Ready for Unlock 2021? What Event Marketers can expect?

Travel restrictions are being lifted. Gatherings have started. 

Moving on from the negatively connoted lockdowns, the world is preparing for its unlock 2021! 

While it brings a smile to everyone’s face, it is more evident for those working in the event management space. All the Event Marketers have witnessed plot reversals in their strategies. The sudden advent of virtual events took them by storm. Then, they glided through a huge learning curve in the manifestation of hybrid events.

Now, with unlock 3.0 coming soon, event marketers are again in the limelight. What can we expect from them post lockdown? 

This articulation delves into what trends and measures event marketers can expect after the unlock: 

Value-filled Campaigns

Influencer marketing, growth hacking, brand partnerships — Why are all these terms trending in today's world?

Because these efforts are keeping their audience engaged. In times of quarantines and distancing, the human need for social engagement is being emphasized.

Rightfully so, event marketers need to focus on value provision. This can be through entertainment or education or similar measures. The key point to note is that audiences are spoilt for choice during these times. 

Hence, direct marketing is not a sensible option for your event. But, by educating or entertaining your audience, you position yourself as a value provider. 

For instance, starting a free workshop is a value-filled campaign. This provides a channel to understand the audience and then initiate the event marketing.

Increased Collaborations

Nowadays, competition is passive. But, collaboration and partnerships are on the rise. From like-minded influencers getting together for an Instagram live to large brands partnering, the potential for collective growth is evident.

Similarly, for your event, marketing can be a combined effort with a relevant brand. By properly partnering, the feel of being marketed to is reduced amongst the audience. 

A plethora of social platforms are available for event marketing. And marketing efforts being pooled in for all platforms is tedious. But, by collaborating with the ideal brands or people of your event’s niche, your event reaches more people. 

Building Communities

Event-based marketing is fast turning into a thing of the past. Now, event marketers are leveraging the potential of communities. The initiation of communities is difficult as it involves both audience education and retention. 

However, over time, the community grows organically and this is where community marketing comes into play. Event marketers need to align the event’s purpose with the community’s direction to make this work. 

A lot of firms are relying on building communities around their firm and products/services. These efforts are more than just for event marketing. From simpler customer research to receiving first-hand feedback, communities help firms in multiple ways. 

Likewise, for event marketing, communities help by providing easy access to the audience. Moreover, Event Marketers can derive great insights from engaging with the community.

Value Proposition 

The unlock is also a great time for Event markets to position their firms in front of everyone. The pandemic has allowed people to see their favorite firms’ approaches to business. Several firms have shown solidarity or assisted during the fight against the pandemic. Likewise, few firms have not done anything substantial. Though it is not wrong, the audience’s perception changes.

That is exactly why Event Marketers must design campaigns and others in line with what the brand or the industry stands for. People are observant and during the choice crisis, the majority go for the firm who have assisted the common man during the pandemic.

Personalized Experiences

From mail invites to acknowledgment tokens, virtual events took the personalization game to another level. With the majority loving this detail, we trust the future shall remain the same. Event marketers will have to find ways to personalize their deliverables to the T. By doing so, your audience feels valued. This provides you with leverage that can be further used to monetize or upsell during the event.

Personalized experiences also give deep insights into what an event attender cherishes or prioritizes. Marketers can use these insights into finding their target audience in detail and designing campaigns tailor-made for them. 

Conclusion:

Designing posters or selling passes is no longer the core task of any event marketer. Now, they have a major role to play in the seamless functioning of an event.

And this role starts weeks or months before the event and continues in perpetuity, emphasizing the facet of audience retention. Keeping in mind the predictions and adapting rightly can place any Event Marketer in good stead.

Commencing Unlock 2021, AVS shares well thought out standard operating procedures (SOP’s)/ guidelines that every event planner should incorporate irrespective of the type of the offline event: