Come up with a #hashtag prior to the event. It is essential as people can follow the hashtag on Twitter and see the latest event updates. They can also see who’s attending, which provides a valuable opportunity for networking before the event begins. Talking about the event, and using hashtags, will also provoke anticipation and work towards the overall positive experience of the event.

Remember to come up with a memorable and short hashtag, and in order for it to work, you need to promote it on all promo material, newsletters, and other postings so that people know what to use and/or what to follow. You can also think up fun and creative ways to encourage people to use the hashtag, or simply ask them nicely!

Hashtags are not only for the customers, they are also an excellent monitoring tool for you. This way you can see what converstaions are taking place around your event, what the highligts were, and any problems are brought to your attention to be solved.

During the event you should tweet updates and/or changes, whether it be a speaker that’s just begun in a conference room, maybe someone has a new time for the appearance, or simply sending a picture at the event of something happening backstage that is interesting and worth mentioning.

This tweeted information is not only for the attendees but also for people who are interested in the event but were not able to be there on the day. These up-to-date tweets will grant them a live feed of the event, and enable them to follow or participate remotely.

Throughout the event and at all times really, be prepared to answer queries and comments about the event. This not only engages the audience, but is also a big part of the overall experience satisfaction. From time to time, retweet an interesting comment an attendee has made.

An important tip here is to remember that you can never turn social media off, as people expect the answer to be accurate and immediate, whether it be late at night, or at the weekend.

After the event you should ask the attendees for feedback or highlight a blog post that you or others even have written about the event.

Finally of course don’t forget to get a decent wi-fi connection so that people can get online, and test it a number of times. If someone has something to say, there’s nothing more frustrating than being muzzled by a dodgy connection!

The term advertainment was coined to reflect the increasingly intertwined connections between advertising and entertainment. It refers to promotional practices that integrate brand communications within the content of entertainment products. Brand communications are now present in the content of a broad range of entertainment vehicles, including TV and movies, radio shows, songs and music videos, video games, plays, and even novels.

The increased mingling of advertising with the entertainment world has generated a slue of newly coined terms to reflect these trends, such as hybrid advertisement.

Factors Fueling the Growth of Advertainment

Advertainment has grown mainly in reaction to the increasing advertising clutter, escalating advertising costs, and the reduced effectiveness of traditional advertising messages.
Consumers are exponentially exposed to commercial messages but at the same time they are finding
new ways to avoid them. An In-Stat/MDR survey found that 54.3% of consumers claim to
skip 75-100% of commercials5. In 2004, a Knowledge Networks study concluded that 47% of viewers switch channels while watching TV5. The same study also determined that the proportion of viewers
doing other activities while watching TV -such as eating, reading, or using the internet -increased from 67% in 2004 to 75% in 2004.

Advertainment can be classified based on the degree of integration of the brand in the entertainment content, represented below on the horizontal axis.

There is a general consensus that advertainment can bring strategic benefits linked to the implied endorsement obtained from having a brand associated with a celebrity. By building an association with a

celebrity, product placements and integrations benefit from the credibility and trust that the celebrity brings to the brand.

If you have a linked in profile (click here to join) then their automatic system will now show events that match your profile and interests. You can also post your own events, which in turn will be posted as suggestions to people with similar interests. You can search for events by area of interest, date or location, and see who, from your network is planning to attend.

You can also show your interest in the event, and whether you are planning to attend.

Linked in have partnered with event registration site EventBrite to provide the information for the site – and claim that on launch they have over 8,000 events listed – this is sure to rise as members start posting their own events.

You can find out more, visit the Linked In blog or view this video which shows the system at work.

It’s interesting that two big players have launched similar services in the past couple of weeks, and it will be even more interesting to see if their audience start to use them to suggest events and show which they are attending. There’s a definite push towards linking live events with social networking sites – maybe it won’t be long before you can show which events you’re attending and meet up with people at events you know from social networking sites.

Click here for details about the project .

Concept Note .

Introduction:
The video “sham tanha” is designed to reveal the intensity of this ballad in an animated story with band empathizing and imbibing the emotions of the protagonist of the animated craft by their presence in the video. (Replacing the musicians and live video with anime characters and scenes of the band members in 60:40 ratio)

Inspiration:
‘Sham Tanha’ is a unique blend of modern and traditional Indian music creating a very personal feeling and experience of mystery, melancholy, nostalgia, hope and romance.
The song speaks about a quiet evening when a young man is forced to trudge down memory lane where glimpses of a long lost love haunt him.

