The Value of Virtual Community
MySpace.com marketing maverick Shawn Gold explains why today's online toolset gives event marketers the power to build community like never before. |
Connecting Events to Customer Profitability
Connecting your events to five key customer metrics gives your executives the customer information they need, while proving events' profit-growing power. |
All in the Family
What are some ways to incorporate attendees' families into our corporate event? Three experts weigh in. |
Square Roots
Exhibitor magazine transforms a registration wasteland into a vibrant community hub at its annual conference and expo. |
Deluxe Saves Itself from Extinction
With its check-printing business beginning to fade, Deluxe Corp. counters with a branded suite of events that generate new-product ideas while positioning Deluxe as one of the savviest business partners in the financial-services world. |
Crash Course
Tire manufacturer Bridgestone Firestone lends its dealer-training road-show setup to a nonprofit youth-driving academy, building knowledge and awareness among those who sell its tires – and the young drivers who put those tires to the test. |
Mini's Customer Caravan
How Mini USA convinced 7,000 customers to spend up to 17 days immersed in its brand. |
Charmin Scores a Royal Flush
By providing posh public restrooms in a high-need locale, Procter & Gamble Co. transforms Charmin toilet paper from a commodity into a luxury item, worthy of the 460 million media impressions generated by the event. |
Marketing Smackdown
In a trademark move, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. crafts an unforgettable fan-focused event that incorporates its television programs, magazine, live events, and Web site into one tour. |
Toyota's Word-of-Mud Marketing
Toyota Motor spends millions of dollars to connect with just a few thousand customers - then lets them do the marketing. |
How Big Brown Rebuilt its Brand
Known for decades as a package-delivery company, United Parcel Service of America Inc. repositions itself as a global supply-chain leader with a multi-year series of C-level symposia with a ''going global'' message. |
Customer Anthropology
RSA Security Inc. continually improves its annual event with innovations developed by observing and analyzing attendee behavior. |
Creating Customer Community
How can you build community among event attendees? Three experts offer their tried and true community-building techniques. |
The Power of the Zag
Brand strategist Marty Neumeier explains how to bridge the gap between strategy and design to create events that truly differentiate your company from the competition. |
Exceeding Attendee Expectations
Circus marketer Julie Robertson knows how challenging it is to keep recurring events fresh and exciting while maintaining their integrity. Her secret? Know when to innovate and what never to change. |
Four Solutions, One Problem: New Markets
How four companies use event marketing to successfully connect with new demographic segments. |
Using Corporate Events to Drive Innovation
Northrop Grumman Corp. retools an obligatory technical-development event from a bare-bones science fair to a strategic innovation showcase. |
Toshiba's Customer Evangelists
To teach medical professionals about its new technology, Toshiba America Medical Systems lets its customers do the talking by organizing an official Speaker's Bureau and sponsoring educational events. |
Frostbike
Every winter, Quality Bicycle Products lures its top dealers and distributors to its headquarters in the frozen North to learn about its products and build relationships as solid as the ice on the company pond. |
10 Ways to Make a Memory
Events create memories for your attendees about your company, products, and services – and memories drive behavior. |
Thrill a Niche
Can consistency be a bad thing? Unconventional hotelier Chip Conley tells how a little unpredictable eclecticism can captivate event attendees and keep them coming back for more. |
Marketing: A Liar's Art
What kind of story do your events tell? Seth Godin shows event marketers how to 'lie' the right way – and leave attendees with an impression they'll not soon forget. |
Building Buzz Without Branding
Europa-Fachpresse Publishing House rejuvenates its flagship networking event for marketing professionals by provocatively stripping it of the attendees' bread and butter: brands. |
Xerox's Colorful Demand Strategy
To position itself as the leader in color technology and launch its new color printer, Xerox Corp. focused on convincing its customers that color means much more than pretty pictures – it means competitive advantage. |
Positioning is Dead
The popular marketing concept of positioning is stuck in a ‘70s time warp, forever crippled by a fatal flaw in its DNA – a lack of measurement. What's taking its place? Brand wikification. |
HP's Accidental Event
To help customers feel like company insiders, HP transforms its trade-show-affiliated customer meeting into an annual, standalone event – now worth $33 million. |
The Event is The Product
RSA Security Inc. grows its annual event from a small, informal gathering to the premiere event in its industry. Its secret? RSA considers the event as one of its key products, with its own research and development strategy. |
Session Development
