Innovate Marketing Group on addressing closures and strategizing.
By Amanda Ma
Members of the themed-attraction and seasonal-entertainment industries must connect and to prepare for the world after the pandemic. This article discusses what we, in the live-events industry, can do in our creative and how we can pivot our marketing strategies.
Recommendations include:
- Postpone—don’t cancel—your live event.
- Generate novel ideas for clients and have team training.
- Figure out what and how you want to communicate.
- Plan now for the possibility of events this Fall.
- Consider pivoting to digital.
Watch the Session
Postpone—Don’t Cancel—Your Event or Opening Day
My company does only live events, so the current situation has been quite a challenge for us because all of our events for the next three months are canceled or postponed. We have a few recommendations for folks who have live events planned over the next few months that may not happen.
First, connect with clients and keep in touch with them. There’s a lot of uncertainty out there, and many clients may think of just canceling their events. We don’t want this, so try to arrange for postponement rather than cancelation. Emphasize that it’s essential to have the event, even if it’s months later. We need to be proactive and send that message out. With events planned for July or later, push for postponement, not cancelation.
Review your contracts and make sure you have an addendum that allows for postponement. We talked to a few lawyers about our contracts, and we were told that if we didn’t update them, the contract would be nullified at the time of the event date. Therefore, it’s important to send your clients revised contracts with an amendment that allows for postponement. Let them know how the delay will work and go over the terms of your payment. This needs to be clear and detailed for both parties. Have your lawyer look at your contracts, and plan for the uncertain future.
Generate New Ideas for Clients and Have Team Training
Now is the time to generate fresh ideas for your clients. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, my company was trying to develop proposals, but we were swamped and weren’t getting to them. Now we have tons of time. I tell my team, “We’re in it to win it” whenever we work on a proposal. We’re going back and improving our proposals, so our clients will have to hire us after this entire thing is over.
We’re also using this time for team training-—education through industry-specific podcasts and webinars and training videos like those found on ProProfs. A person in a video is so much more dynamic for sharing scenarios versus trying to explain them on paper. We’ve started doing training videos for internal purposes.
Another thing we’re doing is defining our standard operating procedures. We have SOPs for everything—how to run a show, how to do live experiences, how to do registration leads—so we’re taking the time now to develop these.
Now is also the time to reach out to freelance creatives—because now they have the time (and are eager) to respond.
Figure Out What and How You Want to Communicate
Decide what and how you want to communicate and what your messaging should be. Work on your website—refine, add more content (videos, blogs), and make it media-friendly.
Be sure your company is on LinkedIn, and focus on increasing followers and continuing relationship-building. You can invite up to 25 people within your network to follow your company website. If you don’t have a company LinkedIn account, I recommend you create one.
Be a resource for your clients and the community. Offer yourself as an expert to local media outlets. Reach out to media and let them know you’re a resource rather than waiting for media to come to you. Join HARO (help a reporter out). This is quick to set up and provides an automatic feed of reporters looking for stories.
Be media-ready by including a direct-media account on your website. Many times, when someone in the media reaches out to you, they want a response. Therefore your website should have a direct-media email account. If you go to our Innovate Marketing Group contact page, you’ll see our media contact, which is [email protected].
You could use this time to build a sales pipeline, although that process takes a while. One thing that can be done right away is to create a relevant, informative newsletter or promote content on social media that focuses on testimonials and services that aren’t face to face—a sizzle reel, a new website, etc. Sizzle reels of 30 or 60 seconds aren’t expensive to produce. A videographer can create a professional-looking one. You can split a one-minute video into four, 15-second clips—and, in that way, you create more content.
For marketing, we’ve put client testimonials on our website, and we allow them to promote us rather than pushing to find new clients.
Plan Now for the Possibility of Events this Fall
We’re recommending to our clients that they book events in September, to be sure we’re out of the danger from COVID-19, even though the earliest date for events to open will be August. If this happens, there will be a lot of events opening between August and December, and that challenges us to make our events that much better.
Many vendors in the US have been laid off during this pandemic, so I’ve been advising them to hang in there, leverage their production, and channel their energy into marketing. Following the SARS epidemic in 2003, sales doubled, so we just need to wait out the current situation.
There will be a fundamental shift in the way people do business after we move out of this. I think companies will add words like “pandemic” to contracts from now on. In the past, we thought about hurricanes and earthquakes, but nobody was considering a virus that went around the world.
It’s important to send out a “how we’re addressing COVID-19” email to customers, clients, and vendors, even though so many companies are doing this. In your message, include what you’re during this time and encourage clients to contact you. Also, if it’s appropriate, talk about or show evidence of how you’re cleaning and disinfecting because I believe people will find that reassuring.
An excellent resource for all of us in the events industry is Meeting Professionals International—MPI. Usually, a paid membership is required, but now all their webinars are free. There are many great sessions on there. Also, Facebook Event Planning and North Star Events are other great resources.
The Live-Events Industry Will Come Back Stronger than Ever
I feel the live-events industry will come back stronger than ever. Many of us in this business are regularly talking to one another, because, previously, we didn’t have the time to communicate and engage in this way. We’re leaning on each other for expertise and picking each other’s brains. People are asking me about how to handle cancelations and if we shift all of our Q2 and Q3 events to Q4, how they can plan for that, and how it will impact their business.
Looking at the recovery in China, I feel optimistic that live events will happen in the US starting in September. The Chinese workforce was back on the job after three or four months, so that makes me optimistic about September right now.
All that being said, we need to determine for ourselves when it’s safe to schedule events or reopen attractions. It’s not safe for my team or my clients to host an event right now. None of us wants to get sued, so we all have to think about safety and the big picture.
Consider Pivoting to Digital
As a last thought, I think pivoting to digital is an excellent next step in the future. Consider taking your events virtual. It’s not completely the same as a live event, but it can work well. Many companies are pivoting their events from live to virtual events. Facebook and Microsoft have announced all their events will be virtual until summer 2021. We are currently helping companies and organizations who are looking to build on their existing live experience success and pivoting to virtual. We’re also working on providing training videos for sale, like those found on ProProfs. We’re doing digital team-building to keep our workforce engaged and motivated, and we’ll be sharing that with our clients.
Now is the time to talk to your community—your team, your vendors, your friends, and family—to see how and what they’re doing during this pandemic. We’re growing closer every day, and we’re stronger together.
About the Author and Innovate Marketing Group:
Amanda Ma
Amanda Ma is the Founder and CEO of Innovate Marketing Group (IMG), an award-winning event and experiential marketing agency based in Los Angeles. Amanda is an industry professional with 15 years of experience in event production and launch, activations, experiential marketing, design, and execution. IMG is known for producing remarkable corporate events by providing fresh ideas, infrastructure, and logistics. The company is a one-stop solution from concept to execution.