Target Audience:
The target audience would primarily be the age of 18 to 45 yrs, but the basic feeling of the song would touch and inspire people beyond any age.

Plot Overview:
The plot is purely a phantasmagorical visualization of the feeling that one gets listening to the song. It revolves around a young man who is engulfed momentarily with sadness and goes back into his memories in search of a dear friend whom he has loved and lost. The video is a fantasy where the protagonist lives every special moment of his friendship all over again. At times he cherishes certain moments and at other times feels sad about the empty space he has within himself. But the protagonist realizes that life moves on with its ups and downs and so will he.
The band introduces the animated protagonist, his transitions from one era to another and finally appears at the closure of the plot. (Story board of the anime part annexed)

Material and media assets:
Video is a mix of live motion and animation.
Animation- tools used:
• Light tracing tables
• Vacuum tablets
• Drawing and painting accessories
• Animation sheets
• Computers
• Painting Paper

Live Motion- tools used:
• Professional DV cameras
• Green Screen (for super imposition)
• Studio Lights

Interlude:
Space- The video will show common urban settings as per the core concept.
Colour- Both monochromatic and multicolour visuals will be used as and when required to depict the emotions according to the concept.
Texture- Rough sketchy textures would be experimented with.
Time- Present day: Set in evening
Flashback: time is decided on according to the plot.

Editing:
Editing techniques such as hip hop editing would be used to maintain a vibrant atmosphere keeping in mind the pace of the song.
Elegant~ real to animation to real and back, effects and gentle transitions would make this video a visual delight.

Costumes:
Casual Urban clothing.

Musical Parameters:
video will go in synchronization with all the parameters in the song viz.,
Melody / Harmonics / Rhythm / Dynamics /Timbre

Connections among Music, Image and Lyrics:
The lyric along with the music of the song is inseparably entwined with the animated music video which suggests vivid imagery and above mentioned editing techniques.

These same executives should engage in brand research when they want to learn how their best customers perceive them, why those customers choose them over competing brands, and how to express their brand universally and crisply across all print and electronic media.

If market research is about benchmarking demand in the marketplace, then brand research is about creating differentiation in the mind of the customer. If market research is about identifying new products and services, then brand research is about why customers choose to purchase those new products. Finally, if market research is about determining price elasticity, then brand research is about commanding a premium price.

There are many firms offering market research. This research is typically quantitative, employing telephone, email and mail surveys. Sometimes this research is bundled with advertising services. Sometimes it is conducted by an online marketing agency leveraging the traffic coming to your website. Most often, market research is provided by companies that specialize in quantitative research and have expertise in specific industries.

Firms offering brand research specialize in building, strengthening and extending brands. They are subject matter experts. Brand research is qualitative, employing one-on-one interviews with your most desirable customers and, when and where appropriate, using focus groups.

Brand and market research are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes, by simultaneously employing both brand and market research, you can develop a multi-dimensional perspective of your business and your customers.

When to Conduct Brand Research
There are five discrete moments in the life of a company when the new knowledge obtained from brand research provides competitive advantage.

New Company. New Brand. When companies are launched, brand research is conducted to first define the competitive set as it exists in the minds of the target customer and then to understand how to position the new brand in that set.Existing Company. Brand Elasticity. When companies want to offer a new product or service, they need to determine whether the customer will allow the brand to travel from the existing products to the new products. For example, when the Caterpillar Corporation wanted to move from heavy road grading equipment to footwear, brand research informed their decision-making.

Merging Companies. Brand Architecture. When two companies merge, they develop a business strategy. Similarly, when two brands merge, they need to develop a brand architecture that defines how the two brands will retain their current customers and attract new customers.

Managing Companies. Managing Brands. As companies mature, they seek business consultants to provide expertise in areas ranging from pricing strategies, to developing supply chains, to defining organizational structures. When companies seek to maintain the health and welfare of their brands, they should engage brand strategists to: develop brand-marketing plans that identify and measure customer choice; create new tag lines and logos; inform the development of standard guides that ensure universal expression of the brand; conduct “brand coaching” with both executives (so that they become the stewards of their brand) and customer-facing employees (so that they become managers of their brand).