When it comes to conference sessions, how do you decide which sessions to offer and who should present them? Three experts weigh in. |
Michelin's Value-Innovation Strategy
Michelin wheels out a three-day event to teach distributors how to sell its new, premium tires based on value, not price. |
CA's Strategic Reboot
CA Inc. redesigns its annual user conference to regain customers' confidence after a corporate accounting scandal. Its strategy? Offer customers and partners insider information, executive access, and a commitment to change. |
This Issue: The Piggyback Solution
Four companies in industries from farming to shipping build private corporate events on a platform of pre-existing events, saving time, and money, raking in leads, and making sales. |
Summit at C-Level
SunGard Higher Education invites high-level clients to an executive summit to establish itself as an industry leader, identify future technology needs, and develop strategic solutions. |
Second Opinion
How do you promote attendance at private trade shows? Three experts weigh in. |
Customer Evangelists: Spreading the Word
Customers who believe in your company can become your most potent sales force. Here are 10 ideas you can use at your next corporate event to cultivate customer evangelists. |
NASCAR: Why Sponsors Keep Renewing
To jump start business-to-business relationship building, NASCAR adopts a sponsor-retention plan that puts 13 of its official sponsors in the driver's seat at its quarterly B2B Council meeting. |
C-Level Events
How do you differentiate an event and add value for key executives so that they'll choose your event over your competitors' events? Three event experts weigh in. |
Code Camp: Using Events to Drive Innovation
Every time Orange S.A.'s developer partners crank out a successful application, Orange's revenue flares up like a booster rocket. To fuel the fire, Orange developed Code Camp, a three-day, around-the-clock event to accelerate application development |
Get the Picture?
To showcase the breadth of its product offerings, Canon USA Inc. creates a non-competitive, invitation-only event featuring interactive demonstrations spread over 120,000 square feet of exhibit space. |
Saving Customers One Event at a Time
For three years, AgVantage Software Inc. failed to attract a single new customer. To rebuild its reputation and rejuvenate customer relationships, AgVantage redesigned its annual user conference. |
Red Carpet Tour
Pinnacle Exhibits LLC hosts 40 potential clients, representing a possible $18 million in sales, for a tour of its exhibits at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo. |
Under the Influence
Diageo turns bartenders into brand evangelists with a series of strategic events designed to educate, pamper, and recognize the talents of its customers. |
Relaunch
After a dismal product launch, Compuware Corp. shifts its target audience from executive-level decision-makers to the software developers who actually use its products, creating an interactive customer event complete with hands-on education. |
Cultivating Customers
To create a sustainable competitive advantage, Farm Credit Canada launches a strategy of customer advocacy, using a hospitality event to create sales and networking opportunities for its clients. |
Mystery in a Box
Royal Philips Electronics launches its new corporate identity and brand campaign with a strategic event that combines suspense, secrecy, and surprise. |
Volkswagen: A Luxury Brand?
Besieged by skepticism over the launch of two new luxury vehicles, Volkswagen of America Inc. converts its doubtful dealers into enthusiastic evangelists by redefining its marketing strategy with a luxury ride-and-drive experience. |
The Mailer of Champions
General Mills Inc. whips up a winning two-part mailer that creates industry-wide buzz. |
The Amazing Race
MC2 lures jaded exhibit and event managers off the Vegas strip with a city-wide scavenger hunt. |
Is That Sewer Pipe Taken?
To cut costs and put its product center stage, Ferguson Enterprises Inc. builds its event décor out of its own plumbing and building products. |
Beauty Mark
Kao Corp. uses the side of a 30-story hotel to make its mark on the Japanese media, not to mention 5,000 mesmerized consumers. |
Customer-Driven Event Marketing
To create successful events that drive revenue, a company must first aggregate its customers based on their behavior in the marketplace. |
Gartner Events: Education as a Strategic Weapon
The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo uses a range of unique educational activities to attract high-profile attendees – from diagnostic workshops to consulting theater-in-the-round. |
PeopleSoft: Growing Event Attendance Through Market Segmentation
Aiming for a 20-percent attendance increase at its user conference, PeopleSoft Inc. developed a targeted-marketing promotion that segmented customers based on demographics and behavioral responses. Attendance soared – smashing PeopleSoft's goal. |
Using Events to Build Customer Community
To create a community of customers who have almost nothing in common and who are scattered across the globe, eBay invites them to a get-together with classes, parties, and even a wedding. |
What's Hot Now
Industry expert Rebecca Coons targets the latest trends in corporate events, from chocolate fountains to female rock bands to splitting the check. |
Is it Real-Real or Real Fake?
Jim Gilmore on the Experience Economy |
