What makes an event a “must attend” one? Is there a well-kept secret to persuading your attendees to keep coming back — preferably with a friend or colleague in tow?
If you’re not ready to double your budget or hire celebrity keynote speakers, event branding becomes an intelligent strategy to differentiate yourself and make a lasting impact.
As an experienced events platform, we understand the significance of effective event branding and the value it brings in terms of standing out from the crowd while being cost-effective.
Allow us to share our expertise and guide you in leveraging event branding to maximise your event’s success.
What is event branding?
Event branding is the process of creating a unique and memorable identity for an event, using visual and messaging elements such as the logo, colour scheme, and taglines.
The goal of event branding is to establish a cohesive brand identity that sets the event apart in the minds of attendees, sponsors, and potential partners. By doing so, event organisers can increase attendance, enhance engagement, and improve the overall experience of the event.
That’s why branding is more than just your logo or a catchy tagline. This is why cola is usually referred to as Coke, and TED conferences have become known for their fresh ideas.
When you brand your event, guests create a mental shortcut that helps simplify how they think about a product or experience. A lightbulb will go off later that reminds them, “oh yeah, that’s X company or event.”
To achieve this, event branding needs to be a collection of elements. Like features on a distinctive face, the more recognisable you make your event brand, the more memorable your event. While your event brand should reflect your organisation, it can — and should — be a brand of its own.
For example, people may think of your nonprofit as an aspirational good cause — that’s your brand. At the same time, you want them to think of your fundraiser as a not-to-be-missed, entertaining event. Your event brand should include your company’s brand with a little twist.
Think of it as a formula. Your brand + a little twist = your event brand.
What are the 4 elements of branding?
An event’s brand isn’t one thing; it’s a combination of details — big and small — that make it wonderful and memorable. Here are a few ideas to bring your brand to life at your event.
All the small things
Looking for an unforgettable touch? Add some swag in the form of branded pens, shirts, notebooks, and stickers. Great event swag gives people a permanent memory they can take home with them. It’s a way to give a lasting brand impression and a connection between your attendees’ positive memories and your brand.
Swag also makes your guests feel more appreciated. It’s a physical way to say “Thank you for coming!” that gives everyone a more positive impression of your brand, and it makes them more likely to come to your future events.
Gymshark incorporates its branding expertly at its fitness events. Its event planners make sure there’s plenty of Gymshark swag around in a variety of forms: hats, t-shirts, and jackets all boast its logo, so people see Gymshark branding wherever they look.
Gymshark-branded encouragement cards also give people positive messages they can take home with them.
Use your logo as decor
By integrating your logo into the event’s decorations, you create more unique opportunities for people to interact with your brand. Afterwards, your event logo will be in peoples’ pictures and memories of the event.
For example, if you’re organising a conference, use your logo as part of the stage backdrop. If you’re hosting an outdoor event, incorporate it into the fencing or place it inside branded railings or on flags. Carefully placed lighting can also help ensure people see your logo when they look at photos of the event.
For live events, you can also use your logo on design elements like tablecloths and napkins. But it works just as well for virtual events. You can try including it on virtual backgrounds for video calls or connect with them through a branded website.
The US-based event organiser Sakura Night Market always provides a photo wall with prominent branding for both the market and its vendors. That way, everyone who takes a picture and tells their friends about their amazing evening has a reminder of where they did it.
Customised snacks
Brand anything edible for your foodie followers. For drinks, you could offer a special cocktail or stirring sticks with your logo on it. This is especially effective for events themed around food. That way, the focus isn’t just on what people are eating but also on the brand they’re engaging with.
But make sure you’re pairing the flavours with your brand. For example, chocolate cake carries a different feeling than chocolate digestives — one that better suits some brands than others. You can also customise the food packaging to match your branding.
Social media branding
Track likes, shares, and retweets by creating your own hashtag. If you have a few thousand people attending your event, chances are they’ll post about it on social media. This gives other potential attendees a glimpse of what they can expect when they show up to your events. These multiplying benefits are why 60% of event organisers use social media to drive registrations.
People will also recognise the hashtag if they see it later and associate it with their positive memories from the event. This will help build brand recognition.
You can even create a bit of competition by encouraging your guests and your team to post pictures with the hashtag. All you have to do is offer a reward and invite people to participate by including it in all announcements leading up to your event.
Your hashtag doesn’t even need to be unique to your event.
Event organiser Black Culture Market capitalises on the hashtag #BlackHistoryMonth so that people searching the popular hashtag can find their event or other people talking about it.
But even with a trending hashtag, there’s more you need to do to improve your event’s branding. Your event branding should incorporate the core pillars of a strong brand to ensure it’s communicated clearly to your audience.
