How to make the most from events in your business

How to make the most from event in my business

Whether you are hosting clients and staff, sponsoring an event or running a team building exercise, it is important you get the right mix for everyone. It is so common for clients to ask us, “what kind of event they should run” and that decision depends on what you are trying to achieve from an event. We feel businesses usually are looking for three things

1. Corporate Hosting
2. Team Building
3. Brand Awareness & Lead Generation

Before we breakdown the ways to get the most from your events, it is important you don't just follow the crowd and do something unique for your requirements. Every business has different goals from marketing to building relationships both internally and externally, where each of these will require a different event atmosphere and focus.

Corporate Hosting

One of the most common ways to build relationships with current or prospective clients is to host them, demonstrating the value you place in their business. These types of functions can vary hugely depending on if you host them on-premise or at a venue like the NZ Comedy Festival.

We provide a range of options in this space and the first step is letting us know what you are looking to do. A great example of this is where we provide businesses the opportunity to host their clients at Waterbourne, New Zealands Biggest Beach Festival. Over the three week festival, businesses have between 50-300 guests on the rooftop bar with a selection of food and beverage menus alongside entertainment for the evening.

Team Building

Alternatively, team building exercises are very common and can provide some awesome opportunities to demonstrate the character of your business. Here at Squid Group, we like to look at events as a way to advertise your business. Although your goal may be team building, these events can still be used to promote your staff culture and therefore help with recruitment.

Whether you are looking to create an active day out of the office, or a day with food and entertainment it is important you get the basic elements correct. This means you need to cater for everyone as not everyone will want to get active, drink alcohol, eat meat and/or feel comfortable meeting lots of people at once. So when hosting someone at something like the Paddle Ninja Games, you need to ensure there are options for everyone involved.

Brand Awareness & Lead Generation

Finally, the most exciting way we like to engage with events is through the collaboration with other event organisers. This provides substantial value as it enables businesses to leverage the brand value of the events and connect with their database of clients.

Through partnerships with events, there are a range of ways to both generate sales, grow your database and/or create mass awareness in a specific demographic. The first stage is to understand who you want to speak with and if you can create a clear message to your target audience through

1. Activations: Creating a unique experience for people at the event so that they remember you and relate their experience at the event with your brand. You can see this at events like the ASB Classic where the ASB Bank created a ‘sustainable tennis ball’ which all the athletes played with during the competition.
   
   It is also very important that you understand your goal within your activations, as ideally brands will capture as much data on the audience as possible. This ensures that you can remarket to them after the event, either via electronic direct mail or social media.
   
   
2. Content: Producing unique content which connects your brand to the event and positions you as a key stakeholder in the event. Audi executed this well during the Winter Games as they focussed on being the premium snow vehicle in New Zealand, creating interesting content in the snow before and during the event with athletes.
   
   
3. Public Relations: Stand out from the crowd and do something unique which no-one has done or seen before. Avoid repeating the same things over as your audience will lose interest and struggle to remember your involvement.

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