CHAPTER FOUR

MARKETING AND PROMOTION OF EVENTS

4.1. Event Planning and Promotion
Event promotion forms part of an event marketing strategy and is the practice of spreading
the word about the event across all relevant channels to achieve the stated goal. Depending on
the event, that goal could be ticket sales, attendance, sponsorship, charity donations or
something else.
Standing different from others while planning event can be done only when an event is
properly planned. Accurately planned events have least chances of going wrong. There are
various things involved in event promotion and planning like selecting venue, marketing,
getting sponsorship, preparing committee, arranging finance, carrying out registration
process, etc. All these things can be effectively done only when there is proper team work.
Important part of event planning is designing of stall and making arrangements for displays.
Following points are taken into consideration while planning and promoting an event:
1. Determine your objective: Determine the objective which is achievable. Don’t set
targets which are impossible to reach.
2. Competitor: Who are your competitors in event? Depending on this you can
strengthen your weakness and present yourself perfectly.
3. Prepare checklist: Prepare checklist for promotion and planning in order to avoid
last minute work. Proper planned schedule will allow you to continue with error free
work.
4. Focus on product and design: What product you are exhibiting? Are you ready with
design? Your product should not over shadow the design and neither your design
should over shadow the product. Keep proper balance while displaying product in
order to make design captivating.
5. Budget: Do not over do with your expenses that you find it difficult to recover
expenses and make profit.
Following are the things you need to consider while preparing budget:
 Rent of space you occupy for event
 Money involved behind construction of design
 Travelling expenses
 Cost of transportation

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  Money involved behind various promotional activities

4.2. Event Planning Training and Internship

Event management is a business which needs lot of attention to enjoy constant growth. In any
business you enter, without experience you cannot learn. Theoretical knowledge and practical
training are two different things which cannot be compared. The important thing you need to
learn is the way of application of theoretical knowledge while planning event.

Event planning training and internship are the ways to polish your existing knowledge related
to management. Understand your competitor’s strategies and as said before this is a business
where ignoring competitors can be your biggest mistake.

Remember one thing; it takes ages to create good image but it takes second to lose that
image. Your one mistake in any event and your reputation goes at stake. Every time you have
to be equally alert and well organized in events. Your first step towards event planning goes
with starting your business. Once you have sowed the roots then try to establish them and this
can be done with your experience of event planning during training or internship period.
Apply all your skills to establish the name of your company in the field of management. One
thing you can’t ignore here is requirement of client.

While going through the stage of establishment also start your marketing campaigns. Do
marketing for your company and make people realize about your ability of managing all type
of event. Manage as many clients as possible while marketing but do not create worst
situation for yourself by giving commitments to many clients altogether at the same time. Be
in touch with your past clients and develop new clients through proper networking. Client
management is the most important part of event planner as this can assist in building good
image. During event planning training and internship period they also teach you about
management of entire business. Many times growth of business is accurately not handled by
people and they carry on with negative marketing by spoiling events. So it is important to get
trained before entering into competition.

Benefits of event planning training and internship:-

 You can learn basics of event management, planning and execution of plan.
 Enhance your level of confidence by practical event training
 Develop networking skills which can help you to prosper in event management
business during later stage.
 Understand new ideas venturing in the market and exchange ideas with fellow event
planners.
 Learn management and event planning skills from seniors and staff members.
 You can also get idea about dealing with different type of events like wedding,
organizing conference, birthday party, etc.

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  If you are very much convenient in particular field like organizing marriage or
birthday party then try to create your specialization in it.
 Event planning training and internship along with certificate can easily help you to
enter in to the business environment.
 You can get in touch with big event management companies and gain more job
opportunities.
 Learn tactics of dealing with vendors, coordinating with staff members, marketing,
etc.

