NEWS & UPDATES

July 30, 2008 In By Advent

The Power of Positive Event Experiences

The Sword of Damo­cles and Event Marketing

Damo­cles was a flat­ter­ing courtier in the court of Diony­sius II of Syra­cuse dur­ing the 4^th cen­tury BC. His story can help shed some light on a recent study con­ducted by the Event Mar­ket­ing Insti­tute con­cern­ing “The Power of Pos­i­tive Expe­ri­ence.”  One day Damo­cles exclaimed to Diony­sius how mar­velous it must be to enjoy the sta­tus of king and expe­ri­ence all his power and wealth.  Gra­ciously, Diony­sius offered to trade places for a day so that he might under­stand his for­tune.  That night at the ban­quet Damo­cles enjoyed him­self immensely and was even waited on by Diony­sius.  Only at the end of the meal did he look up to see a sharp­ened sword hang­ing directly above his head and dan­gling pre­car­i­ously by only a thin horse hair.  Imme­di­ately he lost his appetite for food and drink as well as his desire for the king′s power and wealth.  You can imag­ine him shak­ing and quiv­er­ing in his seat.  Diony­sius suc­cess­fully con­veyed the pre­car­i­ous nature of hold­ing power.  Events are pow­er­ful.  And (at the risk of con­fus­ing metaphors) they are dou­ble edged swords.

“It′s good to be king.” –Mel Brooks as Louis XVI, His­tory of the World, Part I

If you are the king of mar­ket­ing events then life is good.  A study con­ducted by the Event Mar­ket­ing Insti­tute found that an astound­ing 98% of atten­dees will rec­om­mend you after a pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence. Over half will tell at least 4 peo­ple.  This kind of power gives your mes­sage wings to fly far beyond the event.  The wings will fan the flames of word-of-mouth and help it spread like fire, far beyond the ini­tial spark.

There′s a but…

If you are think­ing about con­duct­ing an event: not so fast.  You bet­ter plan for it.  The same study reports that 95% will trash your brand after a neg­a­tive expe­ri­ence and a fur­ther 62% will tell at least 4 peo­ple.  Approach events with the knowl­edge that Damo­cles′ sword is hang­ing over your head.  Know that bad event is worse than no event.  Events are risky if you do not plan for them.  Elim­i­nate the risk by tak­ing your events seri­ously and tak­ing your mar­ket­ing strat­egy to the next level.

Advent leads from the fore­front of the cut­ting edge mod­ern mar­ket­ing indus­try by fuel­ing brands with the explo­sive power of expe­ri­ences.  Advent cre­ates an emo­tional bond with audi­ences by lever­ag­ing the unri­valed effec­tive­ness of expe­ri­en­tial mar­ket­ing through tar­geted events, engag­ing exhibits, and branded spaces.  High impact and high touch strate­gies mark Advent′s cre­ative advan­tage and have helped rapidly expand­ing brands com­mu­ni­cate mes­sages that gain imme­di­ate and last­ing res­o­nance with con­sumers.  For more visit adventresults.com.

Authored By Advent

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