Consistently, the Sundance Film Festival plays host to some of the most innovative event marketing campaigns on the planet. This year was no exception.

The festival attracts more than 46,000 visitors every year and reaches more than 400 million people worldwide. The Sundance Institute, which runs the festival, allows sponsors to occupy designated suites and either interact with guests or showcase products. This year, no less than 10 “Official Venues” maintained a presence at the festival. Below, are three that stood out among the rest:

This year, Ray Ban stepped up its sponsorship activities by not only sponsoring the Visionary Award event (which went to Ewan McGregor) but also engaging consumers on the street. Street teams engaged festival-goers and Park City locals with postcard invitations encouraging them to visit one of three branded “Confession Booths” where they could play Truth or Dare. At the booths, consumers could jump inside, put on a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses and answer Truth or Dare-style questions in a 15– to 30-second video that would be uploaded to ray-ban.com. Booth visitors received a photo strip with six photos and a code directing them to the site to check out the video. Further, ten Ray Ban branded taxis patrolled the streets equipped with cameras and offered free rides, plus another shot at entering the contest to anyone willing to play truth or dare on camera.

Microsoft filled a house with cutting edge digital video equipment and opened the venue to the public. Each day, The Microsoft House allowed visitors to see how HDi is transforming the way we watch and make movies. See for yourself the full capability of high definition video and audio, and the advanced viewing features and interactive capabilities of HDi.

Fred Segal stood out from all the other storefronts offering free gifts to the celebrities by providing their most sought after items (including Kerastase hair care products) in abundance. Everyone from Tara Reid to Tom Anderson of Myspace stopped by the store’s location on Main Street to pick up the gifts and the initiative was hailed as the best in recent memory.

Pop up shops are about surprising consumers with temporary ‘performances.’ In effect, retailers guarantee exclusivity of products because of the limited timespan in which they are available. Retailers from Brazilian cosmetics firm Oceanic to low end chic retailer Target have opened such shops across the world targeting their own specific markets.

Oceanic didn’t have the funds to build a brick and mortar storefront but wanted to have a real world presence for it’s business. As such, they decided to go mobile, equipping most of their franchisees with Fiat Doblo minivans, which are both delivery vehicles AND shops. These mobile stores make it easy to target prime consumer locations such as universities, schools, hospitals, parks, and trade shows. Not to mention customization: the mobile store’s inventory can be customized for different locations (i.e. if a frachisee parks near a beach, he or she’d better stock up on sunscreen and suntan lotions!).

Target, on the other hand, wanted to promote the launch of Isaac Mizrahi’s new womens clothing line with the franchise. To do so they opened up a temporary 1500 sq. feet store in Rockefeller Center to celebrate Mizrahi’s stylish new looks. The glossy store was open from 4 September to 15 October 2003 only. Further, last year, Target actually housed a temporary floating store on the Hudson River for the Christmas season.

Present a different approach to event marketing by employing experience as a way for brands to communicate their key message. Also, create an environment that truly encapsulates what it means to transform a space into an experiential marketing module.

Solution:

Immerse event attendees in the determining factors that make event marketing successful. Wall banners, sound and smell effects, and creative lighting transformed the show hall into a truly immersive experience.

World Outreach Church was launching a new building
campaign. They wanted to be able to imagine what it
would be like to worship in the new space.

SOLUTION:

A complex system of cables and outdoor-fabric panels,
suspended from the trees transformed the wooded
area into an outdoor sanctuary.

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, there are 136,000 hotel rooms and 9.7 million square feet of meet and exhibit space in the city of Las Vegas. With so much space in such a small area, chances are that you will be shipping your custom designed exhibit there at some point in the future. The LVCVA claims there have been over 15,000 conventions and 4.5 million attendees in 2008 alone. Has that been you already this year?

