Regardless of your industry, and whether you are hosting a live, virtual or hybrid event, branding is everything. Your target audience will often make split second decisions about your product/service, based on their most recent encounter with your branding. Branding is how your company communicates valuable information about your values and strengths while your audience makes their decision. The strength of your branding lies in how well you accomplish that.
Whether you are just beginning to brand your company or are considering a rebrand during your next major event, understanding the key components to successful event branding is important for consumer retention. As you read through this guide, consider how your own brand will communicate your values and strengths.
How to Define Your Brand
Before the big event, it’s imperative that you have a well-defined brand. Brand definition has two major components: creation and cultivation.
Good branding begins with great research because it requires you to ask questions about what information you want to convey. Here are some questions to address when building your brand:
-
- What should my brand logo look like? (colors, fonts, imagery, etc.)
- What tone of voice should I use for my brand? (conversational, formal, authoritative, etc.)
- What is my brand’s persona?
- What image am I trying to build with my brand?
- What are the values of my brand? (sustainability, equality, charity, etc.)
- Who is my brand’s audience and customer base?
These answers will be unique for each brand. When you discover the answers to each of these questions, you will have the foundation that you need to build a successful brand.
During your event, your brand should be the topic of conversation, which means providing literature and hands-on opportunities to become familiar with your values is a must. Effective branding will quickly communicate a brand’s values/strengths, even to people who are new to it.
It takes a combination of materials, not just a logo or mission statement to give people a full picture of your brand and convey pertinent information. All of the elements of your brand should create a cohesive message that is easily conveyed to your customer base and audience.
Enhancing Your Social Media Presence
According to data gathered by Statistica, social media users topped 2.95 billion, that’s right billion, users. That number will only grow in the coming years. To put that into perspective, that means that almost 40% of the world’s 7.8 billion-strong population is utilizing some form of social media.
In short, online marketing is one of the most important platforms to build a strong brand. Knowing your audience is key to building a brand that can compete. Website analytics have made it easier for companies to understand consumers and their behavior. With a well researched plan, you can use your online social platforms to market and invite people to your event.
One of the major benefits of utilizing social media is that it allows you to directly communicate with your customers and client base. You can respond to their questions, address their concerns, and build the image of your brand by creating a profile page on major social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Here are a few tips to help you effectively utilize social media in your event branding efforts:
- Create a separate page for your event. Update the page regularly before the event. Be sure to provide pertinent information such as time, location, pricing, and expectations (ie. black-tie, costume, plus-ones, etc.)
- Take advantage of Facebook’s invite feature. Invite as many people as possible, keep track of those who will be attending and those who won’t.
- Advertise the event to those who are most likely to attend. Major social media platforms have advertising features that allow you to target certain demographics. For example, if you’re throwing a carnival-themed event, you might want to target families or couples. If your theme is a night out on the town, you should target single adults or couples.
Showing Off Your Brand
On the day of the event, it’s imperative to focus on showing off your brand. Your effort in building and cultivating will pay off during the day of the event. You want to ensure that anyone in attendance will be engaged with your brand. However, it’s the items that you will feature at the event that will allow your brand’s reach to extend far beyond the event itself.
Attendees should have something to take home that will spark conversation about your brand long after the event ends. Here are some branded items to consider giving away during your event:
-
- Pens
- Pins
- Reusable Bags
- Paper Fans
- Stationary
- Folders
- Tee Shirts
- Stress Balls
Beyond give away items, ensure that your brand is well displayed throughout the event. Tents and signage, staff shirts, and marketing tools should all feature your name and logo.
Key Takeaways
Effective event branding takes a focused effort. However, it offers many benefits, including an extended advertising reach, a stronger connection to the community, and a great way to increase your existing brand recognition. More important, it’s imperative to be consistent with your brand!
WE’D LOVE FOR YOU TO SHARE THIS IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEBSITE BUT PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING COMPLETE INFORMATION: Event Producer Strategist, Entrepreneur, Speaker, and Coach, Annette Naif, CEO & Creative Director of Naif Productions.
This article was written in collaboration with Megan Glenn from MeganWrites.Co.
# # #
About Naif Productions:
Naif Productions is a strategic event planning, design and production firm specializing in corporate, live coaching sales events, social, non-profit, and weddings. Based in New York City, we produce events worldwide from Fortune 500 clients and coaches to families and charities. Naif Productions specializes in helping clients attain their goals, realize return on investment, and achieve the most unique, creative experiences.
About Annette Naif:
Since 1986 Annette Naif has been designing and producing custom events, helping clients create their unique style that translates into a memorable and profitable experience. Annette spent 17 years producing events in the motion picture industry where she helped coordinate numerous productions for film and episodic television programs. Since then Annette’s been running her own event production company, coaching other event planners, teaching an event operations and production course at NYU, and now is the CEO & Creative Director of Naif Productions.