Is this occasion worth an event?
No matter the occasion, if you have a milestone worth mentioning, we believe it’s worth a event. As businesses, it’s always worth celebrating your wins. Because if you don’t make a big deal out of it, who will?
When it comes to events, clients will sometimes come to us tentatively asking if their upcoming occasion, milestone, or launch is worth a proper party. We always say, yes! For one reason only;
Celebrating your wins is important.
Sometimes we can become too close to our own work and major steps forward begin to feel like an inevitability, rather than the significant achievements they truly are. Making the effort to mark the occasion with an event, helps us to step back, put it into context and really allow ourselves to say, “Yea, we did that!”
Ensuring time and attention.
Putting together a proper event shows your clients/ customers, staff, and collaborators that you care about the work you do and that this occasion is notable and therefore, worth celebrating.
A humble EDM or social media announcement might get some polite acknowledgement but are easily missed or quickly forgotten. Inviting your key stakeholders to an actual event, ensures the occasion is given the time and attention it deserves.
Strengthening your networks.
The word ‘networking’ will either excite or panic you. But, like it or loathe it on a personal level, it’s incredibly important to your business. The simple act of sending an invitation tells your guests that they are important to you and you would both benefit from their attendance. By following through on your invitation your guests have acknowledged this is kind.
Events allow you to strengthen your working relationships further by getting a chance to speak in a less formal setting. Encouraging familiarity and ease of communication in the future. Even if you don’t get a chance to speak to everyone, sharing in an exciting occasion and showing them a good time creates goodwill for your brand.
If you’re going to do it, do it right.
If you’re going to host an event, go as big as your budget will allow. Not only will this make it a fun and memorable time for your guests, but an event creates the perfect opportunity for high quality content creation. Providing you with some excellent materials to further promote the occasion and your brand after the fact across your social media channels and for use in future marketing.
No matter the occasion, your 3 biggest costs will likely be:
– Venue
– Food and Drink
– Photography/ videography
Depending on the exact details of the event your requirements for the above will vary. Some events will be fine with only basic refreshments e.g. coffee, tea and water. Others could easily be hosted in one of your existing spaces. The one area we consider critical is photography.
Yes, your iPhone can take great photos, but you and your team will have other priorities and obligations on the day. There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of the event and realising you only have 5 photos because you got busy talking to guests and playing host.
Even if you do take a good number of photos, you’ll be very disappointed in 3 months’ time when you want to create a billboard or large format print ad using one of the event shots. Only to learn it doesn’t match the printer’s spec requirements.
Trust us, a photographer will always be worth the investment.
Videography is optional but, with most forms of social media favouring video and video advertisements, this is an option to seriously consider. Some photographers also do video, others have business partners or professional connections they can bring on board as part of a package deal. Shop around and have a look at your options, this is one consideration worth your time, don’t relegate it to the ‘too hard’ basket.
Promoting brand identity.
Another reason to consider properly documenting your event is that they are excellent for promoting and reinforcing your brand identity. This takes us back to the concept we mentioned earlier of sometimes being too close to our own work.
You know your own business inside out, you likely wrote or heavily contributed to the development of your brand identity, mission statement and values. But how are these details appearing in your brand messaging and marketing?
For some it will be quite literal, with their values and mission statements appearing in the majority of their marketing collateral. For others they will only appear in internal brand documents.
Which occasions you celebrate and how you choose to do so, tell your network a lot about how you see yourself and the kind of brand you are/ aim to be. For example, a clothing brand celebrating their 10-year anniversary with an influencer trip to Bali projects a very different message than a family fun day at a local recreation centre.
People take note of these choices, and it makes it very simple for them to get an understanding of your business and whether or not you are of interest to them.
So, my occasion IS worth an event?
Most definitely.
It’s good for your brand, it strengthens your networks and it’ll generate interesting marketing collateral you can use in the months to follow.
If you need help or guidance in organising your next event, get in touch! Our experienced events team will be happy to help.
