Attendees remember and value great experiences at events and conferences. The others, they forget! You can build strong relationships and a powerful event brand only if you consistently deliver on your “event promise.” Take 60 seconds to learn how.

People Love Brands

Brands are our comfortable friends. They are reassuring, stable and reliable. But we aren’t fickle. We love brands that have earned our loyalty. That’s what you want for your event or conference. If you’re ready here’s how to turn your event into a brand.

Truth #1: You don’t become a brand by slapping a logo and a name on every available surface or person. That’s not branding – it’s labeling. It doesn’t do anything but thrill the printer, promotional tchotchke company and the t-shirt supplier.

Truth #2: Customers create brands, just like attendees create events. Your “event brand” isn’t the actual event, speakers, content or activities. It’s how people experience all of those things.

The Event Experience is Your Brand

It doesn’t matter if you’re promoting a conference or a breakfast cereal – your brand lives and dies by the experience it provides and how the experience creates a relationship.

Event hosts and planners always try to measure the success of an event in business terms, but attendees measure it in personal terms. Attendees don’t always immediately realize the value of the information, insight and training. But they instantly know if they enjoyed the sessions.

Events that have become successful brands got there because of the right balance of people, content and experiences. Their success has very little to do with high-budget advertising and logos. They succeed because they deliver their event promise.

Make Your Event a Mega-Brand Builder

Here’s Truth #3: An experience-driven event is a combination of engagement, information, networking and marketing. It’s everything a company could want in a single package! But 95% of events, conferences and conventions repackage the same design year after year. Huge mistake. Attendees see them as slow, clumsy, outdated, boring and unimaginative. That’s everything your company doesn’t want!

So let’s make your event into a brand. You start by deconstructing the event. That’s right – pull it all apart! If you were doing the event for the first time, how would it be different? You can’t become a brand by doing everything the same way you’ve been doing them. Remember, brands are relationships – they aren’t all the bits and pieces of the event.

3 Brand Basics You Can’t Afford to Ignore

There are three absolutely critical things you need to think through first. These are the foundations of your Event Brand.

1. What do you want your event to be known for?

Your event brand has to stand for something. Lots of companies and products come and go without becoming recognizable brands. It’s like the old philosophical experiment about a tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear it. If a brand isn’t noticed by anyone or isn’t known for anything – is it still a brand?

2. What is your event brand ambition?

Define your vision. What do you want the event to become over time? Do you want to be the foremost gathering for corporate marketing gurus? In short, what do you want to be when you grow up?

3. What is your event promise?

Marketers of consumer products know that every brand has to have a brand promise. Basically it’s telling consumers “what’s in it for you.” To turn your event into a brand, you have to develop an Event Promise. The Event Promise is what attendees will gain and the results they can expect wherever and whenever they interact with anyone and anything associated with your event.

If that sounds like a “big dang deal,” it is. The Event Promise is the single most important part of a conference, convention and event. It’s why people attend and how they decide if they received enough value for their time and money.

Your event can’t become a brand without these three things. Everything else builds on them.

Just Show People Who You Are

Let’s go to the next step. It’s easy. You’ve deconstructed your event, examined and questioned all the strategy, tactics and components. Now let’s put it back together and show people who you are. It doesn’t take consultants, studies and $500,000 fees. All you have do is think like a breakfast cereal. I call it The Cheerios Concept.

The Cheerios Concept

Cheerios breakfast cereal has been a global best seller since the 1940s. General Mills has turned its brand into a super-power with a simple, flexible concept. You can use the same concept to turn your event into a brand. Just like the successful cereal, you have to start with a product that people want and enjoy.

Okay, let’s build your event brand using the Cheerios Concept. This is the structure of how you structure your event and communicate it to everyone.

• Put the big benefit up front. Brands emphasize benefits. What does the event mean to the attendee? The Big Benefit is priority #1 because you want to get personal, grab attention and make people curious. This establishes the context for your name.

• Have a recognizable name that’s unique. Annual Sales Conference isn’t going raise anyone’s blood pressure. Leadership Conference isn’t sexy or interesting. On a grocery shelf filled with 100 different cereals, would you be attracted by a box labeled – Breakfast Cereal? People have to know and remember who you are. Just taking the basic description of the event and putting the current year in front of it isn’t branding. It isn’t marketing. It’s lazy.

• Make your Event Promise. This is the most important thing to decide.The Event Promise explains “what this means to you.” If you can’t set expectations for what attendees will gain from attending the event, you honestly don’t have a brand. Be confident. Would you buy a product that claims “maybe you might enjoy this”?

• Use graphics and imagery that support the Event Promise. Everything supports the Event Promise. If you highlight a world-class location, use it. If you are a technology showcase, then illustrate it. There are tons of stock widgets, symbols and graphics that can fill up space, but ignore them. People are visual, so make a very strong, direct connection between your imagery and what you are promising.

• Emphasize the details and specs last. Details, content, speakers and logistics are important, but they are what buyers/attendees need last in the decision-making process. If they don’t recognize the value of attendance, those details don’t matter.

• Create a Total Picture. Make sure you deliver a clear and attractive picture of the event, what it promises, and the key benefits. Ensure that the attendee has all she/he needs to make a decision.

Persistent and Consistent

Congratulations! You have taken giant steps toward establishing your Event Brand. Plus, the things you’ve decided can become a framework for the event design. They are the foundation of the content. They set the standards for the attendee experiences. Now be persistent and consistent. To become an Brand follow this structure in every aspect of the event.

Just remember: If something doesn’t support the three Brand Basics, it doesn’t support your brand. Take the time to deliver a persistent and consistent message in every communication and marketing piece. I know it’s a big temptation to leave things out, but look back at Cheerios or Coca-Cola. Their sales success over time is based on being reliable. You know what you’re going to get – every time.

If You’re Bold, You’re SOLD

By having a distinctive identity, promise and benefits, you will build stronger relationships throughout every aspect of the meeting. You will consistently represent the company and products in every experience. But – even more important – your attendees will know who you are and why they like you.

Be bold, stand out and have a recognizable personality. Your meeting will be more than an event; it will be a brand.

Let’s spend 15 minutes talking about your next project or challenge. It’s a free consultation so we can get to know each other. Just click on CONTACT US or send an email to andy@ideagroupatlanta.com and get in touch.

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