Promoting and Marketing Events

Theory and Practice

Nigel Jackson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136666575
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

This accessible book introduces students to the theories, concepts and skills required to promote an event successfully. To promote an event effectively it is essential to understand marketing, but it is also important to recognise that it is not just consumers who are the audience: other publics who may not necessarily attend can have a fundamental effect on the success of an event as well. Uniquely therefore, this book covers two related themes: marketing and public relations in an events context. This will offer events planners a comprehensive guide on how to promote events to a range of audiences, and on how to use this to manage an event's long-term reputation.

The book focuses on core marketing and PR current theory specifically relevant to the events industry and introduces topics such as marketing strategy, the consumer, marketing PR and how to use the internet to promote events. It integrates a range of international case studies from small-scale events to mega-events to help show how theory can be applied in practice. It further includes inserts of interviews with practitioners in the field, to offer insight into the realities of event communication and to show how to overcome potential pitfalls. Learning outcomes, discussion questions and further reading suggestions are included to aid navigation throughout the book, spur critical thinking and further students' knowledge.

The book is essential reading for all students studying Events Management, and provides valuable reading for students, academics and practitioners interested in marketing and public relations in general.

Chapter 1

Introduction – what is event marketing and public relations?

Introduction

This chapter will help set the scene for understanding both marketing and public relations within the milieu of promoting an event. First, we will set the context of events, and then look at the role they play within the communication process. We will then assess the literature on marketing and public relations within the events field. At the end of the chapter students will be able to:

• Evaluate the meaning of an event.

• Identify the drivers for current change in events management.

• Assess how communication plays a role within events management.

• Critique the current approaches to the promotion of events.

What is an event?

Former UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan is supposed to have said in the 1960s that as a politician what he most feared was ‘Events, my dear boy, events.’ By this he meant that things such as war, industrial conflict and political scandal made it difficult for him to direct government policy in the way he wanted. This apocryphal story highlights a problem for students of events management: namely, that the term ‘event’ can have many meanings, some of which have no direct bearing on your field of study. In addition to political science and history, the term ‘event’ also has meaning in mathematics and statistics, psychology and physics. In the natural sciences the term ‘event’ is more associated with rules of nature, but in the social sciences we are more interested in events which have something to say about the interactions between humans. We need to provide a meaning of the term ‘event’ that is relevant to events management within the behavioural context of social sciences.

The Collins Concise Dictionary (2001) defines an event as: ‘Anything that takes place, especially something important; an incident.’ This broad definition means that historians can refer to past events, political scientists to current events and mathematicians can predict the probability of an event occurring. In order for this definition to be helpful, what we need to focus on is that an event is a happening within a physical space, rather than just happening to someone or something. The events you will organise happen to someone precisely because they happen within physical (or occasionally virtual) boundaries.

The events management literature provides a more detailed and tailored definition. For example, Getz (2005) suggests that events have two key traits: each is unique; and they are temporary. This definition, emphasising that each event is different and has a start, middle and end, resonates with several other similar approaches. The temporary nature of an event is emphasised by Silvers (2008:7), who suggests that an event is: ‘The gathering of people at a specified time and place for the purpose of celebration, commemoration, communication, education, reunion and/or leisure.’ Once this purpose has ended then so has the event. The characteristic of uniqueness of every event has led Yeoman et al. (2006) to suggest that there is no ‘one size fits all’ events management approach. This implies that in terms of communication, marketing and public relations the nature of each event will shape the appropriate options available to the event manager.

A different approach to defining an event stresses the role of the event manager. Thus, Van der Wagen (2007: 5) suggests that an event ‘Is generally a complex social endeavour characterized by sophisticated planning with a fixed deadline, often involving numerous stakeholders.’ This definition stresses the importance of planning and organisation, but it goes much further and starts to highlight what an event is in marketing and promotional terms. An event implies that there is a range of stakeholders, such as the organisers, funders, participants, attendees, local residents and political actors. This definition reminds us that event management is not simply about ticking off what has to be done on a ‘To do’ list, but that the planning and communication aspects are integrated not separate. It also leads to what might ostensibly appear to be a philosophical question. Philosophers have asked the question: ‘If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, has the tree actually fallen?’ We might ask: ‘If no one attends our event have we really organised an event?’ This is not an abstract question, but lies at the core of promoting an event. Inherently, as event managers we should not just want to create an event, but to create a successful event, and to do so we need to communicate effectively with key audiences so that they will attend.

Definition box 1.1

Defining events

Events are essentially happenings constructed to bring together people for a defined period of time to achieve an identified purpose.

Looking at our event definitions, in terms of people this might include individual consumers, organisations, citizens, staff/volunteers and participants, amongst others. The type of events can be very broad, but could include meetings, rallies, training, open days, launches, sport, conventions and entertainment. A defined period might be just a few minutes as with a stunt like a flash mob, a day such as with a religious ceremony, or months as with the 1851 Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. Events do not just happen spontaneously: they are thought about and planned, and so inherently seek to fulfil a function. The purpose could be, for example, commercial, social/cultural, economic, macro, micro, political or just purely hedonistic. Indeed, Bowdin et al. (2010) suggest that events represent milestones in our lives. Our definition of an event has clear implications on how it will be promoted (as we shall discuss in depth in Chapter 3). Unlike most tangible products an event is something which is consumed when it is produced: it can’t be taken home and stored. This intangible nature influences what the consumer wants, what exact event is delivered and how the event manager promotes their event. What event consumers are effectively ‘buying’ is some form of experience. For example, the organisers of the Taste of the World Festival (www.tasteoftheworldfestival.com/) held in Los Angeles have to attract and then manage large crowds, every one of whom is a consumer looking to have a culinary experience.

