Chapter 11: Marketing communication for events
Learning objectives
- Understanding why marketing the event is important
- Marketing communication techniques
- Public relations and communication management techniques
- Marketing, public relations and communication plan
Why is it important to market the event?
Without an effective Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategy an event will fail! It is as simple as that.
IMC is the abbreviation used to describe a holistic approach to marketing, and will include principles such as event marketing, public relations, and communication management.
The strategy will assist the event manager to ensure the consistency of the key messages about the event, and provide a guideline on the communication channels to be used for implementing the strategy.
Marketing communication will also assist the organisers to create awareness and acceptance of the event among stakeholders. This, in turn, will be key to building mutually beneficial and lasting relationships between the event owners and the event stakeholders. Marketing communication will play an important role in meeting the goals and objectives of the event, by ensuring effective communication with all stakeholders.
The IMC strategy is based on the situation analysis, the goals and objectives, the stakeholder analysis, and the risk management plan.