How to Increase the ROI on your Company Event with Branding

Events like company anniversaries, employee retreats, or open houses are not only a chance to celebrate with your customers, partners, and team, they are also an opportunity to strengthen your brand.

If you plan your event with a marketing mindset, not only will your attendees have a memorable time, you’ll receive a higher ROI on every dollar you spend, and every moment you create. Events aren’t just logistical activities, they’re brand-building opportunities. They give you a built-in reason to engage your audience, showcase your achievements, and engage with your brand community.

An Event is a Touch Point for Your Brand

An event is a brand touch point—it’s an experience of your brand. Your goal is to present consistent brand storytelling everywhere people learn about your event, and at the event itself.  When people have a great time within the world of your brand, they make a positive emotional connection that can increase brand loyalty and turn attendees into brand advocates.

““Events aren’t just logistical activities, they’re brand-building opportunities.””

Before You Plan the Party, Define Your Business Goals for the Event

The first step to creating a successful branded event, is knowing what you want to achieve. To maximize your event’s marketing impact, think about your business and brand goals first—and only start planning the party after you’ve defined your objectives and audience:  

• Define what you want to achieve for your business. Whether you are hosting a charity fundraiser, holiday party, or celebrating a major milestone, how can this event support your business goals? Do you want to increase your brand awareness, boost customer loyalty, reward and retain employees, or gain media coverage?

• Identify your audience. Who should you invite to this event to achieve your goals?

• Think about your business goal(s) in the context of what you know about your audience. What do you want attendees to learn about you? What do you want them to feel and do  before, during, and after the event?

• What type of event would align your business goals, brand identity, and your audience’s needs? What would make this event memorable for them, and inspire them to help you achieve your goals? What environment, activities, food, décor, and displays would resonate with them?

• Fine-tune your list by considering your resources, both in terms of budget and time. Do you want to have a month-long or one-day event? Do you have the staff to dedicate to planning? Should you hire an outside firm to help you plan and execute?

• Could you stretch your budget, expand your reach, and amp up your event by inviting complimentary brands to participate through co-hosting or providing giveaways? In “4 Ways to Boost Your Brand Experience”, we talk about the benefits of tying your event to another brand that already evokes positive feelings in your audience.

• Pre-plan the marketing content you want to generate from the event—photos, videos, testimonials. Often, the content is just as valuable as the event itself for increasing your brand awareness, extending your reach, and creating excitement around your business. Will you invite influencers to participate?

Plan the Event Experience from the Invites to the Exit

Branded events consider the audience’s experience from the moment they first learn about the event, to the days after it’s over. Two key questions guide the process: “How do we want people to feel about our brand in this moment?” and “What do they need at this touch point (and how can we provide it)?”

Before: Amplify the impact of your event by creating an engaging event countdown. Build a strategy—how will you build excitement and anticipation? What do attendees need to know before they arrive? Will you use email, social, landing pages, and press releases? Will you provide sneak peaks in advance of the celebration?

During: Anticipate people’s needs from the moment they arrive at the entrance to your event. Walk through the experience in your mind, with your co-hosts, and with any outside provider who is helping you plan. How can you create a favourable impression at each step? What do attendees need to know at various points? How can you create a seamless flow?

Events are an opportunity to share long-form stories, such as your company’s origin story, milestones, and key achievements. What signage is needed and where are the storytelling opportunities?

After: What will your event takeaways be: branded swag bags, special discounts and offers, invites to share event content for a prize?  Will you send thank-yous to attendees? Will you share event photos?

How Indalma Helped 3 Companies Celebrate Milestones

Since event planning and marketing planning share some commonalities—both are about understanding your audience, knowing what you want them to feel or do, and creating something memorable to inspire action—it’s no surprise that three of our clients asked us to help them when it came time to celebrate company milestones.

You can read about how we helped CORE Site Solutions launch their new brand at Barnside Brewing Co.’s Harvest Festival last September—it was a perfect alignment of CORE’s brand identity, business goals, and customers, with a memorable experience.

Around the same time, we also celebrated 20 years here at Indalma, with an event at Barnside Brewing that included our very own branded beer! You can see pictures from the night in this blog that outlines the lessons we’ve learned after 20 years in business.

And, this year, we helped two local, family-owned businesses celebrate 50 years—an amazing achievement since they haven’t just survived in competitive industries, they’ve grown and thrived.

Both companies reached out early in the planning process, understanding that a successful branded event starts with strategy—long before booking venues or ordering promotional materials. The two businesses have built strong reputations in the community and they wanted the focus of their celebrations to be on the people and projects that helped them grow.

Double R Rentals is a South Delta-based equipment rental company with two locations—one for homeowners, the other for commercial clients who need to rent construction equipment. Three generations of family have been involved in the business and they felt their 50th was a good time to refresh their visual identity to better reflect who they are now.

After refreshing the brand, Indalma helped Double R plan separate branded open houses for each location and audience. We dug through five decades of vintage ads, old baseball caps, and photos to showcase the company’s 50 years on the job. We launched the new look on building signage, in anniversary marketing materials and posters, and celebrated the company’s achievements and staff with signage featuring a historical timeline.

After refreshing the brand, Indalma helped Double R plan separate branded open houses for each location and audience. We dug through five decades of vintage ads, old baseball caps, and photos to showcase the company’s 50 years on the job. We launched the new look on building signage, in anniversary marketing materials and posters, and celebrated the company’s achievements and staff with signage featuring a historical timeline.

Lentel Construction is a South Delta-based homebuilder that has built or renovated more than 1,000 homes in the South Delta area. Their brand is so trusted that realtors will highlight the builder as part of their sales pitch.

Indalma helped Lentel through the process of creating a branded event, from invites to event signage, but one of the most interesting things we created was a wall map showing the location of all of the homes they had built, renovated, or framed over 50 years. We joined the company’s retired founders on a drive through South Delta just to see how deep their roots went—and learned that some of the homes had been renovated multiple times by Lentel as families grew. In the future, the wall map will be hung in Lentel’s office as evidence of the company’s legacy of quality construction.

With each of the projects we’ve highlighted above, including our own event, the brand identity and audience influenced the choice of event venue. Each company has a strong local reputation and relationships, even if they operate across BC, and each chose meaningful local venues. Lentel, for example, hosted their event at the Ladner Minor Baseball indoor training facility—a project close to their heart. It’s a detail that ticks all of the branding boxes: it showcases their work, exemplifies what they stand for, and is a project their brand community feels good about.