Susan: [00:00:00] welcome to More to Marketing, the podcast, explores marketing product, and everything in between. I’m your host today, Susan Walsh, and we’re here to talk about marketing. With events, very new topic. I love this topic and so much has changed cuz of covid.
So today I’m excited to introduce Katherine to explore event marketing and in particular how to use social media to attract the right audience. Now Katherine is an expert in this field. She’s a marketing manager in the hospitality industry. Focus on creating those memorable events. So Catherine, tell us a little bit more about yourself and what you do.
Catherine: Yeah. Great. Thanks Susan. Um, so I’m working for a hospitality company, as you mentioned earlier. So the company owns 13 different venues, um, ranges anywhere from pubs and bars to also higher end restaurants and hotels. Um, so my role is really quite varied with a focus on event marketing as. Brand building.
So event marketing is obviously [00:01:00] a huge component of what we do when creating memorable experiences for our guests. So we market across all sorts of channels, you know, socials, pr, local area marketing and inve activations. Um, digital, s e m obviously with such a huge focus on social media marketing as well.
It just really depends on the event and also the target audience, um, that we’re trying to attract into, uh, individual venues. ,
Susan: definitely with that many venues you’d have a lot of different strategies that you’re putting into place. So how, how about we explore maybe a couple of those different events that you’ve worked on recently and the different approaches that you took to making them successful?
Catherine: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so summer has been a really busy time for us in terms of our major events, uh, throughout this period. So in the lead up to the end of the year, we were juggling New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day events across all of our venues, as well as a few Christmas events thrown in there as well.
[00:02:00] Um, so it was really interesting. Year, um, this time around because people just didn’t really seem to wanna commit to New Year’s Eve events prior to Christmas. But then after Christmas it was like a floodgate, like the floodgates opened and we sold out a lot of events in those, um, final few days in the lead up to New Year’s Eve.
Um, so. A little bit of a typical thing we see with New Year’s and capturing those people looking for last minute plans. But this year we saw it was kind of even more pronounced. Um, so my thoughts around this are just a bit of a covid hangover and people need to not really be wanting to commit to events too early, um, at the moment.
But hopefully this will recover, um, you know, in the years to come.
Susan: Um, do you think the crazy weather may have had something to do with that as well? Because. I know that you’re, you’re saying you’ve got all these different locations. I’m making an assumption here, there’s probably a lot that have beautiful locations.[00:03:00]
So the, um, unseasonal weather, um, does that impact as well on how successful events are?
Catherine: Absolutely. Some of our, um, venues are almost a hundred percent outdoor venues. Ah, yeah. Um, so that was also a big factor that we think came into play is um, people were just waiting to check the weather forecast and make sure they’re not gonna be, um, drowned on the day.
Susan: Yep. And I don’t blame them. Yeah,
Catherine: absolutely. . Yeah. Um, and then there’s been a lot of other types of summer events that we’ve been running, um, entertainment series throughout, um, the summer where we’ll kind of get different acts on each week and we’ll get alcohol sponsors on board with drink specials. And, um, the purpose of these is to really drive people into the venue and create a memorable experience for them.
Um, so we work really hard on creating brands around. And showing people what they’re going to experience through the branding and the visuals [00:04:00] and, um, how that kind of makes you feel. Um, so in the lead up to Christmas, we did a Saturday night DJ series at one of our venues. Um, and we created a video hype reel and stories for socials.
And it was a big, um, social media campaign to promote it. Um, so that went for an eight week period and the Saturday night revenue was up three times across that period. It had a really massive, that’s huge amount impact. Yeah. So now we are just taking that model and the learnings from that and we’re just applying it across some of our other venues as well, um, to see, you know, where that will work and um, yeah, just transferring over those learnings.
Susan: And can you see that that was because of the social and the new way that you created those reels? Is that what really hyped it up with? I don’t know. I’m like with the likes, comments, shares, all those things. Exactly. And what different tools and social did you use? .
Catherine: Yeah, the engagement was really high. Um, especially [00:05:00] for video reels that we’re seeing at the moment.
Um, so they’re performing really well on video content seems to be king, especially for the younger audiences. Um mm-hmm. , especially when they’re using, um, platforms like TikTok or, um, Instagram reels are really popular at the moment, obviously. So the engagement on those was really high. Um, and we also. Had photographers in the venue each Saturday, people tagging their friends in the photos, um, after the event.
Um, creating real shareability, um, having, you know, real time stories on a Saturday night showing what the vibe is in the venue, making people wanna come if they’re just at pre-drinks. Um, thinking about what they’re gonna do for the night and really deciding in that moment. Um, but also, of course, like paid advertising and really targeting, um, for this venue in particular, it’s a really young demographic, 18 to 25, um, in the CBD location.
[00:06:00] So really just. Honing in on our target audience, um, and reaching out to them, but particularly, um, with special interest in the DJs that we had coming. Mm-hmm. Um, on the nights as well, you can really kind of narrow it down to, um, yeah. The people that are gonna be interested in coming to your event. .
