Events Planning and Operations - week 5

1. Marketing and promotion
Event Planning and Operations | Dr Ashley Garlick

2. Learning outcomes
By the end of the session, you will be able to:
 Explain the role of a marketing plan within the wider event planning
process
 Describe some of the key activities required in event marketing
 Discuss the marketing activities of real event examples

3.  Your marketing strategy must align with the corporate/event strategy
 Who is your audience?
 How are we going to approach them?
 What are we going to say?
 How are we going to get them to commit?
 How will we arrive at our target numbers?
 Objectives must be SMART
 “Selling out” is too simplistic – you need you be more sophisticated!
 What is your Unique Selling Point (USP)?
 Your marketing will set the attendee expectation – you must meet or exceed this!

4. S.T.P.
Source: Bowie, D. and Buttle, F.
(2011). Hospitality Marketing:
Principles and practice. 2nd
edition. Oxford: Butterworth-
Heinemann, pp.409.
Segmentation
• Can be demographic,
psychographic or behavioural
Targeting
• Do not try and be all things to all
people, but must be substantial
enough to sustain your event
Positioning
• Always in relation to your
competition

5.  Part of, but distinct from, the event plan
 Should contain (Jackson, 2013):
 An understanding of the environment (internal and external)
 Clear objectives
 Marketing activities
 Marketing programmes (action plan)
 Marketing budgets
 Control and contingencies
 Informed by market intelligence
Source: Jackson, N. (2013). Promoting and Marketing Events: Theory and practice. Abingdon: Routledge.

6.  Milestones provide an opportunity to review the on-going effectiveness of a
marketing campaign
 Ticket sales provide a useful measure of effectiveness, but it is not the only way!
 Contingency funds are only useful if you have time to spend them, therefore it is
vital that milestones are set far enough in advance to allow for an effective
marketing ‘blitz’
 Most advertising takes time to have effect
 Don’t rule out ‘old school’ methods, such as flyering/promotional teams
 Remember, you can’t sell a ticket after the event!

7. Marketing collateral
 The ‘physical’ manifestation of the
marketing message
 Costly to produce
 Even ‘free’ material still costs in
terms of time and resources
 Consider the different channels you
will use – can the same collateral be
used on multiple platforms?
Examples
 Brochures / flyers
 Social media content
 Mail-shots / emails
 Adverts
 Editorial / advertorial
 Listings
 Banners

8. Source: Bowie, D. and Buttle, F. (2011).
Hospitality Marketing: Principles and
practice. 2nd edition. Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann, pp.236.
Attention
• the message should grab the target audience's attention
Interest
• the message should arouse the target audience's interest
Desire
• the message should stimulate desire so that the target
audience wants to experience the product
Action
• the message should encourage the target audience
actually to take action now, such as calling a reservation
number, visiting a website or making a booking

9.  Digital marketing IS NOT FREE! It takes significant time and energy
 S.E.O. = Search Engine Optimisation
 Likes / “I’m going” ≠ attendance
 Provides increased opportunity for two-way communications
 Allows for continued relationship management
 Analytics provides a powerful tool in understanding your customer

10.  The work does not end at the end of the event!
 Successful marketing IS NOT just about how many people attended
 WHO were your attendees? Were they your target market?
 Who DID NOT attend? Were there people who said they would come but did not?
 Which channels were most effective? Which were least effective?
 What was the Return On Investment (ROI)?
 How did this event compare with previous events? Or competitor events?
 Expectations vs experience
 Gather as much different data as possible
 Statistical data / analytics / satisfaction surveys

11. Public Relations (PR)
“The planned and sustained effort to establish
and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organization and its
publics” (Jackson, 2013, pp.117).
 Note that “publics” is plural!
 Principally about reputation management
 Has become a shorthand for actions dealing
with the media
 Includes, but is not restricted to, crisis
management
 Remember that the media are an
intermediary between you and the public, not
the final audience
What should be included in a Press Release?
1. Today’s date
2. “For immediate release” or embargo period
3. Heading or headline
4. First paragraph (5 W’s)
5. Subsequent paragraphs
6. Include quotations
7. “ENDS”
8. Notes for editors
9. Contacts details
Source: Jackson, N. (2013). Promoting and Marketing Events: Theory and practice. Abingdon: Routledge.

12. Any questions?