Tapping into your attendees’ emotions is key to engaging them. By Gayle Duncan & Alissa Hurley, September 03, 2010
Gayle Duncan
Alissa Hurley
Alissa and I are a decade apart in ages, but we both share the memory of a similar experience. Bet you do, too. Remember being in high school? It’s a warm day, the window is open and your mind is wandering.
The teacher is droning on, asking questions and getting an occasional grunt in reply. From the corner of your
eye you watch the hands on the clock tick off the minutes…
So what does this have to do with engagement marketing? Nothing really, except reminding you how it feels not
to be engaged.
We all know what it feels like to be completely engaged in an event or discussion. Our energy level is up, our senses are active, our attention dial is switched to “alert” and our minds are racing — maybe even our hearts. We want to contribute. We want to help shape the experience and we want to share our thoughts with others. The difference is as physiological as it is psychological. It’s compelling. It’s contagious.
Let’s bring that feeling into the context of marketing. Engagement marketing is about creating opportunities for audiences to achieve that heightened state, to associate it with your clients’ brands, and to equate the satisfaction they get from that act to the brand itself. Contrast that to its predecessor, experiential marketing, which is the equivalent
of the high-school example above. The actions are passive: heads nodding to questions, smile-sheet surveys completed during the event, spin the wheel to win a prize and we feel as though we can check off the “to do” list that we have created an interaction with our audience. Yet, nothing meaningful has actually occurred.
Engagement marketing offers an opportunity that affects both the brand and the participant. At Maritz, we define engagement marketing as “engaging your audiences to interact with your brand through experiences they shape and share.” For us, that means understanding, enabling and motivating the human dimension of business. Your participants are human beings, after all; while they are rationally motivated, they are influenced even more by their
emotions. If you can emotionally engage them, then you can affect their perceptions and beliefs. And if you can
affect their perceptions, you can influence their behaviour or performance.
So now let’s bring that thinking into the context of meetings and events. Whether events are required for information
sharing or celebrating, the ability to achieve your goals depends on engaging your audience.
To accomplish this, you need to know your participants and create an experience that will make them feel, think or do what you need them to do — not just in the meeting room, but in the long term. If they can help shape that experience, it will affect them emotionally. And if you can affect their emotions, you are more likely to alter their perception or their behaviour. So engagement marketing is really about bringing a lot more psychology into your events.
How? Well, event logistics, for one: the registration process needs to be easy, the venue needs to be the right temperature, the seats need to be comfortable, the chicken not too rubbery. Not to diminish the importance of these elements, but they are just table-stakes. To truly engage your audience and give them things they’ll talk about with their peers, you need to go much deeper.
— Gayle Duncan is vice-president, engagement marketing, for Maritz Canada and Alissa Hurley is director, events. Together, Gayle and Alissa will be presenting at IncentiveWorks. E-mail: gayle.duncan@martiz.com and alissa.hurley@maritz.com.
Wynn Las Vegas has unveiled the first of its renovated guestrooms, part of its ongoing project that will refurbish all rooms and suites by early 2011.
Renovated rooms at the Wynn Las Vegas feature new finishes, including wallpaper, carpets, chairs, couches and lamps.
For instance, the new Resort Deluxe room boasts natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows, accented by contemporary furnishings and fabrics.
Amenities include remote-controlled lighting, drapery and room-service messaging. Meeting and event planners can choose between one king bed or two double beds in this 640-sq.-ft. room offering either a view of the hotel’s golf course or the Las Vegas Strip.
The property features nine meeting rooms, two boardrooms, two column-free ballrooms, and is attached to Encore, which offers 60,000 sq. ft. of meeting space.
Allstream Centre, in Toronto’s Exhibition Place, has received the Environmental Stewardship Certificate, from Direct Energy Business, for its commitment to green power.
Since opening in 2009, Allstream Centre has been powered with 100-per-cent green energy, through the purchase of Renewable Energy Attributes (REAs) and is also targeting LEED Silver Certification.
Between October, 2009, and September, 2010, the venue, on the radar of meeting and event planners. was provided with 4.2-million kilowatt hours of Renewable Energy Attributes, equivalent to the amount of electricity used.
These REAs, which come from EcoLogo-certified generation facilities, prove that one megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from a renewable source – wind, solar, low-impact hydro, biomass, biodiesel or geothermal power – and delivered into a power grid.
By comparison, the same amount of electricity produced using conventional fuels emits a national average of just over 5.607-million pounds of carbon dioxide.
Catering Trendz, a new full-service catering company in Toronto, is open for business.
Domenic Chiaromonte, longtime executive chef at Match restaurant, is leading the culinary charge, cooking up contemporary Canadian cuisine for both social and corporate events.
The company’s creative consultant, Joanne Kulha, says Catering Trendz offers services for events such as private dinners, cocktail receptions, food stations and instructional cooking lessons.
Specialty dessert items include candy sushi made with Rice Krispies and cupcakes designed to look like mini-hamburgers.
While not an official partnership, Catering Trendz has a working referral relationship with event and design company Designing Trendz.
Kulha, who spent 15 years as the catering services manager for Truffles at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, says the formal launch will take place later this month.
It may sound funny for a meeting professional with over 20 years in the business to say this, but the meeting or incentive trip is never the objective of the sponsor or budget owner.
Events are held to achieve a purpose – motivate and reward high achievers, build relationships and loyalty, educate and inform clients, partners and employees, or discuss issues and find resolutions.
Basically, an event is held to improve business and personal results.
If you attended any of the educational sessions at M&IT’s mid-August IncentiveWorks trade show, in Toronto, this was abundantly clear.
The two keynote speakers (Simon Sinek and Gary Vaynerchuk) focused on asking, “why?” (to determine how to best achieve an objective) and outlined “how to get to where you need to be” (by using social media to complement events).
