EVENT MARKETING – AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO INCREASE BRAND LOYALTY

Event-marketing essence and peculiarities

Event marketing (event marketing) is a way of attracting attention to a brand to create closer ties between it and the consumer. It belongs to the tools of BTL-communications – indirect advertising tools. Event marketing is based on creating emotional ties between the consumer and the brand. Emotions are the main tool in creating a brand with a human face (we wrote about why it is important for brands to be “alive” in the article). They are responsible for consumers’ attachment to certain brands.

Event marketing: examples of global brands

Event marketing helps to create the right impression of the brand, to convey its image to the consumer. The best examples here are large international companies, such asRed Bull. The energy drink connects extreme athletes from all over the world. Each of their events emphasizes the status of the main brand – daredevil. In Ukraine, “Tarantas Races” were popular (the event of the same name took place in other cities as well). People built cars out of improvised materials, dressed up in costumes and took to the track. The winner was the contestant who would get to the finish line in the most spectacular way (and the vehicle had to stay on the road).

Ram racing is just one of Red Bull’s event options. A separate division of the brand is responsible for the events. The company also has a Facebook page, which is dedicated to informing about brand events. There are 193901 people subscribed to it . In addition to extreme events, Red Bull now has Red Bull Music Academy, a platform for young performers. The company also organizes and sponsors street sports festivals, from skateboarding to parkour. All this helps to maintain the brand image and gather like-minded people around it: young and active people (as well as those who want to appear so).

If you’re looking to plan an event to promote your brand and make an emotional connection with consumers, contact KOLORO. We’ll design an event plan just for you!

Event marketing activities: goals that can be achieved

1. To outline (for newcomers) or consolidate (for experienced market players) the brand image in theminds of consumers.
2. Create an emotional connection between the consumer and the brand, to build attachment and loyalty to the brand.
3. Increase sales as a result of the previous two objectives;
4. Create an infomercial and launch a series of news stories about the brand in offline and online publications.

Tools and types of event marketing

Events can be initiated in honor of any event, but they most often fall into these categories:

• opening (relevant for retailers and services);
• calendar holiday(from New Year’s Eve to Halloween);
• presentation (widest functionality, suitable for everything from FMCG to services);
• exhibition (most relevant for the B2B sphere, but can be used in B2C as well).

However, it is not necessary to limit yourself to these limits. You can always organize a celebration without a reason or come up with a reason yourself. For example, a brand birthday party with contests, animators, sample distribution, food court and musical accompaniment.

Festivals as a platform for event marketing

In addition, companies often sponsor events (music festivals, fashion shows, various fairs). The framework of these venues can also be used as an occasion for a brand event. For example, in the summer of 2016, a large music festival Atlas Weekend was held in Kiev, which brought together 157 performers and bands. Its partners were more than 10 brands, including Pepsi, Dirol, Nescafe, Bushmills, Karabas, Johnnie Walker, Kyivstar and others. Each of the brands tried to maximize the benefits of participation in the festival. Thus, Pepsi agreed to operate its own Pepsi Stage, where electronic music was played. Also, under the auspices of Pepsi, Atlas Weekend hosted a graffiti battle among street artists.

Karabas ticket agency organized an autograph zone within Atlas Weekend . Everyone could get a signature, take a photo or ask a question to the artists, who approached the zone after their performance on the festival stage. Karabas also opened a small lounge zone with poufs , where you could listen to the artists lying down or sitting. The visitors of the Karabas corner were photographed by the company’s photographer , and the photo report became a pleasant gift to everyone who got into his lens.

Dirol also organized its own lounge zone near one of the festival stages. There you could relax and refresh yourself after dancing and songs. The brand also treated everyone to refreshing fruit cocktails for selfies with the Dirol hashtag. In addition, under the brand’s awning, you could try out the Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet and get water pistols to take part in an epic battle.

