A special event can etch your product or marketing message into the minds of your audience. This article describes how a well-planned event can deliver your message with an impact that rivals the force of anything in your marketing toolbox.

OVERVIEW

More and more companies are recognizing the impact that special events can have on delivering a marketing message. By creating a living 3-D translation of a product or marketing message, companies touch their audiences emotionally, ensuring that their concept won't soon be forgotten.

"There's no question that the event market is expanding on an almost exponential basis," says Don Sayter, president of the International Special Events Society. "And the dollars that corporations are willing to spend on events continues to increase." The reason for this, Sayter says, is that events are no longer viewed as merely social functions. "A company will be willing to invest money into an event or a spectacle because it fulfills a business purpose - whether that is to support a marketing endeavor, or highlight a product, or just to position their company's image."

Sayter says just pounding information at people is no longer enough. "The buying public is a lot more sophisticated. Your message needs a twist for it to be memorable, because there's so much out there that's calling out for your attention."

An event is a surefire way to cut through that clutter, says Andrea Michaels, president of Extraordinary Events, an event planning and production company based in Los Angeles. "An ad really doesn't speak to an audience. It displays something, it doesn't demonstrate it. ... An event can make a product come to life. It is very personal and very hands-on, because the audience is present and is participating."

A HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE

Hands-on was quite literally the message during an event for Mercedes-Benz's S Class of luxury vehicles. Extraordinary Events helped to plan a 10-city pre-launch tour targeting wealthy drivers who had never owned a Mercedes. "The message was, 'You are a first-class person, this is a first-class car," Michaels explains. "We wanted them to experience the car firsthand - we invited them to slip behind the wheel, climb into the back seat, experience the legroom and luxury of the car." But just bringing customers in contact with the eight vehicles on display was not enough. Michaels' team created an air of elegance and luxury throughout the event, using top caterers and florists at every stop and showing expensive, luxurious clothing along with the cars. "The cars were presented to the prospective buyers in an irresistible way," Michaels says. "It was high fashion with incredible decor, and the cars were right there."

Maintaining a consistent theme through all the elements of an event is important to conveying your message, according to Michaels. If your marketing campaign has a futuristic slant to it, your event has to be futuristic. Or, if your campaign has a nurturing, family-oriented theme, your event has to be warmer and should include more socializing.

"The more integration you have, the more bang for your buck you are going to get," agrees Elizabeth "Betsy" Wiersma, president of Creative Event Development, an event planning firm based in Denver. Wiersma says that the better an event fits into the marketing strategy of the company, the more successful it will be. "Events are an effective tool, and they should be integrated with other tools in your tool chest, such as public relations and advertising," she says. "The more you bring this whole team together, the more successful the campaign will be."

EVENTS AS THEATER

In Big Meeting Big Results, Strategic Event Planning for Productivity and Profit, author Tom McMahon says that an event should be planned the way a theater director mounts a play. A director looks at the overall impact that the production will have on the audience, orchestrating it as a communications event to impart a specific message or feeling to the audience. Every detail of the production is planned with that goal in mind.

Unfortunately, says McMahon, most people plan events the way they would plan a picnic in the country. They worry more about getting there and what food to serve than about whether it's going to be a good picnic. But if the picnic site is overrun by ants, or if people get bored after they've eaten and there's nothing else to do, it's bound to be a bad picnic.

CREATING A SUCCESSFUL EVENT

Michaels, of Extraordinary Events, says that defining your audience and objectives - what she calls an event mission statement - is the key to a successful event. "You have to clearly define what your message is for your event to be effective," Michaels says. Here are some questions to ask to achieve that goal:

• Who is the audience? Are you marketing to an internal sales force? To the public at large?
• What impact will your audience have?
• What is the desired outcome? Public relations? Specific sales goals?

"More often than not, the main objective is goodwill, but sometimes it's press. So you have to consider what makes an event press-worthy," Michaels says.

Once you've defined your audience and the message, that's where imagination comes into play. "Reaching into a person's emotions is the buy-in," says Michaels, who is a trained psychologist. "You have to touch them." Do that by finding the emotional appeal in your product and creating that in your event, she explains. "Every audience is different, and finding that difference is key."

Your event planner becomes your partner in creating that integrated event. "At the end of your vendor's proposal, they need to be able to tell you how your goal is going to be accomplished through this event," Michaels says. "If they can't do that, then they're not your marketing partner."