Many of the individual sessions were designed to give participants insight and knowledge to improve the value of their events.
In the Executive Perspective session I moderated, it was interesting to hear the executives talk about how they measure the success of their events in so many different ways.
But one thing they all agreed on – an event is really an investment.
The best meetings are those that are well designed (both logistically and content-wise) to complement a company’s business or marketing objectives.
Any event that does not help achieve an objective is either poorly designed – or just an excuse for a party.
The past 18 months have shown that in recessionary times, planners compete for limited budget with all of their company’s or clients’ other business initiatives.
The great planners are those who take the time necessary to understand the objectives of the event sponsor and then help design a meeting or incentive programme to achieve real (and measurable) business results.
They have earned that “seat at the executive table” that, for years, has been the goal of professional planners.
Achievement of tangible business results – not holding a meeting – is the objective.
There is an old saying in direct marketing: People don’t want to buy half-inch drill bits; they want half-inch holes.
Go one step further in your planning activities and ask yourself: What does your client really want?
The Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel & Suites, located directly across from Pearson International Airport, has completed a nearly two-year, $15-million project that modernized one of the airport’s biggest hotels.
Under the creative direction of renowned interior designer Anna Simone, the hotel’s interior has been updated with modern furnishings, rich colour schemes and textures.
More than 23,000 sq. ft. of meeting space has been remodelled, allowing the hotel to accommodate groups as large as 960 people.
The multimillion-dollar renovation began in the fall of 2008 and was conducted in three phases. In the first phase, 268 guest rooms were renovated, along with the hotel lobby, guest registration, lobby lounge and Bliss Restaurant & Lounge. In phase two, 151 guest suites were renovated and in phase three, which began in 2009 and was completed this summer, 19 meeting rooms were redone, as well as the corridors and fitness centre.
Beginning Dec. 9, 2010, WestJet will fly non-stop from Ottawa to Las Vegas.
August 30, 2010
WestJet has announced new seasonal non-stop service between Ottawa and Las Vegas. As well, the airline will also increase the number of flights from Ottawa to such sun destinations as Cancun, Punta Cana, Montego Bay and Fort Lauderdale.
“There is a strong demand in the region for affordably priced travel and, if the success of our service from Ottawa to other sun destinations like Orlando and Tampa is any indication, our new non-stop flights to Las Vegas will be well received by travellers from the Ottawa area searching for a great guest experience at a reasonable price,” said Hugh Dunleavy, WestJet Executive Vice-President, Strategy and Planning.
Beginning Dec. 9, 2010, WestJet will fly non-stop to Las Vegas twice weekly until April 28, 2011.
Also in December, the airline will increase frequency from Ottawa to Cancun from two to three times weekly, from Ottawa to Punta Cana will increase from once to two times weekly, from Ottawa to Montego Bay will increase from two to three times weekly, and from Ottawa to Fort Lauderdale from one to two times weekly.
The San Diego Convention Center has earned a gold certification from the International Association of Congress Centres (AIPC), the only U.S. convention facility, and just the second in North America, to achieve gold status.
This news comes as the convention centre, located on Sand Diego Bay, prepares to move forward with its proposed expansion, which would be good news for meeting and event planners.
Plans call for the addition of 200,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, 100,000 sq. ft. of meetings rooms, 80,000 sq. ft. of multipurpose ballrooms and 40,000 sq. ft. of bayfront retail.
With service and support space, the overall gross square footage of the expansion totals 1.26-million sq. ft., amounting to roughly one-third of the entire San Diego Convention Center upon completion of Phase III.
The expansion cost, including a proposed pedestrian bridge linking Fourth Avenue with the waterfront, has been estimated at $752.7-million.
Learning is one of those things you know is good for you! So why not start today, by giving your brain a good workout?
Today, go somewhere different, meet someone new and before the day draws to an end, read something you normally wouldn’t read.
In essence, today is a very good day to make your brain ‘sweat’!
Our brains are extraordinary and capable of learning more than we think.
The brain is our ‘universe within.’ How will you develop your universe within?
My suggestion is to start with action-based learning. Learn to speak a new language, play a musical instrument, sign up for study, create with your hands, use a new technology tool, travel far and wide, try a new sport, or have a conversation with someone thoughtful.
It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you follow your fascination and practice getting better every day. Setting a pace for action learning is about activity, growth and performance.
We are at our finest when we are learning.
What are your plans for making your brain sweat this month and next?
Aug. 17 and 18, I made my brain sweat at M&IT’s IncentiveWorks trade show, in Toronto. With networking opportunities, a wide variety of interesting topics and great speakers from which to learn, the show provided ample opportunity to give my brain a good workout.
As the back-to-school advertisements fill the newspapers, I start thinking about my own interests for learning something new and having fun doing it.
Happily, I am signed up for a four-week course on Dream Analysis, with two Jungian Analysts who promise to guide me through a process of dream interpretation.
While I have no expectation to incorporate dream analysis into my professional work, I am following my fascination.
And I know I will have fun learning about the dreams of others!
Star Productions’ president Alan Smithson has been appointed president-elect for the Toronto chapter of the International Special Events Society (ISES).
“My vision for ISES Toronto is to grow the membership by more than 50 per cent,” says Smithson in a release. “I would also like to boost the visibility of the organization, build cooperation with organizations such as Meeting Planners International (MPI) and Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), and strengthen the position of the meetings industry in Canada. That’s an aggressive goal, but if I can get the team of 13 board members working together, it is totally achievable.”
For more than two years, Smithson has been a member of ISES Toronto’s board of directors, serving as vice-president, membership.
As president-elect from June, 2010, Smithson will be groomed for the role of president, beginning June 2011.
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