Despite living in a digital age it seems that we just can’t get enough of a free pen. New research from the British Promotional Merchandise Association (bpma) shows that the number one product people in the UK like to take home as a freebie is a promotional pen. However, promotional products are often seen as an afterthought rather than an integral part of a marketing campaign.
In order to encourage companies to recognise the value of promotional products and understand the many ways of improving brand awareness, the bpma is running Promotional Products Week (PPW) from 12-16 September. Now in its fourth year, PPW aims to raise the profile of promotional products and encourage their use within the marketing mix.
According to the bpma’s research, 76% of marketers surveyed will keep a promotional item given to them while 73% of those will go on to purchase from that company. A staggering 83% will even be able to recall a branded product on their desk without having to refer to it. Also, it appears that the best gifts are considered useful in everyday life – such as a branded bag or USB stick – or indeed edible – such as branded sweets, mints or marshmallows.
If you want your brand to be remembered then you might need to think outside the box. Last year, almost £1bn was spent by companies on promotional merchandise with an average spend of £5 per item. Gordon Glenister, Director General of the bmpa, told Eventsforce: “Promotional products are one the most powerful advertising mediums in existence. When a branded giveaway is relevant to the organisation and is useful, recipients will keep it on average for almost three years.” The more unusual items people have received includes plants, ice creams and shoe polish while the more praised items mentioned in the research were retractable phone chargers, desktop fans and travel adapters.
A branded gift is one of the most effective stop mechanisms at exhibitions.
“IT and phone-related gifts are some of the fastest growing premiums, yet the pen and bag still remain the most popular particularly at events. A branded gift is one of the most effective stop mechanisms at exhibitions. The team all wearing colourful shirts with a call to action message creates impact and huge awareness,” Glenister continued.
What promotional products will you be using for your next event? Will you go with a branded reusable silicone tea bag, a pocket mini hangover kit, a light-up pet waste bag dispenser (all of which are surprisingly available online!) or will you be sticking with the tried-and-tested old favourite – a branded pen?
This year, the bpma has teamed up with Pancreatic Cancer UK to raise £10,000 by encouraging companies to promote themselves using a promotional product or garment in a photograph or video, and at the same time. To find out more about PPW visit promotionalproductsweek.co.uk and to donate £3 or more, please visit justgiving.com/bpmapromoteyourselfday
Social media has become a critical tool for the successful promotion and execution of events. Justin Guinn, market researcher at software reviews site, Software Advice, believes that this is largely due to how social today has such a great impact on event awareness and enrollment. It also helps that most event management software options on the market offer various social tools and integrations.
Event managers are catching on to the benefits of social strategies, which explains why 40 percent of businesses are already using social media for event marketing, and 78 percent of event organisers plan to increase their use of social media in the future. But with the rise in social media usage, many event marketers are still falling short in one critical competency: calculating the ROI of their social media strategy.
According to the 2015 Gartner report How to Measure Social Marketing ROI (available for Gartner clients), only around 56 percent of social marketing leaders are calculating an ROI for their social programs. And without proof that their social campaigns are contributing to the success of their events, social marketers will have a hard time making a case for additional resources down the line.
As such, proving an ROI on social marketing should be a priority for event management teams who market on social channels. That’s why we’re listing three tips to help you calculate the ROI of a social marketing for event planning. Follow these guidelines to build buy-in for your social strategy.
1. Track Attendance Driven by Social Engagement Campaigns
There’s no one right answer for how to track event enrollment via social channels. As a general rule, you should be tracking the number of times a visitor lands on your website from a social networking site and also the number of those visitors who convert into customers or attendees.
The most popular tracking method for social traffic to your site is to include UTM tracking codes on your hyperlinks. UTM codes are enabled by Google Analytics and require some knowledge of that platform. Google Analytics training, which Google offers for free, is a good place to start if you’re a UTM/Analytics novice.
The UTM codes themselves are attached to the end of the hyperlinks you include in social posts, and they work as identifiers for Analytics to track various valuable metrics. They offer an invaluable snapshot of traffic driven by each post.
As Michael Stancil of PracticalEcommerce explains: “You may be wondering, ‘Why do I need to know clicks and conversions if the Facebook ad dashboard tells me this?’ That’s a valid question. But with the data provided to you in Facebook’s ad dashboard, you’re only scratching the surface. You won’t see how that traffic actually interacts on your site. And if you’re concerned about other metrics (as you should be) —such as time on site, number of pages viewed and bounce rate—you won’t be able to find them.”