There are plenty of references on the web that help you maximize your time in Vegas during the trade show. Vegas.com has information about the city itself, travel to and from, transportation within the city, as well as a comprehensive list of evening entertainment. There is also a handy FAQ regarding trade shows and conventions in Vegas. And by now I’m sure you all know, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Except your trade show booth.

Voiceover:

Welcome to Experiential Marketing Today.

[music]

Todd Austin:

Welcome to this episode of Experiential Marketing Today. This show is about the theory and practice of using experiences to engage audiences with the authentic nature of a brand or company. We believe that it may be the most powerful tool marketers have, but it’s also some thing of a mystery.

My name is Todd Austin and I will be your host for this episode.

Episode 8: Interview with Robyn Waters.

The 2008 Event Marketing Innovation Tour recently made a stop at Nashville, which was the 6th of nine cities on the tour. The Event Marketing Innovation Tour pulls together the latest ideas and best practices in event and experiential marketing for a half-day seminar. This year’s keynote presenter for all nine stops on the tour was Robyn Waters.

Robyn is the former Vice President of Trend, Design, and Product Development for Target. She is the author of two books: The Trendmaster’s Guide: Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next,  and The Hummer and the Mini: Navigating The Contradictions of The New Trend Landscape.

She is also a contributing author (along with Tom Peters, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell) for The Big Moo. We caught up with Robyn about an hour before her presentation. The following interview took place in the hall where she was about to speak.

Todd Austin:

So, Robyn, this concept of design has followed you around like a puppy. Guys like Seth Godin and Daniel Pink either talk about you by name in their books or they talk about the work that you did at Target. How has design become so important, how did we get here?

Robyn Waters:

Well, I can give you a little bit of a background. When I came to Target in 1992, it was a $3 billion retailer discounter, it was an also ran. Wal-Mart was 10 times bigger; K-Mart was three times bigger. We had a very visionary CEO, who looked at the numbers and said, you know, there is no way we can win on scale, economies of scale, cutting expenses, we need to truly differentiate.

And so what he did was, innovate, reframe a unique space in the retail landscape between a discounter and between a high-end department store. Therefore Target covered out the space: upscale discounter. In order to achieve that, for a discounter to go into the market to buy goods, the goods that were out there weren’t trend right, they weren’t well designed, they weren’t great quality, so we had to do it a different way.

And what we ended up doing is creating an internal design department, so that we would have exclusive design-driven trend-right product. People often ask me what is the secret to success, what made Target “Tarzhay?” And there are three things. It’s the idea that the company wanted to borrow on their department store heritage and be trend right. Notice I didn’t say trend forward, but trend right.

The second is they were going to be guest focused and guest is in the tradition of Disney. So, trend right means what are the trends, research them out there, but then translate them, translate is the key effectively for the guest, but design was a secret sauce. Design was the tool that we used internally to create exclusive product, based on that trend research, based on knowing our guests and tracking the trends around the world and then translating them effectively.

And so, we became really the first bastion in the US for what people now call democratic design or cheap chic. And we had people whose models we can follow, IKEA was doing at in the Scandinavian countries. So we didn’t innovate that whole idea, but we applied it to retail for the first time.

And so as the head of the design department trying to design, I literally hired the first designer and hired the 100th designer and there has been many more hired since then. So, that was a 10-year period, three billion to 42 billion in 10 years, Target to “Targe” in 10 years because of great design.

Todd:

What are some examples of some of those products that came out of that design focus?

Robyn:

There is a story about a sippy cup. It was designed by Philippe Starck. It was one of 5p products in a Starck reality design program. Unlike any other sippy cup you’ve ever seen, it was on a pedestal, it was made out of clear plastic to look like cut crystal and it had loving cup handles and it retailed for $3.49.

When the buyers first saw this prototype proposed design that Philippe Starck recommended, they looked at it and they go, no way, it’s not what a sippy cup looks like, you know, why would you put it on a pedestal, whatever. And what Philippe Starck did was demonstrated that good design is about more than function.

