According to a survey for Eventsforce, 97% of senior event planners felt that personalisation can significantly change an audience’s perception of your brand. The result of doing away with the one-size-fits-all model and going bespoke with your event is a more engaged and satisfied audience—and a better opportunity for businesses to nurture customers and prospects.
From product launches to networking fundraisers, it’s important your corporate event reflects and projects who you are as a brand. Successful conferences and corporate events depend not only on getting the right people through the door, but giving them a truly memorable experience with a key marketing message to take away.
Know your audience
Data is the foundation of personalisation. Data capture tools—from event registration systems to online surveys and event apps—can help organisations collect valuable information about their audience, which can then be analysed to create more powerful and customised event experiences.
Snapdragon are experts in brand and corporate events, with a team of experienced in-house designers, event producers and sourcing specialists who have the skills to tailor an experience that is more meaningful and relevant to the individual.
Their advice? “Always begin by envisaging the event from the guest’s point of view. What will they see and hear? What are they going to touch and taste? What will they smell and how can we allow all of these senses to be enlivened throughout the course of the event?”
When you think about things from your guests’ perspective, you will create a much more personal experience with finishing touches that really show you care.
Create an identity
Think about building your event identity as you would your business brand: the experience you create will determine the type of clientele it attracts. Keeping things crisp, clean and bold implies efficiency and inspires confidence, while rich hues and decadence give the impression of lavish elegance. If you have a key service or product to show off, be sure to make it the centre of attention.
According to Smart Live, live event specialists with experience in design and production of personalised content, “[a]n inspiring brand sets the tone for an event, emphasises the key message and can be used to build excitement and intrigue.”
And once an identity is established, your ‘event brand’ can be used across printed materials, digital displays and create a consistent hook for the content, breakout sessions and the activities.
Creating an event identity or ‘event brand’ not only enhances the guest experience, but improves engagement levels and consistency across all your on- and off-line communications.
Give your guests an ‘experience’
Event professionals have been discussing virtual reality as an event concept for the past decade. Virtual reality is intended to be immersive, allowing users to fully engross themselves in a true-to-life experience it might otherwise be impossible to experience in a non-VR environment.
At the launch of the new Nissan GT-R, virtual reality experience company REWIND created the world’s first 4D VR driving simulator using the latest Samsung Gear VR headsets and state-of-the-art dynamic chairs. Fans were able to experience life in the fast lane as the racing driver Jann Mardenborough put the iconic GT-R through its paces, allowing users to feel the power of the 3.8-litre V6 twin-turbo engine virtually.
There are plenty of other options for ‘experiential’ corporate hospitality too, from theatre and live music to corporate sporting events and wilderness retreats. Choose an experience that compliments the tone, theme and purpose of what you do, for success from any corporate perspective.
Connect with social media
There are a whole host of tools you can use to integrate social media into your event and make it more personal. A simple plugin that allows those who have registered for the event to share it on social media, and event-specific hashtags or handles can engage delegates further and be used to let attendees reach out to specific people like speakers or potential business partners.
Once you’ve publicised your event, simple ways of enhancing the attendee experience include live streaming, check-ins, Twitter walls and offering prizes to socially-engaged attendees. It’s also important to consider the role of social customer service. Users are increasingly turning to social media for customer care issues, and social interaction can be a quick and easy way to identify and respond to personal enquiries quickly.
And, don’t forget that social media is a valuable source of feedback. By using a social media monitoring tool to analyse social conversations during and after your event, you can determine what was popular and what could be improved. What did attendees say about the venue? Did they enjoy the catering? Which activity generated the most buzz?