Revitalizing Companies. Rejuvenating Brands. As markets change and customer needs evolve, companies often lose their most profitable customers to new competitors. As their offerings become commodities, their brands become diluted. In essence, both their business and their brands have lost their meaning and relevance to their target customers. Brand strategists can identify the remaining equity in the diminished brand. Next, they can define the new brand promise. Finally, they can reposition the brand to its target customers.

What You Should Learn by Conducting Brand Research
If any research is to have value, it must provide new knowledge and be actionable. So it is with brand research. Below are five critical success questions that brand research informs.

• Why do customers choose you over competing brands?
  Knowing this enables you to focus on the skills that help you make and keep your promise to the customer.
• Are you competing in the right category?
  To be clear, an example of a category is laptop computers. A brand in that category is Dell. Knowing in which category you compete in the mind of your most profitable customer enables you to strengthen your position in that category. You can strengthen that position by better delivering the benefits your customer receives when they choose you.
• What specific new products and services can you offer?
  Old Coke will not travel to new coke. Yet Virgin can travel from the entertainment industry to the travel industry to the soft drink industry. Brand research will identify the current state of your brand in the minds of your customers and what specific steps are required to move your brand to the desired future state.
• What are the sources of trust employed by a customer when choosing a company like yours?
  When making a buying decision, customers seek out trusted sources, such as colleagues, experts, the Internet or advertising. Brand research can identify those sources and the ways in which your customer prefers to interact with these sources.
• What are the key messages that resonate with your most profitable customers?
  Brand research will provide the specific messages that influence customers. These messages should create differentiation and describe the benefits of ownership.

Harnessing New Knowledge
Over four hundred years ago, Sir Francis Bacon stated, “Knowledge is power.” In today’s rapidly shifting business and brand landscape, where entire industries can evolve overnight, it is appropriate to paraphrase Bacon and say, “Knowledge of the customer is power.”

Brand research can enable your company to discover that new knowledge and learn how to harness that power.

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Joseph B is a brand strategist with over 25 years of experience designing and implementing brand and marketing strategies for financial services, banking, healthcare, high technology, entertainment, hospitals, universities and retail clients.

Aside from private, “invitation only” virtual events, most other virtual events can benefit from the integration of social media channels.  Integrating social media is a win/win because it increases and augments the degree of engagement within the event.  And, it enables your attendees to promote the event on your behalf.  Awareness extends to your attendees’ friends and followers.  A few retweets and likes later, and the visibility of your event can increase to “near viral” proportions.  Social media integration should not be about slapping up Twitter and Facebook icons throughout the event.  In this posting, I outline an approach that aims to give you the best results.

Audience Before Technology

Before you think about the logistics of integrating social networks, start with your target audience.  Ask yourself which social networks your audience is active in.  If you’re already doing social media marketing, you should have the answers.  If not, you’ll have to do some research within your target audience.  For instance, Twitter may not be appropriate for septuagenarians, while Foursquare may not be appropriate for mommy bloggers (given the low percentage of females who use that service). So generate your short list of social networks based on where your audience is active.

User Experience (UX) Before Technology

Yes, you technologists will need to sit tight.  Next, map out your event’s user experience (UX) to ensure that social media integration blends well into the overall experience.  Points to consider:

1. Do NOT make attendees leave the environment!  “Integration” means incorporation into the event.  It does NOT mean taking users to Twitter.com in another browser window.
2. Easy to find.  Ensure that the social media elements are intuitively placed and labeled within the virtual experience.
3. Integrated alongside existing elements.  Social media should NOT replace core elements of the virtual platform (e.g. chat, message boards, blogs, etc.).  Instead, they should be placed alongside them as additional venues for engagement.

Technology: Integration via API’s

Related to the objective of keeping users within the virtual platform, the secret to integration is the use of Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) provided by social networks.  API’s are pieces of code that you can call on from within your virtual event platform.  Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (among other services) all have API’s that provide services such as authentication, social graph queries and message posting.

Technology: Encourage Discovery

If you can leverage technology (and the API’s) to enable your virtual event attendees to discover content and connections, you’ll increase the satisfaction ratings of your event.  For instance, using the LinkedIn Connections API can allow attendees to see who in their LinkedIn network is online (in the event) right now!  The Twitter API (or, use of Twitter widgets) can enable exhibitors (of your virtual trade show) to list their Twitter ID and gain Twitter followers.  Those Twitter followers, in turn, may some day turn into sales opportunities.