CASE HISTORY #1

Tektronix, a manufacturer of color printers, needed to create a splash. Not one of the big, well-known printer companies, this up-and-comer hired Extraordinary Events to help it become the name on everyone's lips. Michaels' team created a multifaceted campaign to introduce four new printers in October 1998, integrated to underline a single theme: We don't live in a black-and-white world, so why should your business be in black-and-white?

To lay the groundwork, Extraordinary Events planned a special presentation during the company's sales meeting in Phoenix. "It was mainly men, and it was a very rah-rah type of event," Michaels says. Positioning the event as a race against the competition, and a race toward the public unveiling in New York, the event team presented a virtual reality car race.

"We came up with a very imaginative approach to get the salespeople to buy into the idea that this was a race against Hewlett-Packard and others," Michaels says. Extraordinary Events created an exact replica of the Tektronix president's office, with his desk and chair and a window that showed a view of the company's Portland, OR, campus. The president sat down at his desk, and said he had to solve a marketing problem. As he said this, his desk swiveled around, dropped into the floor and became the back of a Formula 1 race car. The screen faded out from the Portland view and became a virtual reality race against Xerox, Lexmark, and Hewlett Packard. He passed every car but Hewlett Packard, his company's biggest competitor, then the action paused. The company president got up and addressed the sales force, explaining why Tektronix was going to win. Then the set turned back into a race, and Tektronix beat Hewlett Packard. "The place went wild," Michaels says. "They bought into the message."

To unveil the printers to potential customers, Extraordinary Events decided to actually turn an event from colorless to colorful. Michaels chose a beautiful marble function space at the old Stock Exchange building on Wall Street that was completely colorless. This venue provided the perfect palette on which to paint Tektronix's message. Attendees entered an elegant, bland room and were served colorless food and drinks, like white asparagus, oysters, white wine, and martinis, while being serenaded by a band dressed in black and white. Around the room, a gallery of black-and-white pictures taken by National Geographic photographers depicted people at work around the world, such as a camel driver in the Sahara and a man in India riding an elephant pulling logs.

When the president of the company addressed the gathering, he talked about the importance of color in the world. Massive projections of still photos were shown on the walls, and they slowly turned from black and white to color before the attendees' eyes. Aaron Neville took the stage and as he sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," the room was gradually bathed in colored lights. The food and drinks also took on color - red wine, green peppers, tomato sauce, and the like. And all the beautifully framed National Geographic photographs were turned over, revealing the same photo in brilliant color. At the end of the song, boxes were lifted to display the Tektronix printers, printing out limited-edition color copies of the National Geographic photos, which were signed by photographers present at the event and given to guests. "It showed the people what these printers do," Michaels explains. "It didn't tell them, it showed them."

As a lead-in to the event, a Tektronix float was created for New York City's Columbus Day Parade. Children dressed in all-white outfits danced around a huge printer, waving to the crowds. Every so often, they jumped into the printer, and other children came out wearing bright colors. "It was a cute effect, and it was on international television," Michaels says. All the elements joined together to create excitement, giving a big launch to a smaller company.

CASE HISTORY #2

Kroger staged a week of events to highlight the opening of a supermarket in Indiana. The dual goal of these events was to gain market share and build staff morale.

This events were part of an integrated marketing campaign. Advertising featured the new store, and a public relations campaign was created to explain how the store would benefit local community groups.

The store's decor employed multicolored ribbons to emphasize one of the week's recurring themes. "The ribbons represented all the talents and different services of the employees," says Betsy Wiersma of Creative Event Development, which planned the week's events. "They were a graphic representation of these talents. Not only that, they added color and excitement."

A nightly light show was held with spotlights on the building as well as sky-trackers that lit up the sky. "The event had the energy of the ribbons, the energy of these lights, and the energy of the employees," says Wiersma.

To help build morale, Kroger invited all employees to bring their families and friends to the store for a sneak preview night featuring free food and prizes. Community groups also got store tours and received donations to their groups for every dollar they spent. A Kids Club was created, through which the children all receive free fruit when they visit the store plus a free cake on their birthday.

The week culminated in a grand opening show and ceremony featuring the mayor, local dignitaries, entertainment, live radio broadcasts, travel giveaways, and gifts for every customer. The finale came when each employee was given a scissors to help cut the multicolored ribbon and officially open the store.

Wiersma says these events took the community by storm. The final ceremony and ribbon-cutting got front-page coverage, and the store attracted a steady stream of customers. There was positive feedback from the shoppers and from community groups, and sales held at a high level after opening.

