Promotional Events, General Understanding and Planning From a Coordinator's Point of View

This is going to be a very short article about what is known as Promotional Events. I say short because you could write a whole book about this topic as in fact there are. But I am going to refer only to the basics and will also try to do it from a marketing-business view.

There is another type of events more related to human resources development. That is not the topic of this article.

Promotional events, to me, are events just like many other events but with a (actually a BIG one) difference. These events have to bring back some results if not they will only mean a time and money waste. When done properly they could be the main reason for an increase in sales or brand recognition, a great way of positioning a new product or repositioning one, win the trust of some market segment, keep the competitors away of your customers...you name it. There can be as many objectives "as stars in the sky" for a promotional event.

Every social or business activity can be turn to a promotional event by giving it a marketing or a company corporate projection and objectives. Let us name some of the most commons commercial-promotional events:

- Trade shows
- Conventions
- Conferences
- Cocktails
- Press releases
- Demonstrations
- Openings
- Signing Agreements
- Forums
- Workshops
- Breakfasts
- Lunches
- Dinners
- Contests
- Tours (Factory- tours)
- Art Exhibitions
- Music - Arts Festivals
- Concerts
- Races

And the list will keep on going and going...

Promotional events have become a perfect tool to reach audiences awareness. We could say that there is no product or company that can not get some advantage by developing and exploding some kind of event. Many companies have into their marketing department a division exclusively dedicated to developing creative promotional events. Many times this marketing divisions are big other companies' prefer to work with subcontractors.

Usually these divisions have a coordinator or manager, supervisors and promoters. The coordinator or manager is the person in charge of the big picture planning, coordinating all about the event, subcontracting others (lighting services, catering, sound technicians, etc, etc). The supervisors are the ones seen that every thing is taking place as planned and the promoters are the ones doing the heavy work. The ones at the bottom of the command line build a lot of experience and may grow to a supervisor-coordinator position depending of their good and hard work.

Now, let us say you want to build some kind of promotional event.

The first thing you need to have is a clear objective.

This objective is what will give sense to the investment of time and money into the event. It is what will determine how much is worth this event for you and your company.

Now, where should this event take place?

What is the best time and/or timing to do it?

Some events are only effective if they take place in conjunction to other global or national moments or happenings.

What should be the theme of it?

Should you subcontract or should you put your hands in it?

How are you going to project the event?

What is the public you want to reach?

How much time do you need to get a good projection of the event?

How much money and resources do you have to put into it?

Gather all the information you can, do your homework!!

Once you respond to this questions and many others that will come up when you be doing the plan you need to go again to the objective and the result and see if you are been realistic or it is going out of hands. A good way to respond all this questions is not responding them by your self. Run a round table with your colleges. Make a brain storm. Put your self in the situation. Think as if the event is taking place now. Ask questions. Research, use the web, books, every thing you have in hands.

Great, every thing is good and you start. Now hold it. I recommend you use some computer tool to do a better planning there a plenty of them but I will not refer to any one here. This tool will help you set a schedule, budget and other factors on black and white so you are able to make a deep analysis of every detail and will have less (there are always going to be incidentals that will need to be faced) problems along the way.

Done, now you have not only a plan but also a schedule and a step by step process.

Start (sometimes you can be afraid of starting) and pay attention to the results all the time. Also, hold on to the budget. And again, ask questions to the client if the event is for someone else, to colleges, to other staff members, to your boss, to any body that might be of help or that is more experienced in the matter.

Do you need to change the plan? Is it better to do this another time? Do you have to do it in another place? Is it getting out of budget? Should you fire someone and contract somebody else? Should you drop it/cancel/get out?!

Sometimes there are hard decisions to make but you better take them or your boss is going to take it for you!!

And to make long story short, let us jump to the end.

The time has come. Every thing is in place, sound sounds great, lights are great, the master of ceremonies is on time, music is on time, speakers, drinks, food, souvenirs, guests, transportation, flight is arriving on time, and on and on and on.

Now measure the results, did you get what you projected you would get?

Rinse and repeat.

Jose Leonardo Guzman Manukyan Actually working for the marketing department of a mass consumer product manufacturer at the Dominican Republic since April 2000. My responsibilities are basically coordinating a promotions and events team along with trademarketing duties. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jose_Leonardo_Guzman_Manukyan