Marketing Your Incentive Trip

Perhaps you have planned an incentive trip that you think is guaranteed to blow everyone away.  You have booked exclusive accommodations, celebrity speakers, headline entertainment, dinner in a wonderful new venue and more, but you find that enthusiasm for the program could be much higher.  What is a planner to do???

Here are some questions you should ask that can help solve the question of why there is not as much excitement as there could be.

1.  Was the marketing leading up to the trip as exciting as the program you planned?

2.  Were the tactics you used to motivate potential attendees effective?

3.  Did they feel if they didn’t qualify for this trip, they were missing out?

Everyone is quick to build a creative program, but it is also important to get the strategy and planning done upfront.  It is vitally important that the marketing campaign creates expectations of what attendees will take away from the program.  There must also be a commitment to the program from the leadership, management, etc…

There are a lot of cool programs that are fun but don’t tie in to your company’s core values, business objectives and more.  If the program does not tie in, it will not have the same staying power as one that is interwoven.  You should look for ways to build excitement leading up to an incentive trip.  You can try thing such as having a giant calendar to count down the days until it arrives, send employees home with a small souvenir from the destination you will be visiting and use direct mail as well.  Bottom line is that marketing your incentive trip is equally as important as planning the trip itself.

 

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

 

Unique Entertainer Friday

This week we have a classic rock celebrity act, Starship.  With hits such as We Built This City, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, Sara and many more, they are a great band for your special event at a trade show, corporate event, conference and more.  The best part is that they are very affordable, which is always nice.  For more information on booking Starship for your next event, go to my website and contact me today.

Here is the video to one of their most popular songs.

 

 

Brings back memories huh?

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

Do You Need Event Insurance??

Event planners are often puzzled over whether to purchase event insurance, and if they do, exactly what they need to insure.  Below is an overview to help you find the solutions.

Insurance associated with events covers and protects planners in several specific areas.

- General Liability insurance protects against a company and all parties involved in the event, the planners, venue, caterer for losses due to bodily injury or property damage caused by the insured employees or agents.

- Liquor Liability insurance is sometimes needed, especially if you are in a venue in which the bartenders are not covered or if you directly employ any part-time bartenders.

- Cancellation insurance will protect you in case of unforseen situations such as weather or something else happens that requires you to cancel your event.  This helps you cover many of the costs and deposits already paid.

Our society is very litigious and it is always best to protect yourself to avoid a larger problem later.  To obtain event insurance, call your own insurance agent and explain your needs and they will help you determine the best plan.

 

Josh Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

More Event Resources You Can Use

Enjoy these and use them to your advantage.

- www.greeneventsource.com

- www.eventplannersassociation.com

- www.facilitiesonline.com

- www.besteventsmag.com

- www.weddingindustry.biz

 

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

Unique Entertainer Friday

This week we have comic impressionist Rob Magnotti.  Rob is great for corporate events, meetings, ice breakers and more.

 

 

To book Rob for your next event, go to my website and contact me today.   Have a Happy Halloween everybody!

 

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

Event and Meeting Education, Free

Here are a couple of videos from Plan Your Meetings to help you come up with creative ideas to get more business and it is nice to hear from other people who are experiencing similar issues and how they are dealing with it.  There are some great real world tips in these clips, so keep a pen and pad handy.

 

 

 

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

How to Get More Business from Your Customers

It is more important than ever to stay in constant contact with your current customers and potential prospects.  One of the best ways to do this is by sending a letter to them in the mail. Yes, I am aware of email and email newsletters but they can be deleted quickly and it is not often that people get letters in the mail anymore, therefore they stand out and are remembered.  Here are some reasons to write letters to your customers and potential customers.

- thank someone for making a purchase

- follow up on a telephone meeting

- thank someone for doing you a favor

- ask for a referral or thank someone for one

- apologize for a glitch at an event you planned

- ask for a survey to be filled out to better understand your customers

- announce a new product, service, sale or promotion

- recognize the anniversary of any event, when they first became customers, etc…

The bottom line is that you need to keep in contact with your customers or you lose out on future business.  Email is great but sometimes a good old fashioned letter just works better.

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

25 Ideas to Add Excitement to Your Next Event

Here are some creative ways to add excitement to your next event or meeting.  Some are really off the wall, others are standard fare and more.  I hope you get some cool ideas.

1.  Book a local entertainer or big name celebrity to perform.

2.  Give everyone lightsticks.  This is great for large crowds a nighttime.

3.  Set up carnival games throughout the event or meeting.

4.  Raffle off prizes at random moments during an event, do not promote them or advertise them before the event, make it a surprise at the actual event.  This helps build buzz for next year.