He filled it full of grape juice and he tipped it over and nothing spilled. So he said see it’s functional, it works. It’s functional, it’s inexpensive, we can retail this for $3.49, but that’s not why you should buy this design. And he took out a picture of his daughter, he had a little daughter who is two years old and he said here is why you should buy the sippy cup.

And what he was saying was that this little girl, whoever used this sippy cup should feel like a princess when she drank from her sippy cup, just like mom and dad did when they drank their Veuve Clicquot Champagne from a cut-crystal Waterford champagne flute.

So it wasn’t about the cup or even the design of the cup, it was how that design made that little girl feel and that is the essence of design with heart. So that was one product out of thousands in the years that I was there.

There was a very famous toilet brush cleaner from Michael Graves that made a full color spread in “Time Magazine.” We had a Coach’s Whistle Teakettle from Michael Graves that retailed for 24.99 that was in every hot design magazine around the country. So it was everything from garage storage and organization to kitchen towels, to bedding, to dorm room supplies, even food. There wasn’t an aspect within Target that the design strategy wasn’t applied in order to create more design-oriented products.

And it is the whole essence of their brand promise: expect more, pay less. You could expect more trend, more design, more quality, more fashion. Then you pay less for it, but not just less for it than if you were buying at another discount, but you could get the same thing, the gold plated charger plate at Target for half what you pay at Crate and Barrel and it was made in the same factory. So that was a big part of the success.

Todd:

You are the keynote speaker at all nine tour stops for the Event Marketing Innovation Tour. This will be sixth of those I believe that you are about to do today, what is the connection between design and event marketing?

Robyn:

I am presenting a talk called “Design with Heart” and I found so many great ideas and so many examples of great design with heart in each of the six cities that I visited. And by that I mean, there is a personal, emotional connection to the audience, to the clients with me as the guest speaker and I have seen tremendous differentiation.

There has been a consistency of the quality of the event, very high quality, beautifully designed, but every one is different. And it is really kind of a paradox, they are alike but they are different. And each one is different because they take the heart and soul of the essence of who their employees are, what their mission is, who their clients are and they have applied them beautifully.

I have been in a 16th century church in the middle of a farm field in Philadelphia. I am here at the Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. I have been at production sites and warehouses that have been turned into beautiful… I have danced with a robot. It has been a really great amazing visual interaction of great design turned into a great experience. It is designing a wonderful experience by using the emotional principles connecting.

Todd:

If you were to give us a state of the union of how far we have come in event design, what would the short answer to that question be?

Robyn:

I think phenomenal. And I think that there is so much an industry can do to the industry at large out there, because I go and I speak at a lot of events. Many of them are same old same-old. They are interactive, they are just someone on a stage presenting.

And what I have seen are so many great techniques and ideas to involve the audience, to get them to participate, to interact with them that there is just so much possibility for an industry and companies like this to deliver that out to the bigger picture. So it is just been outstanding.

Todd:

Robyn, if folks would like to find out more about your work, find out more about the books you have written and the research you have done, how would they do that?

Robyn:

I have a website, it is www.rwtrend.com. I’d like to say that I have a free monthly newsletter called Trend Counter Trend and if you click on “Robyn’s Newsletter, ” you can hear from me once a month.

Todd:

Sounds great, thanks for your time.

Robyn:

Thank you very much.

[music]

Todd:

We hope you enjoyed that brief interview. The content Robyn gave us in that interview was a preview of what she covered in her full presentation and it is our intent to give you that full presentation as the next episode of Experiential Marketing Today.

In the meantime, we have posted links to some specific resources related to Robyn and to the Event Marketing Innovation Tour on our website. You can find those listed under Episode eight at www.experientialmarketingtoday.com.

And as always, we appreciate your input and feedback. On that same website, there is a tool for posting your comments or you can send us an email using the address feedback@experientialmarketingtoday.com or you can call our voice comment line and leave a message. That number is area code 615–690-6796. We look forward to sharing Robyn’s presentation with you in the next episode and we hope you will join us.

