of events in marketing practice that we should most carefully assess the extent to which the future will be the same as the past. Changes in consumption through social norms and lifestyle and demographic shifts will also affect the way events are created and consumed.

Reggie Aggarwal is CEO of Cvent, a global event marketing solutions company that provides online software for event management, web surveys, and e-mail marketing as well as a global event venue directory with over 100,000 venues. Reggie comments on the technological influences upon the events industry. Technology has become the cornerstone of just about every element of the event lifecycle—from creating an event website, sending e-mail invitations, and collecting registrations and payments online, to social media marketing, mobile apps, virtual events, etc. Thanks to technology, it is now easier than ever for event marketers to influence audiences that would otherwise be out of reach. Technology also automates time-consuming tasks, and allows marketers to develop much more efficient and highly targeted campaigns. This is particularly true of e-mail marketing. While tech innovations like mobile and social media applications are bringing about a paradigm shift in how events are promoted and shared, e-mail marketing remains a very powerful channel in the event marketer’s toolkit. E-mail also allows for easy audience segmentation, effective use of graphics, and easy tracking of clicks and open rates. Different communications are best suited for different mediums,

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and there’s no question that the rise of new technologies presents great opportunities for event marketers. For example, social media gives marketers unprecedented access to conversations and opinions they can use to shape their events and marketing strategies, and is ideal for spontaneous, brief messages. It also helps spark conversations, build a community of followers and maintain engagement, and makes word-of-mouth marketing more influential than ever. For event marketers, the result of such an integrated online strategy will be more loyal attendees and brand advocates. Event technology has evolved at a rapid pace over the past few years, and event planners now have the event marketing and management tools they need to execute successful events without breaking the bank.

Time Compression Everything happens so quickly these days. There is immediacy to much of our lives. All the information in the world is instantly available to us via the Internet. It is often said that people today lead busy lives and need things quickly. Perhaps we should adjust that to noting that people are becoming increasingly impatient. Consider our fixation with broadband speed. How instant does information have to be to satisfy the modern consumer? Nevertheless, people are living lives where time has become compressed. Media schedules have become prone to this phenomenon. For event marketers utilizing social media, for instance, it is now necessary to manage the fine-tuning of when messages are fed into the network. It is a busy place, cyberspace. It is no longer enough to plan for the best time in the month, or the optimum day in the week. The real-time revolution of compressed time means that an event marketer will have to analyze the best time in the day to feed communications into the system.

At the moment, we have well-known e-platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-In. These have become, in a very short space of time, established media. They are no longer the new kids on the block.

One day soon they will be old hat. Newer, more immediate variations will appear and time will become more compressed. The idea of real time and compressed media schedules corresponds to many consumers’ expectations of instancy. The handheld device, currently dominated by the iPhone and its contemporaries (at the time of this writing, anyway),

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provides consumers with instant news, instant chat, instant everything. We are moving toward the time of one day being a media schedule and timings being strategically placed within an increasingly busy 24 hours. Online media space will be sold within compressed time frames. Event marketers will have no option but to keep up with the moment, to keep pace with the modern fixation with immediacy. The adage that something is out of date because it is so last year is being replaced with so last month, and so last week. How long will it be until something is so last hour? A new media planning industry is being born to deal with time compression. Given event marketing’s growing reliance upon e-communication, the twenty- first-century event marketer would do well to keep up with developments in this field.

Web Sophistication In a short decade or two, e-marketing has accelerated through various levels of sophistication. The initial emphasis was upon usability, which as is suggested by the term concerned how straightforward it was for users to navigate around a website, how well signposted processes were, and simply how easy the website was to use. This emphasis was no doubt due to the relative newness of Internet communication to many people, and the learning curve inherent to this new medium. For marketers, the next milestone was interactivity, the extent to which flexibility of response was evident, and the provision of opportunity for users to become involved, intellectually and emotionally, with web offerings. As the newness of the Internet faded away to familiarity, the relationship changed and users grew more demanding.

Then social media came along and web communication became a labyrinth of interweaving fluid networks that intermingled with e- marketing sites. This terribly complex system, this holistic cartography of information flow, is the sophisticated web of today. There is little doubt that the inclusion of social networking portals on a web facility is of importance, and will continue to be so, but it has become somewhat of a prerequisite, and many event marketers have perhaps elevated the emphasis of social features while neglecting other important aspects of web use. Most innovations are prey to the law of diminishing returns, so reliance upon having a social facility provides less advantage over time, as it becomes commonplace. It is a bit like believing your car will outsell other models by having an airbag. It may once have been a noticeable advantage but has since become ordinary. As an event marketer, do you

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want to rely upon something ordinary to attract interest and involvement? That is not to say that I am advocating bells and whistles to make your web marketing somehow more satisfying for users but that you should remember some fundamental requirements that many event marketers gloss over in their enthusiasm for social networking. If all websites have Facebook links, then there is no advantage in having one, although there is a disadvantage in not having one.

Be careful not to offer up information gaps between what site users expect and what you provide. In this multimedia age, it is all too easy to assume that all visitors to a site will be able to find what they want just because you know it’s there somewhere. Investigate web offerings and create your own benchmarks of how easy information should be to find, and indeed what information should be there. Many web users are media savvy, to the extent that judgments may be made about your event in light of the experience of using the event website, which in contemporary terms is something to be enjoyed. To rephrase this, the website for your event is a kind of virtual packaging that informs consumers of the product within, and if it does not measure up, negative assumptions will be generated about your event.

Remember the consumer’s impatience and need for instant gratification. A clumsy site will cause irritation that may project onto the event itself. There are accepted standards of multimedia sophistication and graphic representation that should be adhered to, once again as a prerequisite, but they are not going to impress anyone unless you are providing up-to-date information to web users and delivering seamless, anticipatory online processes that operate quickly. The future of web commerce is therefore accuracy and speed. If the market sector you operate in has flash video glossiness as standard, then that is the least you should offer, but it is not an end in itself.

In appreciating that your event is part of your customers’ life statement, you should include links to a broad range of related topics. When they interact with your event’s web offering, they should see a mirror of their own mental associations and interests. You will therefore be working toward a web practice where your customers expect to find the marketing mirror in your website. This extends to both information that your customers will expect to find and information that they do not anticipate but which will be welcome nonetheless. In practice, this suggests the use of sidebars as a basic requirement and links to other sites that relate to the keywords designating your site. Again, this level of sophistication is fast

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becoming an accepted norm of web standards and is not so much something to be aspired to but rather something that will simply have to be in place to meet expectations.

FIVE WAYS TO KEEP YOUR WEBSITE UP TO DATE 1. Conduct ongoing benchmarking of website features within and

outside your sector, and update regularly. 2. Provide links to a wide range of related interests; your website should

be a hub. 3. Design your website to be a virtual representation of your event as an

invitation to experience the event firsthand. 4. Ensure that your website has flow and mirrors the thought processes

of its users. 5. Invest in keeping your website fast and accurate, and keep tabs on the

rapid evolution of the social networking sector.

Don’t Forget about the Experience The future, in many respects, will be very much like the past. Many things will change, but many more things will remain the same. Often we make mistakes by forgetting about fundamentals. As an event marketer, a useful mantra should be, don’t forget about the experience. However, you should also remember that last year’s cheer can be next year’s yawn. Keep up with what constitutes an experience, keep your finger upon the pulse of the moment, and make sure to understand what people are after.

FIGURE 10.1 Giving away early or reduced tickets to events is one of Vodafone’s more recent, major innovative strategies.

The best marketing is providing pleasure and satisfaction to your

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customers, who subsequently share their satisfaction with their social network and face-to-face friends. That’s word-of-mouth marketing, and it is critical to event marketing. Some things really don’t change. Make sure that you create fantastic events, whatever event type you are involved with. If you are organizing seminars to get employees to accept greater workloads, make sure the event itself feeds into what these people need. If you are creating an entertainments festival, make sure everything on offer, all of it, makes people feel good, glad to be there and enjoying every minute. Service organizations consider the provision of a service to be tantamount to the marketing of the service, and that should be the way it is for event marketers—the experience is the thing. Marketing messages for events will rise or fall depending on the experience of the attendees (who are the event), and there needs to be a match between the hype and the experience. Keep innovating to keep the experience up to date and never stop trying to please your customers, never take them for granted, and always be the perfect host.

Bloggers and Überbloggers However orthodox social networks have become, their influence upon word of mouth is pervasive. The sphere of bloggers can be interesting, but their influence must surely wane, as there are more and more bloggers out there with more and more opinions being circulated. So many opinions become a cacophony. It was Harry Nilsson who wrote, “Everybody’s talking at me, I don’t hear a word they’re saying. . . .” The blogosphere is becoming stuffed with the opinions of people who just don’t matter to most audiences, and people are tuning out. While once they represented maverick communicators, and some still do to some extent at the time of this writing, the role will lose its edge as communication becomes locked into friendship networks where organic opinions will develop through natural selection, where like meets like, and consensus emerges from the sheer volume of communication traffic. What of the rise of the überblogger?

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FIGURE 10.2 Some of the most influential bloggers and Twitterers—note that not all of them are influential leaders.

Überbloggers for your event are going to be people who have a real passion for the kind of thing you are offering, who are known to be particularly au fait with what is de rigueur. The common blogger is not the style guru, but the überblogger is—the ultimate arbiter of what’s hot and what’s not. Think of the traditional restaurant critic working for a city newspaper who has the influence to make or break the reputation of an eating establishment, or a theater critic who can fill seats or empty the house. These are the kind of individuals who are evolving into gurus from the blogosphere and twitterdom. Some may be entertainment celebrities, or journalists, or ordinary people who have worked up a following, but the Internet is their domain, and they are the new critics, reviewers, and gossip columnists, set to become established as the social barometers of our age. These are not new phenomena, but rather an online manifestation of a social role that has been around forever, the opinion leader, and in the future, event marketers need to make sure that they not only satisfy their customers but also understand the perspectives of the überbloggers.

Reggie Aggarwal on the utilization of online channels: Online channels can absolutely be leveraged by event marketers to their advantage. Not only do blogs, social networks and online forums provide unparalleled opportunities for event marketers to reach more people than ever before, they also give a public microphone to the opinions of their target audience—a voice that is amplified through social sharing and the viral nature of the web. This means that event marketers can more easily tap into the thoughts of the very people they are trying to influence, and also leverage the power of the social web to create brand evangelists that will help drive exposure for their events.

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Event marketers whose target demographics are active in online channels will likely find that if they jump into the conversation and participate by listening, responding, and sharing information with others online, the results will be positive. Event marketers can use social networks and online forums to ask questions of their attendees, research their target market’s likes and dislikes, gather feedback, reach broader audiences, drive attendance—the benefits are truly endless. Social networks are also a natural platform for event marketers because they combine the two elements that typically draw attendees to events—networking opportunities and educational content. The difference is, now, instead of individually calling all of your registrants, sending emails to ask questions, or waiting to gauge reactions at your live event, you can begin networking and gathering educational content online much further in advance. Online groups allow attendees to collaborate with one another prior to the event, as well, which results in more engaged participants and meaningful dialogue throughout the event. Word-of-mouth marketing via blogs, social networks, and forums is the dawn of a whole new era in event marketing. Event marketers can mobilize registered attendees to reach out to their social networks to invite their friends and colleagues to the event. Attendees can share an event with thousands of contacts at the click of a button. Also, event marketers can proactively ask attendees to share or “re-tweet” a message to their connections, or even incentivize people to share the event by creating a contest with a compelling prize. Unlike direct mail, press releases, and other traditional event marketing methods, the blogosphere, social networks, and online forums create an ongoing dialogue around your events, which can ultimately drive registration and lead to more satisfied attendees.

Back to the Future of Offline Marketing The irony of rapid Internet and network availability to all is that it creates a level marketing playing field, upon which traditional event marketing techniques should be redeployed to create differentiation. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In the land of ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter communication, the event that goes beyond this will generate

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differentiation and advantage, and amid the unimaginable mass of online information, may actually get noticed by doing something different.

Everything that we have discussed about the need for a slick web presence remains true: make sure your website is slick and good-looking, and ensure your social networking presence is optimized. Use online advertising by all means and utilize network opinion leaders. It has become such that not to do these things will create disadvantage, but the question is, will you gain advantage by doing them? Only if your competitors are not, and it can sensibly be assumed that they will not neglect to do so. Of course, if you manage the web with more focus, clarity, and creativity than others, you may manage to stand out from the crowd, and for many event marketers whose budget does not extend beyond web utilization, this must be the strategy. On the other hand, larger or smarter events will benefit from some non-web-based intervention.

Ideally, therefore, online marketing should be a component of the marketing mix. More specifically, it can be thought of as a destination toward which promotions can channel consumer interest. Many Facebook users experience a great deal of event information on their site amid a great deal of general communication. Moreover, there are concerns about the way that Facebook is becoming embroiled in the marketing industry, and of the extent to which users are being used by Facebook as consumer behavior patterns to be utilized. Consider the following article, which outlines many of the concerns about the way the service is evolving.