Regardless of how you go about it, accurately tracking the traffic your social campaigns are driving is hugely important. Proper tracking enables you to see just how much traffic each social post is driving, as well as how much money that traffic is generating. Monitoring these various metrics will make it more clear what works and what doesn’t, and enable you to steer your social strategy in the best direction for your business.
2. Recognise the Importance of Engagement and Social Listening
Tracking social-driven traffic and tying it directly to revenue is one of the most tangible ROI calculations you can provide. But there is plenty of other value that engagement on social channels can provide.
One important metric is social listening. Engagement through social listening manifests itself in many ways, but most often takes the form of responding to concerns and complaints launched by customers at your social accounts.
According to an event marketing-focused social media article from The Bizzabo Blog, there was an 800 percent increase in social media complaints about businesses in the U.K. over one year. Likewise, the Guardian reported that one in four social media users in the U.K. used social platforms to voice complaints in the first three months of 2015 alone.
Of course, you never want customers to complain about your business, brand, products, events etc. But there is a silver lining here—recurring complaints can signal trends that need to be addressed.
Even a single complaint has value, in that it organically opens the door for you to engage the customer and respond to their complaint. And if you’re going to respond, be timely about it. The Bizzabo Blog states that 40 percent of customers who complain on social media expect a response within one hour.
Your engagement, whether it’s to offer a solution, recompense or even simply acknowledge the complaint, is a successful social touch point that contributes to the overall customer advocacy of your organisation. In fact, Bizzabo found that when a complaint is answered by a business, it leads to a 25 percent increase in customer advocacy.
3. Leverage Social as a More Efficient Channel of Communication
The third metric for calculating the ROI of social media marketing for your events is the cost savings. Social marketing is incredibly efficient when compared to more traditional marketing channels.
Take, for example, the Kissmetrics Blog’s stat that around 77 percent of event marketers are leveraging social to engage with attendees and build hype and awareness prior to events. How else would that hype have been built, if not through social channels? Emails, phone calls, print campaigns, TV and radio advertisements? These are all lofty investments in terms of additional resources, labour hours and materials involved.
Depending on your business’s size, you could potentially operate your social campaigns and manage customer/attendee questions and complaints through those channels with one dedicated employee.
The greater operational efficiency social offers can go a long way to winning greater buy-in and approval for even more resources from those in charge. Especially if you can turn a minimal-spend social strategy into an actual profit centre for your business. Even if it’s only a percentage of your total revenue, it’s coming at virtually no cost to the business.
Justin Guinn is a Market Researcher at Software Advice, a company that hosts research and reviews of event management and registration software comparisons, and software for small businesses and non-profits. His work has been cited in dozens of notable publications, including The New York Times, Forbes, The Huffington Post and TIME Magazine. His research explores the impacts of emerging software and technologies, and he has conducted primary research with both consumers and business owners to get a full picture of technology’s role in these markets today.
There have been a number of important technology stories over this past month that are of particular interest to our industry – from the incredible projection work at the world’s biggest sporting event, to new developments in the world of wearables, social media and 3D printing. We’ve also come across some really innovative and out-of-this world high tech entertainment ideas for those of you searching for inspiration.
Have a look below at the top event tech stories you don’t want to be missing out on:
The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro came to a close on Sunday and we saw a number of creative applications of event tech both in and around the games. Starting with the opening ceremony, there was some very impressive use of pyrotechnics, lighting and 3D projection – which made the relatively low-budget production look like it had all the money in the world:
What really stood out at the games, however, was the way organisers, sponsors and athletes used technology to engage with their audiences. This article from The Drum puts a particular focus on how Facebook Live played a huge part in delivering real-time, behind-the-scenes looks into the Rio games. According to the company, 277 million unique people had 1.5 billion interactions on the platform throughout the two-week event. The American swimming champion Michael Phelps’ Facebook Live stream came at nearly 4 million views! Other technology highlights at the event included a ceiling installation from Coca-Cola which lit up in gold whenever athletes won a gold medal during the games and a 4-D kayaking virtual reality experience from Samsung.
