Have you a company party, awards ceremony or corporate conference coming up? Social media buzz online and physical engagement on the floor with your guests or attendees should be one of your key objectives.
High levels of social interaction online and offline are a surefire sign that your brand is leaving a lasting memorable impression on your audience (especially on their Instagram or Snapchat feeds).
Check out our monster blog for the following topics
- Reasons for creating social buzz and engagement
- How our event prop ideas help you hack common Branding challenges
- Event prop ideas, tactics and activities that build engagement
- Professional marketing tips that enhance any event prop or activity
Why Bother Creating Social Buzz And Engagement?
Event props that encouraging photos, selfies, contributions, gamify the experience and create physical activity are a no-brainer. Giving guests and attendees something to do, post online and share with friends, does this for your event…
- Make it fun – It’s all about your audience. Entertaining your guests and attendees makes it worth their while. Simples.
- Make it easy to meet new people – If you’re encouraging more networking or social mixing, props and games are great icebreakers
- Make it shareable – Forget about Word of Mouth, Word of MOUSE that matters more. Once captured on camera, there is no end to the potential virality of your event and brand.
- Make it memorable – A selfie or picture on the phone will make the event last longer than its designated start and finish times
Facing some Branding Restrictions? We Can Help
When giving away promotional gifts are not an option
- This blog began when a client who was having a grand opening in a couple of weeks. They had very strict protocols and brand guidelines that didn’t really allow them to use branded promotional products as giveaways. They came to us with this problem: “How do we give our attendees something ‘promotional’ that they could experience, rather than something they could take away with them?
When your small event budget requires guerrilla marketing tactics
- Perhaps protocol is not an issue – perhaps it’s a smaller budget that won’t pay for goody bags giveaways or a big advertising spend. You’ll still need something to entertain, delight and capture your attendees’ imagination and leave them with a positive association with your brand.
Event Prop Ideas, Tactics and Activities to Build Engagement
1. Custom Made Branded Selfie Props
Create selfie props that relate to the event theme and showcase your brand in a subtle way with every shot. Make sure the props you create are focused on your brand and your event theme
For example…
- Pop culture props: moustaches, tiaras, bow ties and any current pop culture icon will help you add on to the fun.If your party has a superheroes theme make sure you’ve got the old favourites like Wonder Woman headbands and Batman masks as selfie sticks.
- Speech bubble sticks branded with a hashtag with thematic quips relating to the event.
- Instagram or Snapchat photo frames with your hashtag and handles
- Hashtag cutouts with your event hashtag for posing with
2. Photo Booth Ideas as Wefie Props
Why not take the photo frame / Instagram frame idea and make it bigger – into a photo booth. Some ideas for example…
- A walled background or frame with cut out spaces for faces and illustrate with various characters and scenarios.
- Scale them to full height and combine to create a mini booth
- Create life-size cardboard cutouts of interesting topical characters related to the event for the guest to pose with just for the craic!
Pro Tip
Supply a Polaroid camera to give everyone a more vintage experience and real printed photo to take away that night.
Alternatively, use a digital camera and send the printed pics after the event to your guests to keep the conversation going in the most delightful way.
Here’s How We Do It
There’s a whole range of stand signage and exhibition display material to consider. Modular free-standing signage and printed event props can be customised into a host of engaging activities.
With the latest in digital printing technology and variable printing techniques, we can turn around these customised props for your event at any Snap.
Foamboard or Corrib board backed material will also be durable enough to create quick once off backdrops that a sturdy enough if designed right. You can supplement any event space with smaller strut cards and tent cards which are easy to reproduce.
3. Gamify and Network
Create party games that also help your guests break the ice and meet new people. Once over it helps the party really take off. for example, you can create a
- Jigsaw matchmaker game – use it also as a networking game where you need to find your Match handing each table or guest a large jigsaw piece.
- Everyday boardgames magnified – create giant boardgames on the ground like Scramble, Skittles or Snakes and Ladders with prizes to be won. Brand it subtly with your party theme.
- Throwing Games – get your inspiration from the fairground – use large standalone cardboard cutouts as a bull-eye for aiming your missiles into.
4. Ask Your Guests a Question and Get User Generated Content
A Wishing tree is a perfect example of this great idea – have a cutout tree frame life-size and create “leaves” that guests can add personal motes in like advice or tips and hang on the tea branches. These can be printed with the hashtag so Guests are encouraged to tweet their message as well
Furthermore, as the organiser, you can use submissions in a lucky draw and capture the messages as a future piece of user-generated content.