A fairly universal understanding of life is that things should be opt in, not opt out. Facebook doesn’t seem to understand this little nugget of wisdom. The way they seem to see it, you’re on their website—they can do with you what they wish. Never mind the entire fiasco over who owns photos placed on the website. Now Facebook is actively giving your information away by default, and you have to opt out of it. If that weren’t bad enough, the ability to opt out isn’t as easy as you’d think. You have to hunt through three different sections, into the subsections of those sections, to find the little radio button you click to keep your online life private. That is not cool. In a world where home values can be looked up online, where probable salary numbers are just a click away, where your home can be zoomed in on via a web browser, where your cell phone can be beamed coupons based on your habits, where web advertisements target you in ways that are just a wee too familiar, how many users are going to happily maintain an account on a website that is actively trading pieces of their online lives to the highest bidder?

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The thing about real life and friendship in the real world is that it has tiers. Plainly spoken, some people are kept distant and out of the friendship loop more than others. This is order amongst what would otherwise be chaos. On Facebook, it doesn’t work like that. You’re friends, or you’re not friends. If you’re friends in real life with someone you can tolerate only in certain places for certain durations, you might find them unbearable online, where they can post to anything you say, where they can poke you and post things on your wall for everyone to see.

As companies take to the Internet for evaluating current and prospective employees, the reality of needing to maintain online privacy is more imperative than ever. People have been fired from their jobs and suspended from their schools for things posted on Facebook. Though they have implemented privacy features across the accounts, they are either difficult to find or they fail. If Facebook continually proves that it is a liability due to its near-constant security holes and breaches and hiccups, can it truly expect users to stick around and share their lives online while potentially putting their jobs on the line?

(www.Laptoplogic.com)

This is a fairly damning critique of how Facebook has developed. Yet the service continues to thrive at the time of this writing and has become a colossus. Marketing research is being carried out on the majority of users who do not choose to opt out, and some users, as with the writer of the article above, are wary of receiving targeted marketing that seems suspiciously related to their interests. That is not to say that everyone by any means feels this way, but rather that, like a virus, this attitude may spread. This is speculation. What we can say for sure is that social networking sites are getting to be marketing heavy, and that event marketers should consider traditional forms of promotion with the facility to indicate RSVP on Facebook.

The complexity of online communication systems, the clandestine research, and issues of identity and privacy caused by opaque source identification can make traditional advertising seem honest and simple. There is no duplicity, and it exists outside of the crowded, personal Net space of the information-oppressed online networkers, who may feel swamped by web marketing, yet who might actually notice and appreciate a colorful, well-designed advertisement that they notice every morning as they cycle to work, or which they notice while flicking through their lifestyle magazine of choice.

It is a sign of the times that traditional media advertising comes to be

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described as an honest broker. Nevertheless, in competitive markets it is associated with market leaders, or at least with brands that seek to better their prospects. It offers a level of status to a brand and elevates it above the herd. Most importantly for events, however, is that it differentiates by media and creates an exposure that is not merely online. Marketers have always sought differentiation for their brands. Social media has indeed been a revolution of communication, but it has not changed that basic principle, and if online marketing doesn’t provide that differentiation, then don’t ignore traditional media outlets. Advertising can use events as the basis of its creative message, as with the first example below, and can refer to events as with the second example. The use of advertising here is to reach a wide audience, to reassure existing customers, and to reach out for new customers.

Here are two examples of UK phone networks using events and advertising to promote their interests.

T-Mobile has been using flash mob TV advertisements to illustrate the joys of togetherness, such as hundreds of people in a busy railway station suddenly entering into a huge dance routine, the camera lingering on the delighted expressions of passersby. This is a fair attempt to create interest and gain attention, but the format quickly becomes familiar, and as with most innovations, is subject to diminishing returns. Now that the world is used to planned events, their level of perceived uniqueness has become muted.

The Vodaphone network, on the other hand, has invested heavily in music festival sponsorship, and advertises on TV that Vodaphone customers will receive access to festival tickets 48 hours before the general public. This is of practical value to their customers and has been announced on television advertising so that non-Vodaphone customers are able to see the benefit of belonging to the network, whereas the T-Mobile benefit is rather abstract.

Virtual Events What actually are virtual events, and are they going to be important in the future? Whatever one’s opinion may be, if consumers believe virtual events to be worthwhile, they will have a role in the future. Virtual events are based upon multimedia interactive Internet platforms, which claim to offer attendees a sense of attending an event through attempts to re-create aspects of an event in a virtual context. That all sounds very impressive, but it basically means not being there. If physical attendance is not

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required to consider oneself as participating in an event, then it merely means we are assigning a new meaning to the term.

If I watch a live football game on television, is that a virtual event? Well, it’s generally called catching a game on television, but somehow if it’s watching a game live via the Internet, it becomes a virtual event. The phrase is therefore born of technology, and no small measure of spin. Online events are delivered via the Internet, and attendees access the event link and enter into a virtual event environment.

There is also a status aspect to actual and virtual events. Those who are important may attend the actual event, and those who are not will have to make do with the virtual event. This could be reflected in the corporate world, where key players are in physical attendance and those of less status interact via Internet links. Similarly, those who actually attend music festivals are first-class event attendees, whereas those who experience live event feeds on their phone are second-class attendees. There is an inherent lack of status to being a virtual event attendee.

Reggie Aggarwal on virtual events: There are times when it is more practical and cost-effective to hold a virtual event, and there’s no question that integrating virtual elements can be very valuable when it comes to extending the reach of live events and of a brand, capturing marketing data from attendees, and prolonging the life of event content. Ultimately, though, virtual technology is complementary to in- person events, rather than a replacement, and live meetings and events remain best for building the relationships that drive business. For example, it’s likely best for large corporations with 10,000+ employees spread across the country to hold a virtual event rather than fly in people from across the country to attend a speech from the CEO. In many instances, it just isn’t realistic from a time and cost perspective for attendees to travel to your event, or to hold a live event to begin with. That said, events are social by definition and what attendees miss with virtual events is the in-person connection with others, and the full learning experience that comes from having all your senses immersed in the event content. People don’t learn as well in 2D (i.e., by just reading information, watching a video, or even listening to a live presentation over the

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web). It’s a fact. When you’re at an event, all your senses are working together to help you fully experience the content of that event. Live events convey content to people in the way they learn best—real life. In addition, while social media and virtual technology enable attendees to interact, there’s just no substitute for the energy and connection that comes from actually meeting a customer or colleague in person—these connections build trust and rapport, and people choose to do business with who they like and trust. What’s more, as people are increasingly inundated with marketing messages through online channels, and more of our lives become caught up in the virtual space, live meetings become more powerful than ever. So while virtual technology will play an increasingly critical role in the delivery of meetings and events, you can’t replicate the personal interaction and experience that comes from actually “being there,” and virtual events can’t replace the power of the human element. This is why the live events industry continues to thrive despite more ways than ever to communicate without meeting face-to-face. Face-to-face events have the highest ROI. Technology can’t change human nature and the way people interact.

Nevertheless, if the phrase virtual event permeates society and becomes an ordinary way of thinking about the world, virtual attendance of events will become an accepted paradigm. Organizations can certainly reduce costs, energy consumption, and carbon emissions by holding virtual and semivirtual events. Video conferencing has already paved the way for that form of communication. In the entertainment field, ordinary people cannot afford to attend all the events on offer, especially as ticket prices are fairly steep, so the idea of virtual participation in the events not being attended keeps them part of the scene, the physical attendance being a highlight of the events season. Technology allows our minds to become involved in any number of events, but our wallets limit the extent to which our bodies can get involved.

Moreover, virtual communication via networks has changed the way in which people interact with each other. Physical contact is no longer necessary to feel connected to others. If we extend the paradigm to events,

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it may become normalized that physical attendance at an event is not necessarily required to participate. It all boils down to terminology. Virtual events may be a natural function of technological convergence, and of shifts in people’s expectation of what it means to be a part of something.

On a practical level, event marketers will be looking to add a virtual aspect to their offerings. There is a promotional angle to this. If an event is recurring, the addition of virtual features may act as a way of allowing people to experience what is happening prior to actually attending in the future. This is a try-before-you-buy mentality.

On the other hand, people may find themselves content to interact with the virtual event to the detriment of attendance. It is therefore necessary for you to monitor the progress of virtual event facilitation to determine whether it seems useful, and to what extent, for your particular offering.

DIY Event Planning and Marketing As we saw in the previous chapter, anyone can be a wedding planner through the use of online services, just as anyone can prepare professional catering through hard work and getting friends and family to help out. When it comes to social events, people can do it themselves. We have also seen the trend emerging among activists and hedonists of self-generating events that are not so much organized as spawned. These pose interesting questions for the future of small- and medium-scale event planning and marketing. What kind of events will be susceptible to self-management and marketing? How can event specialists intervene to stress the advantages of professional organization?

When, generally, will people pay for a service that they can provide for themselves? When expertise is involved, like car maintenance, people will weigh the benefit of learning to do it themselves against the cost of having it done for them, considering the degree of difficulty involved as well as the time necessary to attend to the matter. Also, how appealing the activity may seem to any individual will be factored in. There is a cost/benefit assessment in using a service, with a time/resource consideration.

When will people have services performed for them? When they can afford to is one way of looking at it. When they don’t have the time to do it themselves is another. Invariably, when people don’t have the time it is because they are busy making a living, so it boils down to services being a facility for those who are able to pay for them.

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FIGURE 10.3 Twestival is a hybrid DIY/virtual event where people all over the world, connected via Twitter, organize local events in order to raise money.

The services of event specialists for social events will be ever more linked to status. Anyone can organize a birthday party, but the socially ambitious may feel that there is prestige in throwing a professionally staged event. That perspective goes some way to illuminating the questions above. It will not so much be what kind of events, but what kind of hosts will be drawn to DIY events? If an amateur approach is credible, then particularly in hard economic times, the less resourced event host may self-organize. This applies to both social and organizational events. The hard-pressed family may plan and market a wedding themselves. The cost- cutting organization may use their own people to organize events rather than pay for professional management.

Investing in professional event management is a symbol of self- confidence, status, and affluence, expressing an attitude that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. The marketing of event planners should reflect this.

Meeting Costs and Incentive Travel There will be continuing concern about the perceived cost of face-to-face meetings and the commercial sustainability of the incentive travel

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business. Pressure upon internal expenditure, increased air travel and hospitality sector costs, and shareholder expectations of reasonable austerity will put pressure on seemingly ostentatious or flamboyant commercial lifestyles.

As mentioned previously, virtual events are becoming an established concept. The huge cost of actual meetings will present technological alternatives to eager management. The work-hard mentality is being replaced with the work-smart ethos. It is smarter to have virtual involvement in a head office meeting, where widely dispersed personnel can offer input to discussions and decision making, than to spend a fortune on hiring a convention center, buying flights, covering expenses, and providing catering. That all sounds very expensive and wasteful, unless an ironclad claim can be made that it actually benefits productivity and ultimately profitability.

Organizations that have traditionally invested heavily in flying their people around from meeting to meeting may feel this is something worth cutting back on. Price may therefore become a key marketing strategy for the extensive industry that supports the organizational meeting culture. The need for people to be in one place to have a meeting has long gone, so why are organizations still doing it? This would seem to be a market ripe for virtual event management specialists.

Similarly, the incentive travel market, which continues to persist as a norm for rewarding performance, is beginning feel the strain. How long will it be until it is considered economically suspect, and rather decadent? Are nurses provided with travel perks for saving lives? Should we reward performance with carbon emission activity? These questions may seem unusual at the moment, but with economic austerity and global concern about climate change, accepted ways of thinking will be replaced with new ways of thinking, based upon the imperatives of the day.

The public debate over meetings and corporate business travel continues on with no sign of cooling. While the popular focus is on banks and TARP-funded businesses conducting events deemed “junkets,” little consideration has been given to distinguishing a boondoggle from a legitimate business meeting. The fallout from this lack of clarification has rippled across the meetings industry and specific destinations that have been targeted. Companies from a range of industries have cancelled meetings, incentives, and other programs in an effort to steer clear of potential public recrimination. Not all these cancellations are beneficial to the country’s economic recovery. Forward-thinking

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companies clearly believe that meetings are valuable for business in good times and bad. The vast majority of company meetings have legitimate business objectives and produce a return on investment. Brainstorming sessions, sales meetings, training and development seminars, strategy meetings, product launches, professional conferences, and client events bring people together to generate sales, strengthen competitive advantages, drive greater profits, and position a company for long-term value and growth. Even the much-maligned incentive trip has a legitimate business purpose: motivating and rewarding top performers for exceeding established profit or revenue goals and generating incremental profits beyond a company’s investment in the program. As the war of words continues over what is and isn’t appropriate in these challenging times, we must acknowledge that, now more than ever, meetings are critical to keeping businesses viable and bolstering our ailing economy. And those are aspirations we all can agree on.

(www.successfulmeetings.com)

The incentive travel industry is on the offensive, shouting down incredible and ludicrous suggestions that it is wasteful. The previous plea was taken from the Las Vegas Speaks: The Industry Strikes Back Conference of 2009—a rather ill-advised conference title under the circumstances, as it associates itself with the evil empire of Star Wars fame.

This is really an attempt to protect the interests of the meetings industry and is not making a strong point. It more or less is saying that meetings helped to make our country great, so let’s keep having them. It is not a forward-looking perspective.

If incentive travel and meetings culture is to persist on anything like the scale it now enjoys, it will have to work out a strategy for how to communicate the benefits it offers for future economic prosperity, as frankly, technological alternatives are viable, and crucially, the generation coming along into the corporate world does not share the belief that face- to-face meetings are necessary for meaningful communication.

