As an event planner, you want to entice your audience in every way possible to attend an event. Sure, there are the usual go-to’s when planning your event marketing strategy – some of those range from creating an engaging website with collateral downloads, information on how to get the event app, and of course, exciting games and offers to win giveaways during and after the event.
Marketing to attendees continues to change year over year, and nonetheless continues to exceed attendee’s expectations – staying ahead of the technology curve by improving ways in which event planners stay in touch with attendees.
Planners can provide attendees with updates in real time, and make sure they are in-the-know, 24/7 by using event apps, updating website content and sending emails, and one of the faster forms of communication– video.
Video is the preferred communication style for a lot of today’s tech-savvy event attendees. A recent study revealed 18-34 Year Olds Are Watching 53% More Online Video today. Seeing a visual update in a fun, creative way, is more appealing than a bland text-heavy email. Video creates a strong, immediate impact with an emotional connection for any viewer.
Let’s take a look at the top 4 ways event planners can be sure to capitalize on the power of video engagement.
1 – Report Updates in Real Time
With popular video apps such as Vine and Instagram’s Hyperlapse, reporting show-floor news or trends in quick 15 or 30 second shots can keep attendees up-to-date and socially aware about what’s trending at an event.
Put together a fun highlight reel introducing the keynote speakers as a different and clever way of presenting industry experts to the attendees. Think outside of the box.
Do quick one-minute recaps highlighting what happened at the event each day. An example of a brand using Instagram video to do this is Now This News. They do a great job of bundling real-time news stories into 15-second preview videos. You can check them out on their Instagram page here. The goal is to keep your audience’s attention in new and exciting ways.
Through video, you’re allowing a visual representation of the event to be shown, so make it count.
2 – Lights. Camera. Personalize.
Be sure you’re creating valuable digital content for the viewer. If you’re selling a product in your booth, create fun, informative short-form videos that walk people through your product and brand. These are meant to be shorter than a product demo to entice an attendee to stop by your booth, so be playful, and make sure to drive home what you’re selling.
Brands such as Intel and GE (not exactly the most glamorous brands, but great B2B marketing brands) have done some cool stuff on Instagram video, creating behind the scenes product videos and interesting DIY how-to instructional videos for consumers.
Video marketing encourages people to visit, buy, and support your brand. With sites such as YouTube and Vimeo at the tip of your fingers, it’s easy to upload your short-form videos from the tradeshow floor in seconds. As the event planner, you can create quick how-to videos. A fun how-to video could be showing visitors how-to have fun in the city where the event is located, or how-to use the event app. Entertain attendees in the videos, but remember the end goal is to help the person(s) watching the video – interact and personalize to keep people engaged.
3- Video as the Social Ruler
Video content is king when it comes to social media today. Use video to virally promote fun contests and giveaways taking place at events. Being able to see not only the prizes given away at events, but also the winners makes the use of video so much more fun. Lots of brands are rocking it by using video to promote their presence at upcoming events.
Get your team together and shoot fun reasons why you’re attending an event, and why people should stop by your booth – creatively display your booth giveaways in the video, and promote speaking sessions you may be doing. Use the power of video to make your brand stand out from the sea of other vendors.
Socially promote the video with the event hashtag, and send it out via email to your user base. A tweet with a creative video is more likely to get re-tweeted and virally watched over the massive thousands of text tweets attendees see on an hourly basis.
4- It’s All About Storytelling
Video produces a deeper engagement with audiences than a long, drawn out page of text. There’s a rich involvement in creating a video – whether it’s one minute or 60 minutes. Any video should have two goals – engage with the viewer, and tell a story.
Be creative – use captions, music, anything that makes the story compelling and thoughtful. For example, take attendees “behind the scenes” and show them what goes into putting an entire event together.
Or, as a vendor, create a fun Hyperlapse video of your booth being built. A great example here is a Vine video Adidas did that shows the evolution of the World Cup soccer balls from the debuting 1970 Mexico design to this year’s polychrome soccer ball we all saw in person or on TV showcased in Brazil. There’s a creative story behind every brand, so dig deep and find it. Remember to just tell a story – it’s that simple.
In Conclusion
Video is vastly becoming the most effective form of communication and sharing for event content and trends to broader audiences today. We’re seeing richer and larger involvement in video in our day-to-day lives, and in promoting, planning and distributing event content.
This trend will only continue to grow, and move towards faster and simpler short-form videos due to shorter attention spans, and the need for real-time education and news alerts. And why not – video marketing has become one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to promote a brand today.
