It’s a new year, and you know what that means! New ideas, new strategies and new trends that will decide how event marketing will evolve over the next 12 months. So let’s take a look at our crystal ball, and try to figure out the trends that will have the biggest impact on your event marketing budget in 2016.
Beacons – Beacons, those tiny, Bluetooth devices, are making a real splash in events. Toyota used them to great effect at the 2015 New York International Auto Show, and they are already a fixture in larger events like SXSW. This year, usage of beacons will only increase, with events using a combo of beacons and hyperlocal app features to push updates, promote specific event features and gather attendee data.
Videos – According to a Cisco study, 80% of all internet data will be videos by 2019. We are well on our way there, and marketers will focus even more on video this year. Some of the many ways to utilize videos to market your events are
- Hype and highlight videos before and after the event, respectively
- Small clips during the event to create online buzz
- Video QR codes to promote special offers and the like
Event apps – With smartphone penetration now 100% among most event audiences, 2016 will be the year event apps take over as the primary form of event information distribution, leaving paper brochures far behind.
Not only are event apps cheaper in the long run, they also help increase event engagement, and provide a smoother event experience for attendees and organizers alike.
Live Streaming – Periscope may have opened the floodgates, but there are a number of other options available for event marketers when it comes to live-streaming. Meerkat is an alternative, YouTube has its own live-streaming tool, and even Facebook has announced live videos. With 350,000 hours of videos being streamed daily on Periscope alone, people clearly like catching up with events as they happen, and this is not a trend to be taken lightly.
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