One of the alcoholic partners, Johnnie Walker, opened a bar near the Central Stage of the festival. Inside there was an atmosphere of sophistication and comfort, as it was one of the few places where you could sit on a comfortable chair while listening to the festival participants. On the second day of Atlas Weekend there was a real full house in Johnnie Walker bar. There were two reasons for that. Firstly, the bar was one of the few places where there was a roof, and people waited out the downpour there, at the same time destroying the stock of alcohol. Secondly, Johnnie Walker management was prudent and made sure that the bar had a large batch of branded raincoats. Grateful visitors will long remember the gesture of Johnnie Walker, who gave out raincoats to everyone who bought a cocktail. And after that the happy owners of the saving protective raincoats became a walking advertisement of the brand. Wherever they went at the festival, their backs were adorned with a sophisticated Johnnie, with the slogan “Keep Walking”.

Johnnie Walker had a logo refresh in 2015. We wrote about it in our article.

Event marketing can be divided into 2 categories:

• events for FMCG brands;
• events to stimulate sales in retail and increase the average check in the service sector (cafes, clubs, bars, etc.).

Also event marketing is an effective way to increase B2B sales, but this is a topic for a separate article.

If you have ideas about using event marketing to promote your brand but don’t know where to start, contact KOLORO. Together we will find a solution!

In the case of FMCG, events work for:

• brand recognition;
• its reputation and image in the mind of the consumer;
• The emotion that the brand evokes in him.

For retailers, on the other hand, events are a way to stimulate sales. An infoprovod for an advertising campaign is a factor that is inherent in both FMCG brands and retailers.

Event marketing: examples of events from retailers

Among the most successful format of recent years in Ukraine we should mention shopping holidays. Shopping Nights are regularly held by large shopping centers all over Ukraine. Shopping nights are not something new; in Europe they have become commonplace. In Ukraine such events continue to cause a huge stir, people fill shopping centers and sweep off the shelves indiscriminately. In popular fast-fashion stores, such as Zara and Topshop, checkout lines stand for several hours. Shoppers are not deterred even by the small percentage of discounts: about 20%.

To attract the attention of customers, shopping centers advertise the event: on citylights, in public transport and on the radio. They also actively promote the event on social networks. In addition to discounts, other activities play animportant role in shopping holidays: retailers organize contests with the opportunity to win prizes (from clothes to tickets for a trip for two), free concerts of pop stars with autograph sessions, connect popular food and beverage brands to the event, which give free samples of their products to all visitors.

It may seem that only big companies can afford to organize such festivals to stimulate sales. However, small stores with designer clothes by young masters are not lagging behind the retail giants. Show-room “Apartment 31” regularly organizes parties for its female clients. At them you can drink champagne, meet other female visitors, get into the lens of the brand’s photographer and, of course, buy new clothes. Sometimes, together with the party, the owners organize sales of certain items of goods.

Event marketing: examples in the service sector

We have already written above that the most popular events are store openings or thematic calendar holidays. They always gather a large interested audience that comes in a pleasant mood. This works well for cafes, bars and restaurants. Theme parties are organized by every second institution. For example, Kiev’s Litpab Krapka Koma holds jazz nights every Tuesday. They gather full houses among fans of this genre. The trendy hipster coffee house Kharms regularly holds educational seminars. This is how the café consolidates its audience and builds up customer loyalty.

Event marketing and presentation as its universal tool

A presentation is an easy way to draw attention to a new product in absolutely any field. It is ideal for:

• electronic devices and home appliances (the best example is the presentation of each Apple product);
• books and music albums (a meeting with the author and an autograph session is the best advertisement);
• a new food product (at CA congregation points with distribution of samples or tasting).

Event marketing activities: conclusions

Event marketing is the perfect tool to build an emotional connection with the consumer. It helps a brand to find its “human face”, to meet the consumer, to get to know them better and to get a piece of their heart. If our material still doesn’t convince you, we have one last argument.

Creative methods in event marketing: increasing sales using Lego as an example

After the big parade of giant lego toys in Times Square in New York, as part of an event to promote the Chronicles of Yoda series (from Lego’s sub-brand Lego Star Wars), sales of the series increased by 23%. This was achieved thanks to the giant resonance of the march event. Thousands of people watched the parade of toys, and the hashtag #LEGOstarwarsNYC went to the top of Twitter.

To come up with an idea for an event that will blow the imagination of consumers and boost sales, contact KOLORO Agency. We will develop a detailed event plan especially for you!