Voiceover:

Thanks for listening to Experiential Marketing Today.

[music]

Support ways to reduce carbon dioxide output.
You can buy carbon credits from producers who use alternative energy.  You can also do something so simple as encouraging living things that process carbon dioxide into oxygen.  This is also known as planting trees, or taking care of trees.

Check your office and event buildings.
Most energy companies will come out and do an audit for you.  This lets you know where energy is being wasted.  Whether is an ancient furnace or big windows, this company will give you the way to reduce losing that energy.

Encourage green commuting.
If the event that you are planning involves a lot of people commuting, then set up a shuttle system around the city so that people can just hop onto a shuttle.  Set up a map of where your employees live and encourage carpooling to work at least once a week.  Instead of driving somewhere to lunch, walk to the closest sandwich place.  One of the great things about SXSW is the proximity in which the event occurs.  Instead of setting up huge stages in Austin city parks, it is actually set up in music venues all around the downtown metro area.  And because of the way Austin is set up, a lot of the music venues are right next door to one another.

Keep an eye on paper consumption.
Try to keep paper handouts to a minimum.  One way is only print out exactly what you need.  At the Austin City Limits Festival that in September, they only printed enough schedules for attendees.  When people register for an event, give them a paperless option.  Would they rather have a brochure e-mailed to them as a .pdf that they can store on a mobile handheld device or something in their hand?  Have recycle bins specifically for paper.  SXSW recycles all of the waste that comes from their event, they are able to recycle it all because they only provide items that are able to be recycled!

By making a commitment to being eco-friendly during your event, you can show how easy and practical it is to be a company that takes care of the environment.

Major events are notoriously eco–unfriendly affairs.  Here is some inspiration from Jack Johnson to green up your events.

Singer-songwriter, Jack Johnson, was reared with a surfboard under his arm and sand between his toes on the paradisiacal North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.  While most of us are lucky just to have a backyard, his backyard was the world’s most famous wave, Banzai Pipeline.  When the waves turned into enormous crashing monstrosities they would rattle his bedroom windows at night while he dreamed of becoming a professional surfer.  No doubt, a childhood spent in intimate communion with nature’s own playground has inspired his zeal for protecting the environment.

When not wearing board shorts he is wearing a t-shirt and jeans and rarely incarcerates his feet within shoes’ restrictive confines.  His mannerisms are relaxed.  And his humility is accentuated by his unassuming nature and complimented by his laid-back demeanor.  But don’t let his chilled-out surfer dude persona fool you.  He is motivated.  The pro surfing gig didn’t work out and now, at age 33, he is a multi-platinum selling mega-star who has sold millions of albums.  He has turned his boundless passion and knack for success towards reducing his impact on the environment.  And that’s a daunting mission for a singer on tour.  “We started doing shows in 1998, first in clubs, then in theaters, then in amphitheaters.  And one day, you look around, and you realize there are trucks and buses and the tour has a pretty large carbon footprint” (Fast Company).

Music industry events are notoriously high impact affairs.  Huge, grumbling trucks and tour buses guzzle gas and spew pollutants as they roar from city to city. Masses of fans drive from miles away to stand in long lines for food and drinks that are also shipped in from far away, produced wastefully, and wrapped in plastic containers, great heaping mountains of which will be around for their great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren.  And its not just music industry events: business events, festivals, fund raisers, rallies, and trade shows are all traditionally big wasters.  Jack Johnson is trying to change that in several profound ways.  Importantly, his efforts help create and support the emerging green market which creates more options and opportunities for other companies.  Here are some of the things he is doing:

Green Band Actions on Tour:

