Are you planning an event for your business or organization? It can be a big undertaking and some details can be lost or overlooked in the hectic process of preparation, but branding details are crucial for your event to be successful and memorable.
Maybe you’re of the mindset that if your company is branded well, it will extend to your event too, or maybe you just haven’t fleshed out a full branding strategy for your event because it doesn’t seem like a high priority. Branding is actually a majorly important part of running an event because it’s essentially the personality of the event, and an event without personality is a bust.
You also want to make sure your audience and attendees build a proper relationship with your company, otherwise what’s the point of holding the event in the first place? By branding your event to be in line with your company’s ethos and sharing a cohesive message, you can build trust, loyalty, and awareness with your audience.
Define your brand identity and keep it consistent
Your brand identity consists of the following:
- Name of the event
- Logo
- Fonts used
- Color palette used
- Imagery used
- Tone of voice
- Brand persona
- Brand and event values and goals
No matter how you decide to brand your event, you need to keep it consistent to avoid confusion from your attendees and help build recognition. They need to be able to clearly identify it and understand what it stands for, otherwise your message will be lost.
Consider the event’s online presence
Brands live on social media, so be sure to utilize your social channels to help promote your event before, during, and after. It’s a cost-effective way to get your message out there and to promote the event with minimal effort – all you need is consistent branded visual content and a unique branded hashtag to let people contribute to the conversation.
Give attendees branded takeaways
People love freebies. One big miss would be to let your attendees leave the event without some branded merchandise in their hands, because those little mementos will help your audience keep your brand top-of-mind well after the event has ended. You can choose the classics like custom t shirt printing in London, branded water bottles, or branded hats, or you can get creative and give out branded stickers, sunglasses, socks, Frisbees… the list goes on.
Share user generated content
You don’t have to do all the work creating your own content – you can get your attendees to create some for you. Encourage those at the event to take photos and share them on social media (using your branded hashtag!) to help build your public brand image. If your event is fun and exciting for your attendees, they will end up doing your marketing for you by showing their followings just how great it is.
You can also repost publicly posted images and videos from your attendees after the event as a recap. It doubles as social proof, since the content is authentic, which helps increase trust and brand awareness.
Reward loyalty
Since you’ve put in so much effort organizing and running your event, don’t forget to make sure people want to return for the next one. Offer past attendees early bird tickets, discounts, group pricing, or exclusive merchandise.