At the time of this writing, the live meetings industry continues apace and is thought of as being strengthened by the social networking revolution and online communications, as the advantages of physically being with someone, shaking their hand and looking them in the eye, socializing with them, and generally enjoying social intercourse are thought of as an antidote to the supposed sterility of virtual relationships. This attitude resonates and seems intuitively correct, yet only time will

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tell.

Green Events The climate change debate is ongoing and tends to dominate ecological concerns, which in fact are many and varied. Carbon emissions have eclipsed the eco-concern market, and many worthy causes have been forgotten. Nevertheless, it is populist and attracts worldwide media coverage, the vast majority of which is supportive of the cause.

Ecology has moved from being a largely fringe outlook to being central to the lives of very many, especially young people, who quite properly demonstrate concern for the world that they will inherit in the wake of the excesses of the twentieth century. Youth culture and ecology go hand in hand, and central to this is the use of events to promote the message. Elementary schools all over the world hold eco-events to promote a more sustainable future, and recycling for children is second nature. They are developing into responsible world citizens because they feel they have to. The marketing world has responded to green concerns by adding green credentials to their brands. Sometimes this is on the level and sometimes it amounts to what has become known as green-washing.

This phenomenon is a worldwide marketing approach to add green symbolism to brands that have no green substance. Take, for example, the paper manufacturer who boasts that they plant trees and are therefore some kind of planet-friendly organization that is doing its bit for the environment, whereas in fact they plant trees to make paper. Like all farmers they grow a crop and then grow another. Green-washing is spinning what you do to make it seem green. It is very common, and very confusion inducing, as it robs consumers of the ability to make informed choices in this most important matter.

If we consider events as brands, it is certainly the case that eco-viability will become increasingly necessary as a standard event benchmark. There is therefore a need to green up your event. The following example is a fairly typical approach that is to be found when browsing under the green event category. This particular service offers a sustainable approach at the heart of events. That sounds like just the kind of treatment an event will benefit from, as it stresses the event organizers’ conscious avoidance of the appearance of superficiality, which could be translated “as they know how to avoid looking superficial.”

MAKE YOUR EVENTS GREENER

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At Seventeen, sustainability is about more than just obvious green touches like recycling or organic tea and coffee. It goes to the heart of what makes a successful business, and we don’t see our sustainable approach as a gimmick; we take it very seriously. We are unique in the UK in running events for a broad portfolio of high profile clients with a commitment to ensure that every event we run has a sustainable approach at its heart rather than as an afterthought.

(www.seventeenevents.co.uk)

The term sustainable has proven very interesting and useful to marketers, as it merely means capable of being sustained, so it is possible to call any event sustainable if it is capable of being sustained, which is to say that it will be possible to replicate in the future. As the web ad above claims, event marketers need to adopt a sustainable approach, but how you go about that is up to you. If you are a genuinely concerned event marketer who wants to eliminate environmental impact and support ecologically and ethically sound suppliers, there is a market out there for you of people who place a high priority upon these matters, and who indeed will judge you on this basis. On the other hand, if you merely want to jump on the green bandwagon without changing a thing other than serving fair trade coffee in recycled cardboard cups, you can describe your event as sustainable—talk the talk without walking the walk, as it were. If that sounds cynical, think again. Marketing is about adding value, and if consumers value ecology, you may very well decide to add that value to your brand in a more or less abstract way. The difficulty lies in recognizing the truly green from the merely green-washed.

For event marketers, the important issue will be knowing the eco- expectations of your target market. Corporate reputation management will increasingly mean that businesses will wish to involve themselves with sustainably sound events, indeed will look to event sponsorship as one of the major vehicles for achieving their desired profile, and it will be advisable for event marketers to position themselves in line with this. Some events have been specifically engineered to offer sponsors the opportunity to ally themselves with green issues, as with the example below.

Green Power Conferences (GPC) is the world’s only dedicated sustainable events company. Covering biofuels markets, carbon markets, renewable energy and corporate climate response, we deliver 15 events per year spanning the globe and delivering to over 4,000

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delegates from the green energy sector. Our team is dedicated to purely green conferences and building the world’s most up-to-date database of speakers and delegates for our critically acclaimed events. We have various opportunities to fit all budgets, manpower, and time issues. Increase your brand and product visibility via sponsorship, exhibiting, advertising, and speaking at GPC events.

GPC events provide the ideal platform on which to promote your brand, launch new products, meet new clients, and align yourself with the GPC brand during two days of conference business and networking.

(www.greenpowerconferences.com)

For sure, the event has its own agenda, which is to promote connections and debate within the emerging alternative energy market, yet within the mix there is corporate climate response, permitting corporations to actively work with energy innovators, which is useful both for planning for the future and for creating a current reputation for sustainable business. While this is an example of a truly green event, it can easily be imagined that merely green-washed events can offer similar advantages if they are credibly managed and marketed.

Events are intrinsically greener than other forms of expenditure, albeit transportation is usually required to attend. Polluting factories are not required to produce events. Global shipping is not required to provide distribution. They are by their nature generally clean. The events industry could promote itself as a green choice of consumption. Unfortunately, the events industry is fragmented and there is no central hub to coordinate industry-wide communications, unlike the auto industry, for instance.

The organizers of sports competitions just don’t see themselves as being in the same industry as music festival organizers, and as such their collective influence is weakened, as plainly they are all planned events. The perception of events as a green choice of expenditure would be much aided by a centralized approach. This would be a most beneficial future development. As it is, it is up to individual event businesses to stress their green credentials, however lofty or humble they may be.

FIVE WAYS THE FUTURE OF EVENT MARKETING WILL CHANGE 1. Electronic media development has been, and will continue to be, the

major agent of change in the evolution of event marketing practices. 2. More diversely targeted events will develop due to socially

networked interest groups gaining critical mass.

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3. As established social media become increasingly ordinary, little competitive advantage will be gained from using what has already become an event marketing prerequisite.

4. Virtual events and online communications will influence the requirement for face-to-face congregation, affecting the corporate and associative events spheres in particular.

5. Population demographics will push the provision of event experiences toward an increasingly older consumer.

Events and the Aging Population Like other countries, the United Kingdom has an aging population. The proportion of people age 65 and over is projected to increase from 16 percent in 2008 to 23 percent by 2033. This is an inevitable consequence of the age structure of the population alive today, in particular the aging of the large numbers of people born after the Second World War and during the 1960s baby boom. When we have around one-quarter of the population at or approaching retirement, there are a great may issues to be confronted, not least how to afford to provide dignified care. Yet being over 65 is a misleading statistic in some respects, as a 68-year-old person can be youthful and active, whereas an 88-year-old may very well be less so, so we need to think of the aging population representing a continuum of activity that is largely age dependent. The irony of being elderly is that people have a lot of time on their hands and want things to do, want to keep in touch and be part of things, keep active and interested, remain part of the world and continue to think of themselves as being active citizens. The implications of this are interesting for the world of planned events.

Firstly, the world’s aging population is something the world is going to have to grow to understand and deal with, and that means conferences and symposiums aplenty. Here is one such example from Chile, an international conference on a particular aspect of aging.

The Third International Congress: Older People, Citizenship and Empowerment: From Research to Action, organized by the Catholic University of Chile and REIACTIS, a network of researchers from France, Spain, Canada, and the United States, took place in 2010 in Santiago de Chile and included the following conference topics: “Power, Knowledge and Emotions: Realizing the Potential of Older People’s Involvement in Policy and Research . . . Initiatives to Enable Older People to Have a Voice . . . Having a Say in Care/Care Full Deliberation: Older People Participating in Decision Making . . .

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Becoming Visible: Older People as Active Participants in the Community and in Long-term Care Settings.”

(www.Brighton.ac.uk)

As the aging population becomes increasingly relevant to our lives, it will involve a great deal of expenditure via medical and social care, and as such will attract much attention from the medical, fiscal, governmental, and academic worlds, as well as from the residential care industry. This will generate a great deal of conference event business in the future, as along with ecology it is one of the great issues of the twenty-first century. It is an area that event marketers should investigate.

Active older people are a substantial customer base for some sectors of the events industry. What with the profusion of aging rockers, there is a music event market that persists for the older consumer. Older people are just people who got older, and they continue to enjoy many of the activities that they have enjoyed throughout their lives. As a result, a growing aging population often translates merely into a shift in age profile for events rather than there being somehow necessarily events for older people, although it is not generally seen that way by young people. If your event has such a sliding demographic merely because of population shift, then you should take that into account in your targeting and in your facilities. On the other hand, there are events that are specifically oriented to the older market, such as the example in chapter 10 as it appeared online.

The aging population, being an expanding demographic, will be considered increasingly targetable by marketers and will be, due to its vagueness and scale, subdivided into many segments. The event below is broad in its appeal, as it is concerned with general lifestyle issues for older people. The venue has been chosen to ease access by public transport, and the generally age-specific interest in antiques is being used as a promotional device. It is therefore not so much the age of these people that attracts marketers but rather that they’re a significant demographic. Events specific to that demographic are therefore to be expected and should be considered as an expanding market by event specialists.

Established in 1997, Young at Heart is the recognized brand for retirement living in Northern Ireland. Following on from the success of the 2010 exhibition in St. George’s Market, Belfast, our 2011 event will celebrate 14 years of Young at Heart and will once again feature the best of retirement living in Northern Ireland. The unique two day exhibition

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is aimed at anyone retired in Northern Ireland and includes exhibitors relevant to their lifestyle. For two days in April 2011, the splendid setting of St. George’s Market in Belfast city centre will play host to the 14th annual Young at Heart Retirement Living Exhibition. Once again this unique event will be publicized across Northern Ireland with direct mail invitations to everyone on the unique Young at Heart mailing list. There will also be a feature on the event in the Young at Heart Retirement Living magazine which is distributed to 10,000 retired people across the province. The Young at Heart Exhibition will also include the very popular Antique Roadshow where visitors can bring along heirlooms and antiques to receive free valuations from our experts. The Young at Heart Retirement Exhibition will run from 10am until 4pm on both days with free admission for everyone. The venue is a short walk from Belfast Central train station and bus links at the City Hall.

(www.youngatheartni.com)

Shifts in online behavior demographic will influence how people transact and communicate, and as the aging population becomes swollen with the ex-middle-aged, questions arise as to how to use online communication to reach different age groups in the future. The article by PSFK, a trends and innovations company, illustrates and comments upon Internet usage by age group and contains some interesting perspectives on the future of online behavior.

Older consumers are becoming more accustomed to online use, and being utilitarian by inclination, are using it to communicate with their friends and family, and to carry out transactions. It is of use to older people just as it is to everybody. As the years pass, of course, the online habits of younger people today will increasingly apply to older people. It is also worth noting that the middle-aged of today are the elderly of tomorrow. The bottom line for the consideration of older consumers is that they are becoming more demographically significant and that they will increase in numbers in most event types and become a market in themselves for more age-oriented specialist events.

We were directed to a recent report published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project detailing findings on Internet usage by age in the United States. The study, titled Generations Online in 2009, confirms that surfing the web is still primarily a young person’s game—18 to 44 year olds accounting for 53% of the total number of users—but in recent years older generations have started closing the gap. The chart below

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that has been borrowed from the report shows the overall breakdown by age:

FIGURE 10.4 The Internet is becoming nongenerational.

And while some of the insights might come as no surprise, it’s interesting to note the clear demarcations between what are essentially two groups—those who grew up with the Internet to some degree and those that didn’t—and the ways that they utilize the web in their daily lives.

Among younger users, traditional email is losing ground to the immediacy of instant messaging and the richer experience offered by social networking applications, whereas the older demographic is actually increasing their use of this method of staying in touch. Furthermore, younger generations are more likely to view the Internet as a form of entertainment—video sharing, gaming, downloading music and reading blogs—while older generations utilize the Internet as more of a utilitarian tool for banking, shopping, and researching their health.

Granted, this trend is as much a function of generational needs and what issues are important to them, but it also points to a degree of sophistication and familiarity with the technology. Which leads us to wonder if it is only a matter of time before younger generations— particularly teens and below—develop cases of “online ennui” when the web fails to evolve fast enough to meet their growing expectations, forcing them back outside while their parents stare engrossed into a glowing screen trying to upload a photo to their Facebook page?

(www.psfk.com)

CHAPTER SUMMARY The world is changing, and it is technology that is driving the change. The future of events can be regarded as a response to this change: ever more tightly defined targets, media interventions, evolving social network systems, and ever more real-time communication. That is not to say,

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however, that the essential nature and role of events are going to be very different at all. Websites will become more sophisticated and inclusive to the totality of the event, with some aspect of virtual involvement becoming obligatory. The organization and marketing of events will tend to be self- generated and the web will make it possible for people to create and promote their own events without professional involvement, which will change the nature of some event markets.

Although the corporate incentive travel market continues to insist that it is a necessary component of the management system, pressure on costs and the influence of virtual alternatives will continue to exert pressure on this traditional event market. Nevertheless, the power of physical intimacy is a force to be reckoned with, and the meetings business continues to bring people together and aims to continue doing so. Face-to-face communication is, however, becoming superseded by social networks in younger communities. They are also the driving force behind demand for ecological and sustainable practices that have become both the object of event planning and a branding aspect of event marketing. Meanwhile, the older population continues to grow, and being increasingly significant, will influence event provision.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • How will the provision of planned events change over time, and how

will it remain the same? • How will technological innovation influence the planning, delivery, and

marketing of planned events, and what are the emerging trends? • How will the emerging trend for self-generated events influence the

market for professional event planners and marketers? • How has time compression altered the promotional schedules of event

marketers, and how will it continue to do so? • What new social communications platforms are poised to evolve into

established media? • How should event websites be developed to stand out in the crowded

online environment of the future? • How will event marketers be able to understand the most appealing

forms of innovation to keep their event experiences satisfying to future audiences?