• Providing on-site water stations, waste management, and recycling services.
• Utilizing reusable water bottles that can be refilled on-site.
• Fueling tour vehicles and/or generators with sustainable biodiesel
• Offering eco-friendly tour merchandise
• Selecting environmentally-conscious travel and hotel options.
• Procuring locally grown and organic foods for backstage catering
• Offsetting all remaining CO2 emissions from the tour and for each night’s show using a unique CO2 Offset Strategy.
• Encouraging fans to join in

For the Fans:

• There is a CO2 offset purchase option when you purchase your tickets.
• They can Explore videos by local non-profits on the All At Once site and Jack Johnson will donate $1 per view to those organizations through his new charity, the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation.
• All At Once Volunteer Calendar: to help fans get involved.
• The Village Green located at the show offers a forum for non profits.
• Usually there’s VIP parking for carpools and hybrid vehicles.
• Donations to the local non-profits at the show and online will be matched by Jack’s new charity (up to $2,500 US dollars).

(for the complete list visit http://www.jackjohnsonmusic.com/home )

Notably, he is using his fame as a platform and his show as a forum to encourage and educate his fans to be more eco-friendly.  And it certainly doesn’t hurt brand Jack Johnson.  He gains respect, credibility, and free press (like this article) through his environmentally responsible behavior.

Mellow tones and upbeat beats flow from his guitar like the rhythm of rolling waves crashing on the North Shore beaches he calls home.  His voice is smooth and inviting as glassy face of impossibly blue 6 foot waves that march in orderly lines towards right-hand point breaks.  His environmentally responsible actions benefit the nature he loves and are a great inspiration and guide to event organizers, providers, marketers, and exhibitors who are looking to reduce their environmental impact and make their events green.

RELATED ARTICLES

Swell Guy — Outside Magazine

Green Grow the Rockers — Fast Company

Backstage with Green Rocker Jack Johnson — Focus Earth

Artist Biography — Billboard.com

ADVENT GREEN EVENT ADVICE

Green Display Booth — Teresa Drozak

10 Tips For an Eco-Friendly Trade Show — Bill Taylor

Advent leads from the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling events with the power of brand.  Advent is committed to social and environmental responsibility.  For more, check out Advent’s GREENmark or go to www.adventresults.com.

Damocles was a flattering courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse during the 4^th century BC. His story can help shed some light on a recent study conducted by the Event Marketing Institute concerning “The Power of Positive Experience.”  One day Damocles exclaimed to Dionysius how marvelous it must be to enjoy the status of king and experience all his power and wealth.  Graciously, Dionysius offered to trade places for a day so that he might understand his fortune.  That night at the banquet Damocles enjoyed himself immensely and was even waited on by Dionysius.  Only at the end of the meal did he look up to see a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head and dangling precariously by only a thin horse hair.  Immediately he lost his appetite for food and drink as well as his desire for the king’s power and wealth.  You can imagine him shaking and quivering in his seat.  Dionysius successfully conveyed the precarious nature of holding power.  Events are powerful.  And (at the risk of confusing metaphors) they are double edged swords.

“It’s good to be king.” –Mel Brooks as Louis XVI, History of the World, Part I

If you are the king of marketing events then life is good.  A study conducted by the Event Marketing Institute found that an astounding 98% of attendees will recommend you after a positive experience. Over half will tell at least 4 people.  This kind of power gives your message wings to fly far beyond the event.  The wings will fan the flames of word-of-mouth and help it spread like fire, far beyond the initial spark.

There’s a but…

If you are thinking about conducting an event: not so fast.  You better plan for it.  The same study reports that 95% will trash your brand after a negative experience and a further 62% will tell at least 4 people.  Approach events with the knowledge that Damocles’ sword is hanging over your head.  Know that bad event is worse than no event.  Events are risky if you do not plan for them.  Eliminate the risk by taking your events seriously and taking your marketing strategy to the next level.

Advent leads from the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling brands with the explosive power of experiences.  Advent creates an emotional bond with audiences by leveraging the unrivaled effectiveness of experiential marketing through targeted events, engaging exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strategies mark Advent’s creative advantage and have helped rapidly expanding brands communicate messages that gain immediate and lasting resonance with consumers.  For more visit adventresults.com.