4.3. Event Marketing and Promotion

Event marketing is a strategy marketers use to promote their brand, product, or service with
an in-person or real-time engagement.
Event marketing describes the process of developing a themed exhibit, display, or
presentation to promote a product, service, cause, or organization leveraging in-person
engagement. Event marketing is about using different techniques across various marketing
channels to promote your event to your target audience. It is about letting your target
audience know that you are hosting an event and transforming this audience into your
attendees.
Event marketing is a great strategy that can help:
 Build brand awareness

 Increase customer engagement

 Generate leads
 Educate prospects and customers
 Upsell customers
Event marketing can be B2C or B2B in nature.
B2C, when you promote your event directly to a target audience with the hope of getting
them to register as an attendee and/or buy a ticket, as well as inviting their friends and peers
to also attend. In B2C event marketing where your aim is to attract attendees, you can use
marketing techniques that are more gravitated towards communicating personal benefits and
driving positive emotions.

B2B event marketing happens when you are offering your event to other businesses, whether
to attract their employees to attend the event, to get the business involved as an exhibitor, or
even as a sponsor. In B2B event marketing (i.e. attracting sponsors), on the other hand, you

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may need to offer more tangible USP (Unique Selling Point) like how your event can help the
business to sell more of their products.

Event promotion is the practice of using different marketing strategies and channels to get
the word out about your event and ultimately drive event registration. This can range from
digital (email or social media) to print mediums (such as flyers or direct mail).
4.4. Five Ps of Event Marketing
Let’s understand the 5 P’s of marketing in the context of Event management:
PRODUCT: Here, it refers to the service provided by the event organizer. The audience
needs to understand the features, advantages, and benefits of attending the event. Think
about the key features, benefits, and the needs and wants of customers while thinking about
the event.
Successful salespeople have both expert product knowledge and effective sales skills. Expert
product knowledge is essential in today’s competitive environment. The expertise the
salesperson demonstrates regarding the sponsorship package or other event component will
differentiate this person from the competition. More important than sales skills, demonstrated
product expertise shows the client that he or she is making a purchase that has added value
and helps to develop confidence as well as long-term loyalty. Every event product combines
history, quality, and value to produce a unique program. Even new events may draw from the
experience or history of the organizers. This demonstration of consistent capability to
produce similar events will influence prospective clients to recognize the overall quality of
the event organization. Finally, every event product must convey not only perceived value,
such as dollar-for-dollar worth but also added value.
PRICE: Pricing strategy directly affects customers. It includes the selling prices of the ticket,
as well as discounts, subscriptions, and referrals. When determining the rates, keep your
business’s position in mind. ‘High Quality’ services often cost more.
Typically, two factors determine price. First, the event manager must determine the
financial philosophy of the event. If the event is a not-for-profit venture, the organization
may not be concerned with a large commercial yield from the event. Instead, the
philosophical purpose of the event may be to generate overall awareness and support.
However, if the event is a commercial venture, the goal is probably to generate the greatest
potential net profit. Once the philosophy is clear, the event manager will be able to determine

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price. The price must reflect the cost of all goods and services required to produce the event
plus a margin of profit or retained earnings.
The second factor is the perceived competition from similar events. If your event ticket
costs $ Notes 100 and does not offer the same perceived value as a similar event selling for $
50, your prospective guests are more likely to select the latter event. Therefore, you must be
price-competitive. Becoming price-competitive does not mean lowering your ticket price.
Rather, it may require raising the perception of value (as discussed earlier) to justify the
slightly higher price.
PROMOTION: If no one knows about your event, how will they register for your event?
There it becomes necessary to promote your event. While promoting, you must calculate
each customer’s value and the cost of acquisition for each customer to run a proper
promotion. Social media, blogging, online advertising, and event billboards are some of the
ways of promotion.
You may have the best-quality event product, but unless you have a strategic plan for
promoting this product, it will remain the best kept secret in the world. Even large, well-
known mega events such as the Super Bowl, Rose Parade, and Olympic Games require well-
developed promotion strategies to achieve the success they require. Following is a systematic
checklist to assist you with identifying and budgeting for your event promotion:
1. Identify all event elements that require promotion from the proposal through the final
evaluation.
2. Develop strategies for allocating scarce event promotion resources with efficient
methods.
3. Identify promotion partners to share costs.
4. Target your promotion carefully to those market segments that will support your
event.
5. Measure and analyze your promotion efforts throughout the campaign to make
corrections as required.
The promotion strategy you identify for your event requires a careful study of past or
comparable efforts, expert guidance from people who have specific expertise in this field, and
most important, setting benchmarks for specific measurement of your individual promotion
activities. There are a variety of ways to measure promotion efforts. First, you may measure
awareness by your target market. Anticipation of the event may be tantamount to ultimate

