While some events may serve as alternative distribution channels for product, the point to most events as part of a marketing program is typically to inject energy into a brand’s current marketing program.  Very simply, the event must intensify:

• Relevance for past and potential brand users
• Differentiation through a linkage with the event
• Emotional attachment that makes the brand bigger

Relevance is THE word that seems to appear in all marketing discussions.  The reason is simple.  The attention span in a time-starved world is rapidly shrinking.  No one pays attention to anything that is not personally relevant and people just do not have the bandwidth to make things relevant that don’t obviously fit with their present lifestyle.  Events can force a pause in the daily routine.  The excitement and transcendent nature of events can shift the context of how a past and potential brand user sees your brand.

Differentiation for a brand can be driven by the halo impression on event attendees and non-attendees.  Events provide a torrent of communications with touch points for both attendees and many non-attendees.  Each contact made is an opportunity for the brand to enhance its meaning through association with event attributes.

Events are emotional in nature.  They force those who experience them to react in a big way.  The emotional response is immediate.  So, the real question for brands is whether the attachment from event to brand can be carried out the door once the event is over.

Events as marketing programs behave, in effect, as small campaigns.  To deliver energy to the brand, the event must deliver relevance, differentiation and emotional attachment impact across all touch points individually and collectively.  To measure this energetic infusion properly requires recognition of both the immediate, in-the-moment and the lasting impact of the event on the brand.