• How will the rise of überbloggers be utilized by online event marketers,

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and how should they be integrated into marketing communications? • What are the limitations of online marketing for events, and what

advantages are there in supplementing them with traditional promotional interventions?

• To what extent is the concept of virtual events hype, and how can the concept be utilized by the event marketer?

• How will the event professional be able to compete with the DIY event capacity provided by online functions and services?

• How will the events industry be able to make a strong case for the advantageousness, and indeed the necessity, of face-to-face meetings in the emerging virtual world of communication?

• How will ecology and sustainability affect the events market, and how can they be utilized to the advantage of the events industry?

• What impacts will the shifting demographic of older consumers have upon the provision and marketing of planned events?

USEFUL WEBSITES http://www.wired.com http://www.wired.co.uk

The American and British versions of the magazine Wired keep you in the loop about trends and developments on the web and about social media in particular. The print version is also worth a shot.

http://mashable.com Mashable is the premier resource for social media. This blog, updated several times a day, provides brilliant insight into what happens in the social media world and should be your everyday read.

http://www.wfs.org/futurist The Futurist is the periodical by the World Future Society, trying to describe and predict future trends.

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Chapter 11

Event Marketing Case Studies In this chapter, we will examine successful examples of event marketing including • IMEX and EIBTM • Malcom Forbes’ Birthday Event • The Olympic Games • Sports Illustrated Magazine • Starbucks • The Gap and (Product) RED • Coca-Cola • Virgin Galactic • The Professional Convention Management Association • The NFL Fan Fest • The Fjällräven Classic • The Jewish Museum • The Edinburgh Experience

To conclude our exploration of strategic event marketing, it will be useful

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to look at some case studies that demonstrate valuable examples of event marketing in action. We will begin with a case of two competitors in a specific and specialist sector of the events industry that manage to coexist through positioning.

IMEX Versus EIBTM International Business Tourism Trade Show The EIBTM is the exhibition for “Incentive Business Travel and Meetings” that is held every year in Barcelona, Spain, in late November or early December. EIBTM claims to be “the leading global event for the meetings and events industry.” EIBTM is produced by Reed Travel Exhibitions, which also organizes sister events of EIBTM in the Americas, China, Australia, and the Gulf region, as well as many smaller tourism industry events.

IMEX is the International Meetings Exhibition that is held every year in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and more recently in the United States. IMEX America is held in October, IMEX Frankfurt in May. IMEX sees itself as “the essential worldwide exhibition for meetings and incentive travel.”

EIBTM and IMEX attract approximately 3,000 exhibitors every year. Both target the meetings, incentive, conferences, and exhibitions industry (MICE), and both operate on the European continent. In addition, many of the exhibitors frequent both fairs. Basically, IMEX and EIBTM target the same market, yet both are among the most successful exhibitions in Europe. How do they both differentiate and complement one another, and why has one not subsumed the other?

Firstly, IMEX and EIBTM understand the importance of location. Spain and Germany are geographically and culturally distant enough to impinge upon the respective events. While Spain is more easily accessible for tourism markets in Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, with ties to Southern America, Frankfurt in Germany serves countries such as Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, and Scandinavia, as well as Eastern Europe. Germany has the biggest tourism expenditure, whereas Spain is the country with the most important tourist receipts in Europe. Also, Frankfurt, being the financial heart of continental Europe, and Barcelona, being one of the top tourist destinations, provide excellent transport links and expertise for hosting conferences and exhibitions.

Timing is another crucial factor. The end of November and May are both

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off-season times: May is in between the Easter holidays and the summer holidays, and the end of November is briefly quiet before the winter season starts. The target audience is likely to find the time to attend and exhibit IMEX and EIBTM. The timely distance between the two trade shows makes it easy for exhibitors and visitors to plan for and attend both.

Finally, even though we noticed that EIBTM and IMEX are very similar, they are serving different regional markets as a selling point. This is relevant with regard to regional exhibitors mingling with international exhibitors such as software suppliers, for instance. In addition, EIBTM offers a Hosted Buyer program that is comparable to a personal shopper for the exhibition who schedules appointments or plans visits.

What EIBTM and IMEX understand is that they need to stay in their niche and use it. Let us draw an analogy from evolution. When Darwin analyzed the specimens of finches he collected on the Galapagos Islands, he saw that they were all slightly different, despite being the same species. If there were more than one species occupying the same niche, like eating the same food, the stronger species would erase the weaker. However, by either occupying a different geographical space or by specializing to take advantage of a certain aspect of their environment, they managed to survive.

This has various implications. The markets for certain events are not infinite, and the bigger the event gets, the comparatively smaller the market gets. A regional or national tourism exhibition might compete with an international tourism fair, but two international fairs might not work in one country. In order for events of the same kind to be sustainable, they need to focus on a niche or be geographically distant to each other. If a company is operating on an international scale, they might want to choose a location for their event that is far enough from similar events. However, this is not always possible. If you want to start a jazz festival in New Orleans, you will have to think about how you can give it a competitive edge, so that your event is special. If organization leaders miss considering that, they are likely to be destroyed by a stronger or more established competitor.

The survival, and complementary cosurvival, of competition has not only found its application in biology or zoology. Companies, businesses, or artists also compete in a niche and destroy each other by pushing into someone else’s niche. In events, this means that you need to constantly monitor how your event is unique and you need to map your event in the environment on geographical, artistic, or demographical target

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considerations.

What can you learn from IMEX and EIBTM? • Research similar events within your defined catchment area. If you are

producing a community event, this may be your local community; if you are doing a large-scale event, this might be your country; or if you are producing a hallmark event, this might even be a continent.

• Map the locations and reflect on how these events might impact your event.

• If your event seems to be too close or too similar to a competing event, think about relocating or changing aspects of your event to make it more competitive.

The Birthday Event of Malcolm Forbes (1919–1990) Malcolm Stevenson Forbes took the lead from his father, Bertie Charles Forbes, in 1957 and became publisher of Forbes magazine. After his brother died in 1964, he took full and sole control of the company. Forbes is a business magazine with a particular renommée for their Forbes lists, lists of the wealthiest people on earth. Malcolm Forbes was no stranger to wealth, so he led an extravagant lifestyle, including collecting historical documents, hot air balloons, artworks, and motorbikes as well as owning yachts, planes, and a castle in France. Another of his passions was celebrating his birthdays, with the most notable one being his seventieth birthday, which he celebrated in 1989.

Forbes himself had no regrets of admitting that his party cost approximately $2 million. He invited roughly 800 guests, most of them on one or more of Forbes’s billionaires lists. Cohost of the party was Elizabeth Taylor; on the guest list were people such as Henry Kissinger, Calvin Klein, Ann Getty, and Leonard Stern. To get his guests to his party, Forbes chartered several planes, including a Boeing 747 as well as the prestigious Concorde. The party was held in a palace in Tangier, Morocco, that he had bought in the 1970s. The palace also served as a background for more than 600 drummers, 600 belly dancers, and many artists performing, as well as 300 Berber horseback riders who fired guns in the air. Many of the guests found the party, despite their own standards, very opulent to say the least. The whole party climaxed in a famous opera diva

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singing “Happy Birthday” to Malcolm and a 16-minute fireworks display. This party might not compare to the wedding steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal organized for his daughter, which apparently cost $65 million, and which was alluded to in the chapter about social events, but when Forbes died only six months later, one of his sons reportedly said at the funeral of his father, “It’s been a hell of a party, Pop.” However, Forbes’s party was not only a party, but also a very efficient marketing move.

Firstly, many of the people he had invited were customers or potential customers. With Forbes being a business magazine, many of the Forbes 500 companies actually advertise in the magazine. Forbes told the media that he could have actually reclaimed most of the party budget back as expenses. Even though he did not, this party did a great job of attracting and retaining customers and strengthening their loyalty.

In addition, this party helped strengthen Malcolm Forbes’s image—he was known to lead a lavish lifestyle, and his birthday extravaganza underlined that. This is especially relevant in the details: Concorde was (and still is) the fastest passenger plane in the world; the 747 was the largest civil plane at the time. Because Forbes magazine has been family led ever since, the personal image of the publishers also reflected on the magazine. So Malcolm Forbes attached this image of wealth not only to his person, but also to the whole publishing house.

The fact that Malcolm Forbes himself was a publisher, and the scale and decadence of his birthday party, managed to generate the right media coverage. Even the people who did not attend the party knew what happened, with the New York Times, Time magazine, and others reporting on the party. The celebration sparked a lot of controversy, especially over the location chosen, as Morocco was a comparatively poor country at the time. However, an old catchphrase says that any kind of publicity is good publicity, which is arguable yet applicable.

Among nonattendees, the party created desire and envy, powerful reactions that marketers can evoke. For luxury expenditure envy leads to a feeling of superiority among those who own the luxury, and an aspiration among the vulnerable to taste that luxury. This does not apply to Forbes magazine, as the cover price is not too expensive. However, buying Forbes magazine will give readers the feeling of owning a part of the magazine and all the imagery attached. By holding a $2 million birthday party, Forbes was adding value to the magazine; readers can be part of a society with Kissinger, Klein, and Forbes himself.

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What can you learn from Malcolm Forbes? • When producing events, try to map the stakeholders and how your

event reflects on them. • When planning events, think about the stakeholders and try to project

their image onto your event. • PR is cheap and efficient, but your event needs to be extravagant or

special to be noted by the media. • People do not need to attend the event to be influenced by it.

Reputation is instrumental; the message of an event can echo further then the attendees.

Olympic Games Partners Event Marketing Founded in Ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were competitions held between kingdoms and city-states in honor of the Greek divinities. In 1859, Greece held the first revival games; since 1896, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has hosted the games in cities across the globe. Initially the Olympic Games were funded by the host cities and, by rich patrons, as well as by selling tickets and special stamp collections. This hasn’t changed much apart from minor changes; Montreal 1976 introduced a special lottery, and other countries introduced memorial coins or other memorabilia.

This changed fundamentally in 1984 when the Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles. Los Angeles was the first host city to massively use sponsoring in order to finance this hallmark event—this was due to the IOC giving up their resistance to commercializing the games. In fact, sponsorship on a much smaller scale such as advertising or food stand concessions was already present before 1984, but that year was a turning point in Olympic history. Major sponsors such as McDonald’s and Coca- Cola (which actually had sponsored since 1926) were present in 1984 and are still sponsoring the Olympic Games in London in 2012. How can they account for spending millions and millions for decades on one event?

The Olympic Games are one of the biggest and most watched events in the world. The opening ceremony in Beijing alone was reported to have had 842 million viewers in more than 200 countries. The Olympic Broadcast Service, which takes care of the transmission of the competitions, provided more than 5,000 hours of live HD content that has

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potentially been rebroadcasted thousands of times across all networks across all continents. That way, brands like Coca-Cola or McDonald’s attain a level of high public visibility. However, this might not work for all brands. The Olympic Games are a highly unsegmented market in the sense that almost every person has some kind of interest in it. Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are largely unsegmented brands—almost everyone uses their products, and almost everyone knows what they sell.

Sponsoring the Olympic Games also reflects the Olympics’ values on their company. Olympism describes a set of three values attached and honored by the Olympic Games and associated activities. The three values are excellence, respect, and friendship. If a company associates with the Olympic Games, it will also seek to associate with the Olympic values. These values may reflect on the company internally as well as externally. Human resource management staff might benefit from the Olympic sponsoring as a backdrop for motivational endeavors inside the company. Externally, the company gets the right to use the five rings logo—a widely recognized and respected brand. This reflects the value of the Olympic brand on the sponsor brand to customers.

Sponsoring the Olympic Games also gives sponsors an opportunity to sell their products directly on the spot. The IOC has special expertise in fostering exclusive partnerships and a very aggressive approach toward ambush marketing. Ambush marketing describes the technique of taking advantage of an event a company is not officially affiliated with to promote their products. By having a strong approach to handling ambush marketing, the IOC guarantees a maximum impact of sponsorship agreements.

Finally, the Olympic Games also facilitate interaction with local communities. The Olympic Games come with a fringe program of educational, community, or other activities. Sponsors might engage in these activities, entering new markets and perhaps spreading awareness of their products in new markets. The Olympic Games are a good example of how well-established brands can benefit from each other. However, event marketers need to be prepared for controversy. The Olympic Games are, for several reasons, dealing with bad PR on a regular basis. The Olympic Games can increase sales and augment image by permitting sponsoring products and piggybacking on their high visibility and reputation.

What can you learn from the Olympic Games? • Sponsorship of events can provide brands with an infusion of the image

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and personality of the events themselves. • Events provide brands with access to media opportunities. • The commercialization of events has transformed them into a kind of

media that can be used to reach existing and potential customers.

