By Natasha Mitev
At its core, marketing is all about communication. Live events offer direct and clear communication with the target market. This is the reason why event marketing continues to grow as one of the most important marketing strategies for every big company, and from the same reason 31% of the event marketers believe that event are the single most effective marketing channel over digital advertising, email marketing and content marketing.
In order to stay on top in the event marketing realm, each one of us has to keep up with the fast moving changes in this industry. As we all know, the trends are in constant change. Last year brought a lot of new things, but if we want to keep up with the speed of business evolution, we have to constantly follow the last changes.
The event organizers however face with a lot of challenges these days, mostly related to organizing and managing all their subsidiaries so they can send the same promotions and messaging, or not enough tickets sold. In this article we offer a solution to some of the challenges they face. So, how to make a successful event?
Provide Catchy Quality Content
Quality Content was one of the biggest trends for the last year and it keeps its place in 2018. We know that being present in the public is not enough, we have to give content that is valuable in order to be remembered. Quality over quantity is the name is the name of the game circling around the marketing professionals, so it will be crucial to have a relevant content in 2018 if you want to make a significant difference.
Use Instagram for Event Marketing
When it comes to Social Media, the platforms marketers use are YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Instagram started its rising in marketing earlier, but this year the platform is going to be used in event marketing more than ever. According to Entrepreneur, 800 million people use the platform everyday, and it is expected that number to rise in 2018.
It is likely going to be used to connect with followers during a live event, to share pictures that surrounds the event or to create a specific hashtags that is likely to make guest share picture of the particular event. The event organizers, however, need to know that there are some new tips that can help them use Instagram better. They can try focus on sharing instead of promoting, master how to structure Instagram ads and how to put sponsors in the spotlight.
According to the expert opinion of a couple of marketers, this marketing tool is suggested mostly for music and film events, because their target public (which are mostly millennials) use Instargam the most.
The use of drones for security and for filming
Over the years videos have brought events to life in a way that has never been seen before and this is as a result of the new technologies and features that high tech drones come with. They include live streaming through the use of social media gigants well as 360-degree video, which gives you the ability to cover an event from a whole new perspective.
According to Valoso, a digital marketing and video production company, that has helped a lot of event organizers to deliver greater impact, through specialist services in creating smart content for all digital marketing needs, drones give the power to stream live and record an interesting moment from an eagle’s eye view. Their team of professionals says that today, drones can do more than just record or broadcast an event live, they can also have the specs to provide security. Drones have become a very valuable security asset because they help to gather intelligence and some drones have also been used to carry search and rescue missions.
On the other side, many venues don’t allow drones. But, fortunately, there are other alternatives for us to create the video we want. With a handheld gimbal, for example, we can readily recreate the same type of motion we get with the drone. Evergreen Hollywood staple the Steadicam rig, would be an excellent option for getting great movie shots. Anyway, we don’t recommend trying to figure it out for yourself, as professionals spend years and a lot of money learning how to become proficient operators, so the odds that you are going to produce the same result with a few hours of practice are extremely low.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing can be used as part of the Event Marketing Strategy. It’s all around us and it will be one of the most prefered marketing tactics in 2018, and definitely the one that needs the most support form technology. Trending upward in 2018 is influencers’ commitment to generating high quality content for growing markets and audiences. Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Survey made says that two-thirds of consumers trust opinion posted online, especially if it’s from an influencer. Because we seem to trust an influencer, images and videos posted by them tend to feel more like recommendations from a friend.
We mentioned that the event industry is in a constant state of evolution and as such, choosing the right strategies and concepts that are successful as they are original is no easy task. Anyway, knowing the latest trends in the event marketing would give us some direction, but it’s on us to figure out ways we can implement them so that we can start getting mind-blowing results.
It’s Natasha Mitev and this is a bit of information about her. She is a freelance writer, with previous experience in journalism, marketing and public relations. Worked as a journalist for 6 years, switched careers and worked as a marketing specialist for quite some time. At the moment, she is freelance marketing/business/video writer. Natasha has Bachelor’s degree in Arts in Journalism and Master degree in Arts in Public Relations.