Types of event

Given the huge number, and wide variety, of events organised each year it is helpful to identify shared characteristics across events so that they can be codified within typologies. Such typologies help us make greater sense of the proliferation of events, by identifying commonalities between apparently disparate activities. They also help practitioners identify and promote their specialist areas of expertise. Most textbooks suggest that we can identify two main approaches to constructing an events typology: by size; or the form of the event.

Bowdin et al. (2010) suggest that in terms of size we can identify four different types:

1 Local or community event – generally small and linked to a particular geography: for example, the Bretforton Silver Band Asparagus Auction, held at the Fleece Inn, Bretforton (www.thefleeceinn.co.uk/) in the heart of the world’s best asparagus-growing area, the Vale of Evesham. Being probably the most high-profile part of the British Asparagus Festival Day in May, the auction brings thousands of people to a very small village. This is a many-faceted event, as it brings together the local community, attracts tourists and effectively launches a product each year.

2 Major events – these are capable of attracting significant numbers of visitors and media coverage, offering potentially positive economic benefits. Typically, this could be a sporting event such as American football’s Super Bowl held in a different city every January. The Indian Premier League (IPL) 20:20 cricket competition takes place in March and April at nine cities throughout India, and attracts huge crowds and international television interest.

3 Hallmark events – they need not automatically be bigger than major events, but they are synonymous with a particular place, such as the Frankfurt Book Fair (www.book-fair.com/en/) in Germany. Tracing its origins back some five hundred years, and in its current form since 1949, the Frankfurt Book Fair attracts more than 7,000 exhibitors from more than one hundred countries. More recently, the eco-friendly Burning Man Festival (http://burningman.com/) has added a new element to hallmark events. Not only is it associated with a desert, Black Rock, Nevada, USA, but a temporary place is created – Black Rock City – and then taken down again at the end of the event.

4 Mega-events – these symbolic events are global and can influence the host country’s economy. They tend to be either sporting or tourist in nature, such as the FIFA World Cup, IOC Olympics and the World Expo. Given that there are very few such mega-events, competition to be selected is fierce and is often a lengthy and expensive process. The bid team hope that winning will lead to positive social, economic and political impacts. Hosting such events is risky, but there is a perception that the benefits could be very significant.

This stressing of size implies that there is a hierarchy of events, with some being more important than others. Primarily, this is based upon their wider impact on society, the economy and politics. The smaller, and presumably less well-known, events may require greater relative levels of promotion to attract volunteers, participants or customers than the larger well known national and international events. This does not mean that hallmark and mega-events do not need promotion: rather, that it might focus on a wider range of stakeholders far beyond just paying customers, also including VIPs, sponsors, the media and possibly those who access an event from home via television, radio or the Internet. This typology of events implies that different marketing and public relations approaches, techniques and tools may be applicable for each classification. If size is a means of codifying events, then promotion is likely to emphasise this as part of an event’s USP (unique selling point).

The second common way of codifying events is by form, whereby the focus is on the content or field of activity of an event. For example, Bowdin et al. (2010) identify just three types of event that can be categorised by form: cultural; sports; and business. This simple, imprecise and all-encompassing approach suggests that every event can be classified within one of these three categories. Thus, culture might include local community and religious events, sports would cover both amateur and professional, and business would be any event which helps an organisation (not just commercial) to achieve its goals. Form allows us to identify detailed activity, but Bowdin et al.’s categorisation is too sweeping in suggesting that all events can only be classified within one of these three approaches. Greater clarity of event types can be achieved by having more forms, so that, as Table 1.1 notes, both Getz (2008) and Raj et al. (2009) identify ten types of event.

There are clear similarities between both Getz and Raj et al.’s. typologies, as they reflect activities within individual, societal, business and political life. They are comprehensive lists, reflecting the fact that many event managers specialise in a particular type of event or market, though even here we might wonder where some events, such as stunts, fit in. These wider typologies suggest that while there may be commonalities of promotional approach applicable to all ten forms, we could also expect a level of promotional specialism reflecting the nature of an event, its purpose and its stakeholders’ requirements. One promotional size does not fit all.

Table 1.1 Form of events

Getz (2008)	Raj et al. (2009)
Cultural celebrations	Religious events
Religious events	Cultural events
Political and state events	Musical events
Arts and entertainment	Sporting events
Business and trade events	Personal and private events
Education and scientific events	Political and governmental events
Sports events	Commercial and business events
Recreational events	Corporate events
Private events	Special events
Events at the margin	Leisure events

However, in Table 1.2, I suggest that we can go a stage further in our event typology, one that inherently links to the communication of those events: namely, their nature. Events can be understood and categorised not just by their size or form, but also by the interaction between the organiser and the attendee. We can identify three factors which can shape the nature of an event.

First, the source of the event idea can be initiated top-down, typically from the senior managers of an organisation. In most fields this approach is the norm, with senior managers discussing ideas and deciding on actions. But alternatively, occasionally an event idea and/or organisation can be driven from the bottom-up, as when the members of a large organisation, or even those not aligned to any formal organisational structure, come together in an ad hoc fashion. For example, the November 2010 student protest ma...