Last month, a pop-up restaurant where the table, chairs, plates, cups, cutlery and food were all 3D-printed opened in London for three days. The Food Ink menu included fish and chips paste, mock caviar jellies and swirly-shaped chocolate puddings, all precisely and elaborately created by the robotic hand of a 3D printer. Some experts are saying that the next generation of 3D ‘food’ printers will have built-in ovens and microwaves and replace a lot of the steps that chefs currently do manually. One guest at the launch event saw this as the future of restaurants – will it also be the future of catering at events? Have a look at this video and judge for yourself.
So it seems that Snapchat is being marked as the next big thing for events. Typically associated as a messaging tool for the younger generation, many organisations are now considering it as an important platform to promote engagement across much wider demographic groups. We saw it happen at Wimbledon this year, where Snapchat was used to share Live Stories at the tennis tournament. The platform was a success and was also used to create ad spots for sponsors. This infographic from Contently looks at how Snapchat’s older audience is now growing at a rapid pace. In fact, 50% of users are now 25 or older and this segment is growing twice as fast as the under 25s. Not only that, 7 out of 10 users are now millennials. So if you’re targeting them for your events, it may be worth the consideration.
If you still need convincing, we would recommend this read from the Event Manager Blog which looks at why Snapchat is so relevant for live events. It makes a compelling argument on how Snapchat is good in using FOMO to create an addiction. This ‘Fear of Missing Out’ is a very powerful tactic for events. Having a platform that pushes people to watch the content they initially signed up for or forever losing the chance to see it has made Snapchat today second only to Facebook in average time spent on the platform by users. Creative branded images that can be added to Snaps also gives attendees greater context and an opportunity to further engage with your brand or event.
While on the subject of social media, Instagram has announced that it too is going to focus on livestreaming events – along with Facebook, Google and Twitter which have already launched similar functionalities. The new ‘Event’ channel will be personalised for each user and feature videos from concerts, sports games and other live events depending on what’s happening around the world, the kind of live events users are interested in and the type of accounts the user follows.
Any real-life event can become an ‘event’ on Instagram as long as it’s popular enough amongst users and there is enough content to create a channel. It is already available in the US and will soon be deployed worldwide. It will be interesting to see how this evolves across our industry over the coming six months.
Lightwave is a new form of wearable technology for events that debuted at a Pepsi-sponsored music event at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The digital wristbands provide real-time data on audience movement, temperature, and sound levels – information that can be used to create more on-the-spot personalised experiences. At Pepsi’s event, the audio-visual team and DJ used the information to adjust the lighting and song selection to generate more excitement among the crowd. So when organisers noticed the accelerometer readings were not where we they wanted them to be, they dimmed the lights and as a result, people started dancing more.
In addition to the accelerometer that measures the wearer’s movement, the wearable technology also include a microphone that transmits audio levels and a sensor that measures body and ambient temperatures. At the event, a leaderboard displayed various metrics, such as applause levels and the results of a dance-off competition between male and female attendees. At a trade show, it might be used to tell you how people are feeling during a keynote or what talking points are resonating (by measuring applause levels), or what booths people are spending time at.
Entertainment at events is becoming less and less about the entertainment itself and more about the experience it creates for attendees. This story from Event Industry News looks at some innovative entertainment options that integrate technology into their acts. One of them includes a digital magician with an interactive stage show that allows attendees to use their phones as part of the magic trick. Another example is a hologram illusion, which combines hologram technology with a magical performance. Have a look at this incredible video from Hologram illusionist, Hiroki, performing in this year’s series of America’s Got Talent:
Another form of new and emerging tech acts is Out of the Box Video Mapping, which takes 3D video mapping to a whole new level. By combining hand drawn illustrations, music, poetry, acrobatics, dance and physical theatre, you can create a unique multimedia experience that is more fantasy animation than glorified video.
Finally, if this kind of thing sounds interesting for your events and you’re looking for a bit of inspiration, have a look at this news report from CNN which features a very unique and magical light installation in Japan. The work responds to user interaction so people can use their smartphones to release virtual butterflies and walk through a psychedelic body of water. Enjoy!
Whether it’s wearable technology or generous freebies, for further inspiration for how to make your event stand out take a look at our recommended reading below or contact us.
Endlessly monotonous PowerPoint presentations are out, and experiential events are in. With better technology, enhanced creativity, and intelligent strategy, events have become highly engaging experiences. Richard Twamley, creative director at communications agency, drp, believes that with more to do and more to see, there is an opportunity to get involved in interactive activities that bring people and ideas together.