Conclusion

By their very nature, virtual event are social.  Integrating social networks makes them even more social.  Encouraging attendees to tap into familiar social networks only adds to the engagement of your event.  And, by tapping into their social graphs, you can increase awareness of your event, while increasing attendees’ awareness of valuable content – and, each other.

______________________________

This is a guest post by Dennis Shiao, looking at virtual events and how they integrate with social media.

Dennis is  author of the book “Generate Sales Leads With Virtual Events.”  Dennis is responsible for go-to-market strategy and execution, and for shaping product and platform evolution via the “voice of the customer”.

The web has been founding on a very single principle: linking things. And quite often, when I work on digital environments 2 questions drive me:

Where I’m supposed to go to after and why?
What actions this experience is inviting me to take?

It’s more than hyperlinks it’s about creating a true experience, a true connection and enabling things to be spread and shared at large. That is true for online environment as well as for offline events, in-store, and packaging.

We’re talking integration of the brand message, where I think it’s broader than that, it is about creating the ecosystem of the brand across multiple venues, platforms.
The creation of those people-centric flows around a consistent brand message will become one of the strongest communicational assets of a brand.

Brand experience also encompasses understanding and aligning product or services to change in end-user mood, needs, desires, and behavior generally. The concept necessitates delivering promises made to customers and prospect alike with unexpected pleasure. Let us call a spade, a spade! What your rivals will never tell you is that the landscape of competition and marketing channels are evolving continuously. Brand touch points are replicating in nonlinear form. The marketing landscape is now filled with profusion of touch screens, digital signage, mobile wallet, mobile coupon, QR code redemption, RFID technology, interactive displays, point of sales kiosk, and mobile apps design to enable consumers experience timeless realm of sweet life cut full of extra comfort.

Survival in today’s competitive landscape necessitates delivering product or services that are simple solution to huge and complex problems of consumers. A memorable and unforgettable experience is created by being insightful, remarkable, valuable, dynamic, relevance and accessible enough to unravel gaps and deliver satisfaction incessantly. The concept of experience is very important in brand repositioning because it adds to positive perception, identity and image of product or services. Genuine and convincing experience also leads to repeated transaction, relationship and brand advocacy. It is now time to probe the depth of the market with the brand interfaces below that will enable you to consistently outperform competition and make consumers fall in love with your product or services.
Product/service experience

There is no substitute for product or services that is faithful in every detail of brand landscape. One way to enhance product or service experience is to anticipate diverse preferences of target market and creating wide range of customizing options to fulfill those needs. It involves carrying out an insightful research to unravel those solutions that can be the answer to consumer needs, desire, wants and problems. Enhancing product or service experience also requires the ability to focus on meeting expectation, being relevant and delivering desirable features. Lastly, ensuring that there is an alignment between supplier activities and consumer preference will increase synergy of positive process that can add to great experience.
Environment experience

Do you know that the physical setting of a place can delight, mesmerize, confound, captivate, affects moods and alters behavior from every angle of brand interaction? Does it sound incredible? Here is why, physical or online environment have the power to enhance experience especially during when purchase process create unexpected pleasure. You can create a sensorial sensation and enhance perception through décor, color, aromas, sounds, lighting, and merchandise configuration of physical surrounding. Store or office atmosphere must be able influence and create specific mood in customers as well as prospects. Ensure that website template design, content development, captions, Meta tags, navigation and brand visibility is dazzling enough to enchant end-users.
Communication experience

Enhancement of communication experience between brand and customers starts from clear understanding that humans are made up of different personality and traits. Memorable experience also starts when employees who they are, the brand, and goals of organization. Furthermore, delivering great experience entails ensuring that leaders and employees are role model through clear articulation on how to maximize shareholder returns. It entails creating memorable dialogue through training and communication strategy. Other ways to enhance brand experience is through clear vision on how to strengthen relationship with customers and prospect alike through complaints resolution, in branch experience, consultative experience, advocacy experience, waiting time and follow up, call centre experience, and online reviews.
Consumption experience

A great brand experience begins from acquisition phase and extends to fulfillment stage, when promise is delivered. Most brand generate three outcomes after consumption; performance matches, exceeds or is below expectation. When the performance of a product or consumption experience exceeds expectation, it leads to satisfaction, referral and loyalty. It is imperative firms utilize follow-up calls, ads, guarantee, warranty, and maintenance to build relationship at this stage of purchase process. Organization should also focus on reducing negative feelings associated with using a product or services at consumption phase.

