How to Boost Your Brand by Hosting Themed Proprietary Events

Sponsoring events has long been a staple of marketing, but it may be a good idea for your company to take that concept further than just putting its sign on someone else's attraction. The most impactful way to do this is to host the entire event so that it's all yours. Not only does this give you unlimited ad placements, it allows you to engineer the entire experience for both the participants and the audience. This type of extravaganza is known as a proprietary event.

Companies that have done well with these events have learned to focus on a few powerful goals that will help their brands and marketing efforts. Here are two of the top effects that your own events should seek to achieve:

Authenticity

When you host a proprietary event, you have total control over the experience. Use it to project a feeling that is authentic in light of your existing brand image. A good example has been set by beer company Corona, which typically advertises using beach imagery. At their event, they included underwater photos as an attraction. They also used several themes that fit beer in general, such as parties and music, to associate their brand with fun. Corona's proprietary events are tied in with larger EDM festivals, which gives them an easy way to bring an audience over to their areas.

A Connection with Attendees and Participants

Proprietary events are the perfect vehicles for providing a fully-immersive experience that will form a bond with those who partake. Such an effect was achieved by energy bar maker CLIF Bar, which recently held events involving costumed teams of four who raced through an obstacle course. Seventy-five teams partook in the challenge, while 8,300 spectators looked on. This themed event was perfect for the company since it established a connection not only with fans, but with its own image as a brand for physically-active people.

Other Opportunities to Consider

As the host of an event, your company has the chance to bring in appropriate sponsors of its own. For example, when CLIF hosts events, it often allows local companies like bicycle shops to join in on the fun.

Done correctly, allowing smaller companies to get in on the show will simply further your theme and help cement your own brand's position in the market. Of course, sponsors also help to defray the costs of hosting the event.

If you're looking for a Miami venue for a proprietary event, contact us here at Soho Studios. We have up to 70,000 square feet of configurable space for your new extravaganza.

How to Host an Event that Exceeds Expectations

Event marketing is one of the best ways to grow your customer base while creating engagement opportunities that build rapport as well as your brand's reputation in the industry. However, your event must be memorable if you want it to make an impact. Here are four great ways to host a memorable event that exceeds everyone's expectations.

1. Develop a Creative Theme

You will need to develop a creative, cohesive theme that builds a seamless brand experience. Your theme needs to be different than what everyone else is doing. You could use a current event to liven things up. Think about how Saturday Night Live uses satire to build their show and make it memorable to the point the media talks about it for a week after it has aired.

2. Create an Interactive Experience

It's not enough to just have a booth and hand out giveaways as people stop by. You need to create an experience that gets your visitors actively involved in the parts of your business you are trying to promote. Visitors need to be able to feel, touch, taste and enjoy the experience if you want them to remember it favorably. You could use games or a booth within a booth where you could serve refreshments and have your visitors sit down and use your products for a more hands-on experience. But whatever you do, it will have to be fun and memorable if you want to make a great impression.

3. Host a Workshop

Set aside some time at your event to host a workshop where you can either entertain or educate your visitors. Perhaps a popular band or comedian or you could have a DIY session and provide your visitors with a valuable giveaway. Something so valuable they can't believe you gave it away for free. This is a great way to make your event memorable. Then as your visitors use and love your giveaway, to the point they can't live without it, they will contact you to find out what else you might have that would be valuable to them as well. They already love your giveaway so you've built trust which makes it easier to sell them something else of a higher value.

4. Use Multiple Touch Points

People are busy so unless you use multiple touch points your event probably won't be successful or memorable. You should be using a mix of direct mail, email, social media and other types of paid promotions if you want to get people talking and excited about attending your event. Just make sure you are matching your promotions with the right segments of your audience. That might mean you need to have different types of promotions for each group such as one promo based on job titles, one for each industry and another for specific locations if you want them to be more relevant and impactful.