Category Creation by Anthony Kennada

Author:Anthony Kennada
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119611615
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2019-08-26T16:00:00+00:00

Creating Experiences, Not Events

Live events have become a critical part of the marketing stack in recent years. As part of their Event Marketing 2019 Benchmark and Trends report, event technology company Bizzabo found that most (41%) marketers believe that events are the single-most effective marketing channel over digital advertising, email marketing, and content marketing, reflecting a 32% increase since 2017.1 Beyond that, the number of companies organizing 20 or more events per year increased by 17% between 2017 and 2018. As the volume of events in the marketplace continues to grow, there’s never been a more critical time to build event programs that stand out from the noise. This challenge has led to the popularization of a new trend in event marketing circles around creating experiences rather than events, a strategy that places a creative premium on activating an emotive and sensory journey for attendees that cultivates human connection and relationship.

We’ve all been to corporate events that are not experiences—maybe the all day seminar hosted at the Airport Radisson in the room without windows, and eating the barely passable lunch options while counting the minutes until happy hour. The content and learning may have been important, but you’ll dread attending the next one. Meanwhile, in our consumer lives, we’ve attended music festivals such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that create incredible experiences that enhance the musical performances, or urban pop-ups such as the Museum of Ice Cream that are designed intentionally to trigger emotive and sensory experiences. Those examples are the new bar and what we are competing against even in the corporate context—a new approach that requires a whole new set of considerations for event marketers.

The details matter when creating corporate experiences—focusing on the little things that often are overlooked when planning corporate events such as the music that’s played as attendees enter the room, the quality of the food being served, or how to manage energy throughout the day. The details play a major role in how attendees network with others and retain the information they learn at your event. In many ways, event experiences become another “product” for your business and should be managed that way. Experiences also put your company culture on display for your community to witness firsthand, which as I described in Chapter Five, is a powerful way to build brand equity with the market as category leaders.

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