How Brands Can Reboot Live Events and Activations
There’s no question that brands, agencies, and companies face a permanently changed landscape once it’s safe to create physical experiences for the public again.
Shared experiences are a fundamental element of our economy. From ax-throwing bars to ice cream museums, new experiential business models have emerged over just the last few years that all revolve around getting people together. With the experience economy at a sudden halt, how can event marketers prepare for the world that awaits them post-pandemic?
Slowly, but surely — and with many precautions. But until it’s safe to create and hold events again, brands are living in limbo — revamping their content strategies, ramping up virtual events, and being as digitally present with their consumers as they can.
In this article, we’re sharing tips for how brands and marketers can reboot live events and activations in a post-pandemic world.
Ensure you have sufficient staff and resources
Tinsel Experiential Design, a New York-based event design and production agency, produces public activations and corporate events for brands like Spotify and Samsung. As you can imagine, the agency — like many others — had its spring and summer calendars wiped clean due to client cancellations, and its next scheduled event isn’t until September.
Because of these unprecedented cancellations, Tinsel had to cut staffing to just the founder and co-founder. Once it’s safe to hold physical events again, companies like Tinsel may face an initial shortage of staff and resources to execute new projects.
This means companies need to be proactive about searching for talent and capturing resources once events make their way back into the foreseeable future.
Rewire your pre-event marketing
Think about the hype surrounding the countdown until a big event. In the past, companies often touted the size of an event and the amount of people attending to generate more buzz around it. Because of the coronavirus crisis, those same factors have evolved from incentives to deterrents.
Ben Hindman, co-founder and CEO of event marketing automation platform Splash, said it will be imperative to shift pre-event strategy to reduce initial fear among attendees.
“When we come back, from a data standpoint, giving some level of data prior to going into an event is going to become more important to create a level of safety,” Hindman said.
This level of data could vary, but it may be a precaution like getting tested for COVID-19 or allowing someone to take your temperature before entering an event venue. Precautionary data like this can then be shared with prospective attendees, assuring them that that brands are adhering to safety protocols before admitting people into an event.
Adjust to new consumer mindsets
The coronavirus pandemic will have a long-lasting impact on how live events are perceived by consumers. The percentage of consumers who said attending large public events would scare them for a long time went up from 47% in March to 60% in May.
In our day and age, currency is the emotional connection between a consumer and brand. So when events and activations reemerge, nothing will be more emotional than providing ways for people to safely join back together.
In order to reboot experiential elements, brands will need to brainstorm creative ways to demonstrate empathy and build trust with their consumers. This means mapping the entire customer journey — from event registration to check-in to actually attending and navigating the event.
Rethink event layouts, formats, and venues
When events become safe to hold again, brands and agencies might consider creating more intimate, exclusive event formats with fewer people.
The reemergence of events will also challenge brands to find new communication styles — through intimacy, personal connection, and exclusivity.
Think about it: Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable feeling an event labeled “exclusive” rather than one that is free for all? As a result, events in a post-pandemic world will make way for forging real connections.
Brands should also reconsider the physical layout and design elements to help consumers maintain proper social-distancing protocols. This could mean using floor graphics to illustrate how far apart attendees should stand, or which directions are appropriate to walk in. Efforts like these can improve efficiency and reduce person-to-person interactions.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt people will delay going back to packed stadiums, sold-out concert venues, and other large-scale gatherings. But eventually — much like retail stores and restaurants — events and live venues will re-emerge with greatly reduced capacity limits.
While companies in experiential marketing have had to temporarily scale down and shift strategies, they can come back stronger than ever in a post-pandemic world. This down-time can be spent smartly — whether that’s getting ideas on paper, getting the graphic design process going, or staying actively engaged with clients.