Needs:

• Create a unique, fun, and upscale VIP event with an air of exclusivity
• Immerse attendees in a relevant and memorable environment
• Stimulate an emotionally significant response related to the brand
• Design an engaging atmosphere conducive to social networking with C level executives
• Produce a subtly branded interactive physical environment
• Promote awareness of the Healthways-Gallup partnership while remaining light on content

Solutions:

Physical Environment

• Projected enormous black and white still photos from classic movies in several locations including the showcase courtyard space
• Produced sheer,lightly printed banners to drape around windows and provide subtle branding
• Provided high-profile red carpet entrance and impact walkway lighting
• Collaborated with existing local vendors on and off-site in the production phase

Social Environment

• Strategically designated spaces with different tempos, noise levels, and visibility to increase comfort and promote both large group interaction and private conversation
• Incorporated interactive keypads to engage attendees with movie trivia and polling questions
• Discovered celebrity look-a-likes as novel brand ambassadors to engage attendees by plucking various film legends from the projection screens and placing them in conversation with the audience
• Caricature artist to sketch attendees and provide a memorable way for attendees to take the event home with them

Whether you are a sponsor of the holiday 5k, a benefit walk or an outdoor craft/music fair or planning a huge company picnic, there are lots of great messaging options. Don’t leave impression to chance or wait till the day before to get ready. Your impact can be much more memorable! Check out these 5 outdoor event strategies and decide which fit the look and function you need:

• PREPARE THE WAY Identify designated areas, provide wayfinding, advertise a special promotion with A-frame Signs, banners, or even luminaries at night.
• GO VERTICAL Teardrop-, block– or feather-shaped graphics flags make a visual vertical impact above the crowds.  Going tall provides high impact messaging from a distance.  Its easy to find products ranging from 6′-20′.    Don’t be intimidated.  Most options are easy to set up.  You can choose a spike for placement in the grass or a cross base for use on paved ground.
• BLOW IT UP Frame the entrance to your special event with inflatable arches or use an air dancer to help drive traffic to the featured attraction.
• COMMUNICATE Outdoor X Stands are a great way to increase your touch points and advertise a special product, promotion or upcoming event. The base holds water or sand to keep it stable no matter the weather.
• BRAND SPACE Create a branded space to build relationships and hand out promotional material or products with portable aluminum tents.

With some advance planning, your event can leave a last lasting impression on all those who attend, one that builds brand equity and loyalty.

RELATED

Special Events Magazine: Tents

Bannerstands

Event Design Magzine: Blowing Up

Advent leads at the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling brands with the explosive power of experiences.  Advent creates an emotional bond with audiences by leveraging the unrivaled effectiveness of experiential marketing through targeted events, engaging exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strategies mark Advent’s creative advantage and have helped rapidly expanding brands communicate messages that gain immediate and lasting resonance with consumers.  For more visit www.adventresults.com.

Recent studies from our scholarly brethren in the realm of academia point out that in order to maximize your influence over consumer behavior events must provide a high level of challenge that is matched with appropriate level of skill by the consumer.

True experiential marketing occurs when a consumer is immersed in the experience and there is a resulting ‘state of flow’ between the stimulus and the consumer.

Know your audience.  A push-up contest at the local DAR gala may cause angst and bewilderment among its well-dressed, well-bred attendees.  But an Army sponsored push-up contest for area football teams would get more heated than two-a-days in August.

The more emotionally, rationally, and physically engaging the experience, the more meaningful and memorable it will be to consumers.  Immerse your audience by challenging them in appropriate and relevant ways.

