Cheat Sheet: Your Guide to On-Site Event Branding

You worked hard to create a unique brand for your event. Your logo is crafted, your tagline is penned, and your beautifully-designed invites are sent. Now what?

To help you bring your event brand to life onsite, we put together this handy cheat sheet. You’ll get:

• A checklist for creating an immersive brand experience
• A worksheet to help you brand your most important attendee touchpoints
• Examples and ideas to get you started

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PREVIEW

The most successful events start with a standout brand. Think of Coachella: it’s not just another music festival — it’s a millennial fashion show. Or what about Dreamforce? It’s not just another business conference, but the way to stay on top of today’s technology. And Tough Mudder isn’t an obstacle course; it’s a place for participants to earn bragging rights.

Branded events like these take on a life of their own. Even people who’ve never attended these events know exactly what they stand for.

Of course, a brand doesn’t mean much if you don’t deliver on it. Check off the items below to create an experience that drives attendance and creates a loyal attendee following.

Checklist: Create an Immersive Brand Experience

1. Choose speakers, panelists, and sponsors who are aligned with your brand message.

2. Walk through your venue in your guests’ shoes, so you can “pre-enact” their experience. (Is it easy to find meeting rooms? How about bathrooms? Are there opportunities to enrich participants’ experience throughout the venue? A tech conference, for example, should offer creative ways to charge devices.)

3. Create visual magnets to drive home the brand message throughout the site — things attendees can see from almost anywhere. Think Cinderella’s Castle, visible from the entire Magic Kingdom.

4. Give attendees tips for how to spend their time outside of your event in ways that compliment their on-site experience. For example, if you’re hosting a maker’s festival, let attendees know about indie business owners in the area

5. Create personalized experiences that align with your brand message. For instance, if you’ve organized a race, give participants a snapshot of themselves crossing the finish line, captioned with their name and time.

6. Put your event’s logo everywhere, and we mean everywhere — from the big banner up front to the napkins in the back.

7. Use a worksheet like the one on the next page to map out all the physical places your attendees will interact with you throughout your event. Your branding should be consistent at every touchpoint.

Worksheet: Attendee Touchpoints

A touchpoint is any place where an attendee at your event will come in contact with your brand. They might see a big screen inviting them to share their experience on social media, receive a branded registration packet, or simply step into your expo hall for the first time.

Take advantage of these touchpoints by mapping them out using the worksheet below. Walk around your venue and use the first column to write down each touchpoint you see. In the middle column, think about ways you can deliver on your brand promise at each touchpoint. And in the third column, brainstorm ways to elevate the brand experience even further.