Entertainment for events - DJ Shadow, LCD Soundsystem, The XX

Smart event planners know how important the role of entertainment is to a successful event. Whether the event is the wedding of the year or a 50,000 person music festival, entertainment can be the glue that holds all of the other event elements together. The choice of the entertainment for events is influenced by various factors, the biggest one being the role that the entertainment for a particular event will play. For example if you are producing an event, such as a large scale live concert, it is important to select entertainment that you know will help to sell tickets and pack the house.

The past weekend at the III Points event in Miami, DJ Shadow performed an amazing show at a large scale venue in Miami. Other notable performances by LCD Sound System front man James Murphy and Jamie XX from The XX were also included in the 3 day long music and arts festival. Although this was the first year for the music festival, these events were highly attended due to the entertainment selection.

Entertainment can be used for creating the hype prior to the event. In this case entertainment is used to publicize the event and draw many people to the event, For example an event planner can invite a celebrity guest host, like a musician or a comedian to be part of an event and offer entertainment to guests. Many people are likely to be drawn to the event if their favorite celebrity is going to be there.

Another very important function of entertainment in an event is that it breaks the monotony and reduces boredom in an event. A concentration of serious talks and business of the event can cause boredom to the invited guests. This calls for entertainment to be integrated in the business of the day. For example a poem by an artist can be integrated between different speeches. Performance of musicians could be integrated between different sections as this kind of entertainment may require a little bit of reorganization of the stage. For this role of entertainment to be achieved it is important that the planning team for an event allocate time wisely. In addition the choice of the entertainment at a given time should be very considerate.

Entertainment for events also plays the role of communicating the theme of the event. This occurs majorly in events such as launch parties, promotions and community related events. In this case, a poem can have the theme of an event and lead the participants towards a given direction. If entertainment is playing this role then the cost and time allocated to it can be increased as more benefits will be reaped. It is very essential for a company to pre determine the cost of entertainment so that the cost used in entertainment for an event does not outweigh the benefits reaped.  The planning team should also source for entertainment that is quality but also considerably cheap.

How to find the Perfect Event Space

What makes a good event space for one event is potentially disastrous for another event. Various venues are suitable for different purposes. Can you imagine a religious convention in a place that serves alcohol? What about a business conference in a venue that hosts a football match? There are a number of factors to consider before making a decision on where to host an event. From location and amenities to capacity and budget, an event planner should have all these factors evaluated before deciding that a venue is perfect for the event.

Soho Studios is the premier event space in Miami that features 70,000 sq ft of trans-formative space for events. Be sure to connect with the team of experts at Soho Studios to help you plan your next event.

Amenities List Request

An event planner should ask for the amenities list from several facilities’ managers before settling on one venue to host his event. Most event organizers will require amenities such as disabled access, parking, proper accommodation, availability of catering services, rooms available among others. What is important here is to ensure that the amenities available at the venue suit the needs of the guests expected to attend the event. Finding the perfect event space may be a herculean task, but an event planner should not compromise more than 10% of his expectations of a venue where they intend to host a successful event.

Actual Visitation of the Venue

Before you confirm the venue as suitable for your event, you should to make an actual physical visitation. Most people will say their facilities are fit for human habitation but it is important to confirm in person that there are no issues with the venue, such as unkempt grounds, poor plumbing, limited available restrooms, and other small issues that are cannot be determined without a visit to the venue. Make sure that all your venue requirements are in order before you commit your money and success of your event to the venue.

Catering

If the facility has in-house catering services, how efficient are they? What is the menu on offer? Is the menu appropriate for your guests? If the facility does offer catering services, can they recommend a solution? Are there restaurants near by that would work? Is the food in the restaurant within the realm of your budget?  These are just some of the questions you should ask yourself as far as your event attendant’s daily food rations are concerned. Find the perfect event space for your event in terms of catering.