Experiential events, or “engagement marketing” involves a strategy that directly engages consumers, as well as invites and encourages them to participate in the evolution of a brand. Experiential can add an exciting element not only to events, but also to exhibitions, large conferences and road shows. This exciting and diverse approach to events is an experience that delegates want to share and shout about, whether that’s physically loudly with their voices, or loudly online via their social platforms.
So how can technology be used to create an experience at an event?
Below we have listed 3 unique experiential events, and the tech used, which hopefully will ignite ideas and inspire event planners.
1. ‘Internal Engagement’ – Jaguar Land Rover F-PACE Launch Event
To launch their brand new F-PACE, Jaguar land Rover delivered an external PR stunt that involved the F-PACE defy gravity in a Guinness world record-breaking 360 degree loop de loop in Frankfurt Motor Show. The loops were shaped in the numbers ‘8’ and ‘0’ to celebrate their 80th anniversary. The F-PACE successfully completed the loops showcasing its lightweight design, agility, sports car speed and performance.
In line with this momentous F-PACE product launch drp delivered a record breaking internal campaign for Jaguar Land Rover employees. The internal attraction campaign titled – ‘Who’s in the Driving Seat?’ initially focussed on the mystery behind the identity of a heavily disguised driver and started with a pre-reveal film shown at Jaguar Land Rover’s offices and posted onto YouTube.
The campaign’s real impact was delivered by the experiential installation titled ‘You’re in the driving seat’ answering the previous question ‘Who’s in the Driving Seat?’, which demonstrated to the employees that they themselves are the real drivers of the business and the success of the products made. Employees were filmed wearing the racing suit worn by the driver of the loop de loop in Frankfurt, and this was then instantly edited with the original footage so that each employee appeared to be the actual driver of the F-PACE.
The experiential solution allowed employees to feel connected to the product whilst creating a unique activity that would encourage them to share, and ultimately contribute, to overall product marketing activity. ‘Selfie’ installations and digital signage positioned the F-PACE in front of a backdrop displaying the F-Pace logo – employees then stood in front of the car and photos were uploaded to Facebook for them to share. The video installation element combined video technology with installation art – in this case digitally stitching the loop de loop from the Frankfurt with the employees own video inside the F-PACE.
The brief required the campaign to provide a shareable communication solution that delivered a reach of 100,000 people via Facebook. The initial pre-reveal film posted onto YouTube received over 12,000 click-throughs to the embedded post and 400 shares by employees, over 91,000 content appearances and in excess of 100,00 video views. As a result of the launch activation element of the campaign there have been to date over 1 million content appearances, 264,000 individuals reached and 50,000 people have liked, commented and shared the content.
Jaguar Land Rover employees were engaged with a unique experience that was worth sharing with their family and friends. The experiential element was unique for each person, and the employees could share their experiences via social media.
2. ‘Multi-Faceted Experience’ – JCB Global Dealer Event
JCB wanted to bring together their dealers and customers from over 40 countries to exhibit the capabilities of the full JCB product range via demonstrations, which were impossible to replicate in their worldwide dealerships. JCB was keen to ensure all 3200 international delegates, who spoke 14 different languages between them, were ‘wowed’ from the beginning.
The main experiential highlight within a series of programmes running across five weeks saw JCB’s plant machinery at centre stage. By showcasing the staggering capabilities of these vehicles, audiences experienced them first-hand and engaged with the products face-to-face. Cavernous, temporary structures were set up to allow audiences to be within an arm’s length of the stars of the show: dump trucks, excavators and industrial forklifts, scooping, shifting and lifting heavy loads. 28,000 watts of sound cranked up the atmosphere as well as 578 production lights. JCB plant machinery was also pitted against rivals’ nearest models, allowing the audience to fully appreciate JCB’s competitive edge. Hands-on testing made the experience even more immersive, as people felt, saw and heard the quality of the awesome machinery on display.
This first-hand experience enabled worldwide dealers and customers to fully comprehend the capabilities of JCB. Data was gathered before and after the event, measuring delegates’ shift in understanding around key areas of the programme, including perceptions on products and JCB’s support mechanisms. Substantial upward shifts were seen across the board. The success of the event persuaded JCB to add four further rotations for local schools to enjoy a similar experience.
