The Power Of Corporate Events: Why Are They So Important?

Research Guide · 23 Jun 2023

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Corporate events have had a profound impact on businesses for a long time. These functions have a multitude of purposes, each with a unique format while serving different groups of stakeholders. In a dynamic world, event planning is a complex process that requires dedicated and experienced teams. Businesses are able to reap plenty of benefits and it can be a strong differentiating factor in their respective industries if done correctly. In this article, we will explore 5 benefits that companies stand to gain from effective corporate events.

Lead Generation

Ever since COVID restrictions have relaxed and borders have started opening up, corporate events are steadily regaining traction. Face-to-face interaction, a crucial element in relationship building, is now more efficient and effective. Take this time to truly build a connection with your customers, and establish trust and credibility. Find out their needs and explain how your company’s offerings can address their pain points. This is a good opportunity to generate demand from prospective customers.

During these corporate events, your company will have access to a large audience – all of them are in one giant room! It’s also not just about quantity, but also quality. These people who attend such events are usually interested in the overarching theme. They may already have purchase intentions, making lead generation and conversion simpler. Indeed, surveys have discovered that the majority of respondents are more likely to make a purchase after a corporate event. To increase their effectiveness, you can also combine multiple tactics such as gamification, exclusive promotions, or immersive experiences.

Increase Brand Awareness

Here, it’s all about the eyeballs. Large corporate events are powerful tools in increasing brand awareness. Studies have shown that through such events, companies are able to achieve intangible long-term goals in terms of enhancing brand interest, awareness and image. In a highly digitalized landscape, competition for eyeballs is often cutthroat and costly. As such, attending, hosting or sponsoring corporate events such as roadshows and conferences, can be an effective marketing tool as they help prospective customers discover your brand.

Depending on the theme and format, corporate events with high footfall or media coverage can help your company reach a wider or more targeted audience. Effective events are often ones that create new, meaningful and immersive experiences, and are customised to meet your target audience’s needs. This is useful in supporting your digital strategies which share similar goals. Furthermore, to capitalise on this wide reach, your onsite employees can easily demonstrate value through customer engagement and product demonstrations.

Gain Insights

Conducting market research and analysing data is easily accessible with current technology, but companies should not pass up the chance to do this on-the-ground. In fact, corporate events are useful tools for direct engagement and industry scanning.

In most customer-centric corporate events, companies are able to engage their audiences in-person by actively listening to their needs or concerns and observing how they interact with your brand and products. It is also a useful avenue to evaluate your employees’ ability as brand ambassadors. These insights allow you to identify any weaknesses in your company’s strategies.

Corporate events also help with industry scanning and learning about new developments. If your company is attending a trade show, look at your competitors’ offerings and observe how their customers are interacting with them. Ask key questions and make mental notes. For instance, what is their pricing strategy and how do they convey their brand message?

If you are attending or participating in a conference, make an effort to listen to presentations by industry leaders and network with them afterwards. You can always gain valuable insights from learning about emerging industry trends or developments. Keep up with the times!

Build Connections & Brand Loyalty

Corporate events are a useful tool for brand personification. Essentially, this technique assigns human-like qualities to a brand, helping it shape its personality. Researchers have found that this allows people to perceive brands as actual humans and connect authentically with them, especially if values and personalities are aligned. As corporate events facilitate personal interactions, companies are able to display their personality, allowing consumers to humanise the brand and build connection.

In a highly competitive market, this can be a key competitive advantage. So long as the company communicates a consistent and authentic personality, this customer connection would result in long term brand loyalty.

Companies that don’t participate or host corporate events may forgo important benefits. It limits their opportunity to physically engage a broad spectrum of professionals and consumers, hindering their chance to build potential and authentic connections with key stakeholders.

It’s harder for these companies to showcase their unique personality as these events can generate plenty of media coverage and shareable content. In fact, this valuable earned media allows the company to effectively convey their personality, credibility and messaging organically. While digital strategies certainly have their place, don’t overlook this chance to cultivate genuine connections through physical engagement!

To demonstrate this effect of corporate events, let’s take a look at Apple’s holistic approach. As a key component of their marketing strategy, Apple hosts multiple corporate events a year after recognizing their potential early on.

Apple events are a big deal worldwide, generating plenty of buzz and significantly increasing user engagement. Whether it’s Steve Jobs or Tim Cook, their presenters are well-rehearsed and highly effective in displaying the company’s ‘human’ side.

Apple meticulously ensures that every single aspect of their events are perfectly aligned with their brand. From high quality productions to pristine backdrops, Apple consistently communicates their personality and values through every touchpoint, facilitating connection and building brand loyalty.

Apple’s early recognition and utilisation of corporate events is a key differentiator and it’s no surprise that their approach paid off. Research suggests that consumers prefer brands that reflect their personalities when making purchase decisions. While it may be challenging to replicate the scale of Apple events, corporate events are an opportunity to build connection and brand loyalty.

Boost Company Morale

Corporate events need not only be for external stakeholders, your employees can also be the main beneficiary. Think team-building activities and award ceremonies. Their goals may vary, from strengthening team cohesion to showing appreciation for all employees and high flyers. Celebrating the achievement of new milestones is an excellent opportunity to foster a sense of unity as it recognizes your employees’ collective effort.

Corporate events like milestone and award ceremonies are often lavish affairs and are particularly effective in increasing employee motivation and morale. In fact, formalising this show of appreciation can be inspiring for all employees. With over 200 events under our belt, let Eventive help you create unique and meaningful events to celebrate your employees.

A study found that organisations that regularly practise employee recognition experience 14% higher employee productivity and performance. Meanwhile, another survey revealed that 46% of their respondents quit their job as they felt underappreciated. These statistics highlight the importance of internal corporate events, and its impact shouldn’t be overlooked. To evaluate the impact of these internal corporate events, companies should set a few KPIs beforehand. Often, companies miss out on this important step and aren’t able to evaluate its effectiveness.

The KPIs that you may set depend on your company and your goals, but a few general KPIs include absenteeism, employee productivity and turnover rate. You may define productivity according to your employees’ responsibilities. If they are converting more customers or generating higher output, then it’s a sign of increasing productivity.

Unlock Opportunities Through Corporate Events Now

As attendance for corporate events gradually returns to pre-pandemic levels, it’s time to make your mark. You now have a better understanding of the ‘why’ behind corporate events, but what about the ‘how’? Planning your own corporate event can be quite daunting, but it needn’t be. Throughout the entire planning process, always keep your objectives and target audience in mind. Stick to your budget and timeline, and start planning systematically from there. Of course, there is still the option of outsourcing your event planning.

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