Budget

One of the cardinal rules in business is to stay within your budget no matter what. However, this rule may not be very friendly to event organizers. Your budget maybe too small that affording decent event space may be out of your reach. You are better off not hosting an event, than hosting an event in a shabby facility. True, your targeted market may not be well off or might not mind, but this directly reflects on your ability to sponsor decent events. Finding the perfect event space should be a priority for any event organizer. Anything short of this looks, at best, unprofessional.

Event Promotion

Event Promotion

All the efforts into event planning will be useless if the targeted market does not attend the event. This brings in a concept called event promotion. Promoting an event is making the people that are targeted by the event organizers not only to attend, but also to want to attend. Over the years event organizers have come up with ideas that have not only made their events successful, but also memorable.

There have been panel discussions at Winter Music Conference by leaders in the IDM music industry and concert promotion offering their experience in event promotion.

Here are some ideas to get you going…

Be Concise in the Advertisement Media

You probably have been given a flyer of an event at one point in your life. How much of the information do you read? A paragraph utmost? This is precisely why your advertisement media should be brief and clear. You must communicate what you want to pass on in your event promotion material within the first sentence.

Promotion Transfers

This is like the student exchange program, only this time it is with the media stations such as TVs and radios. What happens here is that you promise to promote them on your flyers if they slot in an ad of your event in their programs. Remember radios and TVs have a very wide reach to targeted people. Actually, they are the best form of event promotion there is today.

Social Media

This is the newest method of event promotion. A good example will be opening a page on Facebook for your event, link it with your website and other social media platforms such as twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. Social media has a very wide reach. If you are able to market your event well on social media, it will be an instant success. You can give discounted tickets to people that like your event page on Facebook.

Concentrate on your Target Audience

Do not waste a lot of the resources allocated to the event promotion budget on people who may not attend your event. The industry standard is spending 70% of your event promotion budget on the target audience. If you are promoting a religious convention, concentrate on Christian media and websites to get the message across. Promoting the event in sports websites is counterproductive…you get the drift.

Get your Facts Right

There is nothing that has a devastating effect on events’ attendance like a sudden change of venue or participants. If your promotion material says person ‘X’ will be addressing the meeting or band ‘Y’ will be performing or the event will take place at venue ‘A’, please let these facts be right. A sudden change of the facts as per your event promotion material will make your event look disorganized. People like being associated with events that are properly organized. Do your best to keep your word as shown in your event promotion material. This industry is built on reputation and if yours is good, you will find organizing and promoting events an easy task.

Prepare for any Eventuality

It is expected that things will not go as expected in major events. As an events promoter, you should be prepared for these eventualities with an alternative program. You should have a plan A, B, and C for any event that you are promoting.

Entertainment for events

Entertainment for events is a must for an occasion to be successful. Clients are persistently seeking for new and different types of entertainment for events that position their companies to become a center point of cutting edge culture. We live in a time where attention spans are short and it is important that entertainment for events hold the participants attention. Event Planners are always looking for new and imaginative ideas to bring unforgettable experiences to their respective clients.

Recently Dr.Pepper produced an event to promote their brand featuring hip-hop artist Pitbull and Friends at the legendary LIV Nightclub in Miami Beach.

Here  are some ideas when you to help you to meet challenges in the name of live entertainment as well as performances:

Ensure you know exactly what your client expects and requires from you. This means you need to have a deep understanding of the objective behind the whole event. The better the understanding between you and the client the better are the chances that you would deliver what is exactly expected.

There is simply no substitute for the work of specialists in the entertainment industry. This spreads to the category from choreography to the live set ups. In instances when the entertainment for events is live,  performers would also pitch in ideas as to what can be done to make it great. The performers would not only their roles inside out but would ingrain newer stuff as per the theme of the whole occasion.

Form an effective relationship with the entertainment groups. Consider it more of a team kind of partnership so that the exchange of ideas is mutual and debatable. Also, when it comes to arranging entertainment for events, a reputable and professional company should first come to your mind. This is because these people brainstorm innovative tips and ideas that might hit the jackpot for you. This not only saves a lot of time but you also get some fruit with them at the end of the day.