PRODUCT
Literal description of the product or service.

OBJECTIVE
What the communications campaign should achieve
for the brand (e.g. increased sales/awareness,
adjusting positioning or perception). Should include
a fixed, rational target that can be measured.

WITH WHO?
Description of the target audience(s). Socio-demographics are useful, but also think about them as real
people, and describe them as you might a friend (how do they dress, where do they shop, where do they go on holiday etc).

WHERE?
Geographical markets where the campaign will run.
As specific as possible – international, national,regional, local.

WHAT’S THE MESSAGE?
The single idea you want to convey to the target audience. This is the goal of your communication strategy.

WHAT ARE THE BRAND ASSETS TO EXPLOIT (SUPPORTING EVIDENCE)?
Which attributes, assets, and features can be used to support the message. This can include any product or service advantages (actual or ambitions) – enter
as much relevant information as possible, there may be a diamond buried in there…

WHAT ABOUT THE TONE?

In what tone should the campaign talk to the target audience (professional and reserved, or fun and
provocative). If it helps, use example of people, cars,or other brands to make it clear what you mean.

WHAT ARE THE PERCEIVED BARRIERS IN THE MIND OF THE TARGET AUDIENCE?

Outline the main barriers the target audience will have to this product, brand or message. They can be
real or perceived.

WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE CONSIDER?
Which communication media (Advertising, Direct Mail, Sales Collateral, Media Relations, Internet etc.)
are mandatory and why. Media is also a creative opportunity, so expect to see ideas in media you may
not have considered.

WHEN WILL THE CAMPAIGN BE PRESENTED?

Concept deadline

WHEN WILL THE CAMPAIGN RUN?

Planned execution dates of the campaign.

WHAT IS THE BUDGET?

It is important to trust your agency and share your budget. A rough budget indication enables your
account manager and creative team to spend time thinking only about ideas that are possible to realise.
If you are not prepared to share your budget, you’re probably working with the wrong agency.
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Download more Brand Manager Tools from www.mindcircus.in
If you’d like more information on any of these tools,
or would like a workshop for the rest of your colleagues,
please contact info@mindcircus.in

What is a Touch Point?

A Touch Point represents every time your customer comes into contact with, or ‘touches’ your brand and
anything and everything associated with it. Using the product or service itself is the main Touch Point. So is
an advert for the brand, the person who picks up the phone when you order the brand, the delivery man,
the invoice letter, even a comment from a friend on your brand or customer service.

Every time a customer and a potential customer is confronted by your brand, it is an opportunity to advance
your relationship with them. Use this workshop with your team to see if you are taking advantage of all possible touch points.
You’ll be surprised how many times your customers and potential customers are confronted by your brand.

Identify all Touch Points

PRE-PURCHASE

Communication Tools (managed) Adverts, PR (articles), Website, Point of Sale materials, Sponsorship etc\
Communication Tools (non-managed) Word of mouth, Internet search engine (e.g. Google), News coverage
Sales Representatives Salespeople, Email, Text message, Car, Business card, Clothing, Behaviour etc

PURCHASE

Product packaging, E-commerce site, Retail space, Order confirmation (fax/email), Price list, Shopping Bag.
Delivery Truck, Driver, Delivery note, Digital order tracking – online site, etc.

Usage
Practical and emotional experience.

POST PURCHASE
Financial.
Invoice (electronic/by post).
After Sales Service Customer complaint form.
Next – Use what you revealed to look for opportunities and weaknesses.

Which touch points are the most important for initiating new customers?
Do you have enough insight into Touch Points?

Does your brand live up to its promise at every stage of the cycle? (Including after sales?)
How much control do you currently have on the non managed areas of your brand communication?

Decide which touch points should be Corporate Brand, and which should be Product Brand led.

______________________
If you’d like more information on any of these tools,
or would like a workshop for the rest of your colleagues,
please contact info@mindcircus.in