Branding Your Next Event
Organizations from all over the globe throw events to celebrate, announce and connect with current and potential members. A successful event is one that captivates the audience from beginning to end while maintaining a consistent message specified by the organization/company. How well that message is received by the attendees is going to be the determining factor in whether the event was a success or a waste of time and money. So, for your next event, how do you ensure the audience gets the message and keeps it throughout the entire schedule? Branding.

Branding is the emotional connection between your company and your target audience. Brands are defined by individuals, not companies, markets or publics. A successful brand speaks to its audience through various mediums, while maintaining a consistent feel, image style and language. Brands build trust and studies have shown that consumers base their choices on trust more-so than price. You want your events attendees to come to the event already trusting they're going to reap benefits that greatly outweigh the attendance fee. If you have their trust before the event, it's more likely your event will have greater impact to them.

Building a brand requires having a clear understanding of the type of language your audience uses to communicate with their peers, what appeals to them visually, what type of moral values they share, what they believe in, where they shop, what they eat, etc. But most importantly, you need to understand the why's. Knowing the reasons behind the choices is what's going to help capture attendees attention, allow you to connect with them and keep their attention throughout the entire event.

Branding your event should take place long before the actual event. Your events theme should be communicated thoroughly to attendees the first time they see the initial announcement. A branding guideline manual should be created and all accompanying marketing materials should follow using the same branding guidelines. You build trust, excitement and anticipation through the events marketing materials and having a guide to show the various vendors required to throw a successful event will help simplify your job as the event coordinator.

Meeting Professionals International has a case study of how a financial services company used branding to ensure their "Prescription for Success" event was a hit.

"For consistency, the company created a brand logo that was used on all meeting collateral, on the bottled water at the event and in the decorations throughout the venue. This company didn’t stop with the logo and decorations, though. All event details were scrutinized to ensure that the theme was consistently used throughout—even chocolate bars were imprinted with the “Prescription for Success” logo. These bars were handed out by a wacky-looking doctor in a white coat as guests entered the event. Instead of just handing out the standard pens with logos, event sponsors used syringe-shaped pens imprinted with “Prescription for Success” and notepads that looked like prescription pads.

There’s more. Using lighting effects the company projected the brand logo of the event on a large pipe-and-drape screen behind the speaker’s platform. The prescription pad design served as the backdrop for a PowerPoint presentation. The wacky doctor made return appearances during breaks to hand out healthy snacks while servers dressed in medical apparel replenished the break stands.

The theme carried through to the cocktail hour and dinner, and a martini bar served “Health Quest Cosmos” and “Stress Relief Martinis,” among other beverages with prescription- and medical-related names. Then the menu cards for dinner used the prescription pad motif along with catchy theme-related names for the dishes served. To take the theme one step further, centerpieces could be medical bags overflowing with medical items.

Amenity bags in guest’s hotel rooms held health-related items such as eye masks, exercise CDs, rubber exercise bands, Power Bars and logo-imprinted water bottles. Guests could also take advantage of free chair massages during the event."

Current Projects
The Carnegie Endowment
Advertising Design for Foreign Policy Magazine

Coremen Construction
Branding
Business Kit

JW Marriott
Marriott Elite Membership Cards
Welcome Back Note Cards

SMECO
Design Consulting

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Coremen Construction Inc. is a full service construction company located in Lanham, Maryland. Founded nearly a decade ago, Coremen has emerged as an industry leader throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area, providing both residential and commercial clients with impeccable service and quality craftsmanship.

Coremen’s team approached Ace Inc. with the need to express professionalism, expertise and trust to prospective commercial clients through their current presentation portfolio. On the brink of negotiations for a new contract, our team worked diligently developing a graphic language that utilizes Coremen’s logo to highlight their unique capabilities and applied it to the various inserts included in their portfolio. The new image exudes confidence and the high-end appeal Coremen needed to compete in the area’s commercial construction industry.