Your communication with the production team is vital. They need to be in constant contact with the entertainment plans you have. This is because there are many things to manage in entertainment for events for instance, perfection in lighting to the sound system providing consistent quality throughout the live performance. Unbroken communication can be your ultimate problem solver at the end of the day since you will have to invest in many ways to make your day smooth and successful.

Ensure that when you are entrusted to come up with newer entertainment for events ideas, you are in compliance with the requirements. If it’s a performer you have chosen with their technical particularities then make sure that the production people are aware and dealt with in the earliest.

Finally, do not drag the performances more than they are needed. The rule of thumb with performances is that you need to let the audiences in awe, wanting for more. So, in the end it’s all about building the impact, right from the start. Though this may sound pretty simplistic this is what makes entertainment for events a big deal and different from one other.

Event Catering

Catering is the professional preparation and serving of food and beverages. Event planners find it a convenient method of advancing their guest’s hospitality needs. The business is booming – and why not – the hospitality industry has upped its game. But what does event catering entail? What are the expected industry minimum standards? Well, like all businesses, it requires professionalism and meticulous planning. Without a good team, event catering will be a bad experience for the person organizing it.

A great example of an event where you can find a wide variety of catering for events in Miami is The South Beach Wine and Food Festival. The Wine and Food Festival is four day culinary extravaganza that features wine and cuisine from all over the planet.

Below are the various stages of an event catering process.

Cooking and Delivery

To be successful at event catering, caterers need to be adept at food preparation and cooking. To be a professional cook or chef, you need to have under gone at least 3 years training in a food and hospitality college. Hygiene when cooking food cannot be gainsaid. The most successful event catering business is the one that observes personal hygiene almost to the level of eccentricity. You need to have the necessary cooking utensils such as cooking pots, cooking pans, cooking sticks etc. Good cooking is one thing, delivering the food in a hygienic and professional manner is another. Food delivery is a nightmare if you do not have the right equipment. You need to have automobiles that are sanitized, good packaging utensils and crockery, and refrigerated vans for perishable vegetables and drinks. You need to be able to deliver the food in time, serve in time and clear out the event venue in time. Event catering is a time conscious business.

Staffing Logistics

Event catering should be an organized affair. You will need to have the kitchen staff, the transportation staff, the waiting staff, managers, suppliers of food materials to the kitchen, event decorators as well as cleaning staff. As an owner of an event catering business, you will be expected to handle this staffing logistics with ease. Before taking up an event catering job, this entire staff must be in place. Failure to have the necessary staff is planning to fail.

Event Venue Preparation and Serving

Most companies that outsource event catering services expect the catering firm to decorate and arrange the venue as well as serve the guests. From event themes and colors to table arrangement and fixing a temporary bar and kitchen, a manager at a catering firm is expected to have the event venue ready. Note that event catering is not a business for the faint hearted or the disorganized. It is a business for people with excellent planning capabilities. To handle the large number of people and logistics, you need to have management skills and high emotional quotient. You will need to be able to balance competing egos with your business agenda. From arrival times of the various event guests to meal times and beverages servings, a caterer will have his hands full. Always remember to ask what kind of guests will be attending the event. You do not want to be caught off guard by having guests that are vegetarians, teetotalers, or those that are restricted by their religions from taking certain foods. Event catering is a highly complex and demanding business, yet being involved in it is both exhilarating and involving.

BBC's Augmented Reality and Polar Bears--Experiential Marketing in Action

Few companies or organizations have leveraged augmented reality events as effectively as the BBC did during the promotion of its Frozen Planet Blu-ray/DVD release. Working together with Appshaker, the BBC created a virtual experience which allowed those at the event to stand amongst player bears, dolphins, polar bears, seals, and other wildlife. The event demonstrated a highly impressive application of experiential marketing, one of the most valuable and underused tactics in the marketing game.

