How Flexible is Your Event Branding? Top Three Tips to Optimize Brand Experience
01.22.2020
By Laliv Hadar, VP Marketing and Jonathan Brown, VP Design
How Flexible is Your Event Branding? Top Three Tips to Optimize Brand Experience
Remarkable changes are happening in how event branding is evolving to become more effective and impactful. Gone are the days when event branding meant that the hosting company’s logo was essentially the event brand, and companies were satisfied with that alone… In today’s world, brands need to optimize how they will make their brand more relevant visually, and in a way that engages attendees and embodies the values and persona they are looking to convey.
Clear and compelling visual design, threaded throughout the entire event experience, helps attendees stay aligned on the messaging goals and business objectives that the brand is communicating, and drives impactful user experience. Every element of the event experience branding– from the keynote to breakout sessions, wayfinding, the registration area and more – all need to be aligned from a creative and messaging perspective for maximum potential.
InVision has been at the forefront of successful events execution since 1991, and we’ve developed best practices around event branding and visual design that we apply to our clients’ business communication challenges. As an example, we recently wrapped up our third initiative with one of our world-renowned tech clients at “Converge,” where many of these design principles were put to best use. Here are a few tips and a case study example about how we amplified the brand experience for one of our clients:
1. Craft a unique theme and corresponding visual design: Events need to work within the parameters of the hosting company’s branding and visual design guidelines; however, focusing a theme, such as “Converge” in this instance, and visual design that’s unique to the event experience will give the event special meaning and purpose for the desired audience. The “Converge” theme exemplifies this through a communication that is anchored in their corporate brand identity, but serves to deliver a specific message of unification to their 5,000 attendees who converge from various parts of the company (engineering, sales, etc.) and from all parts of the globe for this annual event.
2. Extend and amplify the experience: While much of an event’s activations and interactions happen inside the ballroom, it’s important to extend the event branding and visual language to all parts of the event experience that touch attendees. From pre-conference messaging to on-site registration, to break out sessions, participants need to feel that the event experience immerses them – no matter where they are in the journey or within the venue. Visual conference themes should be clear and easy to understand and internalize, especially considering that event venues are often in busy urban cities or might span several buildings. Clients should use wayfinding to drive a strategic attendee journey, with specific tactical goals in mind for how to “move people around.” Examples of this are embedding product learnings, sales funnel steps, networking opportunities, and more. “Converge” was hosted across three different hotel properties in Las Vegas. InVision worked closely with the client to extend their event visual design equally across all three properties – from wayfinding elements – to the many signs, banners, and floor color-coding that accompanied attendees along the event. This ensured that attendees felt they were part of the same experience no matter where they found themselves physically.
3. Adhere to a cohesive design system: When all is said and done, events need to follow a cohesive design system that crisply codifies and extends the core event theme graphic to other visual design elements. Both the messaging and branding need to be holistic, consistent and aligned. This allows for a series of experiences that are engaging and consistent for attendees – but not overly repetitive or dull. This approach will deliver flexibility for all creators to stay on brand, using the same visual language. Finally, this provides attendees with a recognizable and dynamic experience that is both engaging and familiar at the same time. In our tech client’s case, InVision tapped into the conference thematic to pull out specific branded elements such as theme branding and color palette – and applied these holistically to a variety of mediums manifested as flat, dimensional, and digital.
In conclusion, to compete in today’s competitive events market, brands need to set themselves apart through unique and impactful event branding, an amplified experience that extends across the event venue, digital media, and all wayfinding assets with a cohesive design system. To up-level the branding and design of your next event and to best optimize your brand- please contact The Studio at InVision to learn more!