Related Studies

Viral Events: Create Word of Mouth Buzz

Event Marketing: Measuring an experience? Emma H. Wood and Guy Masterman

An Exploration of the use of ‘Extraordinary’ Experiences in Wine Tourism

Events are effective.  Time and again studies have shown that face-to-face interaction is the most believable, authentic, and memorable form of contact with consumers.  Our company recently conducted a snazzy event to introduce the partnership of two major corporations.  Every job brings its surprises and opportunities to learn how to optimize your investment.  Here is a story that will illuminate the two lessons I took from our most recent event.

A red carpet stretched down a long candlelit hallway that emerged into a courtyard filled with cool summer night air and the sound of a jazz trio playing in the open air art gallery.  The waitresses were dressed in black and white; they bustled about offering an array of market fresh delicacies.  Strings of lights hung from the high crumbly redbrick ivy covered walls and sparkled like glitter as they reflected on the polished glasses that were filled with local California spirits.  Company logos were lightly printed on sheer fabric that draped softly over open windows.  Executives from all over the country laughed and mingled below a two story slide show of still photos taken from classic movies that were projected against the far wall.  The environment created an aesthetically delightful experience.

An executive from the hosting company walked up to me during the event and brashly pointed out, “Well, looks like were at about 1,000 dollars a head.”  No doubt, this was more than he had intended.  He had quickly derived this figure by dividing the budget by the attendance which was lower than he had expected.  I was taken aback.  Despite our advice, he had not given us the reigns to optimize their pre-event strategy.  Here we find the first lesson.  It does not matter how dazzlingly incredible the event if nobody shows up. 

As these frustrations raced through my head, he added in the same breath, “But, [John] just spent fifteen minutes talking with the president of [Acme Corporation] and it was all worth it.”  He smiled.  “Wow!” I thought.  He spent all that money and it was worth it for one conversation.  This comment illustrates our second point.  Nothing takes the place of face-to-face.  Do not underestimate the emotional connection and loyalty that develops towards a brand or individual as a result of personal interaction.  In the blindingly fast pace of modern business fortunes and fates are sealed by the minutest margins.  One chance with the right person, in the right environment, at the right time can make all difference.

The fact that the event was a success despite poor attendance speaks to the effectiveness of event based marketing and investing in face-to-face contact as a primary touch point with your audience.  But, think how much more impact they could have had if they had invested in their pre-event planning strategy!

Avoid the same mistake.  Here are some pre-event planning tips:

• Target your audience — If a thousand Jamaicans show up to your bobsled sales event you probably have made a bad investment.
• Start early — Send out mailers early to build anticipation.
• Personalize - If you are like me you probably throw away half the things that don’t look like they contain a birthday card and $5 from Grandma. 
• VIP — The more exclusive your event, the more likely people are to attend.
• Incentives — Make a call to action.  Offer small gifts for each RSVP and rewards for attendance.
• Deadlines - Create deadlines for offers and RSVPs to create a sense of urgency. 

Advent leads from the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling brands with the explosive power of experiences.  Advent creates an emotional bond with audiences by leveraging the unrivaled effectiveness of experiential marketing through targeted events, engaging exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strategies mark Advent’s creative advantage and have helped rapidly expanding brands communicate messages that gain immediate and lasting resonance with consumers.  For more check out www.adventresults.com.

The Next Big Thing

What’s Hot?  For one, the sweltering hazy July heat that pours from a scorching Southern sun to bake the thick, chokingly soupy air that simmers like thick gravy over the sticky black asphalt around Nashville.  But soon the long days will melt themselves away and relent to quick crisp days of October, cool nights, and warm fiery bright foliage around Vanderbilt and Green Hills.  As temperatures cool off in Tennessee, the 2008 Event Marketing Innovation Tour will be heating up.

On October 9, 2008, style guru and virtual trend thermometer, Robyn Waters, stops in Nashville to tell us what’s hot in experiential marketing.  She will turn your world upside down (see picture above) as we take a look at how to gauge fluid and often contradictory marketplace trends.  As keynote speaker, she will take listeners on an insightful tour into the macro marketplace and into the minds of consumers.  She challenges attendees to focus not just on “what’s next” but “what’s important” by looking at new ideas and products from ‘the inside out.’

