There’s nothing quite like the buzz in the room at a great live event.
People talk excitedly as they circle the floor, engaging with your installations, your speakers and each other. Months of planning finally come to life as long-lasting memories are forged, relationships are built, and your brand leaves a powerful impression.
But get the execution wrong and your great idea can quickly turn sour. All that clever strategy and meticulous design are undone in an instant, as images of customers queuing for soggy cheese sandwiches hit the internet. You don’t want to become the next viral internet sensation for the wrong reasons.
The way your event is delivered translates directly to the experience consumers have with your brand, so it pays to focus on getting the delivery right.
Today’s consumers have high expectations when it comes to how they’ll engage with brands. That’s true across all aspects of your brand experience, but especially in-person experiences and live events. With one-of-a-kind, remarkable activations like Refinery29’s 29Rooms, Bumble’s Bee Hive at SXSW, and Google’s Assistant Ride at CES, great execution and shareability are high on consumers’ priorities.
Adding to the pressure is the speed at which an audience can share their enjoyment – or displeasure if you don’t pay attention to the details.
The Fyre Festival fiasco
There’s no better example of event delivery gone wrong than the now-infamous Fyre Festival.
Now, we could write a book (or 10) on all the poor decisions that led to the Fyre Festival debacle. But at the end of the day, festival organisers fell into a common trap: they vastly underestimated what’s involved in delivering a great live event. The full attendee experience, from travel logistics to catering, came a very distant second to the hyped-up marketing campaign.
While trying to sell the dream, the Fyre Media team failed to address less-than-attractive elements like logistics, procedures, operations, and permits that ultimately lead to a fantastic live experience. In addition to this, the use of an inexperienced events team, not allowing enough time to plan and grossly underestimating the budget required all contributed to woeful audience experiences.
At best, a poorly executed event will result in negative consumer and media attention that would take serious damage control efforts to remedy. In some cases, it can end up a lot worse. After the festival spiralled out of control, the business it was designed to promote, the Fyre Media app, went up in flames. Between the festival and the business, millions of investor dollars, and employees’ livelihoods, were lost.
Check your vision
Of course, Fyre Media aren’t the only brand to get it so wrong. Even major brands like Jagermeister have had epic fails, like the time they hosted a pool party in Mexico that led to nine people being hospitalised.
At this event, organisers thought it would be fun to create a ‘smoke on the water’ effect, so they poured liquid nitrogen into the swimming pool. Instead, they created a toxic brew that poisoned the unsuspecting guests and event staff.
Much like the Fyre Festival organisers, they had a grand vision but lacked the expertise to deliver it. By failing to follow rigorous health and safety checks before their activation, the Jagermeister team put their people in serious jeopardy.
Getting event delivery right
The key to flawless event execution lies in the systems, tools and (yes) people you use to deliver the experience. Doing it well involves a professional planning team who specialise in live events and have access to a range of specialised resources.
But the best live experiences aren’t standalone events. They’re informed by a carefully crafted strategy designed to meet your business and marketing goals.
Setting measurable goals upfront and clearly articulating how you’ll generate a return on your investment can help keep your event on track.
When to call in the experts
A professional experiential marketing and event management agency has the systems and processes in place to manage everything, down to the smallest detail.
What’s more, they have professional and experienced staff who oversee the entire operation, from the initial strategy and planning to on-the-ground management and troubleshooting.
The result is a flawless event that has your clients and customers raving for years to come.
At Aesthetic, we combine creativity, strategy and science to deliver flawless live experiences. Our background in theatre and storytelling gives us the edge when it comes to engaging with live audiences, and we never leave the details to chance.
Would you like to work with an experienced agency partner for your next live event?
Let’s talk.
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