The strategic framework to make your event a true brand experience

Blending ideas, formats and solutions from different businesses, industries and cultures, can help realising relevant, immersive experiences for your clients, members and stakeholders.

By Giulia Sarri, Creative Strategist at AIM Communication (part of AIM Group International)

Contamination is pollution, is foodborne infections, but also mix, fusion, blend. It’s all about the point of view you’re choosing. Now at events industry it is the right time to cross-fertilise our practices picking up ideas, formats and solutions from other industries, brands and business cultures, it is the right time to blend and enrich our approach and services.

As a matter of fact, staying relevant for your stakeholders’ set is not a piece of cake. Stepping out of comfort zones and embracing “unusual” models is one of the go-to approaches that the events industry should be considering for its future. For instance, this means considering an event as a true brand experience. Such a perspective is typical of corporate events, initiatives, and communication projects, and few times congresses and event organisers are thinking of their solutions that way, which instead could add values to the projects.

To create a true brand experience, at AIM Group we have developed a method combining a 5C strategic framework and 3 practical strategies to find out the best operational and marketing mix to make the event stand out from the crowd.

The 5C strategic framework analysis enables to respond to easy questions regarding the Company, the social Context, the Competitors’ behaviour, the Community’s attitude, and the Citizens/target’s expectations. This framework helps a lot to find out the key message and the concept of an event or project.

The 3 operational Content, Channel and Engagement strategies enable to create a matrix that puts together types of content, useful channels, timings, and engagement models, turning to be the pole star to follow for the event design and its marketing plan.

Not only a “cross-fertilising” approach is useful for event agencies to better understand their clients’ business goals and offer a holistic and strategic service, but also for CVBs, tech suppliers and hotels. Convention Bureaux can benefit from this mindset by taking the best out of destination marketing companies and efficient services marketplaces and consider becoming an attractive and efficient destination. AV suppliers, caterers, venues, builders can embrace this mindset to act as a true partner and extension of the client’s team or the agency team. Finally, hotels can turn their offering from “simple” accommodation and event space into a unique branded living and working experience, all in one physical place.

All in all, the best way to design strategies which are different from competitors, relevant for audiences and sustainable over time, is to be open for others’ experiences. You never know how they could spark new ideas and unusual solutions in you and your teams.

So, adapting a famous mantra into our context, we can say: “stay hungry, stay cross-pollinated”!