Think Visual in Event Marketing

The event industry is changing. The internet has become a powerful social tool to reach broader audience and in getting attention for your upcoming events. Statistics show that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. Here are some essential online marketing tips on how visuals can help you attract more :

·         Using the various social networking sites to broadcast any updates about the event is an effective and interactive method to spread the word. Write about your event on Linkedin, create an event page on Facebook, Tweet about it, Pinterest it and even blog about it on your website. There is also the option to create an interesting, clever or comedic driven viral video that you can upload on YouTube and share to maximize exposure.

·         A website for the event could act as a one-stop link where people could read details, view images and even watch videos about the event. It is also important that your website is visually appealing as 46% of people say a website's design is the number one criterion for discerning the credibility of the company. You can create some great free websites at www.wix.com or www.squarespace.com

·         Let’s be honest, pictures are more interesting than words. Posting pictures/infographics on the various social networking sites is not only visually engaging but also informative. According to Dan Zarrella, photos on Facebook perform best for likes, comments, and shares as compared to text, video, and links. You could also post pictures of previous events to show success stories of past event.

·         Having design guidelines are important in creating things that are instantly recognizable to the event. The way the event logo, look of the various promotional templates, use of colours and the type of imagery used in promoting the event must remain consistent.

it's just not the same without Gravy... Part 4

The countdown was on in the office Thursday morning. Lawless Cooking’s new website design was being unveiled to the team at 11:00am and we could all not wait to see the end product.

Lawless Cooking is a catering and cooking class company headed by celebrity chef, Iain Lawless and is the fourth client of Gravy’s that I would have introduced to you. Lawless Cooking lends us space in their office in Mt Hawthorn which forms part of our contract with them. This means Gravy is not solely at this office for Lawless Cooking duties as I am on-site for The Bra Bar, but we are there day-to-day for all of Gravy’s undertakings. Gravy controls and operates all of Lawless Cooking communications (social media, e-Newsletters, enquiries, bookings of functions and classes, etc.) and any promotional or marketing ventures that are embarked upon.

In Thursday morning’s instance, this entailed Ivana and I sitting in on the meeting with the website designers and Vicki Lawless; Iain Lawless’s wife and business manager of Lawless Cooking. This was a fantastic experience as I could see everyone’s opinion from all different kinds of skilled perspectives. Firstly, there was the website designer pitching his proposal to us and explaining as to why he has made specific decisions on the design. Secondly, there was Vicki Lawless, whose main concern is that the website harmonizes with the Lawless Cooking brand and what she expects the company to be portrayed as. Lastly, there was Ivana and I, the PR and Marketing gurus. We were mainly seeking functionality, efficiency and ease of the website and likewise to Vicki, making sure it corresponds with the brand.

Well, we were all BLOWN AWAY! It was what we imagined, and beyond. The website designer completely understood the brand and identification of the company, whilst using his expertise for the best practices of website operation. He clearly understood and identified with the brief he was given by us to produce such an amazing product. I would LOVE to show and prove to you just how amazing the website is but, unfortunately, that was simply the design. The website is now being created and will be up and running soon (I will keep you all updated so you can check it out!).

The website images where all spinning around in my head for the rest of the day with me agonizing over the question: “WHY CAN’T I DO THAT?!” As professionals in the PR and marketing industry, we are all sure to come across some artwork that is needed to be produced at some point in time; whether it be a newsletter, a poster, a brochure (the list goes on!) and as for me at Gravy; times like these come around quite often as we don’t usually work with budgets that can afford fancy graphic designers. Well, my artwork was certainly put to shame that day. Nonetheless, I went on with my day which did in fact include creating posters for Lawless Cooking cooking classes! I did get a few good ideas off him at leastJ. And although they may not be as high-grade and professional as the website designer’s, they do the job and am reassured by Ivana that they aren’t as shabby I may think! It is also a huge consolation hearing Ivana assure me that I CAN’T DO EVERYTHING and in the real world, different projects are passed through many different people until the final product is completed. This can be through various departments in an organisation or, in Lawless Cooking’s circumstance (a small business); this can be outsourced or sometimes attempted by someone within the organisation which may mean doing so in an ad hoc fashion.

I may or may not have still looked into a graphic design courses when I get home (purely out of interest of course!) It turns out… there is no quick fix for learning such skills. Lesson officially learnt – leave it to the professional graphic designers!!

