Making Your Brand Stand Out: An Event Marketing Guide
- Molly Phillips
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Event marketing can be a saturated field.
The world is, after all, a busy old place.
But you’ve got something great to shout about. So, then, why should you not shout about it?
Here are three top tips for standing out in a busy event hall...
Relative Distinctiveness
For big events, the first question should be: what is distinctive about my brand?
What, in other words, makes it unique? And how can the event be used to represent it?
It is because of this that we are so diligent about understanding and using brand codes, incorporating them into the build of our exhibition stands.
Relative distinctiveness has a few key effects:
It helps people notice you
It helps people remember you
It helps people understand why you’re different to the other brands in your category.
Really, it all comes down to a sense of ‘brand world’: ‘An ownable presence that exists beyond your products and builds a deeper connection with your customers.’ (Substack)
Take Aviva for example, stalwarts of the busy insurance industry. Their brightly-coloured yellow and purple vibes catch the eye across a busy hall. Their bright design is distinctive to them and, at the same time, tells a story about the warm, reassuring tone they wish to communicate through their work.
Clear and Focused
When it comes to event marketing, people generally have to fight the instinct to GO BIG OR GO HOME.
We know, we know! Events are exciting. They’re a bit more one-off than most of your marketing endeavours and they take a lot of planning. The instinct, then, is to pack as much into the space as you can to make the most of it.
But, trust us, it’s actually a lot more effective to focus on one particular thing.
It might be that you’re launching a product, and your aim is to focus on that. Alternatively, your focus might just be on brand activation and awareness.
As Orlando Wood says: ‘In Showmanship advertising, it’s better to skip the explanation and let the audience bridge the gap.’
Brevity shows that you trust your visitors to make their own connections. That goes a long way. It creates a relationship between their mind and yours, which doesn’t happen if you spoon-feed them. It also creates a sense of involvement in their minds, making you more memorable.
But the main benefit is how quickly a simple stand can grab attention.
Here’s the thing: customers are overwhelmed. We live in a quick-fire, over-saturated world, and you are just not as top of their mind as you should be.
You don’t want to make them any more overwhelmed. Indeed, you want to be the shining beacon of hope, making them say, “ah! At last! A simple message! Something tangible I can grab onto.”
That would be ideal, we reckon.
A good example of this is Auction House. The walls aren’t packed with words. There’s no massive pile of products to sell.
It’s just a cosy-looking room, with a logo, a fireplace, and two chairs.
Their brand name explains a little of what they do; the setting offers a relaxed, cosy message, and the space is easily used by visitors to form connection points with staff.
It’s not loud, but it gets the message across.
And that’s what helps them stand out.
Understanding of the Industry
Events are, by their very nature, different to the rest of your marketing mix.
They’re all about human connection in a connection economy: face-to-face conversations, and conveying your vibes through a single, but hopefully lengthier, interaction.
It’s also a chance to offer things you don’t usually offer; things you can't offer online:
games and immersivity!
These will help you to form connections, but they will also grab people’s attention. They’re a sort of gateway into the world of your brand.
In a busy room, that sense of novelty and immersivity is so important. It’s what gets people talking about you. Like with MSIG, below, people could walk around BIBA and ask each other, “have you tried the cow-milking game? So exciting.” Boom. The word is spread.
You can also make use of the in-person nature of events by offering samples of your product for people to try. People love freebies, so freebies grab attention easily. Plus, they build trust, as people grow to love your product over the course of the day.
For more inspo...
You can always check out our portfolio of eye-catching exhibition stands.
We’re long-time event profs, so we’ve developed some real tried-and-tested methods for getting your brand noticed, no matter how busy the event.
If that sounds like just the ticket, give us a shout. We’d love to hear from you.
Comments