The Rapidly Changing Marketing Landscape

The Rapidly Changing Marketing Landscape

Learn how to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and TimeboundBy John Thorburn. Bold Hat Productions

How we reach festival and event guests continues to be a rapidly changing landscape. The tools and mediums that were effective in delivering thousands of attendees less than 10 years ago are now delivering a lesser ROI and new technology is emerging daily that we must keep up with or risk losing out to smarter competition.

Careful and methodical planning when starting your event marketing efforts is the key to meeting your overall goals. This is the glue that binds all your communications efforts together, and sets you on a path that gives you confidence in the choices you make when determining how, when and where to execute campaign elements.

Identify your Campaign Objectives: Once you’ve established your objectives, those will help you identify your areas of primary focus.

• Are you selling tickets?

� What’s your sales goal to hit budget?

� Are you selling tickets online in advance? Identify that goal specifically.

� Are you selling tickets at the event? Identify this goal specifically, as well.

• Do you need to deliver on promised sponsor benefits?

• Are there other areas of your event that drive revenue?

� Beer Garden sales, Event Merchandise, etc.?

• Are there other stakeholders you need to deliver benefits for?

� Community partners, craft vendors, artists, etc.?

PRO TIP: Do everything in your power to ensure each objective is a SMART goal. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. If your objectives are not SMART goals, it will be nearly impossible to evaluate your campaign’s success and make informed decisions on how to improve on your efforts in the future.

To learn more about SMART goals, here’s a great article:https://theeventscalendar.com/defining-event -goals-and-objectives/

Who is your Target Audience?Identify and spend the energy to learn about who

your target audience is for your event. This could involve two questions: Who are you currently attracting to your event, and who do you hope to attract moving forward? Those answers may be different, or they may be the same. Either way, you need to do your homework in how to attract your audience efficiently.

For example, if you’re hoping to attract Gen Y (Millennials), do you know how to talk to that generation? Research shows that Gen Y responds best to messaging that is Short, Direct, Personalized, Humorous, Honest, Ethical, and Surprising. They prioritize Happiness, Diversity, and Social Responsibility. They value experiences, not products. So, how will your marketing message, or the photos you choose to use in your marketing, best reflect the interests of Gen Y?

There are hundreds of resources and articles online that can tell you more about Gen Y, Gen X, the Baby Boomers, and the quickly emerging Gen Z audience. Do your research because a one-size fits all approach to attract a crowd is not as effective is it used to be.

Here’s a great resource to dig into generational marketing trends: https://www.wordstream.com/ blog/ws/2016/09/28/generational-marketing-tactics

The goal here is to establish the tone and components of your overall marketing campaign. This tone would be carried throughout all campaign elements: social media marketing, print advertising, radio scripts, TV spots, website copy, e-newsletters, and press releases. Again, this may not be a one-size fits all message as you should be using different mediums to reach different audiences. But establishing your overall voice will set you on the correct path to creating a streamlined marketing message.

If you’re producing a craft market style event, what are some important word choices to consider in your messaging? Handmade, one-of-a-kind, shop small, local and organic?

For a little creative inspiration, here’s a simple resource to help you think of new ways and words to consider in building your messaging just by typing in a word like “crafts”: https://wordassociations.net/en/ words-associated-with/crafts

Once you’ve established your Campaign Objectives, Target Audience and the Best Messaging, now the real work begins.

How do each of the following campaign components meet your objectives, reach your target audience and deliver a concise message appropriate for each medium?

• Campaign Graphics

• Social Media

• Event Website

• Print Advertising

• Online Advertising

• Printed Collateral Materials

• E-blasts & E-Newsletters

• Public Relations & Media Outreach

• Signs & Banners at the Event

• Merchandise Sales at the Event

If you’ve set SMART goals for your campaign to achieve, and followed the plan above, you will have given yourself the tools to make powerful decisions when evaluating the effectiveness of your next event marketing campaign.