Pillars of a strong event brand
So what makes an event brand great? And how can you create a strong brand that resonates with attendees? First, let’s examine the essential qualities yours should have.
A successful brand can be summed up into a single word or phrase called the “brand promise”.
It’s not enough for your event to promise attendees “the best value” — all events should promise that, regardless of brand. Instead, the brand promise is a core concept that articulates what customers — or attendees — can expect from you (and only you).
As you consider your event brand promise, ensure it possesses the following qualities.
Uniqueness
Above all else, your brand promise must be unique. Potential attendees want to know how your event compares to others. So, it goes without saying that your event needs to promise something others can’t.
You can offer a unique social experience, guest performance, game, or product you’re demonstrating. Ensure that your attendees are fully aware of the exceptional value and distinctiveness of what you have to offer. By doing so, you’ll not only establish a unique identity for the event itself but also cultivate a powerful brand that extends far beyond that specific occasion.
Meaningful
To resonate with attendees, your brand promise must be relevant to their needs and desires. The first step to creating a meaningful brand experience is developing a profound understanding of the customer.
You can make your event more meaningful by customising its content to target your audience’s interests. What do they care about? What will make them want to attend again and bring their friends?
You can also reach out to your target audience and ask them what they’d like to see at the event. That way, you can tailor your offerings to their requests before you even start putting your marketing materials together.
Authentic
Authenticity is the benchmark all brands are being tested against. To earn trust and credibility, you’ll have to be true to yourself and your brand. Inauthenticity is one of the main detractors of brand relationships and your audience can definitely sense when you’re faking it.
The statistics support this as well. One study found that 90% of consumers say that authenticity is an important factor in what brands they support.
In order to make your event feel more authentic, try to create meaningful interactions with attendees. This could be one-on-one conversations, group activities or even an interactive performance. Seeing the people behind the brand creates a sense of trust and connection.
Consistent
Consistency is the last piece of the puzzle. From the first customer touchpoint to the last, every small detail must adhere to your brand promise — from your event website to the post-event survey.
In one survey, two-thirds of companies reported that consistency helped them grow revenues by at least 10%. That direct impact on cash flow underlines how critical consistency can be.
A few ways to make sure your event branding is consistent are:
- Use the same font, colours and messaging across all marketing channels and promotional materials.
- Choose a venue that reflects your brand’s values and personality.
- Encourage attendees to share photos and stories from their experiences on social media with branded hashtags.
Harness the power of meaningful, unique, authentic, and consistent branding to craft an event experience that boldly stands apart from the competition.
So, once you know the pillars of branding and the elements you can use, where do you start your work? We’ve made that easy at Eventbrite with our framework for building your brand.
Framework to build your event’s brand
Eventbrite’s event branding experts created a unique framework to simplify building an event brand: the branding pyramid. The branding pyramid helps you build emotional engagement with your attendees by taking you stepwise from the basic experience you’re providing them with and then building to a higher-level brand promise.
At the base of the pyramid is your basic offering. From there, you can build a brand identity by adding emotional connections and experiences for an even more successful event.
This can vary depending on the type of event you’re hosting. For example, at an eSports tournament, the product promise might be a “tournament-level video gaming competition.” The individual experience could offer prizes or giveaways to winners and attendees alike.
Finally, the higher-level brand experience could focus on creating community among players as well as fostering a sense of pride in being part of something bigger than themselves.
The eSports tournament might also bring in influencers or special guests to give tutorials, presentations, and live streams. This further bolsters the brand promise of a unique social experience that can’t be found anywhere else.
These experiences don’t have to be complicated — they could simply be providing refreshments for attendees or offering exclusive merchandise. Whatever you decide for your event, build the brand by thinking about the five steps of the pyramid:
- the service you offer
- your event’s unique features
- the logical benefits of those features
- the emotional benefits they provide
- the brand promise you make
To apply this powerful tool to your own events, try using this worksheet to help out! And remember: a promise is nothing if you can’t keep it. After you’ve carefully crafted and communicated your brand promise to attendees, you’ll be expected to deliver.
The art of a brand experience
Every interaction with an attendee is an opportunity to bring your event’s brand to life. From the speakers and sponsors to the giveaways in your event swag bag, sweating the details will result in long-lasting relationships with attendees.
For more in-depth insight on event branding, check out The Conference Organiser’s Guide to Branding. Above all else, make sure that you’re equipped with the tools you need to make your event branding stand out.
With industry-leading event marketing tools like Eventbrite, you can start with your event branding before anyone shows up. That way, you set the stage for everyone to have a memorable and amazing experience.
