Posted by Keith Green on Thu, Feb 18, 2010
A PRSA-NY workshop on Experiential Marketing is set for Thursday, March 4 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and Synergy Events is honored to be part of the panel.
The evening program, "Leveraging Experiential Marketing to Drive PR: Planning and Executing Buzz-Worthy Events in New York City" will offer a guide to planning and executing experiential marketing events in New York City and beyond, whether it's product launch at the Museum of Modern Art, a PR stunt in Times Square, a guerrilla marketing event on the streets, or a mobile marketing tour with dozens of stops throughout the country.
The workshop, which will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and include admission to the Museum at the conclusion of the program, will also cover tips on staffing, site selection, logistics, permitting and budgets. A top 10 list of successful event tactics will also be discussed.
Panel speakers are:
- Keith Green, Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Synergy Events
- Kim Mitchell, Chief Communications Officer, Museum of Modern Art
- Nicholas Apps, Director of Special Programming and Events, Museum of Modern Art
Mary Buhay, Senior Director of Marketing for Gibbs & Soell Public Relations and Vice-President of Programming for PRSA-NY, will moderate the panel.
PRSA-NY members, ($55) non-members ($75) and students ($25) can register online here or download a registration form. Students are required to show I.D. upon arrival.
Throughout our 17 years, Synergy Events has planned and executed 9,000+ events in more than 150 markets and won dozens of industry awards. We work with Fortune 100 companies, global brands, top PR agencies and professional sports sanctioning bodies to create mobile marketing tours, PR events/stunts, product launches and sports sponsorship activation programs.
Photo credit: Timothy Hursley, copyright 2010.
Posted by Keith Green on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
Today was the (very unofficial) kickoff to the 2010 got milk? Milk Mustache Mobile Tour, as our six travel managers that will run the iconic program from the road met at Synergy's headquarters in Ocean, NJ.
It was fun to watch the group get to know each other, as today marked the first day of the group's two week training program before they hit the road later this month to take the got milk? message to more than 75 markets.
Part of the day's activities included team building exercises to build trust within each two-man travel team, since each group will be together literally every day for more than six months.
Pictured above are Sean (second from left) and Willis who will make up the west team, as they go through a team building exercise. No doubt, they are looking forward to spreading the message in the warmer western climate about the health benefits of milk!
Congratulations as well to Justin and Isaiah (east region) and Jon and Brent (central region) who will make up the other two travel teams. It's great to have all of you as part of the 2010 tour, so welcome aboard!
Posted by Keith Green on Fri, Feb 05, 2010
Today Today is the fourth entry of our "Seven Principles of Success for Experiential Marketing," so we're almost there! Here are our Seven Principles, including's today's post: 1. Integrate your events 2. Knowing Your Audience 3. Make it Stick! 4. Leverage Technology.5. Be authentic to your brand 6. Select the right spokesperson 7. Pick the right location
Technology is your friend!
When planning an experiential marketing event, remember that technology can be your friend and help your clients achieve their goals in an efficient manner.
Here are some practical tips on how to incorporate technology into your experiential marketing event. Let's review a few hypothetical goals that a client might have for an event and how some cool technology can help achieve them:
- Make it Viral. Most consumers love having their picture taken at an event. There is some fantastic technology that instantly makes event photos viral and available for download and sharing. No more Polaroid photos and no waiting 24-48 hours for your picture to be available. If the client wants data capture in addition to the photo component, a simple form can be added.
- Capture Legitimate Data. If just data capture is a priority, there are some excellent tools that can read the information off of a driver's license. This eliminates the possibility of receiving false information being passed along on a paper form.
- Project It! Some of the coolest technology we've seen is projecting moving images onto buildings at night. Our brilliant friends Pier and Ricardo at Klip Collective can literally make pigs fly.
- Make My Event "Go Green." The eco-friendly wedding pictured above used a giant solar panel to power the band and other elements for this outdoor New York City event. It doesn't stop at solar panels, either. You can print on biodegradable signage, use eco-friendly inks and of course, use recyclable cups and plates if you are serving food or beverages.
- Show it to ‘Em: Some of the technology that is out there for LED (light-emitting diode) displays is cutting edge. They are now making thin, lightweight flexible panels that can bend to almost any shape and size for LED video and graphic applications.
- Make it "Larger than Life," but make it look Good: Believe it or not, inflatables are terrific options for huge events. Why? Digital printing and large format printers have made the awful-looking inflatable a thing of the past. The Crown Royal inflatable used for the "Your Name Here 400" reveal at the Daytona 500 last year was so realistic, people thought it was a giant bottle of the iconic beverage. [Insert small picture]
The goal of any event should be to extend the conversation long after it is over. (Studies show that 78% of event attendees will tell at least one person). Leverage technology to give your event more sizzle to so that number is closer to 100%!
Posted by Keith Green on Mon, Feb 01, 2010
OK, we're back on track today with my third Principle of Success for Experiential Marketing. We've noticed our blog viewership going up, so thanks for visiting...and please comment if you have some thoughts on our topics!
For the past two years, a team from Synergy Events has attended the PRSA International Conference to connect with public relations professionals about how our experiential marketing events drive PR for our clients. At one of the workshops in San Diego in November, Daryl McCullough from Paine PR presented his Seven Principles of Success during his terrific "Best in Buzz" workshop. This list was inspired by Daryl's talk.
Here are the first two principles we reviewed last week:
1. Integrate your events. Click here for the full post.
2. Last week, we chatted about the second principle, Knowing Your Audience.
Today's topic, "Making it Stick" refers to making your event unique or "sticky."
One of my goals in my former life as the Director of Public Relations at Richmond International Raceway was to create press events that had a hook and would be fun for the media to cover. This concept is no different when putting on an event: try to create something that's never been done before or if the concept isn't unique, find a compelling angle for your target, whether it is the media or the consumer. Even if your idea isn't worthy for the 6:00 p.m. news or the New York Times, equip your team with its own tools (invest a couple hundred bucks in a Flip Camera or a decent digital camera) to make your event viral. Times have changed so rapidly that your idea can be so cool that it still works (or can work better) if it doesn't make the 6:00 p.m. news.
One of the questions we get asked often at Synergy is "Who comes up with the ideas for your events?" Often the idea originates with the brand, but sometimes it's the agency or our internal team at Synergy that comes up with the concept. Coming up with that winning idea isn't always easy, so here Seven of Synergy's (many) brainstorming rules to help your idea "Stick":
1. Invite as many people as possible. Sure, it's tough to coordinate schedules on short notice or jam more than 20 people in a conference room, but we subscribe to the theory that the more creative brains, the better.
2. Don't forget the smart college kids. From the interns to the C-Suite, invite a wide range of people on your staff, you never know who is going to come up with a brilliant idea.
3. Special Interest. If you have a proposal that is fitness related, go find the yoga instructor or muscle head in your office and get them involved.
4. Secretary of State. Assign a note taker. The person running the brainstorm shouldn't be the same person taking the notes. It's too distracting and can cause the entire brainstorm to be unfocused and unorganized.
5. Location, location, location. If possible, change the location of your brainstorms every once in a while. Move it to the hallway if you must. A different environment keeps the mind from wandering.
6. Don't be a hater. No ideas suck and wacky, out-of-the-box thinking is encouraged. This is probably the number one brainstorm rule, but I see it broken all the time. We even encourage our team to build on ideas they don't like, since it can spur another thought from someone else.
7. Provide and Prepare. Give everybody a brief on the opportunity before the brainstorm and make sure all participants have ample time to review the info so they can come to the brainstorm with at least two ideas.