CASE HISTORY #3

Conseco, a leading provider of supplemental health insurance, retirement annuities, and life insurance, had good reason to create a memorable event for its key employees. It had acquired nine other health insurance companies in one year, and management saw the need to introduce the company's philosophy and marketing strategies to its new employees.

To help it stage an event that would integrate the themes of unity, teamwork, and personal empowerment, Conseco turned to Famous Events & Destinations, a Vancouver, British Columbia, event planning company. An elaborate program was planned to highlight a corporate message built around the acronym STONE, for strength, trust, opportunity, networking, and excellence.

Some 450 employees were brought together at the El Conquistador Hotel in Puerto Rico. There, "Indiana Weaver," in the person of Chris Weaver, Conseco's executive vice president of marketing, told them they were to unravel the mystery behind an old map he had found. The map gave details about an ancient temple lost in the middle of the nearby El Yunque rain forest.

Each element of the event was designed to make a specific contribution to the program. At the welcome reception, after getting flashlights and pith helmets, the group was separated into nine teams, each sporting a different color. They were told that a multicolored stone from the temple had been shattered into ten pieces and lost. Each team was given the task of finding the fragment that matched its color.

The following day, the teams embarked on a kind of treasure hunt and recovered nine of the missing pieces. That night they explored the rain forest in search of the temple, accompanied by a team of naturalists, guides, and an "archaeologist" played by an actor. Eventually they came to a clearing where standing before them was an intricately carved temple. In the center was a large bird mandala with 10 empty spaces - the home of the ten missing colored fragments. A tribal chief, played by a company executive, appeared and revealed the power behind the stone and how it had been destroyed when the pieces were scattered and lost.

One at a time, the nine groups placed their fragments in the mandala to restore its power, but one spot remained empty. Suddenly, swinging out of the darkness from the trees came Indiana Weaver (actually a stunt double). He held the missing piece of stone, and as he returned it to its place, the temple began to rumble and a pyrotechnic display lit up the sky. Slowly, each letter of the Conseco name appeared on the facade of the temple, and a video projection of a new corporate logo could be seen on the stones.

Weaver, this time in person, appeared to reveal the power symbolized by the STONE acronym. He led the group in a chant: "S-T-O-N-E! S-T-O-N-E! S-T-O-N-E!"

As the performers took their bows, one pushed a lever hidden by the mandala, and the sound of crashing stones filled the night. The temple began to move, and a passageway was revealed.-the secret entrance to the temple. The "temple" proved to be a one-story building that had been transformed to accommodate a dinner party for 450 guests. Weaver beckoned to the group and invited everyone to follow him on the pathway to success. Inside a joyous celebration awaited.

Executives at Conseco credit the event with boosting employee morale and creating a feeling of unity and teamwork. In the months that followed there was an 11 percent jump in overall insurance sales, far above company expectations.

In addition, those who attended the event showed greater interest in recruiting new sales agents. Conseco attributes that to the positive feelings inspired by the message delivered in the heart of the rain forest.

ASSOCIATIONS

International Special Events Society (ISES) is a not-for-profit organization with more than 2,000 members in over a dozen countries. It is the only international organization representing professionals in all disciplines of the special events industry. It offers an online information service, a fax on-demand service, a membership directory, and educational resources. Call 800-688-4737 or 317-571-5601; go to http://www.ises.com.

International Events Group (IEG) is a for-profit enterprise that provides information on sponsorship in sports, arts, entertainment, and events. Its services include an industry newsletter, sponsor-locator service, books, conferences, workshops, consulting, and nearly 30 boilerplate contracts for a variety of sponsorship situations. Call 800-834-4850; fax 312-944-1897; go to http://www.sponsorship.com or http://www.ieg.com.

International Festival and Events Association has provided professional development and fund-raising ideas to the special events industry for 43 years. Call 360-457-3141; fax 360-452-4695; go to http://www.ifea.com.

American Marketing Association (AMA), the world's largest professional society of marketers, has more than 45,000 members in 92 countries. Call 800-AMA-1150 or 312-648-0536; fax 312-648-5625; go to http://www.ama.org.

Sales & Marketing Executives International (SME) is a worldwide association of sales and marketing managers. Members include CEOs, marketing managers, sales managers, and other top-level executives who contribute to the sales and marketing effort. Call 770-661-8500; fax 770-661-8512, or go to http://www.smei.org.

CONFERENCES AND TRADE SHOWS

For a list of Industry Events, go to #9510, Calendar of Industry Events.