Susan: And do you collect, what type of information do you collect to be able to make it more successful the next time?
Cause I’m sure that you love the results three times. That is a fantastic result. Anyone would even just want two times, but three times is amazing. Yeah. Um, how do you build upon that for the success for that same venue next time?
Catherine: Yeah, so that’s a really good question. So this time around, we ran a lot of different types.
Campaigns and channels for this one. Um, but like I said, the, the reels and some of the types of paid social targeting really worked the most efficiently for us. So next time around, um, we’d probably cut [00:07:00] out some of the less performing channels and really focus our effort and budget into those channels that we know, um, perform best and reach our target audience in the most efficient way.
Um, So yeah, we would definitely kind of leverage those insights next time as well.
Susan: Yeah. So data analytics is key here for success and just building and sharing it amongst your other venues to make sure they maximize opportunities. Yeah,
Catherine: definitely. Absolutely.
Susan: Do you have an example you’d like to share that I can, I can add to the, the comment section that you want to talk about of one of the events in a rule that you.
Uh,
Catherine: yeah, sure I can, um, I can send that through. Absolutely. I’m
Susan: thinking of the one you you sent me, uh, which was the drag show, which was amazing.
Catherine: Yeah, that was, um, that was another one that we did for World Pride. Um, so it was, it was really fun working on that campaign. Um, world [00:08:00] Pride’s coming to Sydney next year, and one of our venues is, you know, a key L G B T QI plus venue in Sydney.
So it was just really important that we made some unique content, um, leveraging our drag queens that always come to the venue. Um, and they’re
Susan: hilarious by the way. . Yeah.
Catherine: Yeah, I was really happy with that. We’re just finding, um, at the moment that kind of content where it’s unique and engaging and people actually wanna watch it and it doesn’t feel like an ad.
It just performs significantly better than, you know, overly. Graphic or, um, ad based looking video content. Um, ideally you want people to just watch a video because they enjoy it, um, rather than because you’re just trying to do the hard sell .
Susan: Yep, yep. No, totally agree. And I love the idea of the live sh um, shots from the.
That people there trying to entice more people to come and giving the hype out and showing what’s happening, and hey, check out the songs that, like the deck that’s on right now. [00:09:00] Uh, I think that is absolutely fantastic. And hitting, like you said, TikTok, uh, the ister for the, those people that are there all the time on social media, particularly that younger generation.
Catherine: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, yeah, and for like, for example, for. The venue where we’re doing the World Pride campaign, um, We get a lot of kind of engagement with different drag queens and performers that come to the venue on socials. Um, so they’re really active on their own social accounts in sharing, um, content that we put out that involves them.
Or if we’re promoting a show that, um, features them, they’ll be re-sharing it on their pages to their own audiences. So, um, part of our kind of. For that venue is making sure that we’re, um, producing content that is really shareable for the queens as well, and the performers that go there, um, just to make sure that it has that real, like organic reach as well.
Mm-hmm. , um,
Susan: [00:10:00] yeah. Yeah. The, the authenticness of that, um, the one, the one thing I’m hearing. and a key learning out of this as well, if you’re want to really make social work for you. If you’re doing event management and you’ve got, um, headliners coming, is that partnership. Having that partnership with whoever is going to be performing or showcasing is important.
And even going down to length of you saying that there’s, um, Sponsorship even on products that are being sold on the day, um, that’s making an important impact as well to help build that event as well and be able to maximize its opportunity to the target market. Cuz naturally those, those drinks or food or whatever it might be, would be catered to that target that’s coming in to entice them to come in as well.
So you’re really trying to tie all that together in that strategy, which is fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so you’ve told told us a bit about things that have gone well, things that you’ve improved on have made amazing, but what’s one of those key mistakes that you, you see out [00:11:00] there that is happening either in event marketing, social marketing, even just marketing in general, um, that you see happening in events?
Catherine: Yeah, I think a key mistake is not doing your research and identifying the target audience. Um, , I think it’s really important to ask yourself, like, who are you trying to appeal to? What are their demographics? Um, what can your event offer them and what do they even want out of it? Um, and I think these are just really important questions to ask and it’s basically just the groundwork for your.
Entire marketing campaign and the creative and the strategy. And it should really guide, um, everything that follows. Um, and I’ve really learned this in my current role because I work across such a wide variety of venues. Um, and they’ve all got significantly different audiences, um, you know, from. L G B T venues to, um, high end find dining restaurants to, um, you know, [00:12:00] party centric, um, venues in the city for a younger audience.
Um, so, you know, they’ve all got different audiences, so we really need different marketing strategies across all of them.
Susan: Yeah, definitely couldn’t be a one size fits all there. Not these days. .
Catherine: Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. .