This only gets traction when you ask people to write down a response to a meaningful question especially if it relates to the issues relating to your event, cause, industry or audiences. For example, if it was a charity event – a wishing tree should be asking for meaningful advice relating to the cause at stake.
5. Throw A Challenge To Get That Party Adrenaline Going
Nothing beats an irresistible challenge – there’s lots of inspiration on Youtube youth Culture these days . If you have a party of tables and need to break the ice set them a challenge that’ll be judged and rewarded by the end of the event to keep them engaged
For example
- A Twitter challenge for the funniest or most regular tweets
- An Instagram challenge for the most imaginative selfie
- A physical challenge for the most inventive use of a party prop at hand
6. Even The Smallest Thoughtful, Mindful Gestures Help
Sometimes the simplest printed event props or event tools can really make a difference in delighting your attendees. Think about having stock of items or the right information made readily available at the right place. Why? Because this facilitates your sense of professionalism and enhances customer experience.
Some examples
- Free Wifi access and visible passwords
- Carry all bags – especially good durable ones branded and big enough to take on any swag.
- Handy brollies and ponchos if it’s a rainy day
Pro Tips – Take Your Ideas One Step Further
Do it like a marketing Pro. Consider these essential finishing touches to your event:
1.Incorporate Digital Marketing When Printing Your Event Collateral
It doesn’t matter what you’re making whether it’s a selfie booth, photo booth, game area, general signage, or promotional packaging – make it really clear to your audience that they can act on it. Help them share the moment online really easily.
- Print your event Hashtag or Social Media Handle clearly on all the event props so your brand will be naturally that tagged in all social media shares
- Go one step further and make sure your online details are easy to upload with a Printable QR Code on your signage or printed matter – so they can be scanned into your recipient’s mobile contact list.
- Gamify. Give them something to do next, with a clear call to action AND a clear way to contact you easily. For example, turn the act of sharing any event pics into a competition. You could generate a lucky draw post at the end of or after the event. Reward the influencer with the most shares or pick a lucky draw.
Don’t forget to let your target audience know you will be creating these fun diversions in advance on the assumption they’re not meant to be a big surprise. Create the excitement beforehand to really maximise your social media footprint.
2. Consider On-Site Promotional Partnerships with other Brands
Further, enhance your promotional engagement areas onsite with a clever partnership that’s a relevant win-win for both you and your partner brand. A double exposure at any event or show whether it’s outdoors or indoors.
Here are some examples of dedicated event engagement ideas that can benefit your brand with a simple designated area of activity (and associated print collateral)
- An organic strawberry producer up with the dairy producer to create a ‘strawberries and cream’ recipe and tasting station with a giveaway recipe booklet.
- An outdoor furniture supplier teams up with a food truck to create a foodie pit stop where they sample the products.
- A charity teams up with a hospitality company to create a kiddie play area whilst their parents get free head massages
Catch the drift?
If you can think of any more ideas let us know we would love to hear your thoughts on twitter @SnapIreland or marketing@snap.ie
3. Be Mindful Of GDPR Compliance
Engaging Event Tactics may involve the exchange of personal data.
If you have an event prop that encourages selfies and photo booth activity using your own cameras or photographers then you need to be clear with the participants as to how the photos will be treated. These should not be shared with a third marketing party or posted without their knowledge. If they take the photos on their own cameras then it’s up to them.
If you have a stand, adding to your prospect and leads database would be an important sales objective some of you will have clever incentives to encourage business card drops or would-be subscribers for your mailing list.
- Getting clear Opt-in on a subscription form is essential if you wish to follow through with marketing and sales info – therefore all your competition entry forms need a clear tick box to give consent. Talk to our designers if you need advice on signage options/subscription forms.
- Be explicit in your Signage in the form of a tent card that you will be reaching out to each competition entry personally to follow up. in your follow up be transparent as to how you received their data and be clear that you will not share it.
In Short…
There’s more than one way to keep your crowd happy at the next event regardless of whether its an awards ceremony, staff Teambuilding event, charity dinner, company party or post-conference celebration. It just takes a bit of imagination, a large dollop of humour, some help from your local Snap centre and et Voila! It’ll be great craic all round!
This checklist is relevant to any major event coming your way as long as you make sure your branding and event theme is consistently running through all your ideas.
For everything else, we made you a handy Event Collateral Checklist to keep you on the right track and help you remember all the little things.
We are ready to help. Need to bring any of these ideas to life? Just Keep Calm and …
#TalktoSnap!
