Have A Purpose. With An Idea For Microsoft.
Tony Robbins said, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” And so it is with events, where the blandest ballroom or common convention center can be revived and brought to life with your vision.
It’s no surprise that the most successful events—and the ones that sell the most tickets—are very clear on their goals and objectives.
“Good event planning means you know up front what you’re trying to accomplish,” says Jen Jamar in The Events Calendar article Event Planning: Defining Event Goals and Objectives. “Otherwise, why have the event in the first place?”
Defining Your Purpose
Jamar says to think of your goals as your event’s purpose. “Your purpose is the big picture reason your event exists – where you want to be vs. where you are now,” she explains. “Event goals are the reason your event exists – to inform, to include, to celebrate, to persuade, etc. Your objectives are the roadmap to achieving those goal(s). Objectives should be written in detail, defining the narrow, measurable and tangible results your event will produce.”
Outlining an event’s goals and purpose helps everyone on your team understand what needs to be accomplished. “It also means understanding that the audience will have different purposes at the beginning, middle, and end of your event,” says Scott Schenker, Microsoft’s general manager of worldwide events, during a webinar hosted by BizBash and Eventbrite. “Changing the environment and messaging to reflect that stage of their purpose makes people feel you really are connected to what matters to them. You are being relevant to their place and their purpose, and you are being relevant to things that matter to them, and that furthers the sense this was a valuable thing for them to do.”
Applying Purpose To Promotional Products
What if you extrapolate this concept of purpose for the overall event and apply it to the promotional products used to support the event? Event swag should have a specific purpose, right? Giving away products for the sake of simply having something to give away doesn’t make any sense. Yet it happens at every event.
Oftentimes, promotional products aren’t included in the strategic marketing discussions. Swag purchases are put off until right before the event, leaving no time to design something cool and meaningful that aligns with your brand DNA.
So what would happen if you could create truly custom promotional products that fit the your brand like a glove by baking in the DNA of the brand + audience + event? And what if the products designed achieve a measureable marketing goal, are different from every other promotional product at the event and are different from every other promotional product your brand has used at events before? Sounds like a challenge.
Good thing we love a challenge.
To find out if this kind of event swag could be done, we designed actual product ideas for event giveaways for some of the world’s best tech brands as examples. Keep in mind there is no endorsement of any products by the brands represented. We’re simply trying to tell a story of what IS possible by using brands and events that you know and understand. So check this out:
Event Marketing Swag Idea: Microsoft Binoculars + Gift Box
The Brand: Microsoft
The Event: Strata + Hadroop World
The Audience: CTOs
The Marketing Goal: VIP Customer Gift
Strata + Hadoop World is where cutting-edge science and new business fundamentals intersect—and merge. It’s a deep dive into emerging techniques and technologies where attendees dissect case studies, develop new skills through in-depth tutorials, share emerging best practices in data science and imagine the future.
As an elite sponsor of the event, Microsoft is sure to have a significant presence and a number of goals they want to achieve. Our designer Philip Yip saw a great opportunity to incorporate some swag with a tagline the company is currently using—“Get A Better Picture Of Your Data”—for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
This software allows users to find and combine data from internal and external sources with familiar tools to help grow their businesses. They can gain customer insights and deepen relationships by better connecting individually with customers as well as by tracking, monitoring and prioritizing opportunities.
To tie into the visionary nature of the software, Yip thought it would be cool to use binoculars packaged in a laser-cut gift box as a special gift for Microsoft VIPs.
“Microsoft is the world leader in software for data management, and the benefit of using data management software is to get more from your data,” Yip says. “The binoculars—like the data—allow users to see what’s coming a mile away. This kind of vision helps you unlock insights and tell the story in your data.”
This swag idea works because it directly ties into Microsoft’s current messaging: “Get A Better Picture Of Your Data.” Also, data can be confusing. So “being able to see things more clearly” aligns with the purpose of binoculars—and the software.
Having A Purpose Simplifies & Streamlines The Process
With purpose, events and the swag that supports them are capable of making true connections with their audience. With purpose, the entire planning process has focus.
“When you have well-defined goals and objectives for your event, planning, promoting and sticking to your budget all become much easier,” says The Event Calendar’s Jamar. “Messaging aligned with those goals comes through loud and clear, increasing attendee interest, RSVPs and ticket sales.”
So what do you think? Can having a specific purpose improve the process by which you as a designer work with event marketers? And how does this approach improve the promotional products designed for events?
Let’s get the conversation started. We’d love your feedback and constructive criticism in the comments. Also let us know what promotional products you’ve received that have really made you say “WOW!” Got ideas on what event swag you’ve never seen but would love to receive? Let us know that, too.
Having purpose—whether in events, promotional products or life in general—helps cultivate success, fulfillment and ultimately (hopefully!) happiness. Having a little more happiness and joy in what you do sounds good to us.
This is the fourth in a series of 12 Immutable Laws Of Event Marketing Swag. For links to each law as they are published, check out the article that started it all: “How To Reinvent Your Event Swag Strategy: 12 Immutable Laws Of Event Marketing Swag.”
Posted in Event Marketing Swag Laws, Lisa Horn, Promotional Products by Lisa Horn | Comments are off for this post
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