Watch Video - BBC'S Frozen Planet

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, that's alright; it's really quite simple. Experiential marketing engages consumers in as many ways as possible: intellectually, physically, and emotionally. If you're familiar with advanced teaching and memorization methods such as full-brain learning, active learning, or the method of loci, you might see the benefits. In essence, experiential marketing associates a product or brand with as many forms of memory as possible; by engaging with gestures, emotions, and logical thoughts an event, website, or advertisement can generate a much stronger impression.

The BBC pulled this off perfectly. The highly-realistic, interactive environment generated by the Appshaker team grabbed visitors and didn't let them go. They also took advantage of onlookers at the event and abroad, engaging their imaginations and giving them something interesting to talk about; polar bears may be a bit interesting, but polar bears and augmented reality will catch anyone's attention.

Of course, not every company has access to the kind of resources the BBC does, but the basics of experiential marketing work in many different contexts. On the simplest level, any method of mentally or physically engaging the consumer works. A print ad using vivid colors and imagery and implementing textures, smells, or puzzles can make an impact. A website with a high-tech interface, a banner ad with a built-in game, the possibilities are endless. A physical event will always trump the others, though, thanks to the strength of physical memory.

If you're planning any experiential events in Miami, you need an excellent location if you want your visitors wowed. Based in the Wynwood District, Soho Studios' 65,000 square foot event space and convention center is one of the best venues in Miami—ideal for any company or organization looking for a new way to market.

Interactive Art Installation at London Royal Hospital

Experiential marketing uses computerized art that engages the viewer in a way that the participant becomes one with the art. According to how the viewer reacts, the outcome of the image changes. It’s a wonderful opportunity to use art as a backdrop that creates a dialogue between the creator and the viewer and can be used to convey any sort of message or theme. Rather than being a mere spectator, the participant has a direct role to play making the experience challenging and memorable. There is a venue in Miami that draws large crowds as a central location for large marketing events.

In the UK, an arts organization commissioned the creation of interactive games on a giant TV screen on display at the London Royal Hospital. As an experiential marketing installation, it receives a lot of visitors and publicity, which can only be good for the hospital’s image and brand. The experience is great fun for the children as they interact with the ever-changing scene. In this hospital setting, it is not only a marketing tool as it is geared towards providing the exercise and physical therapy suited to children with varying ailments.

Watch Video – Woodland Wiggle at London Royal Hospital

Working with sensors, the interactive marketing events in Miami gauge the conditions of the area such as movement within the room, variances in temperature and changing distances. Other variables can be programmed into the installation meant to trigger certain types of responses or activity. The communication that takes place between the viewer and the computer produce a totally new type of dialogue with its own interpretation.

As with all marketing concepts, experiential marketing leads the audience or the participant towards an intended theme or message. By creating a real-time interactive experience with the viewer, the message projected on the wall or screen is personalized and internalized in a much deeper way than a more traditional method of marketing the same concept.

Interactive print ads from Vogue

One effect of the Digital Age is that people are becoming more stimulated than ever. From a marketing perspective, it is becoming more apparent that new methods are needed to get a consumer’s attention, maintain their attention, and then get them to buy. To respond to shift in consumer response, marketing gurus are now using experiential marketing techniques to appeal to consumers.

What Is Experiential Marketing And Why Does It Work?

Experiential marketing is an approach to communicating a product or service that invokes one or more of the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. Traditional forms of distance marketing, such as television and radio ads are being replaced with more unique methods, such as outdoor displays and exhibits, street performances, and augmented reality demonstrations.

To understand experiential marketing on a small scale, consider the popularity of perfume samples and “scratch and sniff” opportunities in magazines. Magazines are now starting to get even more personal. The interactive print ads developed for Vogue.com are great examples. One ad for eye makeup allows the consumer to place the camera on their mobile device over an image of a model who is wearing a particular brand of eye makeup. The consumer is able to view the step-by-step process of creating the look.

Watch the Vogue campaign - Interactive Print Ads from Vogue

There are five key reasons why this experiential marketing campaign works:

- Connects consumers with the product

- Offers an opportunity to experience the product

- Highly likely to generate word-of-mouth

- Educates consumers about the product

- Intensifies the product’s brand message

To see experiential marketing in action, all you have to do is attend one or more of the surplus of social events in Miami. Although more rare, but increasing in usage, experiential marketing campaigns are also starting to crop up in unusual venues in Miami such as street corners and shopping malls. In both instances, the product or service is introduced in the consumer’s natural habitat.