Until next time…

--Sarah

One step ahead at all times

It has been well over a week since I first walked through the doors of Platform Communications and started my internship. Like many before me who have been about to begin their internship, I was very nervous for my first day for two reasons: a) would I be able to put my skills and techniques that I have learned through my degree into practice and b) would I be able to do a good enough job. There was no need to have been nervous as the team at Platform were very friendly and welcoming.

Platform Communications is a consultancy firm specialising in the mining and resources industry. They have an impressive client list and their team is very talented comprising of marketing and communications consultants, and graphic designers.

My first day was overwhelming trying to understand everything about Platform and their processes. Every week they have a WIP meeting which is an update of all the jobs they are currently working on and new jobs that have come in for the consultants and the graphic design team. There were quite a lot of jobs going on and by the end my head was spinning.

 

It is a fast paced office which is intimidating at first but I found myself keeping up most of the time. I have seen improvements in my PR skills, organisational skills as well as my confidence as I often find myself using my initiative and taking on new challenges. From my experience so far, consultancy is often demanding and it is an art to juggle the different tasks and clients. I have completed a variety of tasks from researching a new client regarding their operations, their performance in the ASX, their competitors and any coverage in the media, managing the logistics of communication materials for clients, creating design and job briefs, and collating media lists. While my experience at Platform has been a positive one and I am really enjoying myself, I have learnt an important lesson already which is something I will carry through with me in my career as well as using the advice to drive myself to be a better consultant.

 Lesson 1 in my PR internship: I must be ahead of the director, senior consultant and our client at all times.

It's all coming together...

Hi everyone,

I am now well into my placement at the State Library Foundation and as everything is coming together I am finding my placement really enjoyable. As I came into the organisation in the middle (and busiest period) of a project I had a lot to catch up on. After a lot of time spent reading internal documents and bugging the other staff with questions I now feel like I have enough background knowledge to contribute to the project. The team have been really supportive and the weekly 'Work in Progress' meetings with the whole team have been a huge help.

The main project I have been involved with is 'Our Page in History'. I explained in my first blog but it is basically an interactive website that allows users to record their own 'page in history' and connect to others. The project has a strong Western Australian focus and another lucky intern flew up to Broome for a month at the start of September to engage with the community and get them on board.

With a very small team my placement has been very hands on and I have been left to take initiative and make decisions. I have been enjoying this though as it keeps me busy and I hate having nothing to do! I have been very busy writing and designing all sorts of material for 'Our Page in History'- from postcards to fact sheets and backgrounders. I have been liaising directly with the graphic designer for some of the material and I really underestimated how hard it is to get things looking the way you imagine. It is quite a long process- even if something minor isn't how you imagined you need to get a re-design. The postcards went through at least five versions before we were happy with the product but they are currently being distributed in Broome!

I have also been busy getting content ready for the website launch. After some issues with the timeline for the launch of the website we are now looking at a launch in late October. I will be finished my placement by this point but I am really looking forward to seeing the website live after having so much involvement in the project. I have been scanning a lot of old documents to be added to the website. My supervisor Bronwyn is using her family as an initial profile and she has some amazing photos and documents that have been passed down through her family. Although scanning isn't the most interesting task I was fascinated with the items that she had. Telegrams from WWI, letters from her grandfather in the war and even a letter from the New York Times to her great-grandfather in 1895! These will all be up on the website when we go live and hopefully we can get some more great memories like this from users!

One of my last tasks at the Foundation before I leave will be to develop a communications plan for 'Our Page in History'. With a real shortage of staffing resources nobody has put together a thorough strategy and instead they have just jumped into the 'doing' stage without anything set down on paper. I am really motivated to put together some strategies that will work but I do have reservations about whether they will be carried through. Working in a not-for-profit environment has its challenges and sometimes great ideas are just not feasible because there isn't the staffing or money. Does anybody else doing their placement in a not-for-profit feel the same?

For the communications plan I have been doing a lot of research online into best practices. This has involved reading articles and blogs on how things have been done around the world. At the moment my big focus is on looking at how to encourage people to contribute user generated content. The website is only a 'skeleton' and will rely on subscribers uploading their photos, stories and documents to make the site interesting. I have found this area really interesting- it explains why we are all so addicted to Facebook! If anybody wants to have a read this a great article summing up the topic:

http://www.grannellmarketing.com/articles/MM-UGC.pdf

The Foundation is helping the library out with the Premier's Book Awards next Friday night so I will rubbing shoulders with Colin! Although I won't have much to do with the organisation prior to the event it will be interesting to see how this kind of event works behind the scenes.

The countdown is on until the end of semester, I hope everyone is surviving!

Jaimi Baile
14266621