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Mobile Strategies for Event Marketing | A CrowdTorch Webinar

With the creation of Smartphones comes their respective software: the “mobile apps.”  Mobile apps are designed to make your life easier (and more fun) by providing maps, restaurant reviews, games, news, and a multitude of other interesting features. It is not surprising then that apps for event planning and event marketing have been developed with nosql databases software.

Are you an event planner, coordinator, or do you work for an agency that plans large-scale events?  This webinar, Mobile Strategies for Event Marketing, offers some tips on how to use mobile apps for event planning purposes.

Hosted by CrowdTorch, a division of Cvent, Brian Ludwig, VP of Sales at CVent, and Camille Wingo, Sales Executive at CrowdTorch, were the webinar speakers.

CrowdTouch has created customized apps for TOMS, Toyota, and many other notable companies, conferences, concerts, and organizations.

Mobile apps stats for the ‘average’ user

  • 74% of adults own a smartphone
  • 77 minutes per day are spent using apps
  • The phone is looked at 150 times each day
  • 65 apps are installed on phone

Bottom line:  “This is not a fad” says Brian Ludwig: Mobile usage is on the rise and apps are here to stay.  In 3-4 years all large event, tour, and marketing initiatives will have a mobile app.

Benefits of native mobile apps

  • Native App: Installed on phone, not found on web means users can access content anywhere
  • Direct access at the palm of your hand with real-time updates
  • Customized for individual events & personalized experience
  • Social media engagement
  • Provides logistics & analytics for event organizers
  • Eco-friendly:  Reduces printing!
  • Synch-able with smartphone device features: contacts, GPS, etc…

When any enterprise have to build app having benefits like above mention they should visit to https://vecro.tech/mobile-app-development/.

Mobile Apps basics

  • Brand reflection:  Make app content brand-focused and unique
  • Target audience: Cater to audiences’ personal wants from event & make user-friendly
  • Generate $$ through sponsorships: Banners on apps, use logo on apps, personalized sponsor sections
  • Interactive: Maps, real-time weather, rich media (YouTube) and social media
  • Push notifications: Send announcements and updates

Market your mobile app

  • Website: Call-to-action on site for super-easy download of app
  • Emails: Share app with users via email when event is near
  • Blog: Show off app on blog
  • Social media: Share the app on all platforms
  • User ratings: Urge users to provide feedback

Case studies

Big Day Out: A traveling Australian music festival that went to 6 locations.  The app created for this event allowed the user to pick the location they wanted to see the concert in, and the app delivered the details accordingly.  Bonus: Successful in consistent branding throughout navigation.

National Cherry Blossom Festival: User can see every event and sort by date, location, category, and use basic search.  Bonus: Allowed user to create their personalized agenda.

Insomnia: Wanted one “mothership app,” which allows users to access all events and pick what interests them, personally.

What’s next

  • Ticket integration: Buy & share tickets directly on app
  • RFID Technology: “Bracelet” that allows greater accessibility to activities during event
  • Gamification, photo sharing & amplification, lead capture

This short but succinct webinar hosted by CrowdTorch presented the upside of using an app for your event marketing initiatives. With significant success stories and great insider tips, why not try creating a mobile app for your next event?

Opportunity for New England Nonprofits: Student-Designed Event Plans

I’m thrilled to offer this opportunity to New England-area nonprofits: a custom event plan by Framingham State students taking my Event Planning & New Media course.

Deadline to express interest: November 14, 2012.

Please have the point-of-contact at the nonprofit email sue(at)DesignatedEditor.com and be sure to include a link to the nonprofit’s website.

Framingham State UniversityFor their final group projects, students will work with nonprofits to understand their target audiences and design a new event for them. The nonprofits will gain a plan to guide their new events, and we hope the organizations can host these events in the future. This is an ideal opportunity to work with a younger demographic and see what types of event may work best to reach 20-somethings.

Students will conduct a phone interview to better understand nonprofits’ goals and target audiences. The projects will develop a new event concept and provide a plan to support it. It’s a great opportunity to tap into a 20-something mindset.

Please note

Students select which nonprofits to work with; they are not assigned in the hope you’ll see some passion in their work.

This is not an internship: Students will be delivering a well-designed plan and will not be there for events (although beyond-class arrangements can be made with students).

Highlights from the actual event-plan assignment

1. Interview a development/marketing professional at your nonprofit so you can better understand and thoroughly describe in your event proposal:

  • Target audience
  • Goals
  • What types of events do the nonprofits think would NOT be successful

 2. Create a NEW concept (as opposed to them giving you ideas). Thoroughly describe your event:

  • Detailed assessments of target audiences that would attend your event. Be sure to discuss personas.
  • Describe the event and outline as many facets as appropriate: venues, timelines, features, food, entertainment, etc.
  • How you recommend promoting your event to various target audiences (hint each may require different tactics)

I look forward to providing my students an opportunity to create portfolio-level work that will benefit resource-starved and worthy nonprofit organizations in New England.

Thanks so much for passing this information along to nonprofits in your network who may be interested,

Suzanne aka Prof. McDonald