How do you understand event marketing?

Events and their recognition

It is hard not to notice that events gain more and more business value every day. This trend is, of course, very interesting and joyful for people like me, who work in the event industry. Finally, people start to notice the potential hidden behind something they interact with every day. And that potential is greater than anyone could suspect. To put it simply: events mean relationships. Business contacts. Knowing the right people. Many things going smoother just because someone’s got your back. Relationships sell well, because of their importance.

Therefore event marketing is not only a part of the marketing business, but it’s a part that develops dynamically like no other. Applications, softwares and all sort of new technologies helping to organize and carry-out an event pop up every day. Even the most problematic so far part of this industry – analytics is becoming slowly easier to do. New tools allow a marketer to create an event and, later, make sure it paid off. And, as I mentioned earlier – the potential of these things is enormous.

With all that, the whole advertising/marketing approach is beginning to change. As do the goals of these departments.

The problem with event marketing

While thinking about “event marketing” I noticed that there are different definitions of this term appearing on the Internet. This actually causes a bit of imbroglio when discussing the topic with other people. Commonly, in the event industry, event marketing means promotion of a certain, single event through different channels: social media, video content, influencers etc. in order to sell as many tickets as possible and, furthermore, make sure that the event brought us enough money.

But if you focus so much on the direct benefits you may actually lose the ability to see the big picture. That’s why I have a problem with this definition. It doesn’t include many things that are far more profitable for organizers or exhibitors, but just are a tad difficult to notice right away.

So, why are we stuck with this definition? If you think about it, social media marketing is simply promoting THROUGH social media not promoting social media.Cognitively event marketing would mean promoting something with an event, not promoting the event. I think event marketing does not predefine the thing that is being marketed but is in itself a marketing tool. Why wouldn’t events promote something? It was done many times already – if you think about it, every time any event is created not just for the sole purpose of the entertainment – it is event marketing. Think about meetings with politicians. Think about music festivals hosted by international companies.

For me it may be a milestone for our industry. Soon events will become an irreplaceable part of marketing for everyone. Perhaps it is time to ask yourself a question: How do you understand event marketing?