Event marketing has long been left out of the interactivity of the digital age. While the computer is an indispensable communication tool and direct response mechanism for marketers, in reality, how many people walk through their lives -- let alone a special event, launch party, conference, or convention -- holding an open laptop? More likely, it is tethered to a desk, or at best, stowed and in the off position in a visitor's carrying case.
Given this on-site impracticality, an event's dedicated website is a useful interactive mechanism up to a certain point, and then rendered mostly obsolete and unnecessary at the very moment when the audience is at its most captive state. In this scenario, it is easy to understand why the digital options available to event marketers appear to be minimal.
Enter the mobile phone.
Even the most rudimentary mobile phones on the market offer a wide variety of interactive methods, and it is a fair assumption that virtually anyone who passes through the doors of your event is carrying one. By crafting smart mobile programs, event organizers can actively engage their audience, and in the process, extend revenue opportunities for their event partners and sponsors.
Beyond the event basics
The basic digital approach for event marketing is limited to website promotion before day one, and email collection throughout the course of a show for promotion after it ends. The time period missing is the event itself -- the time when consumer interest is naturally at its highest. This is prime time to advertise, update, publicize, and inform. Accessing the varying audiences of any event via the mobile phone fills this void, and enhances the before- and after-event components.
The mobile world is now available to any type of marketer or event promoter and is already widely used by major brands in varying industries. The allure of an attentive audience of 255 million consumers is attractive. The fact that they are active and focused enough to send over 50 billion text messages a month can move a marketer to salivation. But the question is how to successfully get in the flow of this activity. The key is knowledge and creativity.
Look past the technology
A look at the entire mobile audience for lowest common denominators reveals that consumers use their phones for multiple purposes, including voice, text and mobile web access. Smart marketers use and integrate each of these categories effectively to engage and market to their consumer. Further, they layer on greater functionality to cater to the smartphone group, including the flavor of the month, the "app." This approach creates a natural foundation that leaves no audience member behind due to technological constraint, and it is a roadmap that translates strongly to the event environment. While many professionals, such as those attending your event, carry advanced handsets like BlackBerrys and iPhones, it is important to see the audience possibilities and not just the shiniest technology. Your overall goal is to address the needs of -- or simply catch the attention of -- the different types of event attendees while they are your guests, in your venue.
Imagine if, for example, the organizers of the upcoming season of "Carbrand StyleWeek" are looking for ways to have more coordination with attendees and branding opportunities with its sponsors throughout its week-long, global event. A well-designed mobile program begins well before Day 1. Members of the press, photographers, attendees, sponsors, or any other group can pre-register their mobile phone to be part of the "CSW Mobile Style" campaign.
Now, with thousands of categorized registrants in its mobile database, the organizers, sponsors, and even individual designers can begin to send real-time updates -- with branding, of course -- to the attendees via text message, or to deliver daily audio briefings of the day's events only to the members of the press. It can offer the entire registered audience exclusive access to the latest fashion show photos right on their phones. The consistent issue of lost invitations or forgotten seat assignments is solved as well. Confirmations are delivered, either ahead of time or on-demand, to the attendee's phone and presented at the door. The mobile phone becomes the pass to access the show itself.
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