3. ‘Possiblers Campaign’ – drp 35th Anniversary
Last year drp celebrated its 35th Anniversary, and the company launched an integrated campaign to celebrate this milestone and connect with their clients. The event was the opportunity to introduce clients to new areas of the business, find out about the latest developments and ultimately, increase engagement and sales. Hosted at West Midlands Safari Park the event was attended by 950 guests including the drp team, friends and clients. The event consisted of park tours, workshops, a gala dinner, and showcase finale including live production show, choir, fireworks and production to rival a festival.
‘The Possiblers’ were a series of 3D animated characters created as part of the company’s ongoing integrated marketing campaign. These characters, Parker, Olivia, Sinclair, Stella, Iggy, Becca, Lance and Erica each represented one area of the organisation forming an integral part of the entire campaign and the event itself. The first initials of the characters spelled the word ‘possible’, in sync with the drp strapline ‘anything’s possible’.
The many experiential elements of the event gave delegates a chance to experience, learn, and immerse themselves in drp and their services. The digital and interactive activity workshops were run by the multiple drp departments, from digital to design, film & video, print and more. There was the chance to learn how to code, film, edit and create a video, or photoshop your face on a poster with the design team. Delegates could also bring the ‘Possibler’ characters to life by creating their own versions.
drp exceeded their target of attendees, in terms of social, they ran and delivered the most successful and far reaching campaign. They reached a total of 112,687 accounts and hit 265,883 impressions across channels. Alongside this viewership figures reached 991,144 individuals, but conservatively drp only take 25% of this figure which is 247,786 individuals. The anniversary campaign and event proved to be extremely successful with a robust ROI, increased engagement, introducing clients to new areas of the business, from the history to the future of the business.
Overall…
Experiential events don’t have to include the latest gadget, VR headset or AR iPad, all that’s needed are strong aims, marketing objectives, and creative ideas. Jaguar Land Rover simply required their own products a green screen, cameras, editors, and social media. JCB needed production, fireworks, and their own products. drp utilised their departmental teams across all areas of the business, including design, print, video, and event production. Event tech is incredible, however, it’s not the only resort, there are plenty of ways to be experiential and market a brand without it.
Written by Richard Twamley, Creative Director at drp
We all know how important it is to create a feeling of excitement around your events as it makes it easier to convince people why they should attend in the first place. We know that if we do this successfully, people will share their experiences afterwards and come back year after year. And video is a great way of doing this.
Last week, we talked about why online video is one of the most practical uses of your marketing time and budget (Why Video is Becoming a Big Deal for Marketing Your Events – Part 1). In this post, we’ll focus on the key things you need to take into consideration when putting together a video strategy, as well as some creative ideas on how to use videos when promoting your events.
Get Your Video Strategy Right
Start by identifying your target audience(s) and the message you are trying to convey to them. The most common mistake is trying to cram too much in or making it too sales-y. Don’t try to target everyone, otherwise you risk losing them all. Set your key goals and identify how your video content is going to help you reach those objectives. So if you want to attract last year’s attendees, then maybe make them the focus of your video. If you want to attract more delegates from overseas, then focus your content on who they will meet and what they can do in the city you’re hosting your event in. And never end the video with a blank screen – always provide some sort of call to action, whether that’s registration, an offer or links to related material or content.
Make sure your videos are mobile responsive. According to Cisco, mobile video traffic accounted for 55 percent of total mobile data traffic in 2015. This figure will increase 11-fold by 2020, accounting to 75 percent of total mobile data traffic, globally. If you’re targeting millennials, this is even more important as they are three times more likely to watch videos on their mobile devices.
Distribution is another important thing to think about. It used to be enough to make a video, post it on your website and YouTube and that would be the end of it. But these days, you have to think about distribution across different social media sites that can help maximise your reach. Each platform has its own creative constraints and this may mean ‘tailoring’ your content for each site. Facebook, for example, supports any length of video, while Instagram has a limit of one minute. On the other hand, both Facebook and Instagram can play videos silently in the timeline, so you may need to think about adding subtitles to ensure your message comes across. Also, don’t forget to share your video content with other third parties involved in the event so that they can use it for their own marketing and promotional activities.
Finally, don’t forget about tracking metrics. The success of your video campaign can easily be measured – whether it is sent via email, posted on your event web page or on social media. You can track all sorts of meaningful data including the time spent watching the video, time spent on the page, click through rates and the number of viewers who followed through with your intended action.
