Event marketing is an especially powerful way to reach customers, develop relationships, and drive new business. That’s because it’s a type of experiential marketing that closely aligns you to a particular event or cause as well as other brands through event sponsorship. Perhaps the most recognizable format is the sponsorship of sporting events: picture the banners along the fencing at a baseball field or lining the walls of a skating arena. However, some events can be cause driven or industry related, and others are simply meant to position the brand positively. For instance, Ikea partnered with Airbnb to do an event in Sydney that allowed attendees to spend an entire night in the store there, providing food, toys, and live music.
Events Are Targeted.
Specific types of events draw specific types of crowds, so it should be no surprise that that nearly a third of marketers believe that trade shows, conferences, conventions, and other events are essential to doing business with their target markets. What’s more, 58% of marketers in the US use social media to run real-time marketing engagement strategies during events to emphasize and enhance that targeting. This starts by choosing the right kind of event to sponsor of course; if you understand what kind of music your target audience loves, you can sponsor a music festival focused on that genre. As an advertiser, that puts you in front of exactly the right crowd.
Events Help Make Personal Connections.
Did you know brands that can develop a purely emotional attachment with customers that can transcend even loyalty will enjoy a 5% average greater revenue growth, not to mention an 11% profit growth over the S&P 500? Events are an important way to build relationships in a positive and often fun face-to-face context. They humanize your brand in a way that no other marketing can manage. Plus, events provide the opportunity for hands-on trial experiences with your products and services. That lets attendees build personal connections to those as well.
Events Make a Great First Impression.
The simple fact is, you’ll have to work exponentially harder to win over customers after making a bad impression. Considering the fact that you get only a tenth of a second to make a first impression, it’s an incredibly important moment to win. Events do a great deal to contextualize your business, building important associations and atmosphere that predispose attendees to approving of your brand. Assuming that you’ve put together a strong event strategy that includes entertaining engagement (demonstrations, speakers, contests, etc.), and your representatives are friendly and open, a great first impression will go hand in hand with powerful branding at events.
A Quick Note: Creating an Event or Participating in an Existing One.
Obviously creating your own event is going to maximize these benefits for your brand. However, that can be a lot to organize, and your business may not be in a position to do so. That doesn’t mean events are out of the question; quite the opposite is true. By partnering to sponsor existing events being produced by other organizations (for example, Zimmer’s The MAN Show event earlier this year) you can still reap all of these benefits. In fact, when partnering for an event being produced by a media company like Zimmer, you may access a host of other benefits, including boosted marketing.
Event marketing is a powerful way to drive new business. Events can craft a memorable, experiential first impression and build personal connections with a targeted and highly qualified audience. This is certainly true if you start your own event, but partnering to sponsor an existing event is just as powerful. Be sure to review your marketing schedule to determine whether you’re taking full advantage of event marketing opportunities, and of course, don’t be afraid to reach out to Zimmer Radio and Marketing Group to see how we can help.