Sports Illustrated Fiftieth Anniversary Sports Illustrated is America’s leading sports magazine, read by over 18 million people each week. It is owned by Time Warner and is perhaps unfairly best known for its yearly swimsuit issue. In addition, Sports Illustrated can be considered one of the leaders in innovation in print product marketing, such as their pioneering use of color photographs in their magazines, the insertion of sport trading cards, or more recently their ambitious iPad app.

In 2004, Sports Illustrated (SI) celebrated their fiftieth anniversary under the label America’s Sports Illustrated: 50 years, 50 states, 50 sports. As part of their program, SI started a tour during which they visited 25 states for three days up to a week each. Parts of the tour were planned and executed by Jack Morton Worldwide. Thousands of people attended each separate event. The tour included two different elements: one recurrent “sports experience” area and location-specific add-ons.

The recurrent elements included the following: the Toyota Field, which was an “enclosed theater that featured an original film highlighting the greatest sports moments of the past 50 years” as selected by the editors of SI. Also included in Toyota Field was “Picture Yourself on the Cover,” where visitors could pose against a backdrop of Toyota’s NASCAR Truck and receive a free commemorative photograph produced by Canon. Another exhibit was called the “Best Seat in the House” and was endorsed by consumer electronics retailer Best Buy; it “showcase[d] the latest consumer electronic innovations for catching your [the visitors’] favorite teams.” A recurrent exhibit was called Starter, which presented the Starter All-American Teen from each state (a scheme where Starter and SI selected merited teenage athletes) as well as different baseball-, basketball- , soccer-, or American football–related exhibits or interactive experiences. Add-on events included kids’ activity zones, athletic performances, musical performances, autograph signings, or other exhibitions.

The events took place mostly in iconic stadiums where available, sport pitches, or other event-ready locations such as exhibition centers. The admission to the events was free. These events, mainly marketed internally

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in SI’s publications, were highly attended. What is striking about these events is Sports Illustrated’s use of

partnerships. Being a descendant of the Time Warner empire, SI would have had no problems paying for the tour themselves. However, they chose to partner with large companies and brands such as Toyota (cars), Best Buy (retail), and Starter (sports clothing). Using events for their anniversary was not primarily aimed at raising the circulation. But using that kind of roadshow for a magazine had multiple effects. It included the whole family, meaning that every member of a household retained some kind of identification with the magazine. It generated a remarkable amount of press coverage. As press coverage is free and can possess more perceived sincerity than advertising, powerful benefits were achieved from the events. Events are also more likely to stick with people’s memories. Oscar Wilde once said, “Memory . . . is the diary that we all carry about with us.” Instead of trying to refresh the memory of the magazine every time by buying airtime on TV, print advertisements, or billboard spaces, branding an event with the magazine’s name and look-and-feel has the power to keep that link in people’s minds indefinitely.

Sports Illustrated shows a clear understanding of events and the synergy that partnerships can produce. They also show how events can be used as a small segment in a larger, differentiated marketing approach. Finally, the use of partnerships demonstrates how to keep costs down, using PR as a means of free advertising and sustaining and enforcing brand image.

What can you learn from Sports Illustrated? • By using partnerships in events, you are obviously able to bring down

costs. Partners are required to invest in monetary and infrastructural terms. This means in addition to bringing in money, they provide extra features such as the exhibits or the screenings theater.

• By using partnerships in events, you can access external expertise. Best Buy is obviously a more credible retailer for television sets than the magazine itself, although sports and television go perfectly well together.

• By using partnerships in events, you are able to take advantage of their marketing. A partnership not only means exchange of assets and money, but also means exchange of identities. On one hand, Toyota, Best Buy, and Starter were able to link their names to SI; on the other hand, SI was also able to attach Toyota’s (then) reliability, Best Buy’s price awareness, and Starter’s fashionability to its brand.

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• By using partnerships in events, you can tap into their communication channels. SI was able to get some access to the resources of its partners and hence could maybe advertise in their direct marketing brochures, on their websites, or in their physical outlets.

Ethos Marketing by Starbucks For many of us, it may have become a morning ritual. Just when we get off our buses or out of our cars to go to work, we drop by a Starbucks coffee shop. For many people, this has become the start of their working day, and indeed, a part of their working life and identity. Starbucks coffee shops can be found everywhere from small towns to large metropolises. This is not surprising as Starbucks is the largest coffee shop chain in the world, with more than 11,000 shops in the United States alone. This includes not only classical stand-alone coffee shops, but also outlets in shopping malls, hotels, bookshops, and, more recently, cruise ships.

If we think about brands, we want to take a look at how they represent themselves. This gives us an idea not of how they see themselves, but of how they want us to see them—in fact, how they market themselves.

Having a look at the American Starbucks website and its main navigational bar gives us a very important insight into what counts for Starbucks: their coffee, their menu, their coffeehouses, their shop, their loyalty scheme, and their responsibility. The first four items are rather inconspicuous as they refer to the core business of Starbucks: brewing coffee. A loyalty scheme in that regard makes perfect sense: brewing coffee is nothing particularly special, so binding the customer to your brand becomes more important. It is the responsibility that gives us an idea of what Starbucks wants its customers to think and feel: Starbucks is a responsible coffee shop.

A lot of their responsibility section is about tackling the common criticism of apparently unfair working conditions for their staff and coffee farmers and reducing their environmental footprint. Moreover, they are involved in a campaign of cause marketing. Philip Kotler describes cause marketing as the strategy of linking purchases of the company’s products or services with fundraising for worthwhile causes or charitable organizations. Bruce Burtch, marketing consultant, forged the catchphrase “doing well by doing good.” While the selected charity often gains visibility and cash, the for-profit company can enhance its brand image and increase sales.

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Ethos started as a brand of bottled water with the mission of “helping children get clean water.” It was founded in 2001 by Peter Thum. Its business model was donating a share of every bottle sold to charities helping children in deprived countries access clean water, mainly in Africa and Southeast Asia. In 2005, Starbucks acquired Ethos and started stocking Ethos water in the United States and Canada. For every bottle sold, Ethos donates $0.05 to chosen projects. Starbucks committed to keep Ethos in stock until they had raised $10 million. Even though they initially wanted to achieve that goal, due to the recession, they had to extend the program beyond 2010.

(Product) RED is a brand founded in 2006 by the Irish musician and U2 frontman Bono and the journalist and activist Robert Shriver. Brands can adapt to their specifications, selling (RED)-branded products. A share of the profits then goes on to the Global Fund. The Global Fund is an organization that supports the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. However, (Product) RED is commonly only associated with the HIV cause. Starbucks engages with (RED) in different ways. Firstly, they introduced a (RED)-branded edition of their loyalty card: the (Starbucks) RED Card. Five cents from every purchase with the (Starbucks) RED Card go to (RED). In addition, they have introduced a (RED)-branded coffee, a coffee tumbler, and a reusable water bottle. Every purchase results in $1 given to (RED). Starbuck states that their (RED) campaigning allows 3,800 sufferers of HIV to receive free medication every year.

In 2008, Starbucks recruited more than 10,000 store managers to voluntarily be engaged in projects to beautify and restore parts of the city of New Orleans. Starbucks’ action is considered one of the largest measures of corporate support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz had himself been interviewed and photographed by the press while painting houses in a local neighborhood.

What all these charitable organizations have in common is that they are highly visible, and people are likely to identify with them. Product (RED), for example, instrumentalizes the HIV/AIDS epidemic that strongly affects the African continent. Bono’s involvement in many causes like Band Aid or the Gates Foundation makes him a role model and sympathetic person, whose values also reflect on the brand. The same way, the terrible disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was an event publicized worldwide, where many American citizens were directly or indirectly concerned. This gives Starbucks the possibility of building up credibility, as their efforts are widely visible and easy to identify with. In addition,

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Starbucks also supports small, local communities. This helps them foster the support of their local customers.

In the Starbucks case, cause-related marketing shows that it can be used as an efficient and effective method to foster a brand reputation.

What can you learn from Starbucks? • As an events marketer, you might want to tap into this opportunity by

supporting fundraising events and branding them according to your company’s values.

• Charities often draw on a huge network of volunteers, which makes it cost-efficient to market the event and to promote it. This creates a powerful synergy of benefit to both the for-profit company and the nonprofit organization, if the marketing is carefully planned.

• As an events marketer, if you represent a charity, you might want to be backed by a larger company. You may be able to use their advertising channels (such as in-store poster displays or your leaflet added to their deliveries) to promote your event. However, consider carefully which company you will allow to take part in your event.

The Gap (Product) RED Launch To date, (Product) RED is the largest contributor to the Global Fund, donating just over $160 million and involving more than 20 companies. One of the most recognizable companies involved in the (Product) RED campaign is Gap. Founded in 1969 by husband and wife Donald and Doris Fisher, Gap has become an iconic American fashion brand, which in the past 42 years has expanded from its humble roots in San Francisco to trade in over 3,100 stores worldwide. Gap has become a high performer within the international fashion market, placing an emphasis on quality and broad appeal.

Gap was the second company to become involved in the (Product) RED campaign, after American Express. The Gap (RED) line included T-shirts, jackets, scarves, and bags, with 50 percent of its profits being donated to the Global Fund. The original T-shirts were heavily branded using the iconic (parenthesis) and slogans such as “INSPI(RED),” “ADMI(RED),” and “DESI(RED).”

(Product) RED has been criticized for exploiting disease and human suffering in order to sell products and market their brands, with the position of the middleman retailer between the charitable donors and the

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recipients being unnecessary. This, however, is the whole point of (Product) RED: bringing a new kind of charity to a capitalist, consumer society obsessed with shopping. It was also questioned to what extent Gap’s marketing campaign has stripped philanthropy of authenticity and turned activism into a consumer fad. Fads by their very definition are temporary and unsustainable, so what happens when this form of compassionate consumption is no longer à la mode? Another criticism of (Product) RED is that it is far less efficient than conventional direct charitable contributions. Additionally, there is a huge discrepancy between the cost of advertising and the return on investment, with some estimates suggesting that the marketing budget across the (Product) RED line equates to over $10 million, while the charitable profit generated from the products is substantially lower.

Gap is undeterred, however, arguing that these contributions are still much greater than any one philanthropic corporate donation and provide a steady stream of income for the charities. Furthermore, the argument that people should just give the money directly to the charities without going through Gap as a third party does not stand up in the current economic climate. With people having to tighten their belts, the idea of getting something for your charitable donations is very appealing: doing good for the world through spending on yourself. This form of charity also fits neatly into the everyday life of consumers and does not force them to go out of their way to make a contribution to the greater good.

The marketing for Gap (RED) relied heavily on celebrity endorsement, unsurprising in a scheme dreamed up by one of the world’s biggest pop stars. The celebrities in the original campaign were Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Garner, Chris Rock, Penelope Cruz, Christy Turlingon, Don Cheadle, Mary J. Blige, Dakota Fanning, and Apolo Anton Ohno. They were extensively used in print advertisements in newspapers and magazines, looking directly into the camera and attempting to connect with the observer and convey the seriousness of the situation in Africa with regard to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This gets consumers involved in the campaign and allows them to connect with the celebrities and reflect on the gravity of the situation on a more personal level. Additionally, in a world dominated by celebrity culture, where what you possess represents who you are, the heavy use of celebrity endorsement serves as a greater persuasion for consumers to buy the product.

What can you learn from Gap (RED)?

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• You may wish to promote your brand through partnerships or support of fundraising events. Cause-related marketing can produce mutual benefits for the charity and the brand. However, it is important that the right partnership is formed. Seek out charities to support and work with that align with your brand’s values. For example, religious charities are unlikely to become involved in events centered on alcoholic beverages or celebration of sexual freedom. If a company is emotionally invested in a cause they truly care about, the marketing and its final outcome will be successful, which in turn will build up credibility, customer loyalty, and brand reputation.

• Supporting charities can also be a fiscally beneficial step for event organizers in the current economic climate. By capitalizing on this opportunity, you allow yourself easier access to funding through sponsorship by brands wishing to gain credibility and promote their products and government agencies wishing to fund events for instrumental purposes (e.g., sports events to catalyze social inclusion and promote healthy lifestyles). Additionally, it is a cost-effective method in human resources, as more people are likely to volunteer to work at events if they are for a good cause.

Coca-Cola Product Launch It is one of the most recognized beverages in the world, with one of the most iconic brand images around. It had expanded internationally from the United States to more than 44 countries worldwide by the Second World War and has continued to dominate of the world soft drinks market in more than 200 countries worldwide in the twenty-first century. Its sponsorship of the Olympic Games builds upon its iconic status by influencing consumers to associate the product with the Olympic image of unity, inclusiveness, health, and energy.

In 2006, the Coca-Cola Company embarked on its biggest product launch in 22 years: Coke Zero. Coca-Cola’s original vision statement stretched as far as ensuring everyone on Earth consumed Coca-Cola as their preferred beverage. However, the company became aware of two trends that were impacting the sales of their products: the perception of unhealthiness, and the fact that the majority of men associated diet beverages with older, female consumers and thus avoided the product on the grounds that it was “too feminine.” To counteract this loss in sales within the healthy market and the male market, the Coca-Cola Company introduced Coke Zero, a

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calorie-free alternative to Coke. With a budget of over £8 million, Coke Zero’s marketing went into

global overdrive. During its attempts to repenetrate the male 18–25-year- old market in the UK, Coke Zero became dubbed as “bloke Coke,” with its utilization of pop artist Cheryl Cole, a popular choice among men, as the face of the product. Coke Zero also promoted two campaigns, the first being a television advertising campaign called “Life as It Should Be,” which dramatized several everyday situations (e.g., bumping into your ex- girlfriend and her new boyfriend) to empower the Coke–Zero drinking protagonist. The second campaign, “Street Striker,” exploited the traditionally male pastime football, hosted by popular player Wayne Rooney, to boost sales. As a result of this marketing overdrive, Mintel recorded a £24 million increase in sales in the United Kingdom.

