While an event often only lasts a couple of days for guests and customers, it took months of your team's time and resources to make the magic happen. You want to go into an event as prepared as possible to maximize the marketing and business value you can build. That often means extending the activation beyond the event itself and organizing different formats of engagement for in-person and virtual audiences.

The entire playbook for event activation has been disrupted.

One of Cvent's biggest trends from 2022 is how to use every format in an integrated way. They write that "the rise of virtual and hybrid events provided a massive opportunity in the form of a multi-audience, multi-format events landscape that allowed marketers to engage with their audiences at every level of the marketing funnel." 

Frost and Sullivan further report that results in $512 billion spent on B2B events alone, and that's in addition to bringing your customers and prospects to already-organized events like professional sports and club gatherings. These events allow your brand to connect and engage, moving far past the simple metric of "brand impressions."

Multi-format events require new budget practices since everything won't be concentrated on just the event days. It's important to consider how to apply your activation budget earlier and extend it beyond the event for an enhanced look at ROI. 

Get on the right platform for your brand

First, you want your brand to be in the right place at the right time, engaging with the right audience. It's a mindset shift to use sponsorship as a tool to give you access to the right platform for your brand. That platform is the place where you can engage your audience in a refreshing and exciting way, oftentimes becoming more genuine in the process.

The work of activating your brand in sports and entertainment is much different than running ads or other more traditional promotions. With rights holders and properties becoming much more available to sponsors as times continually evolve, brands have more opportunities than ever to bring their brand to life.

Start small and grow toward results

The best part of this approach is that it doesn't have to be grandiose. We encourage our partners to start small with their investment, experiment with different activation strategies, analyze results, and continually align investment to where you are seeing the results. It is great to see brands grow their involvement to the point where they own and operate teams to unlock unique brand-building opportunities.

When you make the most of each event weekend, you have the opportunity to continually test and learn each week while you grow toward where the results are coming from.