Branding Opportunities in Events Props
Every brand exposure has a target which is to capture the mindshare of consumers. To achieve this, marketing communication plans must be strategically and tactically devised. Blessing Nwobodo in this report, speaks with Events experts on the opportunities that abound for brands when displays and props are rightly used.
The use of displays and props is said to play an essential role in ambience marketing which is about creating an enabling environment to maximize brand presence. Props, according to professionals, are as important as any other marketing communications plan put up to gain top of the mind awareness of the brand and, by extension, increase the bottom-line.
According to environmental psychologists who study transactions between individuals and their physical settings, when an individual’s environment is enhanced, it plays up on his/her behaviour and experience. Perhaps, this explains why corporate organisations strategically and tactically employ props at corporate functions to create the right ambience that will exude the brand essence. The objective is to capture the mindshare of the people that come in contact with the brand by attending the event.
A consumer’s awareness of a brand is informed in different ways. It may be how he/she sees the brand, feels about the brand, what he/she hears about the brand and the taste of the brand. Event props help develop intimacy between target consumers and brands. It gives consumers the chance of seeing and feeling the brand for what it is. It also leaves consumers with an experience they won’t forget in a very long time.
But in coming up with the right type of props for a particular brand exposure, experts say some factors need to be taken into consideration to maximize brand opportunities.
Explaining some of the factors and the roles they play in setting up displays/props at events, Paul Inyang, CEO, Megaplux, a visual brand consultancy firm also involved in rentals, says the complexity of the idea behind any corporate event determines what props would be suitable. “Every event has its peculiarity, target and the message it wants to communicate. It is based on these factors that you come up with prop materials that will bring out the effect of what brands seek to achieve,” he points out.
Drawing an example from what his company did for one of its clients recently, Inyang narrates: “Macleans Herbal is about going green. We looked at how best we could translate being herbal and bringing it home to being natural. We decided to create an ambience that communicates naturalness and greenness with the use of artificial green grass, waterfall and creeping plants.”
Speaking from PR point of view, Aderonke Adebule, an executive director with JSP Communications, says that without telling the story, the target audience should be able to feel the brand’s presence when the right props are used. “Photo news should tell my story if the backdrops in the background are effective.” She emphasizes that colour scheme and event hostesses all add up to creating a wow experience for the audience.
“Apart from the backdrops, roller banners, displays which you can call physical props; we also have colour theme, the hostesses, the decoration. All of these are also props and play an essential role in resonating brand attributes. Let’s take Coca-Cola for instance, the colour theme is red and so wherever you find a Coca-Cola event, the red colour is played up,” she explains.
Another factor which comes into play when setting up props is the environment itself. You can, by the effective use of props, transform an ordinary environment to etch a brand on the minds of people that attend an event holding in that environment. Alluding to trade fairs, Oluyomi Ojo, managing director, Urbanbaze, a brands and design strategy company, opines that a brand’s visibility while exhibiting may be threatened if it is placed side by side with other brands and the props are not creatively and strategically placed. “For a brand to be at its best at a trade fair, the best prop kits need to be set up to differentiate it. And for you to set up the props, you need to study the environment. Who are your competitors? Are they very close to you? How will you creatively place your props to edge off your competitors? It is when you are armed with this knowledge that you can decide best which materials to use for your props. Otherwise, you will be lost in the noise,” he states.
But are consumers really affected by the various displays or props set up at corporate events? Adebule is of the opinion that consumers do not forget easily when they are thrilled by a brand. “In an event where your target audience are kids, you have to display games and swings for their delight. They will always remember the experience and it will influence purchase decision in favour of the brand. In all, give consumers what they can relate with in terms of language, colour etc,” she says.
Having established that event props offer a great branding opportunity, M2 findings however reveal that the process put into coming up with creative props are usually limited as clients usually wait until the eleventh hour before sending briefs. This fire brigade approach to business, experts say, is not good for the industry. “It doesn’t give room for thinking. There is a thinking aspect of the business that can’t be underestimated. It is the core of the job. Creativity is a process. It takes time for you to conceptualize and come up with a cutting edge innovation. The time you are supposed to sit down and work with your team on the ideas, you are not given, and this is bad for the industry,” Ojo says.
The place of events props in giving brands mileage and mindshare is not in doubt, going by what experts say. What is important is that props have to be strategically managed to achieve the desired goals. This makes it necessary for brands desiring to use the platform to work closely with their agents using timely briefs to achieve the objective. Anything to the contrary will leave the agency with the option of meeting the deadline, what becomes of achieving the goal is then left to chance.