Conclusion

Experiential marketing is now in its infancy, but is sure to gain usage as consumers continue to demand more of a deeper experience with products and services. It shouldn't surprise you if you walk down the street and have an opportunity to have a face-to-face encounter with a product or service.

Engaging the audience with Porsche's Spirited Escape

As part of the Boxster ad campaign, Porsche and Men's Journal joined forces with former NFL star and current adventure traveler Dhani Jones. Driving a bright red Boxster, Jones takes to the streets, back roads and mountain curves of the East Coast in Spirited Escapes. This seven-episode videologue followed Jones as he talks to tradesmen who are living in different regions on the eastern highways as noted by Porsche Cars North America. This marketing campaign blurs the lines of product and service of both the Boxster and the goods made by the men in the videos. Through the subliminal metaphors of quality, craftsmanship and simplicity, you take away the feeling that Porsche designers and American tradesmen have forged a common bond.

Watch Video - Porsche's Spirited Escape Kick Off

Using the aspect of social engagement, a term that is increasingly becoming a part of the Internet world through the use of social media to drive page rankings, Porsche takes experiential marketing onto the streets. They have found a way to recognize the common ground between luxury car manufacturers and butchers, bicycle builders, music producers, journalists, and fishing instructors. The videos showcase Americans from Brooklyn to Birmingham, extending beyond regional dividing lines. A satisfactory showcase of experiential marketing, this ad campaign brings the Boxster within reach of a wider audience than possibly it ever has before now.

Soho Studios in Miami FL

If you are looking for a way to drive social engagement into your next ad campaign, consider the accessibility of events in Florida. At Soho Studios, the premium venue in Miami, your limit is beyond the sky. We offer a 65,000 sq. ft. space that offers multifunctional opportunities for ad campaigns and experiential marketing. Create a state of the art showcase for the largest and most diverse audience in the Southeast at this Miami locale. You will be in the same place that hosts the legendary Ultra Music Festival each year, as well as high end Miami Fashion Week and the experimental Art Basel Miami. Whether you are looking for a space to provide an interactive exhibit, or you need a diverse space where you can shoot your next video, Soho Studios is the place to be.

Heineken Roulette at JFK

Imagine you are at the airport. You may be heading home or going on vacation. Perhaps it's a business trip or your heading out to visit Mom and Dad. There in front of you is a giant electronic billboard that offers you a free trip almost anywhere. The problem? You have to drop everything, take the trip right then and there, and because the trips are electronically chosen at random, it could literally be to anywhere. What would you do?

This was part of an experiential marketing effort by Heineken Beer as part of their “Dropped” campaign. Experiential marketing seeks to involve the consumer with the brand to better connect the two. In the case of Heineken, they are trying to appeal to the adventurous side of us and their “Departure Roulette” did that for many at JFK airport. It didn’t even matter how many actually took the trip because the impact has been made. The YouTube video of the stunt has over 2 million views. That's pretty impressive for what amounts to a two minute commercial for Heineken Beer.

Experiential Marketing in Florida

If you are exploring experiential marketing, or looking for space in South Florida, we invite you to connect with Soho Studios. Of all the venues in Miami, Soho Studios can provide you with THE premier event space the city has to offer. Let us help you take advantage of Miami’s event season November through March. More and more experiential marketing events in Florida are taking place and our creative team can help make yours come to life.

If you are in search of a photography studio Miami uses for a variety of shoots, or an event space Miami turns to for some of its hottest parties, contact Soho Studios. With over 65,000 square feet of versatile space, we are perfect for videos, conventions, meetings and experiential marketing efforts. Learn why companies like Ford, Evian, Puma and Absolut have come to trust Soho as their go-to location in South Florida. Let’s get together and discuss what we can do for you!