How to Use Videos Before Your Event
For some practical ideas on how to use video content to promote your event, have a look at the list below:
1.Save-The-Date Videos: This can be a great way of letting people know about your upcoming event and mark it in their calendars. Share the video via email with your delegates, post it on your event website and on social media. Make it fun, short and snappy. The video-sharing service, Vine, is a good tool for this as it allows you to easily record and edit short looping videos.
2.‘Event Highlight’ Videos: If you’ve hosted your event in the past, then you’ve most likely filmed it. Have a look at this one from last year’s Sports Technology Awards. It highlights what happened at their event with plenty of B-roll footage of people chatting and having a laugh. It also includes testimonials from the many different voices and personalities. Use old videos to make totally new videos. Swap out the soundtrack and voiceover, add some new stock footage and you may be surprised with how good it turns out!
3.Video Testimonials: Again, this assumes you’ve hosted the same event in the past. Collate testimonials from different people talking about why the event was valuable for them, including some from your speakers, volunteers and staff. Going back to our earlier millennial stats, almost 70% find video customer testimonials helpful when making a purchasing decision but two in three lose interest when a video is too promotional. So keep it simple and don’t oversell. Focus on your attendees’ experiences and make it fun and personable.
4.Video Conferences: These can be a good crowdsourcing tool to use in the run up to your event to connect with your attendees and do some research on the kind of things they would like to see or experience at your event. A study from Eventsforce found that 62% of event planners use crowdsourcing tools to determine things like agendas and session topics, speakers and dining preferences. Though it may be quicker to do this via registration forms or other crowdsourcing platforms, a face to face informal video discussion with a select group of delegates can create long-term loyalty around your events.
5.Video Ads: This is probably the most popular form of video content used around events. It highlights the key sessions, provides details about your speakers and focuses on what delegates should expect at your event, including things like transport and accommodation. If you are going to feature your organisation, make sure the video presents someone who is actually going to be at the events as it makes the person more approachable on the day.
6.Video Blogs: Make your promotional videos more interesting by producing informal blog-style videos. This can be things like venue tours or a list of the top ten reasons why your event will NOT be a waste of their time. It can be a list of some of the best places to relax at the end of each day or even a list of quirky places they can visit at your event destination. Ask your suppliers and see what they can provide. By focusing on their event and personal experiences, you will establish more trust with your attendees from the start of your campaign. And by having this trust, you are far more likely to get them to read all the other content you send their way.
7.Speaker Videos: Video is also a useful tool to woo your speakers. Show them videos of your last event and speakers. Perhaps send them amusing thank you videos after they’ve accepted your invitation to speak. Give your viewers a ‘sneak-peek’ into your event by creating videos of your speakers talking about things they’ll be covering at the event and the sessions they’re interested in attending themselves. Get them to ask viewers what topics they would like them to cover or ask them a few questions about recent trends that are relevant to your industry today.
Let’s face it. Video is a great tool for marketing your events. It gives your attendees the opportunity to learn more about your event and does a good job of conveying the personality of your organisation. It also is a lot more engaging than text. Forrester Research claims that a minute of video can be equivalent to 1.8 million words1. That, by the way, is the equivalent of 3,600 typical web pages. So if you write an average of one web page an hour, it would take you 150 days of writing to achieve the impact of one minute of video – assuming of course that your content is good in the first place!
It’s true that video content marketing has been gaining a lot of momentum over the last few years. The trend first started with publishers, then marketers and now we’re seeing it become a lot more prominent in the events industry. A poll last month by Eventsforce revealed that 84% of UK and US event planners are using video as part of their marketing strategies to promote their events. In fact, the overall pace at which digital video consumption is growing right now is really quite staggering. By the time we reach 2019, it is said that video will make up around 80% of all consumer Internet traffic globally2. We expect this kind of growth to be reflected across our own industry as organisations increasingly try to find new and creative ways of attracting people to attend their events.
The recent advancement of technology is a big contributing factor to its popularity. Simple animation tools and Smartphones devices are allowing people to produce slick and professional looking videos without the need for the sizeable investment that was required not so long ago. The ease in which videos can be put together and uploaded on traditional platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo has also played a part. So has the recent surge of new video offerings from social media platforms like Facebook and SnapChat that are helping video content go viral – did anyone not see this Chewbaca Mom video last month? It has broken the record as the most-watched Facebook Live video – ever.