Susan: Is there, is there anything else that you see out there that you’d love to see improved on or a future trend?
I know for myself, I look at, um, the market itself and I think events, and I just saw this really cool clip the other day of, um, artificial intelligence, the VR experience, having an arena where instead of having that physical building, you can actually have people sitting around on, on, on the machines and being part of it.
I actually saw it was for, um, a boxing match, kind of like a U C F kind of, kind of thing was gonna be one of the big major things that was coming out soon. Mm-hmm. . And what were your views on how that might impact how social media plays [00:13:00] out and also the venues for marketing? .
Catherine: Yeah, I think that’s, um, really interesting.
Especially, I think that was something that probably came out of Covid a little bit, um, you know, virtual, um, events when you couldn’t attend something in person. Um, and it’s, yeah, it’s really interesting how those types of things are still having like a place in, um, the world now where. Still get out and go out and see things and do things and that sort of thing.
I think in terms of social media, um, there’s always going to be a latest and greatest platform. You know, we move from Facebook to Instagram to TikTok and Mm. Um, it’s always gonna be something new. So I think it’s really important to kind of keep up with emerging platforms and, um, where your target a.
Actually hanging out and, um, spending the most time, um, to make sure you can get in front of them as much as possible. Um, but [00:14:00] I also, yeah, as I mentioned, I think in terms of trends, like organic content is key. The more that you can create, um, watchable, um, interesting content. That people actually wanna finish and enjoy, um, the better, rather than trying to think like, what am I trying to sell and how am I gonna sell it?
It’s more like, what do people actually wanna see from me?
Susan: Yeah. And one of the, the key things I’ve heard recently coming out is that product placement and TV ads and movies is becoming even greater now. Uh, I, I always relate this back to the famous coffee cup in Game of Thrones. Because that was money.
Can’t buy a product placement in an Asia where there shouldn’t have been any coffee cups. Um, so , you’re lucky if you were that brand. Uh, and yeah, I can see a lot more of that happening as well when it comes to socials where it’s that organic feel where it doesn’t feel like an ad similar to the coffee cup kind of thing, where it’s, it’s just there, it’s natural, [00:15:00] it’s just part of it.
It, it may or may not fit where it’s going, but you feel that it’s authentic and you wanna watch. .
Catherine: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm. . Um, and I think yeah, partnering with certain, um, influencers that have audiences that, um, represent your, the audience you’re trying to reach as well. Um, that’s a really effective way to kind of do that as well.
Susan: Exactly. And you, you’ve given some fantastic examples of that as well. Um, now one of my, my second last question. , what excites you about social media? What parts of it really like, really make you energized about it? Like what, what new things, what past things? What about it just really excites you? Cause I know, cause I’ve known you for a while now that it does, it’s one of the passion pieces for you.
So tell us a bit more about what excites you about social
Catherine: media. Yeah, I’m gonna answer that in a kind of [00:16:00] nerdy way because the thing that excites me, The most is the data you can get out of it. Mm-hmm. , um, whatever you post on there, you know, if it’s gone well or if it’s been a terrible failure and either, either of those outcomes, there’s a lot you can learn from it.
Um, so I just love that, you know. As, as pretty and shiny as it is, which I also love. Um, you can also dig into the numbers and the performance and the insights that come out of that and really learn from that and, um, change things up in the future in, you know, a data driven way. Um, so that’s the thing.
Well, one of the things that I really love about social media and, and when you get it right and you see those likes and clicks and engagement coming through, it’s just, um, very good feeling .
Susan: I completely agree. It’s that pat in the back moment going, yes, I did it. I love it. . All right. My, my last question for you, [00:17:00] what, and I ask everyone this, what brand, any brand in the world, still existing or not existing?
Uh, do you think this represents who you are and.
Catherine: Ooh. I would say isn’t not the first time I’ve been asked this question, actually, which is wild, but I would say Nike represents me the most because I love their motto. Just do it. I. You know, love just getting out there, trying new things, getting shit done.
Mm-hmm. and um, that’s just my favorite way to kind of learn. So yeah, I think that represents me the most. Beautiful.
Susan: I love it. And I can definitely say that is how you operate as well. You’ve always, Gotten in and learned new fantastic ways on doing things and you’ve demonstrated a whole pile of new learnings for me to learn from now too.
I’m gonna be checking out bit more of TikTok, I think and how I can do more things with that cuz I don’t actually use a lot of TikTok. So thank you so much. Okay, no worries at all For [00:18:00] me, one of, one of the other best out things out here is being authentic and organic. Don’t try and fake it till you make it here.
Actually put the time and effort in to understand your audience, make sure they’re gonna resonate with it, and then you can build something magical out of it to get them to come and be part of your event. So, um, that was a another key takeout that I’ve got now this learnt from. Great. Thank you so much Catherine for today. Uh, don’t forget to add more to marketing to your playlist. You don’t miss out on any other future Fabulous guests. Have a great.