5.  Have a karaoke machine and have teams compete for wacky prizes.

6.  Stuff helium balloons with special prizes.  Everyone loves balloons, especially if they can pop them
and get a prize. They also make a festive atmosphere in the room.

7.  Have everyone make on the spot You Tube videos and give prizes for the most creative ones.  You will need to have little digital cameras at each table of course.

8.  Have an unadvertised celebrity show up and greet guests at the door or even perform if the can as a special surprise.

9.  Rent a dunk tank and put the top executives in it.  This is definitely something you want to promote.

10.  Bring in a petting zoo if appropriate.

11.  Arrange typical county fair games such as three-legged or potato sack races and a tug of war with management versus employees.

12.  Host a fashion show where the ugliest outfits wins!

13.  Give away cash prizes at the event, everyone loves a stack of cash!

14.  Be the first one to hold an event at your areas newest hotel, nightclub, event space, etc…

15.  You have heard of strolling magicians, but how about strolling comedians.  They go from group to group and entertain with 5 minutes of clean comedy.

16.  Hold a dance or singing contest between management and the employees.  You could even do a mock American Idol.

17.  Hold your event in an unusual place such as a parking lot, retail store, corporate office, school auditorium, grocery store and more.

18.  Design your entire event around a TV show or movie.

19.  Make the event invite only and limit the attendance number.

20.  Hold a Twitter contest to see who can get the most amount of followers in a specific amount of time and award a prize to the winner.

21.  How about a beach day theme with a hot dog eating contest, walking across burning coals, etc…

22.  If you have a young crowd, you may want to incorporate paintball into the event. Have people shoot for prizes.  Be careful about liabilities though.

23.  Hire a masseuse to give massages to guests to help them relax.

24.  Host a game show with the money going to charity.  Have it modeled after Jeopardy or some other gameshow.

25.  Host a winter wonderland themed event with snow balls, igloos, and serve hot chocolate.  You could even ask your attendees to dress warm.

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

Are You Going to Miss This??

On October 28th, there will be a tribute movie about Michael Jackson coming out.  It will only be in theatres for 2 weeks, which not only makes you want to go see it, but it’s also a brilliant marketing gimmick.  How can we apply this to the meetings and events industry?  Well, for starters you want to make sure you are creating excitement around your events.  Only you will know the truth to that question.  Some ways to add excitement to your event or meeting is to add local or celebrity entertainment, big prizes, contests, outrageous marketing to get attention by the media, unique theme ideas and much more.  Another take away from the Michael Jackson movie coming out is that they are capitalizing on a hot news item/personality.  Now I am not suggesting that you do an event around someone famous who died, duh!  Rather, how can you tie your event in with a hot news item, trend, story, etc…  How about giving out t- shirts with controversial quotes on a hot topic to your attendees, asking them to donate to a new charity, the ideas are endless as long as you don’t limit yourself.

By the way, check out the trailer for Michael’s new movie below.

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

Increase Your Event Attendance

Unfortunately, only about half of the people who fill out online registration forms will actually complete it.  That translates into a lot of lost revenue.  Imagine how much more money you could make if you could turn those undecided people into buyers.  This is why automatic follow up with registrants who bail out before they are done is so important.  Online registration makes life far easier on both event planners and registrants, but the right system can also increase attendance and decrease cost for your company.  If you don’t have an automated way of tracking folks who abandon registration forms half way through and following up with them, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

Let’s say you’re shooting for 200 people at your event. And let’s say 300 people hit the registration form. If 50% of them bail out during the registration process, you’re left with only 150 registrations. But if you’re able to capture even 20% of those who started to register but didn’t finish, that’s an additional 30 registrants! Of course, the numbers will be different for every event. And, the larger the expected turnout, the larger the impact.  This is where the automatic follow-up comes in. If you have this capability, you can often persuade 20%, 30%, or more to come to your event who would not have come otherwise.  If you’re a full-time event planner, you’ll look good in front of your superiors for increasing attendance. And if you’re a business owner, you’ll experience the joy of a fatter bank account.  Right now, most event registration systems do not offer automatic follow-up with people who started to register but didn’t finish, but it’s a capability worth searching for because it can offer you great rewards. Make sure to find a system that will encourage fence sitters’ to come to your event rather than give up on it because it is an easy an effective way to increase your attendance and profit for every event.

Joshua Gair – Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com