Brazil is home to Coca-Cola’s most dominant market share. To reinforce its position within the healthy alternative market as well as the young demographic, Coca-Cola launched Coke Zero Studio. Coke Zero Studio was an innovative project that aimed to raise awareness for the recently launched product. It involved the fusion of different music created by two Brazilian artists, which was recorded and then bundled onto the new special edition Nokia 5310 mobile phone. Over 30,000 devices were sold, boosting sales for both Nokia and Coca-Cola.

What can you learn from Coca-Cola? • The Coca-Cola Company was able to take a product that was failing to

be recognized by an important target market and rebrand it to boost its appeal, and conform to the global trend toward healthier eating, and boost sales among its young demographic. In a world of ever-changing global trends, it is imperative that the event manager is constantly monitoring them—not only for healthy living, but also the global trends toward green events or virtual events. It is only with continuous monitoring of the market’s demands that you can truly supply what is desired.

• One of Coke’s greatest strengths is its global recognizability. In this respect, an event marketer looking to host a world-famous event could look at the possibility of partnerships with such a ubiquitous brand to gain global recognition.

• With the ever-evolving rate of modern technology, traditional channels of marketing are facing increasing competition. Coca-Cola’s partnership with Nokia allowed the company to communicate with their

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target market, 18–25-year-olds, and raise awareness for the new product through the popularity of handheld portable media. For the event marketer, the growth in technology presents a fantastic opportunity to promote to target markets 24/7, by keeping them up to date with the latest event news.

Virgin Galactic Enterprise Launch From its modest beginnings as a single record store on London’s Oxford Street in 1971, the Virgin Group has experienced continued success over the past three decades. It is now parent company to more than 300 branded companies worldwide, which provide quality music, entertainment, health, travel, and communication services for millions of customers. The Virgin Group, thanks to its entrepreneurial founder, Sir Richard Branson, has become one of the most recognized and credible household brands due to its respected customer service and continual innovative product and brand launches; the company is now worth more than an estimated £6 billion.

One of Virgin’s most recent and innovative ventures has focused on the age-old desire to conquer space travel: making widespread space tourism a reality. Branson is investing an estimated $250–$500 million in the venture. The premise of the new business venture is to grant the paying public, or “future astronauts” as Branson likes to call them, the opportunity to experience the feeling of authentic weightlessness while enjoying panoramic views of the Earth spinning 70,000 feet below them. Although prices for this unique experience are set at $200,000 per flight with a 10 percent deposit, the company has already had 300 bookings from potential space tourists. This interest has been created and invested in despite a previous statement by the ex-president of the brand explaining the company “would not put a definite time line on when the commercial flights would begin.”

The Virgin Group unveiled their Virgin Space Ship (VSS) on December 7, 2009, at a star-studded event hosted in the Mojave Desert in California. Among the eight hundred specially invited guests in attendance were Hollywood glitterati, travel agencies, the media, and other potential space tourists. The event was produced and staged in true Branson extravagance, with the inaugural ceremony including a dramatic lighting and music production before the VSS was unveiled and christened by Hollywood actor and Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson. Although the event was blighted by the

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subjection of the guests to the Mojave Desert’s freezing evening temperatures and winds, it was largely a success. This was due to Branson’s true showmanship, which included the transformation of the guests’ tent into a glamorous cocktail lounge and Governor Schwarzenegger stating, “This here today is one of the coolest things I have ever done!”

With its hefty price tag, Virgin Galactic is certainly not able to cater to everyone and thus has a very specific clientele in mind, as opposed to Virgin’s other brands such as rail travel and communications, which are financially available to the masses. As a result, Virgin Galactic marketing has followed suit with its elite and selective branding. The unveiling itself was a part of the brand’s marketing strategy; by carefully selecting its guest list for the unveiling, it was not only providing a transformational evening of entertainment and new experiences for the guests, but also promoting its product to them, as they are exactly the type of customers Branson is looking for: wealthy.

What can you learn from Virgin Galactic? • Always research your target market and utilize your marketing to

reflect their values and needs in your product or event. If applicable, reflect the wealth and materialism of your target market.

• To create a feeling of envy and desire among potential stakeholders, it is paramount to generate sufficient media coverage of your event.

Professional Convention Management Association Fiftieth Anniversary The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) is the major organization for meetings and event professionals throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Established in 1956 as a networking association for health care executives, PCMA has experienced continued success, becoming the most credible and established association dedicated to providing superior and innovative education and networking opportunities for professionals, suppliers, and students alike. The association currently represents more than 6,100 meeting professionals in chapters throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, something that is beginning to expand toward Europe.

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its conception, the association

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returned to the site of its inaugural meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In order to move on from its heritage, PCMA set about creating a completely innovative design for the celebrations to help bring event management into the cutting-edge world of the twenty-first century. PCMA was also keen to utilize cutting-edge technology to deliver its innovative educational program. One of the ways in which PCMA sought to provide innovative design to its event was the distribution of radio frequency identification, also known as RFID. The premise of RFID was to assign a microchip to each attendee’s name tag, allowing the association to utilize laser registration techniques to monitor attendance and target potential guests in the future. As Teri Tonioli, Vice President of the North Central Region, stated, “The things that RFID can do are just limitless.”

What can you learn from the PCMA? • The importance of keeping up to date with the latest technologies has

never been more imperative than today. The PCMA’s use of RFID has the potential to revolutionize the events industry. By having the ability to track attendees, the event marketer can monitor traffic flow patterns and see who is attending what. With this information, the event manager can understand who is attending the event and have the potential to expand within that market or reach out to latent markets.

National Football League Fan Fest Formed in 1920, the National Football League (NFL) is the highest level of professional football in the United States. It is also the most popular of all public attendance sports leagues in the entire world, with attendance levels averaging more than an estimated 60,000 per game. This is a significant achievement, demonstrating a level of customer loyalty that must be the envy of the sports industry throughout the world.

The National Football League Experience is a fan festival that runs during the week leading up to the Super Bowl, and it is an event marketing an event. It has cause-related credentials, with all proceeds being donated to Youth Education in Tampa Bay, Florida. The event is a six-day event offering interactive and participatory activities for NFL fans to get involved in.

Sponsored by Bank of America, the NFL Experience includes activities for the whole family, including the largest football card show, coach chats, costume competitions, and the opportunity to collect up to 10,000 free

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autographs from NFL players. In addition to this, there are a number of auxiliary events hosted, such as the Super Bowl Spirit Clinic, in which young women participate in a custom Super Bowl competition designed especially with females in mind, as well as the opportunity to hear from the professional cheerleaders. Cheerleaders also host a Cheer and Dance competition, Youth Football Clinic, Referee Clinic, Player Readings (where NFL players read young children stories), and the NFLX After Dark Event, which provides exclusive evening entertainment for adult fans.

What can you learn from the NFL Fan Fest? • Providing interactive events that include your wider audience creates

customer satisfaction, connection, and curiosity about your brand. It will allow your customers and attendees to foster and expand their interest and knowledge of your brand as well as feel “part” of your movement. Especially with football, which is a seasonal activity, it keeps fans interested.

• Large events like the Super Bowl possess a kind of gravity that attracts satellite events. Event marketers should consider the opportunities presented by large events, both in terms of attracting satellite events to add value to their mega-happening, and from the perspective of smaller event marketers piggybacking on the huge pull of mega-events, a symbiotic relationship.

Fjällräven Classic Scandinavia has some of the most accessible yet breathtaking outdoors in Europe, maybe in the world. In particular, Sweden has had a long tradition of hiking and trekking. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Nordic country is also home to one of the world’s most successful brands of outdoor clothing and equipment: Fjällräven. Founded in 1960, they are renowned for their enduring equipment as well as for their innovative designs. Since the 1970s, Fjällräven has hosted outdoor events, and since 2005 the Fjällräven Classic, a trek involving 2,000 people walking a 110 km route starting in the Sami village of Nikkalukta and ending in Abisko, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. In terms of event marketing, this event is a remarkable achievement that serves the company well.

The Fjällräven Wilderness Weeks were launched back in the 1970s as an ancestor to the Fjällräven Classic. The idea was to get urban dwellers out

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into the wild and develop an understanding and passion for outdoor life, says Jerry Engström, international marketing manager for Fjällräven. On top of that, they wanted to prove that when wearing the right equipment, people could be really comfortable outside. It was often thought that trekking was a painful and extreme exercise; Fjällräven wanted to dispel that myth. The effects were immediate; people started recommending the brand to their friends. As we know today, word of mouth has a much stronger value than any other advertising medium.

In 2005, Fjällräven launched the Fjällräven Classic in the form it exists in today. Even though the tickets are around $200–$250, the trek gets booked up almost a year in advance on a regular basis. Fjällräven uses Fjällräven Classic to give their customers the opportunity to “meet” the brand and the people behind it. It shows the brand’s true and honest dedication to the environment. More importantly for Fjällräven, they get to meet their customers in their natural habitat. They get to spend time with them, talk to them, and see how their products work for them and how they use them. They get feedback on what people like about their equipment and comments about what could be improved. Normally, this is a task that gets done in a lab, involving enormous costs and a lot of time, yet often not producing perfect results due to the artificiality of the environment. Fjällräven takes focus groups out of the conference room and into the wilderness—saving money and making the research more efficient. In addition, Jerry Engström, who used to be a brand manager for Unilever, explains that customers enjoy meeting the employees of Fjällräven in order to realize that the equipment they love is manufactured and designed by people just like them.

Besides, Fjällräven shoots their catalogue and website pictures during the Classic. This also saves money for extra shoots and models, as they use their own employees as photo models. This can be considered a further commitment to authenticity and brand integrity. Getting their staff outdoors and mingling also helps the human resource department develop staff and build better, stronger, and more efficient teams—the staff enjoys seeing what they are working for. Finally, Fjällräven understands the Classic as a training course for their customers. The more experienced they get, the more likely they are to demand better gear and spend more money on it. Also, more educated customers are more likely to protect the great outdoors, and thus the foundation and future of the company.

The Classic now has notable media experience, going from blogs, radio shows, and newspapers to as far as, recently, Chinese national television.

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Remarkably, Fjällräven does not measure the ROI/ROE/ROMI (return on investment/event/marketing investment) for the Fjällräven Classic. However, the broad spectrum of advantages and savings brought to the company by the event makes it intuitively obvious that the event has a much higher value in return. Despite that, they monitor the media exposure, giving them at least an idea of the value of their PR.

Fjällräven uses blogs and forums to harness the communication between the brand and the participants. This shows further understanding as social media such as Facebook and Twitter are great for two-way communication, but to leave a lasting discussion, social media are just too volatile. However, Fjällräven also heavily utilizes Facebook and Twitter in order to communicate. Every member of the staff signs his or her messages with his or her first name, linking faces to the brand—an effective way of making the brand more human.

The Fjällräven Classic is a prime example of how versatile an event can be. It helps Fjällräven raise awareness of the brand, positioning the brand in the market, and creates massive PR and educates the customers. At the same time, it helps save money on photo shoots, research and development, staff development, and focus groups.

Choosing a hike as Fjällräven’s signature event is a natural: it represents the values the company stands for, such as tradition, the outdoors, and respect for their customers. It makes the brand authentic and proves the quality of their garments—a perfect choice.

What can you learn from Fjällräven? • Events offer multiplatform marketing opportunities for brands.

Consider the range of benefits outlined in this case, and try to think of a way of achieving such varied marketing advantages via another means. That is the power of events.

App Exhibition Marketing: The Jewish Museum, New York The Jewish Museum, one of the world’s largest and most important institutions devoted to exploring the scope and diversity of Jewish culture, was founded in 1904. Located along New York’s Museum Mile, the museum regularly presents large temporary exhibitions of an interdisciplinary nature. It is a source of education, inspiration, and shared human values for people of all cultures.

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As a specialty museum with both a local and national audience, the marketing goal of the Jewish Museum, New York, was to make exhibition information digitally available. With the arrival of the iPhone, they sought to offer museum content geared for the iPhone platform. This will become increasingly common practice as time goes by, and this exhibition marketer had the insight to innovate toward that eventuality.

The exhibition “Houdini: Art and Magic” seemed to them like a good exhibition to experiment with since they envisioned it as having a broad appeal that would include many smartphone users. Upon considering what content to include in the app, they concluded that the audio content for Houdini was an essential component, as were images of artworks, labels, audio clips, and video clips, as well as social media capabilities, an exhibition map, and basic visitor information. The images and audio and video clips in the app were also freely available online, integrated into the Flash-based online feature. The museum committed to creating the app two months before “Houdini: Art and Magic” opened, and since the exhibition loan forms did not cover app rights, they had to recontact many lenders. Given that this exhibition involved several lenders and artists, this portion of the project consumed the most time, yet assembling the material and submitting it to Apple was relatively straightforward. The submission date was contingent on the audio clips being ready, and that date was dictated by the gallery walk-through review of the audio.