AWARDS

Gala Awards are referred to as the Academy Awards of the events industry. Approximately 30 awards are given for all types of special events. Held on the last night of The Special Event trade show.

The Society of Incentive and Travel Executives (SITE) has an annual program, called the Crystal Awards, in which an award is given for an Outstanding Single Event. It is held the night before The Motivation Show opens. Call SITE at 212-575-0910; fax 212-575-1838; go to http://www.site-intl.org/.

BOOKS

Creative Event Development: The Strategic Steps to Success in the World of Special Events, by Elizabeth "Betsy" Wiersma, looks at special events and what they can do for your company. This book shows you how to use an event as a tool to meet specific objectives. Contains idea-development strategies, ready-to-use forms, and step-by-step planning tips. 400 pp. Published by Wiersma in 1991 and updated in 2000. $139.95. Call 800-688-4737 or go to http://www.betsywiersma.com.

Big Meetings Big Results: Strategic Event Planning for Productivity and Profit, by Tom McMahon, uses real-life examples to show how to set realistic, measurable goals for your meeting or event. It describes how to build a strategy that will succeed and how to achieve long-term results. 159 pp. 1996. NTC Publishing. $12.95, through Amazon.com $10.36.

Making Special Events Fit in the 21st Century, by Robert Jackson, is based on the author's study of more than 500 events. Includes information about event marketing plus 16 case studies that illustrate the basics of event planning. 1997. Sagamore Publishing. $26.95, through Amazon.com $26.95.

Special Events: Best Practices in Modern Event Management, by Joe Jeff Goldblatt, director of the event management program, The George Washington University, is billed as a complete guide to planning and creating events. It includes comprehensive checklists and practical tips for proposal writing, marketing techniques, and risk management. 352 pp. 1997. John Wiley & Sons. To order, go to www.amazon.com.

Creating Special Events: The Ultimate Guide to Producing Special Events, by Linda Surbeck, president, Master of Ceremonies, is a comprehensive guide to implementing promotional events. Includes information pertaining to sales meetings, trade shows, grand openings, fund raisers, and open houses. 1990. $38.95. Call 800-688-4737.

Special Events: Inside & Out, by Robert Jackson and Steven Wood Schmader, gives solid information on how to ensure that your event will be successful. Includes a start-to-finish master plan for events, from feasibility study to evaluation. 1997. Sagamore Publishing. $26.95, through Amazon.com $26.95. To order, go to www.amazon.com.

PUBLICATIONS

Special Events monthly, is a trade magazine that covers the special events industry. It is sent to event professionals around the world. Call 800-543-4116; go to http://www.specialevents.com.

EventWorld is the official publication of the International Special Events Society. It reports on the latest trends and provides practical information about industry. Call 800-688-4737.

PROMO, monthly. PROMO defines promotion trends, presents critical "how-to" information and case studies about promotion, and serves as a meeting ground for companies and professionals in the industry. Free for qualified subscribers, or paid subscription is $65 p/year. Go to http://www.promomagazine.com.

The following publications write about event marketing from time to time:

Advertising Age, weekly. Call 888-288-5900; go to http://www.adage.com.
Sales & Marketing Management, monthly. Call 800-821-6897; go to http://www.salesandmarketing.com.
Sales and Marketing Strategies and News, monthly. Call 815-963-4000.

ONLINE SERVICES

http://www.SeeUthere.com is an online event-planning service that automates many of the time-consuming, manual tasks involved in planning events. The site features automated invitation and RSVP management; free creation of a customized Web site for your event; an event resource marketplace; and guest communication via e-mail, fax, mail, and telephone.

http://www.smei.org. Sales & Marketing Executives International's site is the place to go for comprehensive coverage of marketing. With over 200,000 articles and research studies, its Resource Center bills itself as having "more sales and marketing information than any library on earth."

http://mim.com is the Meeting Industry Mall, an online gallery of hundreds of resources for those in the meetings and special events industries.

http://www.eventweb.com is a weekly newsletter offering Internet news and education for meeting, conference, and trade show producers. Published by Doug Fox Communications, it is sent at no charge via e-mail. The subscriber form for new subscribers may be found at the Web address.

http://www.eventsresources.com and http://www.eventsdirect.com are event-planning and meeting-planning sites. Among other things, they list industry vendors worldwide.

www.extraordinaryevents.net is Extraordinary Events' site, which offers specific examples of how selected corporate clients successfully achieved their marketing objectives through the vehicle of special events.

RELATED SMN ARTICLES

For information related to using events as a marketing tool, see #2015, Corporate Events.