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participation. Next, you may measure actual attendance and the resulting investment. Finally,
you may measure the post-event attitudes of the event promotional activity. Did the
promotions you designed persuade the participants or guests to attend the event? Promotion is
the engine that drives the awareness of your event by others. Throughout event history,
legendary promoters have realized that you must shamelessly promote your event product to
attract the attention of the public.
PLACE: This part is concerned with ‘where’ does your audience see your services? Your
events must be accessible to the customers at the right time and in the right place.
For example, earlier durable products were only available in the physical stores, but now
they are also available online.
The event manager must seriously consider place when designing the marketing program for
the event. Place not only implies the taste or style of the event, it also, in large part, defines
the type of person that will be persuaded to invest in the event. In this regard, the event
marketer must determine the place in the early stages through research and design. This is the
perfect time to convene a focus group or conduct a survey to determine who is likely to
attend your event when they are given a variety of location choices. Making certain you have
thoughtfully analyzed this important issue will save you time and money throughout the
entire event marketing process
PEOPLE: It concerns your associates, and how they treat the customers. It matters how
customers perceive you. Therefore, it is imperative that you and your associates have the
same level of compassion and empathy for your customers. The theme must go with your
objectives and audience. And lastly, make sure all marketing materials are around the core
theme.
4.5. Internal versus External Event Marketing
What is internal marketing?
Internal marketing refers to the process of motivating and empowering employees to work as
a team for the overall wellbeing of the company and consequently, the clients. A
synchronised effort within the company is essential to providing clients with services at the
desired level. The interaction of employees with clients mostly influences service quality
and client satisfaction to such an extent that it has become important for companies to focus
on ways to influence and manage these interactions.

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Internal marketing thus refers to the partnership or communication between
management and employees. The employees need to form part of the company’s vision, to
know what is expected of them. If the vision is clear, employees are provided with the
opportunity to learn and enhance and should be rewarded accordingly. This can be done by
means of recognition, benefits, salary increase, team building activities etc. The appropriate
funding should be allocated to keep internal clients satisfied, so staff retention will not
decrease.

What is external marketing?

External marketing is the action of promoting and selling services or products, which
includes market research and advertising to clients and potential clients. In service industries,
employees represent their company to clients through their interactions with them, and
therefore these interactions must be positive, so clients will keep coming back.

External marketing thus refers to the relationship between the company and its clients. The
aim should always be to increase the clients’ experience. The retention of clients is of vital
importance. Effort should be made to gather feedback on clients’ satisfaction and this
feedback should be used to improve internal systems.

4.6. Internet Event Marketing

The internet is an increasingly essential marketing tool. A good event website can offer
events a head start when it comes to targeting visitors from out the local area. Don’t fall into
the trap of simply putting your leaflet or brochure information on screen though. Use the
medium to build a picture of the experience, use photographs, site maps, provide information
on the program and links to other information sources, etc. Some things to consider:
- Always keep your site up to date.
- Ensure the site is easy to navigate – information should be no further than three clicks
away from the home page.
- Be aware of the full costs – design, domain name, hosting and maintenance.
- The site should be appropriately designed and optimized to ensure maximum hits.
4.7. Event Promotion
Media Advertising

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When considering which advertising platforms to use, think about the media that will best
reach your target audience. For example daily newspapers generally have a short life but a
high readership; monthly magazines have a longer shelf life and often a more targeted or
specialist readership; radio can provide repeated short messages and a high market
penetration; TV can appear expensive but can give your event a sense of credibility. The
starting point is to identify the media that is more likely to suit your needs (and your budget)
and then make contact with the various companies to request information about their
readership/audience profile, reach, advertising opportunities, cost and deadlines.
Direct Mail
Once you have developed your mailing list, it’s important that you use it effectively. Direct
Mail basically means personally addressed marketing information that you send by post to
your mailing list. On a basic level you can make sure that all on the list receive general
information about the event. For more sophisticated campaigns you may want to think about
segmenting the list so that you can target specific groups.

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