The exhibition web pages link to iTunes, and the app was promoted via the museum’s social media efforts. In the future, the museum intends to incorporate more information and media into the apps and seeks to create micro-catalogs for exhibitions in this format.

What can you learn from the Jewish Museum? • Seek out customers using emerging technology and be prepared to

experiment with innovative methods of engagement. • Consider your marketing activity to be an evolving collective of

methods and do not possess static attitudes of how things ought to be accomplished.

Destination Marketing by Festivals: The Edinburgh Experience Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, has long used festivals as a means

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of attracting visitors. This is to say that festivals are the means by which Edinburgh markets itself to the world. While the city has a castle and some notable old districts, it is the festival scene that has drawn visitors to experience the place.

The numbers attending the capital’s year-round series of 23 festivals in 2010 had reached 5.5 million people—more than the total population of Scotland. This represents a jump of 1 million people compared to events that took place in 2009, so clearly the marketing power of Edinburgh’s festivals is substantial. Among the festivals to record rising attendances were the Fringe (an arts festival geared toward the more youthful attendee), Edinburgh International Science Festival, Edinburgh Mela, and Edinburgh International Book Festival. However, there were signs that some festivals had started to feel an impact from the general economic downturn, with the Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, and Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival suffering a slump in attendances. Nevertheless, city leaders hailed the overall rise in visitor numbers as a sign of the capital’s continuing position as a world-leading festival city.

Steve Cardownie, the city’s festivals and events champion, suggests that “The festivals continue to have a lot to offer to people throughout the world, and to those from the UK who want to have a domestic holiday. Increase in attendances in a recessionary period aptly demonstrates the worth of festivals and events, not only to the people, but also to the economy of the city.”

The Festival Fringe continues to easily attract the biggest attendance of the city’s festivals. In 2010, the city council’s data indicate that 2.87 million people attended Fringe events, compared to 1.86 million in 2009.

Cardownie further observes that more and more people recognized the worth of the festivals to this city. “There is less and less of the view there used to be that the festivals are a nuisance, the buses are full and the streets are too busy. If you can’t be convinced by the artistic and cultural offering then you have to be convinced by the economic argument. I think people do recognise that now and, while we have had a cut, we have discussed it and it is part of a three-year plan that is accepted.” Part of the reason for the success of the festivals has been attributed to the growth of the “staycation”—where UK visitors remain in their own country. A spokeswoman for tourism agency VisitScotland said, “Last year, VisitScotland’s Perfect Day campaign generated an extra £1.5 million for Edinburgh and the Lothians. This campaign targeted the UK market with

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dedicated direct mail promoting the many attractions and places to stay in the city and surrounding area, inspiring people who live here as well as those throughout the UK. The promotion of Edinburgh festivals was very much a key focus of the overall national campaign because of its international significance and importance to both Edinburgh and Scotland as a ‘must visit, must return’ tourism destination.”

What can you learn from the Edinburgh experience? • Festivals are both a product and a promotion. They both attract and are

in themselves an attraction. This makes them a superior form of marketing.

• Festivals enliven a destination; they have become a prerequisite for destinations that seek visitors.

• Festivals breed festivals, and when combined they form a powerful marketing force for their hosts.

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Resources Media Distribution Services

Burrelle’s Luce: Media monitoring for the digital age. http://www.burrellesluce.com

Global Venue TV: Online streaming of events. http://globalvenue.tv

Internet News Bureau: Online press release services for businesses and journals.

https://ssl.internet.com/INB/orderpr.cgi Market Wire: Integrates traditional and digital media to drive and build relationships with clients.

http://www.marketwire.com PIMS: Helps public relations professionals gain maximum benefits from their media campaigns.

http://www.pimsinc.com Press-Release-Writing.com: Specializes in press release writing and press release distribution to media outlets. Also includes tips and resources for writing releases.

http://www.press-release-writing.com PR Leap: Assists companies with spreading their message and engaging with clients.

http://www.prleap.com PR News Wire: Specializes in distributing press releases and value- adds.

http://www.prnewswire.com PR Web: Dedicated to increasing website traffic, sales, and publicity.

http://www.prweb.com

Event Marketing Associations/Societies American Marketing Association (AMA): A comprehensive

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professional society of marketers. 311 South Wacker Drive Suite 5800 Chicago, IL 60606 Phone: (800) AMA-1500 Website: http://www.ama.org

Association of Convention Marketing Executives: A professional trade association whose members are professional convention marketing executives.

204 E Street, NE Washington, DC 30309 Phone: (202) 547-8030 Website: http://acmenet.org Facebook: The Association for Convention Sales and Marketing Executives (ACME) Twitter: @ACMEtweeting

Association for Convention Operations Management (ACOM): A professional trade association whose members are professional convention marketing executives.

191 Clarksville Road Princeton Junction, NJ 08550 Phone: (609) 799-3712 Website: http://www.acomonline.org Facebook: ACOM—The Association for Convention Operations Management Twitter: @ACOMTweets

Business Marketing Association: The professional trade association that serves the professional, educational, and career development needs of business-to-business marketers.

1833 Center Point Circle Suite 123 Naperville, IL 60563 Phone: (630) 544-5054

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Website: http://www.marketing.org Twitter: @BMA_National

Center for Association Leadership (ASAE): Dedicated to enhancing professionalism and competency of association executives.

1575 I Street, NW Washington, DC 20005 Phone: (888) 950-2723 Website: http://www.asaecenter.org

Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR): The primary research, information, and promotional arm of the exhibition industry worldwide.

12700 Park Central Drive Suite 308 Dallas, TX 75251 Phone: (972) 687-9242 Website: http://www.ceir.org

Convention Industry Council (CIC): Composed of leading national and international organizations involved in the meetings, conventions, expositions, and travel and tourism industries.

700 N. Fairfax Street Suite 510 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone: (571) 527–3116 Website: http://www.conventionindustry.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Convention-Industry- Council/116999999590 Twitter: @ConvIndustry

Exhibit Designers and Producers Association (EDPA): Members include exhibit designers, producers, systems manufacturers/marketers, show service contractors, exhibit transportation companies, and many other organizations that provide products or services to the exhibit industry.

5775 Peachtree-Dunwoody Road Suite 500-G

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Atlanta, GA 30342-1507 Phone: (404) 303-7310 Website: http://www.edpa.com

Exposition Service Contractors Association (ESCA): The professional organization of firms engaged in the provision of materials and/or services for trade shows, conventions, exhibitions, and sales meetings.

5068 West Plano Parkway Suite 300 Plano, TX 75202 Phone: (972) 447-8212 Website: http://www.esca.org

Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI): A professional trade association whose members are professional salespeople in the hotel, convention center, and hospitality industry and those who provide services and products for this industry.

1760 Old Meadow Road Suite 500 McLean, VA 22102 Phone: (703) 506-3266 Website: http://www.hsmai.org

InfoComm International, the Audiovisual (AV) Association: The professional trade association whose members provide communications services.

11242 Waples Mill Road Suite 200 Fairfax, VA 22030 Phone: (703) 273-7200 Website: http://www.infocomm.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/InfoComm Twitter: @InfoComm

International Association of Conference Centers (IACC): Advances the understanding and awareness of conference centers as distinct and unique within the hospitality industry.

243 North Lindbergh Boulevard

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Suite 315 St. Louis, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 993-8575 Website: http://www.iacconline.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Association- of-Conference-Centers-IACC/288629741567 Twitter: @IACCconfcenters

International Association for Exhibitions and Events (IAEE): A professional association involved in the management and support of the global exposition industry.

12700 Park Central Drive Suite 308 Dallas, TX 75251 Phone: (972) 458-8002 Website: http://www.iaee.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/iaeehq Twitter: @IAEE_HQ

International Special Events Society (ISES): The only umbrella organization representing all aspects of the special events industry.

401 N. Michigan Avenue Suite 2200 Chicago, IL 60611-4267 Phone: (800) 688-4737 Website: http://www.ises.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php? id=100001475420305 Twitter: @iseshq

Meeting Professionals International (MPI): Serves the diverse needs of all people with direct interest in the outcome of meetings, educating and preparing members for their changing roles and validating relevant knowledge and skills, as well as demonstrating a commitment to excellence in meetings.

3030 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway Suite 1700

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Dallas, TX 75234-2759 Phone: (972) 702-3000 Website: http://www.mpiweb.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MPIfans Twitter: @MPI

National Association of Catering Executives (NACE): A professional association for caterers in all disciplines and their affiliate vendors.

9891 Broken Land Parkway Suite 301 Columbia, MD 21046 Phone: (410) 290-5410 Website: http://www.nace.net Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Official-NACE- National-Fan-Page/272580417909?ref=ts Twitter: @NACENational

Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA): Serves the association community by enhancing the effectiveness of meetings, conventions, and exhibitions through member and industry education and by promoting the value of the meetings industry to the general public.

35 East Wacker Drive Suite 500 Chicago, IL 60601 Phone: (312) 423-7262 Website: http://www.pcma.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35493766501 Twitter: @pcmahq

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA): The professional trade association whose members are involved in public relations activities or supply goods and services for this profession.

33 Maiden Lane Floor 11 New York, NY 100038

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Phone: (212) 460-1452 Website: http://www.prsa.org

Religious Conference Management Association (RCMA): Provides planning and marketing conventions and events for religious organizations worldwide.

7702 Woodland Drive Suite 120 Indianapolis, IN 46278 Phone: (317) 632-1888 Website: http://www.rcmaweb.org

Society of Corporate Meeting Professionals (SCMP): Membership consists of corporate meeting professionals and convention/service professionals.

2965 Flowers Road South Suite 105 Atlanta, GA 30341 Phone: (770) 457-9212 Website: http://www.scmprof.com

Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA): Provides information to management professionals who utilize the trade show and event medium to promote and sell their products, as well as those who supply them with products and services.

2301 South Lake Shore Drive Suite 1005 Chicago, IL 60616 Phone: (312) 842-8732 Website: http://www.tsea.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trade-Show-Exhibitors- Association/60831289392 Twitter: @TSEAHQ

U.S. Travel Association: The professional trade association whose members promote, market, research, and provide information about the travel industry.

1100 New York Avenue, NW

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Washington, DC 20005 Phone: (202) 408-8422 Website: http://www.ustravel.org

Media Tracking Services 24.7 Real Media: Independent ad serving, tracking, and analysis.

http://www.247realmedia.com Attentio: Social media monitoring and research tool.

http://attentio.com Crimson Hexagon: Social media monitoring and analysis.

http://www.crimsonhexagon.com Jitter Jam Social CRM: Combining social media monitoring, contact databases, and multichannel digital marketing into one integrated system.

http://www.jitterjam.com Lithium: Engaging social media users with businesses.

http://www.lithium.com Radian 6: A platform to engage with social media.

http://www.radian6.com Research on Demand: A fee-based research service, accessing public and private databases worldwide; includes media tracking services.

http://www.researchondemand.com Sentiment Metrics: Real-time social media tracking and reporting service.

http://www.sentimentmetrics.com Sysomos: Listening, engaging, and measuring social media.

http://www.sysomos.com Trackur: Social media monitoring software.

http://www.trackur.com TVEyes.com: Specializes in highly automated, instant-alert media tracking services for Internet users.

http://www.tveyes.com TweetDeck: Social media traffic control.

http://www.tweetdeck.com

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Webtrends: Mobile and social network analytics. http://www.webtrends.com/

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Skinner, B. (2002). Event Sponsorship. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Soares, E. J. (1991). Promotional Feats: The Role of Planned Events in the Marketing Communications Mix. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Solis, B. (2011). Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate and Measure Success in the New Web. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Stallard, H., et al. (1998). Bagehot on Sponsorship, Endorsements and Merchandising. 2nd ed. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

Sterne, J. (2001). World Wide Web Marketing: Integrating the Web into Your Marketing Strategy. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Supovitz, F. (2004). The Sports Event Management and Marketing Playbook. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Ukman, L. (1999). IEG’s Complete Guide to Sponsorship. Chicago: International Events Group.

U.S. Web and Bruner, R. E. (1998). Net Results: Web Marketing That Works. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders.

Waldorf, J., and Rutherford-Silvers, J. (2000). The Event Management Certificate Program Sport Event Management and Marketing. Washington, DC: George Washington University.

Wendroff, A. (2003). Special Events: Proven Strategies for Nonprofit Fundraising. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Whitman, D. (2004). “Exchange Links and Lure New Customers—For Free.” Net Progress. Microsoft Central.com.

Williams, W. (1994). User Friendly Fundraising: A Step-by-Step Guide to Profitable Special Events. Alexander, NC: WorldComm.

Wolf, T. (1983). Presenting Performances: A Handbook for Sponsors. New York: American Council of the Arts.

Wolfson, S. M. (1995). The Meeting Planner’s Complete Guide to Negotiating: You Can Get What You Want. Kansas City, MO: Institute for Meeting and Conference Management.

Van Der Wagen, L., and Carlos, B. (2004). Event Management. New York: Prentice Hall.

Event Marketing Periodicals Advertising Age. Weekly, by Crain Communications, Detroit.

http://adage.com

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Agenda New York. Annually, by New York Media, 75 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013; (212) 508–0700.

