The Power of Live Experiences: 3 Ways to Elevate Your Brand

Please forgive us for using a buzz word… but… experiential. …There we said it. And before your eyes roll out of your head, consider how it harnesses all the senses of an onsite participant and immerses them in the experience, if only for a moment. It’s easy to pull up your own memories of exciting experiential moments at events, because, when done right, it becomes unforgettable. When you bring your brand together for a meaningful experience – how are you driving ROI from a live event? In our 30+ years as an event management agency, we’ve discovered that your people are more interested in a live experience than a tangible product. And the only way to get results is to creatively center the experience around them. Too many event planners focus on attendance as a KPI, but getting them there can’t be the mission. That’s just table stakes. As a jaded farmer once heard, “If you build it, they will come.” When you mix the onsite experience with community, education and recognition and deliver it across a strategic design that is threaded throughout the event (even before and long after it concludes) then you get results. As CPG Agency rolls up our sleeves and starts sketching across a blank sheet of paper with our clients our goal is clear: to elevate their brand by designing an experience that creates brand advocates. We call it “Belief Through Experience.” So, how do you connect your attendee to the purpose of your event in the first place?

3 Ways to Enhance the Annual Corporate Event Experience:

1. EXPERIENTIAL:

There’s that buzzword again. Apologies, but if you aren’t targeting your people with a multi-sensory experience – well, then you just have attendees, not participants! Tell your brand’s story in a unique, interactive way that lets them see, touch, hear and even smell (where appropriate) your total brand experience.

2. SOCIAL:

We’re not going to tell you to make a Snapchat filter… but your attendees will. Social media is not just a clever name – it’s a connection to personal, unique communities. It’s belonging to something special, and the more avenues you create for your people to engage, network and be creative, the more content you’ll have to share that shows your brand love.

3. PHYGITAL

(Are you noticing the pattern?) Everything is centered around engaging your people and giving them a platform to be a part of it all. Experiential and Social both prove useful channels to make “sticky” experiences for your attendees. Using VR/AR/AI etc. to merge their physical world with a digital world opens a whole new medium to elevate their experience. Brands that do this right (and customize it to their specific attendees’ needs, not just to make noise) effectively break through the clutter and effectively reach their audience.
When you utilize these three tools at your corporate event, you create an emotional connection to the attendee (that “Belief” we mentioned earlier) that they won’t forget, or keep to themselves. Now as a refreshed brand advocate, these stakeholders will share your message and extend your brand’s reach exponentially. Those are the results CPG Agency’s clients can expect when they buy into designing their annual event around people impressions that solve business objectives. See what it looks like for your next annual event by inviting us to the table when planning season starts!