The impact of video on your events can really be significant. It can be a great way to generate enthusiasm amongst your attendees and equally present a really good case for those who haven’t yet registered. So if you’re doing it already and doing it well, then you’re on the right track because it will become an integral part of any event marketing campaign over the coming few years. But if you’re still unconvinced and feel that it is something that can take a lot of effort with little gain, then read on.
The Business Case for Video Content
We’ll be looking at the key considerations you need to take before putting together a video strategy, as well as some great ideas on how to use video prior to an event (more on that in our blog next week). Before doing that, however, it is important to look at why online video is one of the most practical uses of your marketing time and budget:
Video more engaging than text – Compared to text, video offers your attendees more of an enjoyable ‘sit back’ experience that promises to be short and interesting. From a psychological point of view, it is said that visual makes up around 90% of all the information our brains pick up and that we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.3 With this in mind, you can see how video can simplify your whole event communications process. It can also help overcome things like language barriers by allowing you to explain things to any number of people anywhere around the world.
Return on Your Investment – Incorporating video into the digital marketing strategy of your event can be a really cost-effective way of reaching your target audience. A study has found that video converts better than other forms of digital content, with 71% of respondents indicating it performs better for them than text and images. The report also found that marketers are seeing very positive engagement rates from using video, with a majority indicating that video is a good vehicle for lead generation4.
Improves Search Engine Optimisation – Video is good for your SEO ranking. Search engines lead people to your event website so the significance of this is quite important. Posting a video on YouTube moves up your search engine rankings due to Google’s high rank for YouTube. Posting a video on your event website will also help it move up the ranking pages – the advantage of this over YouTube of course is that the traffic coming in is likely to stay on your site. On YouTube, you risk attendees getting distracted by other videos instead of following your call to action – whether that’s registration or a sign up to your app. It’s best to use both methods at the same time, but it is recommended to vary your videos if you can.
Expands Your Reach to Millennials – If your events target millennials, then you’ll find this interesting. A recent report from online video maker, Animoto, shows that 50% of millennials will read an email from a company if it includes a video – something worth thinking about when sending out your email invitations. The study states that 76% of millennials follow companies or brands on YouTube and that they are three times more likely to watch a video on their mobile devices. The numbers speak for themselves. If your attendees are millennials, then you can’t afford to ignore video.
Increases Click-Through Rates – People tend to show more interest in an email or website if it contains video. According to one infographic on video marketing trends, using the word ‘video’ in an email subject line can boost open rates by 19%, click-through rates by 65% and reduce unsubscribes by 26%2. When done right, video also has the potential to boost landing page conversions by 80% – so a video on your event site encouraging people to register by promoting an early bird discount can have a significant impact on your numbers.
We’ve been talking a lot about event personalisation over the past few weeks – the idea that you can tailor a delegate’s experience based on what you already know about them. It is seen as one of the top priorities for event planners this year and its uptake is largely due to the use of sophisticated data collection tools – from event registration systems and RFID to online surveys and event apps.
Event planners are using these tools to collect and analyse valuable delegate information to create more powerful and targeted events. But which are the most effective?
Have a look at the infographic below for our top ten list based on the feedback of more than 160 senior event planners – starting from the most popular:
Despite living in a digital age it seems that we just can’t get enough of a free pen. New research from the British Promotional Merchandise Association (bpma) shows that the number one product people in the UK like to take home as a freebie is a promotional pen. However, promotional products are often seen as an afterthought rather than an integral part of a marketing campaign.
If you want your brand to be remembered then you might need to think outside the box. Last year, almost £1bn was spent by companies on promotional merchandise with an average spend of £5 per item. Gordon Glenister, Director General of the bmpa, told Eventsforce: “Promotional products are one the most powerful advertising mediums in existence. When a branded giveaway is relevant to the organisation and is useful, recipients will keep it on average for almost three years.” The more unusual items people have received includes plants, ice creams and shoe polish while the more praised items mentioned in the research were retractable phone chargers, desktop fans and travel adapters.
This year, the bpma has teamed up with Pancreatic Cancer UK to raise £10,000 by encouraging companies to promote themselves using a promotional product or garment in a photograph or video, and at the same time. To find out more about PPW visit promotionalproductsweek.co.uk and to donate £3 or more, please visit justgiving.com/bpmapromoteyourselfday
