Event planners organize everything from intimate comedy performances to sprawling music festivals. No matter the type of event, all planners share a few common goals: attracting the maximum possible number of attendees, and exciting and satisfying your guests. And, of course, you want your event to repay your financial investment.
Achieving these essential goals requires effective event planning strategies. The proper branding and promotional methods can build hype for your event and attract new attendees, while ineffective branding can leave potential guests confused or disinterested. Fortunately, there are many simple methods and tools that you can use to develop and promote your brand. Our top tips for event branding will help you spread the word about your next event.
What Makes Event Branding Important For Giving Meaning
“Event brand” is a marketing term that encompasses all of the ways that an organization presents its identity and values to the public. Your brand influences potential attendees’ perception of your event and willingness to participate.
Common event brand elements include:
- Business logos
- Company colors
- Event website
- Font
- Merchandise like tank tops and wristbands
- Promotional materials
- Social media presence
- Sponsors
- Swag bags
- Tone
For example, you may organize an autumn festival with an event brand that emphasizes family friendliness and inclusivity. You can reinforce this brand by including images of happy families in your promotional materials and offering child-friendly activities. By contrast, an adults-only beer festival will likely have a very different event brand. For example, this function may take place at night and include mature events like beer-drinking contests.
Why is it important to brand your event? This strategy offers many advantages for attendees and organizations, including:
- Attracting potential sponsors
- Developing a recognizable identity in your field
- Improving the chance that attendees will remember your organization and return for your next event
- Increasing the likelihood that attendees will purchase your merchandise as a souvenir of their experience
- Making your event appear professional and well-organized
- Providing attendees with a more memorable experience
- Receiving additional promotion when attendees post images with your brand
Establishing an event brand early in your planning can create a cohesive experience for your guests and build a devoted following for future functions.
7 Strategies For Creating Hype Around Your Event
Creating an event brand requires care and effort, but this process doesn’t have to be challenging or stressful. Here are seven practical event branding ideas you can use to develop a cohesive promotional plan.
Design Appealing Visual Branding Elements For Your Event
An eye-catching visual design intrigues viewers and makes your event brand instantly recognizable. You should focus on creating appealing visual branding, especially when advertising your event through channels requiring quick audience engagement. A visually striking billboard or Instagram post will grab the viewer’s attention, while your audience will likely overlook an uninspired or incoherent design.
When designing your event brand, consider these best practices for advertising and digital branding:
- Diversify your marketing by creating a visually similar series of advertisements and branded materials, like banners and Facebook posts
- Ensure that your event brand colors don’t clash and that color-blind or visually impaired people can easily see them
- Include a call to action, like purchasing tickets or visiting your website to learn more
- Keep text accessible and simple
- Pay attention to the recommended image sizing for social media posts
- Select interesting, high-resolution photos instead of stock images
- Use animated gifs or short videos to engage the viewer
Is visual design not your strongest suit? Outsourcing this event branding step to a graphic designer can help you take your marketing to the next level.
Generate Excitement With a Taste of What Event Attendees Can Expect
You can build hype before your event by using your branding to give potential attendees a taste of the experiences your event will offer. Effective ways to generate excitement include:
- Advertising special perks for VIP attendees, like early access to the event or an exclusive lounge
- Holding contests to give away free tickets or branded merchandise
- Partnering with sponsors and producing marketing materials about their contributions, like discounted products or special giveaways
- Promoting a surprise bonus that will occur during your event
- Spotlighting some of the activities, lessons, or performers that participants will experience during your event
- Using behind-the-scenes photographs and short videos to give your social media followers a sneak peek of your event
These strategies will help you advertise your event brand and inspire your audience to feel positive emotions like anticipation and curiosity.
Maintain Consistency in Your Branding Efforts
Consistency is the key to successful event branding. You can create a coherent and recognizable brand identity by using the same design elements across your digital branding, merchandise, and website. For instance, you can include the same font style and logo in social media posts and T-shirt designs.
Maintaining brand consistency offers many benefits, such as:
- Creating trust with attendees
- Distinguishing your event from similar functions
- Helping people recognize your brand across platforms
- Making your brand personality more memorable
- Retaining your audience over time
Post to Social Media Channels With Target Audience In Mind
Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok allow you to connect with potential attendees and generate interest in your event. People from all demographics use social media, but each platform attracts particular groups. For example, 71% of people aged 18 to 29 use Instagram, compared to only 13% of people aged 65 and older.
Determining your target audience can help you promote your event most efficiently. Methods to identify potential attendees include:
- Analyzing data from previous events
- Finding similar events and examining their audience and marketing approaches
- Sending out a pre-event survey to see who is most interested in your function
Once you’ve pinpointed your ideal attendees, you can target your advertising to the social media platforms most appealing to these audiences.
Incorporate Event Swag, Unique Merch, and Promotions
You can also promote your event brand through event swag and merchandise. Branded items like sweatshirts and tote bags can continue advertising your brand identity long after your event.
Creative promotional ideas that can incorporate your event brand include:
- Clothing like hats and socks
- Journals
- Phone wallets
- Stickers
- Swag bags loaded with goodies
Create an Email Campaign To Build Event Buzz
A compelling email campaign can drum up excitement and raise awareness of your event. As you organize events, you can ask attendees to sign up for your email list so that you can share future functions with them.
The most effective email campaigns typically consist of a series of messages tailored toward particular segments of your mailing list. Strategies for creating an effective email campaign include:
- Announcing your event to build excitement
- Giving away free merchandise
- Having a countdown to create urgency
- Not spamming your mailing list with too many emails
- Offering discounts or early-bird prices to previous attendees
- Sending a thank you email after your event
- Sharing information about guest performers
- Using an email platform like Mailchimp to send out scheduled messages automatically
Build an Event Landing Page and Website
Promotional materials like flyers and Twitter posts usually have an accessible, streamlined design that only includes basic information about your event. You can use these marketing tools to direct your audience to an event landing page and website with more details.
The Events.com event management software allows you to easily and quickly design an event page with your unique branding elements. You can create a branded template that contains your event banner, colors, logo, and other design components.
You can also use your event landing page to attract sponsors, register attendees, and sell merchandise and tickets.
How To Showcase Your Brand During and After the Event
Your brand can help build hype before your event, but the work doesn’t end there. You’ll have many more opportunities to showcase your brand during and after your event. For example, you can:
- Create a series of smaller, related events after your main occasion
- Encourage attendees to use an event hashtag to post before, during, and after your function
- Give attendees swag with your event logo during check-in
- Inviting attendees to follow your social media accounts
- Produce an event kit with branded items like stickers and water bottles
- Sell branded merchandise
- Send customized invitations to your next event
- Sharing attendee testimonials
These tactics can maintain excitement during your event and leave audiences eager for more entertainment.
Where To Get Help Developing a Strong Event
A strong event brand is essential for creating a stellar event experience. You can attract potential attendees by creating intriguing, polished promotional materials with a recognizable event brand. As your brand spreads, you can boost your event attendance each year and reach new audiences.
Event hashtags, merchandise, and other branded materials will continue to promote your identity after your function ends. For example, attendees may wear a T-shirt with your logo and post throwback pictures using your event hashtag. This bonus advertising can expose new people to your brand, help potential attendees learn about future events, and remind guests how much they enjoyed your function. Are you ready to start branding an event? Events.com can help you establish your identity. You can use our affordable and innovative event management software to create every aspect of your brand, from custom landing pages to multi-channel digital marketing campaigns. Your next event will make a powerful impression with our efficient promotional tools.