The world of experiential, face-to-face, event marketing is growing rapidly as over 75% of companies plan to increase their efforts in 2008.  Traditional media advertising is losing out to high impact experiential events.

Robyn is a veteran in the field of tracking and translating trends into sales and profit with over thirty years experience.  She is former VP of Trend, Design, and Product Development for Target and helped turn the small regional discount chain into a national fashion hot spot.

She is also Author of several books including the acclaimed, The Hummer and the Mini, which examines contradictions in the marketplace and encourages companies to approach them as opportunities.

The first 100 registered attendees will receive a free copy of Robyn’s book, The Hummer and the Mini. Register now to get yours!

This event is hosted by Advent and the American Display Aliance.  Advent thrives at the forefront of the cutting edge modern marketing industry by fueling brands with the explosive power of experiences.  Advent creates an emotional bond with audiences by leveraging the unrivaled effectiveness of experiential marketing through targeted events, engaging exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strategies mark Advent’s creative advantage and have helped rapidly expanding brands communicate messages that gain immediate and lasting resonance with consumers.  For more check out www.adventresults.com.

This year’s keynote presenter is Robyn Waters. Robyn was the Vice President of Trend, Design and Product Development for Target. She is the author or co-author of three books on marketing: The Trendmaster’s Guide: Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next, The Hummer and the Mini: Navigating the Contradictions of the New Trend Landscape, and a contributing author (along with Tom Peters, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell) for The Big Moo.

The half-day event will showcase the latest trends and tools for effective event marketing. More details coming soon.

You can register for the event on the Event Marketing Innovation Tour site.

We’ll see you there!

A recent poll released by the Event Marketing Institute displays the significant viral impact created by events.  Like concentric rings in a pond, the energy from your event spreads beyond the initial splash.   

An article released in The Earth Times reports that the survey which included over 1,100 individuals found that: (Read the article) 

–  78% of attendees told friends and family about the event; 90% of them did so within two days of the event, and 69% mentioned the sponsor of the event;

–  Nearly 50% of event participants purchased sponsoring products (especially food & drink);

–  98% of those exposed to a product will recommend that product to others after a positive experience.

The significance of these statistics are magnified in light of studies like those highlighted in a recent emarketer.com article (Read the article).  Findings by Gfk Roper, DoubleClick, and Nielson all identify personal recommendations as the most trusted source of information about a product or service.  Word of Mouth is the number one influencer of consumers’ purchasing decisions.  It is key.  But you can’t go looking under the couch cushions for this key. 

Word of mouth phenomenon is a fickle elusive white stagg for marketers worldwide.  But Marketers seem to be getting the idea.  Laura Ramos of Forrester Research points to a survey of 238 b-to-b marketers and asked how their spending plans would change in 2008.  Fifty-four percent said they would spend more on events and seminars (Read the article).  This seems to be a widespread trend that is gaining momentum as businesses realize the potential of creating a viral word of mouth buzz through targeted events. 

by Bill Taylor

Advent thrives at the forefront of the cutting edge experiential marketing industry and for 20 years has helped rapidly growing companies communicate the essence of their brand and vision by creating engaging events, environments, and exhibits.  Based in Nashville, Tennesse, the company is a creative industry leader with Fortune 500 clients like VF Corp and Mars, International. For more information, visit www.adventresults.com.

Needs:

• Achieve intimate setting with VIP clients
• Attract and impress these guests attending the annual conference
• Communicate the importance and uniqueness of the way Healthways delivers Healthcare solutions

Solutions:

• Invitation-only event, held at the Smithsonian, extended to a small number of executives
• Theme “Hope Delivered” highlighted Healthway’s unique delivery system for healthcare
• Made comparison to the unique way Harry Winston originally delivered the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian