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How to plan a product launch event

A product launch is an event which promotes the launch of a company’s new product. A product launch will aim to introduce the new product to your target market, promote your brand, build brand awareness, boost customer loyalty and drive sales.

Here are a few simple steps for planning a product launch event.

  1. 1. Choose your venue

    When choosing your event venue, the size and location will depend on how many people you expect to attend, your target market and target location. Some additional factors to consider when choosing your venue should include decoration potential and audiovisual accessibility.

  2. 2. Find a food and beverages vendor

    Providing food at your event will provide a drawcard for potential attendees and will make the event more enjoyable for your guests. If the product you are launching is a type of food or beverage it’s important to ensure your product is the feature of the event and all other accompanying food and beverage products highlight your feature product. If you need to acquire an external vendor, considering a sponsorship partnership is a great way to offer food and beverages at a lower cost.

  3. 3. Decide on your theme and develop your event messaging

    Your launch product should be reflected in your theme, event messaging, decor and colour scheme. For a product launch event, the event messaging will reflect the launch product and should tie into your conversion goals for the product and event. Your event styling, including the colour of your decorations and event lighting, should echo the colour and aesthetics of your product. This will help reinforce the memory of your product for your event guests.

  4. 4. Get the word out

    Marketing and promotions are some of the most important components of a successful event. Prior to undergoing marketing activities for your event, it’s important to decide who you would like to attend your event as well as define your marketing objectives. Are you interested in getting media coverage for the event? If so, you might want to consider investing in some public relations for the event. Would you like the event to be invite only? If so, you will need to arrange invite distribution and RSVPs. A few effective ways to promote your event include through social media, event listing sites, pamphlets and flyers, and through media outlets in the lead up to the event.

If you would like some help planning your next event, talk to us today.

How to make your event stand out from the rest

Ever wonder how you can make a lasting impression on your event guests? How you can make your event memorable and stand out from the rest? The answer is relatively simple. Following a few steps to maximise convenience for your guests and to create the ‘wow’ factor will have attendees walking away with the experience firmly imprinted in their memory.

Here are a few ways to make your event stand out from the rest, for all the right reasons.

Define and amplify your event messaging

First things first, what is the purpose of your event? What would you like your guests to take away from your event? Your event messaging should be apparent prior to organising your event and should remain at the forefront of your planning process. Making sure your event messaging is not only clear to you and your team, but ensuring that your guests understand their role in the event and why they’re attending, will guarantee that they leave with something more than just a party favour. Amplification of your event messaging can be made through marketing and promotional efforts prior to your event and can be reinforced on the day through speeches, decorations and styling.

Simplify the ticket sales process

Ensuring ease of the ticket sales process is one of the most obvious however often understated components to the event planning process. At a time in which the majority of internet usage is utilised via mobile, ease of availability is increasingly important for event ticket sales. Maximised user experience through a mobile friendly ticket merchant is the first step to any successful event and will set the scene for a pleasant event experience.

Beautify your event space

What colour scheme will best reflect your event messaging? What type of centrepieces will wow your guests? Special consideration should go into all visual aspects of your event, big and small. Including customised lighting to match the theme or style of your event is a simple yet hugely effective way to make a difference to the overall look and feel.

Choose the right entertainment

Choosing event entertainment can mean the difference between a good and bad event. Choosing the right entertainment for your event will of course depend on your budget, however some considerations should be made prior to booking. It’s important to consider how your entertainment reflects your event messaging, how the entertainment suits the demographic of your guests, and how it enhances your event theme or style.

If you would like some more advice on how to make your event stand out from the rest, talk to us today.

5 things to consider when choosing entertainment for your event

Having entertainment at your event is a great way to make an impact on your guests. Providing unique forms of entertainment can ignite conversation about your event and boost brand awareness as a result. Depending on factors like theme, your industry, the size of your event and the age of guests, there are several options for event entertainment. Entertainment could range from comedians, puppeteers and magicians, to dancers, live music and DJs.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing entertainment for your event:

Know your audience

When choosing the entertainment for your event, it’s important to know your audience and have a broad understanding of what their interests might be. It might be a no brainer, but making sure the entertainment you choose is age appropriate and fitting for the style of your event is vital to its success. You’re not going to have a balloon artist at a conference for CEOs, just like you’re not going to hire Brazilian dancers for a children’s event.

Get the right price

It’s important to do research prior to booking your event entertainment. Once you’ve settled on the type of entertainment for your event, compare the prices of different acts to try to find the best value. If you’re willing to pay a little extra, make sure you’re getting your money’s worth for the right act.

Get some advice prior to booking

Doing research and speaking to people in your industry will help you to choose the right entertainment for your event. Word-of-mouth can be the best way to find the right entertainment. It can help take the guesswork out of choosing the right entertainment and reduce the risk of hiring a poor act.

Keep to the theme

If your event is themed, ensure that the entertainment you choose adheres to the theme. For example, if your event is circus themed, you might consider hiring a juggling act or a fire dancer and if your event is a masquerade, you might consider having a masquerade themed dance act. This will assist with the cohesiveness of your event and will help with the success of your event as a result.

Consider the size of your event

The type of entertainment you choose should vary depending on the size of your event. Consider having a more robust entertainment act for a larger event. This will often mean more complex audiovisual requirements to ensure that the entertainment will be seen and heard from every section of your event space.

If you would like some advice on choosing the right entertainment for your next event, contact us today.

Different ways to incorporate smartphones into your event

When running an event, smartphones can be used in several ways to boost publicity and ease some aspects of the planning process. The ubiquity of smartphones these days means that word-of-mouth marketing is on the rise. Fostering the use of smartphones at your event can ensure that you get the most out of it.

Here are a few ways smartphones can be incorporated into your event:

Ticket buying

Using a ticket vendor or maintaining your own ticket purchasing site which is mobile-friendly is becoming more and more important for the success of event ticket sales. More people have been accessing information via mobile than desktop since 2014, and the internet usage figures between desktop and mobile are steadily becoming more disparate. With more people accessing the internet on their smartphones than ever before, the availability of event ticket buying via mobile is increasingly important for ticketed events. When choosing a ticket vendor or developing your own ticket purchasing site, it’s important to ensure that the mobile site is easy to use and the transaction path is straightforward.

Photo sharing

Today, more people are taking photos on smartphones than on any other device. The presence of smartphones amongst your event attendees means that people are likely to take photos during the event to share on social media. This is a highly effective means of word-of-mouth marketing for your event. Depending on the style of your event, a great way to encourage photo taking and sharing, while at the same time promoting your brand, is to provide branded selfie sticks for your event guests.

Hashtags

Creating a hashtag for your event is a great way to ignite conversation amongst your event attendees and your industry at large. The development of a unique hashtag specific to your event will encourage your event attendees to engage with each other and your business.

The use of a hashtag is not only a great way to boost communication between people in your industry, it’s a great tool for building brand awareness. Hashtags can create an air of excitement around your event. Hashtags can be promoted leading up to your event to build awareness and create a buzz around the event.

Live tweeting

Live tweeting has become an important tool for event promotion and for sparking conversation amongst event attendees. Live tweeting is a great way to promote your event in real time. Real time event tweeting means that updates throughout the course of your event can reach people immediately, assisting in the creation of conversation amongst people engaging with your brand.

Networking

Even if your event is not specifically intended for networking, socialising and contact building is likely to occur amongst your guests. During all types of events it’s important for attendees to have a channel in which they can record details like names, phone numbers and company details of fellow attendees. Relying on business cards is not always wise. The development of apps like Bump, which allows users to bump phones with other users to instantly exchange details, is proof that smartphones are increasingly important for building professional and nonprofessional relationships, while business cards are quickly becoming obsolete. A quick add on Linkedin can mean the start of a lifetime professional relationship, whilst a business card, once exchanged, can often be lost or forgotten.

In events it’s important to foster the use of smartphones while treating them as source of event promotion and as a channel in which event planning can be made easier.

If you need some help incorporating smartphones into your next event, contact us today!