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Event Management

Notes The place where you locate your event ultimately will determine the marketing efforts you
must exude to drive sales. For example, it has been shown that those events that are close to
inexpensive, safe public transportation or those events that feature closed-in reasonably priced
parking will attract more guests than those that do not offer these amenities. Furthermore, those
events that are connected to other nearby attractions or infrastructures (such as shopping malls)
may also draw more attendees due to the time efficiency of the destination. For upscale events,
the addition of valet parking may improve the chances of attracting guests to a new or
nontraditional location.
The event manager must seriously consider place when designing the marketing program for
the event. Place not only implies the taste or style of the event, it also, in large part, defines the
type of person that will be persuaded to invest in the event. In this regard, the event marketer
must determine the place in the early stages through research and design. This is the perfect time
to convene a focus group or conduct a survey to determine who is likely to attend your event
when they are given a variety of location choices. Making certain you have thoughtfully analyzed
this important issue will save you time and money throughout the entire event marketing
process.

4.5 Internal versus External Event Marketing

Event managers may use an event or a series of events as one of the marketing methods to
promote external events, products or services such as shopping malls, tourism destinations, or
attractions (such as amusement parks or zoos), or any entity that is appropriately promoted
through events. However, in most cases, event managers use marketing forces such as advertising,
public relations, promotion, advertising specialties, stunts, and other techniques to promote
individual events. These traditional marketing techniques should be used to inform, attract,
persuade, sustain, and retain potential customers for your event.
Increasingly, a blend of internal and external event marketing is being utilized to promote
events. In some cases, event managers use miniature events as a means of promoting major
events.
Both internal and external event marketing are important strategies for your event. Figure 4.1
depicts how this process is used to market your event product. Since resources are always
limited for marketing it is important to select those internal or external elements that will most
effectively reach and influence your target market.
Sports have generally attracted broad demographics, whereas cultural events are able to target
high-income and well-educated consumers. Sponsorship becomes more valuable if the event
organization is able to offer precise targeting that matches the marketing objectives of the
prospective sponsor. The growth in sponsorship is due primarily to the need by advertisers to
find alternative marketing channels to inform, persuade, promote, and sell their products and
services. However, the number of events that require sponsorship has also grown in recent
years.
Without sponsorship, many events would not be financially feasible. Other events would not be
able to provide the quality expected by event participants. Still other events would not be able
to achieve their specified goals and objectives. Suffice it to say that more often than not,
sponsorship provides the grease that allows the event wheel to function smoothly.
Historically, sponsorship has its earliest modern origin in professional sporting events. These
events have always appealed to the widest demographics and were therefore perfect event
products for sponsorship. Sponsorship is a uniquely American invention brought forth from the
need of advertisers to reach certain markets and the need of event organizers to identify additional
funding to offset costs not covered by normal revenue streams, such as ticket sales.

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