Event marketing

Last updated April 07, 2023

Event marketing is the experiential marketing of a brand, service, or product through memorable experiences or promotional events.^[1]^[2] It typically involves direct interaction with a brand's representatives. It should not be confused with event management, which is a process of organizing, promoting and conducting events. Trade shows are an example of event marketing.

Overview

Event marketing is considered to be a part of experiential marketing and content marketing. Experiential marketing follows the process of corporate storytelling,^{[n 1]} and aims to further engage the audience. Experiential follows a simple formula of combining a brand's message and interactive components.^[3] This mode of marketing places the target audience in a live environment that will encourage the desired outcome.^[3]

Event marketing mostly relies on emotions and the activity of the human brain. Event marketing uses emotions and is based on the fact that people remember what they are experiencing. Emotional stimulus significantly affects the image of the offered service or product. Psychologists proved that while stimulated by emotions, the brain remembers certain facts and pieces of information better. Experiencing something makes it more memorable.^[4] In this condition, it is more likely that the brand will stay in the receiver's mind and create a long-lasting image.^[5]

In a thesis for the International Business and Economics Programme at the Luleå University of Technology, Jessica Eriksson and Anna Hjälmsson wrote:

Event marketing is marketing through events, where marketing is seen as central and the event is considered the actual marketing tool. Event marketing is focusing on a target group and involves high contact intensity. It turns a message into an event that can be experienced by the audience. Several senses are engaged, which increases the chances to remember the experience and thereby also the message.^[6]

Event marketing can also function purely as a business-to-business (B2B) opportunity, whereby experiential emotions are not a factor in the event, but rather, the event serves as an opportunity to make business contacts and network with customers. The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."

Event marketing worldwide

The term "event marketing" became an important part of study in German, American, British, and Canadian markets. Event marketing had been considered equal to the promotion of an event in order to increase the sales of the tickets and was forgotten as a form of marketing.^[2]

This conception changed with excessive studies in the late-20th and early-21st century. Philip Kotler's Marketing, which was published at the beginning of the century, is regarded as the first step to a clear definition of the term.^[7] It was later followed by a Danish publication Events as a strategic marketing tool written by Dorothe Gerritsen and Ronald van Olderen. Event marketing became recognized as a marketing tool, especially in Poland^[1] when it was introduced in the early 2000s. (Jaworowicz P., Jaworowicz M., Event marketing w Zintegrowanej Komunikacji Marketingowej, Warszawa 2016.) Polish academics mostly relied on Western studies and managed to build up the whole concept.

According to The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the event industry will grow by 44% from 2010 to 2020.^[8] A plurality of marketers (31%) believe event marketing to be the single-most effective marketing channel, with 27% voting on Content Marketing, and 25% on Email Marketing.^[9]

HubSpot has listed 11 experiential marketing campaigns from worldwide renowned brands like Facebook, Google, Zappos, and Guinness, who have hosted or created events as an innovative way of advertising a product.^[10] Each of them was successful and attracted thousands of new customers. Marketing Insider Group has also listed 5 event marketing examples that are still being talked about. Among them, The Kia Dream Chute is mentioned as one of the best ideas. All of those events are considered one of the best marketing campaigns in the world.^[11]

A study made by Jack Morton Worldwide shows that 11 out of 14 consumers prefer to get to know new products or services by experiencing them personally.^[12]

Moreover, 74% of consumers say that connecting with branded event marketing experiences is making them more likely to buy the products which are being promoted, according to research done by The Event Marketing Institute and Mosaic.^[13]

Event marketing strategy

Event marketing strategy is a tailor-made plan to promote a brand/product with events as an advertising tool. This includes an in-depth analysis of plans for the brand's presence at events.

In order to measure the success of event marketing, the brand impact has to be verified. Based on an analysis made by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) in March 2006, engagement is "turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context".^[14] There was also a function created to show the impact on a brand: Engagement + Trust x Targeted Group = Brand Impact.

Notes

↑ As described in: Petrucci, Anthony (20 November 2017). "Storytelling Takes Corporate Communications To The Next Level". Forbes .

Related Research Articles

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Relationship marketing is a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns that emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction rather than sales transactions. It differentiates from other forms of marketing in that it recognises the long-term value of customer relationships and extends communication beyond intrusive advertising and sales promotional messages. With the growth of the Internet and mobile platforms, relationship marketing has continued to evolve as technology opens more collaborative and social communication channels such as tools for managing relationships with customers that go beyond demographics and customer service data collection. Relationship marketing extends to include inbound marketing, a combination of search optimization and strategic content, public relations, social media and application development.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advertising Research Foundation</span>

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A touchpoint can be defined as any way consumers can interact with a business organization, whether it be person-to-person, through a website, an app or any form of communication. When consumers come in contact with these touchpoints it gives them the opportunity to compare their prior perceptions of the business and form an opinion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immersion marketing</span> Integrated promotional strategy

The term immersion marketing or immersive marketing includes traditional advertising, public relations, word-of-mouth advertising, digital marketing, samples, coupons, retail partnerships and other ways of surrounding the consumer with a consistent message about a brand. In essence, immersion marketing envelopes a brand or product or company issue so that the marketing, advertising, and public relations departments or representatives work holistically towards delivering the same brand message across multiple distribution channels. Unlike "Shotgun marketing"(communicate the message to anyone who listens), immersive marketing is cheaper and more effective, focusing directly on the customer's needs.

Customer experience (CX) is a totality of cognitive, affective, sensory, and behavioral consumer responses during all stages of the consumption process including pre-purchase, consumption, and post-purchase stages. Nihat Tavşan and Can Erdem bring an extensive elucidation to the customer experience, encompassing the dimensions of consciousness, subjectivity, and interactional nature and define customer experience as the sum of subjective ideas regarding a product or service that occur at a conscious or subconscious level due to direct or indirect interaction of a customer with brand-related stimuli. Pine and Gilmore described the experience economy as the next level after commodities, goods, and services with memorable events as the final business product. Four realms of experience include esthetic, escapist, entertainment, and educational components. Tavşan and Erdem divided the customer experience into four categories based on the levels of cognitive and physical involvement of customers. These four categories are euphoric experiences, captive experiences, mellowing experiences, and conductive experiences.

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Employer brand is branding and marketing the entirety of the employment experience. It describes an employer's reputation as a place to work, and their employee value proposition, as opposed to the more general corporate brand reputation and value proposition to customers. The term was first used in the early 1990s, and has since become widely adopted by the global management community. Minchington describes employer brand as "the image of your organization as a 'great place to work' in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market. The art and science of employer branding is therefore concerned with the attraction, engagement and retention initiatives targeted at enhancing your company's employer brand."

References

1 2 Jaworowicz, Piotr; Jaworowicz, Magdalena (2016). Event marketing w Zintegrowanej Komunikacji Marketingowej (in Polish). Difin. p. 108. ISBN 978-83-8085-256-3.
1 2 Targosz, Andrzej. "Event marketing - the misunderstanding". eventory.cc. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
1 2 Smith, Kerry (25 April 2016). Experiential Marketing: Secrets, Strategies, and Success Stories from the World's Greatest Brands. John Wiley & Sons. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-119-14587-5.
↑ "Emotion And Memory". psychologistworld.com. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
↑ Jaworowicz, Piotr (2 April 2014). "Event marketing znany i nieznany". Marketing przy Kawie. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
↑ Eriksson, Jessica; Hjälmsson, Anna (24 January 2000). "Event marketing as a promotional tool" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 July 2018.
↑ Kotler, Philip; Keller, Kevin Lane (2012). Marketing. Poznań: Rebis.
↑ Ferrell, David (2013-08-04). "The Conference Industry is Booming, And It Is Only Getting Bigger". Skift. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
↑ Rafalson, Brandon (2 November 2017). "10 Jaw-Dropping Event Marketing Stats That Point to the Future of the Industry". helloendless.com. Retrieved 2018-05-09.
↑ Becker, Braden (13 September 2018). "11 Examples of Experiential Marketing Campaigns That Will Give You Serious Event Envy". HubSpot Blog. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
↑ Brenner, Michael (6 September 2017). "5 Event Marketing Examples We're Still Talking About". Marketing Insider Group. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
↑ Gordon, Kim T. (1 June 2010). "Make Live Events Part of Your Marketing". Entrepreneur.
↑ "Experiential Marketing Content Benchmarking Report" (PDF). 2016.
↑ Creamer, Matthew (21 March 2006). "ARF Reveals Working Definition of Engagement". Advertising Age.