The success of a corporate event is dependent on more than a big budget. It doesn’t matter if you throw a ridiculous amount of money at it, a poorly considered or executed event will be, at best, forgettable. At worst, it’ll harm your attendees perception of your business.
Brands, therefore, need to wake up to the importance of consumer engagement, and one way of doing this is by making your corporate events interactive. Here are a few ways to do this and why they’ll work.
Remember your corporate event needs to be worth its ROI
Snapdragon are experts in planning luxury corporate events. They state that “planning an event experience to achieve a measurable return on investment’. In luxury corporate events, as in any successful business event, it needs to build brand loyalty, encouraging engagement while creating a good memory.
Matthew David Hopkins, an expert in experiential marketing, calls events the ‘original interactive application.’ He believes corporate events offer the chances for people to “experience an organisation beyond the fundraising letter, to connect with like-minded individuals and to see a mission statement in action.”
Interactivity at events can work wonders as long as you do your research, stay on brand and consult with experts.
An event should be instagrammable
Or, in other words, memorable. Social media has become an essential tool for any brand, and making your event instagrammable is a sure way to promote the right brand image and get traction. Not only can you promote your event through Instagram, but if you create an event that will make people want to take photos and tweet, this can accelerate engagement with potential consumers and clients.
There’s a reason photo booths are so popular these days — they’re really fun and they provide attendees with an excellent, personal souvenir of an event. If your crowd is playful, provide some props or costume elements – like mascot costumes, for example – to up the whimsy factor. The Vintage Photobooth Company supplies stylistic photobooths, equipped with props to help with interactivity, to corporate events.
Corporate events should tell your brand’s story
Although your corporate event can be a great party, it’s important to know that it isn’t just a party. You are representing your businesses, and when doing this you must remain ‘on message’. Your corporate event is the perfect chance to tell a story.
If you can make your guests care and feel involved in the story that you’re telling with your event, then you can consider your event a success. Being interactive can help you do this more effectively. An interactive display can help inform your guests about your brand in a way that is far more engaging than a block of text or simply a speech.
Brooklyn Brewery’s 2016 international Mash tour, that included beer mansions equipped with live music, beer tutorials, food feasts and classic bar games, is the perfect example of how a business can turn a marketing event into a celebration of their brand in an interactive way.
You need to get to know your audience
With all corporate events, it is important to be clear about the objectives. These objectives should tie in to corporate goals, and the type of event you have will be strongly influenced by the outcome you are trying to achieve.
Ask yourself if you trying to impress high end clients with a luxury corporate event, or create a relatable space to network with your peers and colleagues?
Harking back to the basics of creating an interactive environment is as simple as having ‘point people’. These are representatives of your businesses that will actively communicate and mingle with guests rather than give a stale presentation. This will ensure that guests don’t feel excluded or left wondering who you are, what you do and what your event is even about.
Stay in touch after the event
One of the most important aspects of running an event and making sure that you have successfully communicated and engaged with your guests is to follow up and encourage further conversation. Something that is interactive is more likely to get more responses.
For instance, if you collate all of the images from the photographer, should you have one, or a photo booth, you could then provide a call to action to visit for guests to have access to all photos from the night in a public folder. Again, you could use this on Instagram or Facebook, where images are available on your brand profile, encouraging guests to engage with your brand further online and with each other as well.