Association Meetings. Bimonthly, by Adams/Laux Publishing Company, 63 Great Road, Maynard, MA 01754; (508) 897-5552. http://meetingsnet.com/associationmeetings

Conference and Association World. Bimonthly, by ACE International, Event Marketing Periodicals, 211 Riverside House, High Street, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE18 6SG, England; (0480) 457595; International, 011 44 1480 457595.

Conference and Expositions International. Monthly, by International Trade Publications Ltd., Queensway House, 2 Queensway, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1QS, England; (0737) 768611; International, 011 44 1737 768611.

Conference & Incentive Management. Bimonthly, by CIM Verlag für Conference, Incentive & Travel Management GmBH, Nordkanalstrasse 36, D-20097 Hamburg, Germany; International, 40 237 1405. http://www.cimunity.com

Convene. Ten times a year, by Professional Convention Management Association, 100 Vestavia Office Park, Suite 220, Birmingham, AL 35216- 9970; (205) 978-4911. http://www.pcma.org/Convene.htm

Conventions and Expositions. Bimonthly, by Conventions and Expositions Section of the American Society of Association Executives, 1575 I Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005; (202) 626- 2769.

Corporate and Incentive Travel. Monthly, by Coastal Communications Corporation, 2700 North Military Trail, Suite 120, FL 33431; (561) 989-0600. http://www.themeetingmagazines.com/index/Default.aspx? alias=www.themeetingmagazines.com/index/cit

Delegates. Monthly, by Audrey Brindsley, Premier House, 10 Greycoat Place, London SW1P 1SB, England; (0712) 228866.

Entertainment Marketing Letter. Twelve times a year, by EPM Communications, Inc., 488 East 18th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11226- 6702; (718) 469-9330.

Event Magazine. Monthly, by Haymarket Publication, http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk

Event Management. Quarterly, by Cognizant Communication Corp., 3

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Hartsdale Road, Elmsford, NY 10523-3701. http://www.cognizantcommunication.com/filecabinet/EventManagement/em.htm

Event Solutions. Monthly, by Virgo Publishing, Inc., Phoenix, AZ; (480) 990-1101. http://www.event-solutions.com

Events. Bimonthly, by April Harris, published by Harris Communications, Madison, AL.

Incentive. Monthly, by Northstar Travel Media, 100 Lighting Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094; (201) 902-2000. http://www.incentivemag.com

Incentive Travel & Corporate Meetings. Market House, 19-21 Market Place, Berkshire, RG40 1AP England; 0118 979 3277. http://www.incentivetravel.co.uk

M&C Meetings and Conventions. Monthly, by News American Publishing, Inc., 747 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. http://www.meetings-conventions.com/

Marketing Review. Quarterly, by Westburn Publishers Ltd., 23 Millig Street, Helensburgh, Argyll, G84 9LD Scotland; 01436 678 699. http://www.westburn-publishers.com/the-marketing-review/the- marketing-review.html

Meeting News. Daily, by Northstar Travel Media, 100 Lighting Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094; (201) 902-2000. http://www.meetingnews.com/login.aspx?action=editprofile

Public Relations Journal. Quarterly, by Public Relations Society of America, 33 Maiden Lane, 11th Floor, NY 10038; (212) 460-1400. http://www.prsa.org

Religious Conference Manager. Seven times a year, by PRIMEDIA, 175 Nature Valley Place, Owatonna, MN 55060; (507) 455-2136. http://meetingsnet.com/religiousconferencemanager

Sales and Marketing Management. Fifteen times a year, by Bill Communications, Inc., 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003; (646) 654-4500. http://www.salesandmarketing.com/

Special Events Magazine. Monthly, by PRIMEDIA, 17383 West Sunset Boulevard, Suite A220, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272; (310) 230-7160. http://specialevents.com

Successful Meetings. Thirteen times a year, by Goldstein and Associates, Inc., 1150 Yale Street, #12, Santa Monica, CA 90403; (310) 828- 1309. http://www.successfulmeetings.com

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Electronic Marketing Services Aelana Interactive Multimedia Development

http://www. aelana.com Aspen Media: Creative solutions for the digital age.

http://www.aspenmedia.com Bay Area Marketing: Specializes in web design, site promotion, hosting, and more.

http://www.bayareamarketing.com d2m Interactive: A full-service web development company that offers custom website design, web presence management, Internet marketing services, and electronic commerce solutions.

http://www.d2m.com/index2.html Desktop Innovations

http://www.desktopinnovations.com Digital Rose: Specializes in website design, Internet publications, and digital photography and marketing.

http://www.digitalrose.com Electronic Marketing Group

http://www.empg.com Imirage, E-business: Technology and interactive marketing solutions.

http://www.imirage.com Impact Studio: Uses the Internet, CD-ROM, and digital video to create electronic marketing campaigns.

http://www.impactstudio.com Information Strategies: Electronic marketing, consulting, information design, web assistance, and organizational development for information technology issues.

http://www.info-strategies.com Ironwood Electronic Media: Offers electronic marketing services for businesses.

http://www.cris.com/~ironwood/iwbusiness.htm Magic Hour Communications

http://www.magic-hour.com SpectraCom: Provides strategic planning and electronic marketing

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services. http://www.spectracom.com

Facility/Venue Resources America’s Meeting Places. Published by Facts on File. Auditorium/Arena/Stadium Guide. Published by Amusement

Business/Single Copy Department, Box 24970, Nashville, TN 37202. BVenues: http://www.bvenues.com Conference Portfolio: http://www.conferenceportfolio.com Event: The Guide: http://www.eventvenuesearch.com Global Venue Solutions: http://www.globalvenuesolutions.co.uk The Guide to Campus and Non-Profit Meeting Facilities. Published by

AMARC. International Association of Conference Centers Directory. Published by

International Association of Conference Centers, 45 Progress Parkway, Maryland Heights, MO 63043.

Locations, Etc.: The Directory of Locations and Services for Special Events. Published by Innovative Productions.

Meeting Source: http://www.meetingsource.com Regus: Virtual Conference Venues. http://www.regus.com Tradeshow and Convention Guide. Published by Amusement

Business/Single Copy Department, Box 24970, Nashville, TN 37202.

Useful Websites Links relevant to Chapter 1: What Is an Event and What Is Event Marketing?

http://marketing.about.com A lot like the For Dummies guides, about.com provides clear, straightforward insight into marketing. If you are new to the area, you might want to check this site to become comfortable with some of the key ideas.

http://www.pcma.org PCMA, the Professional Convention Management Association, is one

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of the world’s largest professional bodies for event managers and meeting professionals. Their website provides useful and valuable resources for event managers.

http://www.eventia.org.uk Eventia is a British professional body for event managers. Their site contains a blog with helpful articles as well as recent news about the event industry.

http://www.cognizantcommunication.com/filecabinet/EventManagement/em.htm The academic journal Events Management is a really useful resource.

http://eventsecrets.com Eventsecrets offers useful information about event management and inspiration, in particular for trade shows and smaller events.

Links relevant to Chapter 2: The Evolution of Event Marketing

http://bvo.com/topics/marketing-trends-and- evolution/programmes/philip-kotler-on-the-evolution-of-marketing

An interview with Philip Kotler, famous American marketing scholar, on the recent history of marketing.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=142967 An article in Advertising Age on the evolution of marketing in an advertising context in the last century.

http://www.ptbarnum.org A website honoring P. T. Barnum, “The Shakespeare of Advertising,” describing some of his inspiring marketing stunts called “Humbugs.”

http://www.barnum-museum.org The website of the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, featuring a virtual museum where one can explore the splendid world of P. T. Barnum.

Links relevant to Chapter 3: The Theory and Practice of Event Marketing

http://www.eventmanagerblog.com Started by Julius Solaris in 2007, Event Manager Blog provides practical, hands-on information and inspiration for events and events marketing. It has an innovative take on the use of social media and is a

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useful everyday read. http://www.adverblog.com

Adverblog has a very diverse approach to advertising. This includes events advertising. Try this blog for information on the subject and inspiration for challenging event marketing tactics.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog Duct Tape Marketing is a very practical blog by marketer John Jantsch. It has a special focus on marketing on a small budget, which, for many events, is likely to be a problem.

http://www.bonjourevents.com Bonjour Events has a particular take on local and small events, social events, and celebrations. Apart from events tips, it will inspire you to take your social event to the next level.

http://joelewi.wordpress.com Joe Lewi, founder of the Lewi Group, analyzes challenges in events marketing, and might help you grow further in your next event.

Links relevant to Chapter 4: Sponsorship and Cause- Related Event Marketing

http://www.sponsorship.com Sponsorship.com is run by the IEG, an international authority on sponsorship marketing. Keep in touch with industry news and find inspiration for your right sponsor or in order to sponsor the right event.

http://marketing.about.com/od/eventandseminarmarketing/a/sponsorship.htm About.com provides a straightforward definition as well as an introduction to sponsorship marketing and how it can be used to bring forward your product, brand, or company.

http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=98 Ambush marketing is a particular aspect of sponsorship marketing. As a marketer, you should be aware of it and also worried about how this might affect your organization.

http://www.sponsorscape.com Sponsorscape is an international sponsoring database. Publicize sponsorship opportunities or find sponsors for your event.

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Links relevant to Chapter 5: E-Event Marketing http://mashable.com

Mashable is the premier resource for social media. This blog, updated several times a day, provides brilliant insight into what happens in the social media world and should be your everyday read.

http://sxsw.com/interactive The interactive section of the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, contains podcasts and blog entries in relation to SXSW. SXSW represents one of the major festivals for the Web 2.0 community and is the birthplace of services such as Twitter.

http://www.wired.com http://www.wired.co.uk

The American and British versions of the magazine Wired keep you in the loop about trends and developments on the web and about social media in particular. The print version is also worth a shot.

http://www.eventmarketer.com The magazine Event Marketer has contained valuable resources since 2002 and offers event marketing–specific information.

Links relevant to Chapter 6: Entertainment and Festival Event Marketing

http://ifea.com The International Festival and Events Association is a global network organization for the festivals and events industry that promotes the interests of the sector worldwide and has a number of national and regional affiliations.

http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk Edinburgh Festivals is the umbrella organization for the festivals in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. They offer an interesting insight into how to market festivals together, instead of being each other’s competitors. Edinburgh has one of the most demanding festival scenes in the world.

http://www.artslaw.com.au The Arts Law Centre of Australia offers advice for the Australian cultural and artistic scenes. Despite being nationally focused, they deliver checklists and guides on how to promote and organize

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festivals. http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals

This website is an example of the extent to which the festivals market is being organized online. This is a multimedia guide to festivals in the United Kingdom that contains everything the festival consumer needs to know about the festival scene, and it is a format that is repeated throughout the world.

Links relevant to Chapter 7: Corporate Event Marketing http://www.cemaonline.com

The Corporate Event Marketing Association has a special focus on technology companies. They provide an interesting range of white papers and webinars relevant to corporate event marketing.

http://www.exhibitoronline.com ExhibitorOnline is a webzine with a special focus on corporate event marketing. They provide resources on virtually every event imaginable.

http://www.jackmorton.com/ Jack Morton Worldwide is one of the world’s leading events management agencies. Their website provides a portfolio that is a testament to how far corporate event marketing can be taken.

Links relevant to Chapter 8: Association, Convention, and Exhibition Event Marketing

http://www.pcma.org The webpage of the Professional Convention Managers Association (PCMA) contains a series of freely available resources. The PCMA has a particular focus on the meeting industry.

http://www.themeetingsindustry.org The Meetings Industry is the umbrella organization of all meetings and conventions associations in the worldly, PCMA among them.

http://meetingsnet.com Meetings Net is a regularly updated blog on the meetings, incentive, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) market, providing insight into the current trends in the industry.

http://business.visitlondon.com

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VisitLondon Business is a great example of how big cities are facilitating conference hosting and providing free-of-charge services to stage your next event in their city. Similar services can be found for large cities around the globe.

Links relevant to Chapter 9: Social Event Marketing http://www.google.com/weddings

Google provides a comprehensive overview of how to use their products to plan a wedding. This is a brilliant example of how the Internet facilitates the emergence of do-it-yourself events.

http://www.meetup.com Meetup is a website used to organize spontaneous social gatherings. Meetings can be organized or interested persons can look for meetings to attend.

http://www.ning.com Ning is a website facilitating the creation of micro social networks, and is also used to help social groups meeting up in real life.

Links relevant to Chapter 10: Future Forces and Trends in Event Marketing

http://www.wired.com http://www.wired.co.uk

The American and British versions of the magazine Wired keep you in the loop about trends and developments on the web and about social media in particular. The print version is also worth a shot.

http://mashable.com Mashable is the premier resource for social media. This blog, updated several times a day, provides brilliant insight into what happens in the social media world and should be your everyday read.

http://www.wfs.org/futurist The Futurist is the periodical by the World Future Society, trying to describe and predict future trends.

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目录

Title Page 2 Foreword - Liz Bigham 7 Series Editor Foreword - Dr. Joe Goldblatt, CSEP 9 Preface 11 In Appreciation Of 20 What Is an Event and What Is Event Marketing? 22 The Evolution of Event Marketing 54 The Theory and Practice of Event Marketing 83 Sponsorship and Cause-Related Event Marketing 128 E-Event Marketing 157 Entertainment and Festival Event Marketing 192 Corporate Event Marketing 228 Association, Convention, and Exhibition Event Marketing 255

Social Event Marketing 285 Future Forces and Trends in Event Marketing 308 Event Marketing Case Studies 336 Resources 360

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