Storytelling can completely inform the tone of an event. It can drive decisions such as type of venue, and style of communications through to the choice of marketing materials. Stories can inspire particular actions, make attendees feel more connected to your brand, and also evoke emotions within your audience throughout the event cycle. So what is a good story? It’s your story. It’s also the story that turns an attendee into an advocate. An advocate that wants to continually share your narrative to a wider audience.
When building out an event strategy, what do we need to consider when incorporating storytelling? Our team at The Collective by BCD Meetings & Events has curated our top eight considerations
This isn’t just about understanding where attendees are from and basic demographic information. This is about getting under the skin of who they really are, their likes, dislikes, wants, and needs. It’s about delving into the mindset and emotional context of the attendee. Are they attending the event because they want to be better at their jobs? Or are they in a celebratory mindset and looking for signs of rewards? This picture of your attendee will help to form the foundations of how you tell your story.
Start by building out your event objectives and associated KPIs. Not only will you be able to hinge your story off these, they will also help you to measure the effectiveness of your story post-event. When starting to devise your story, make sure to keep it simple. Don’t rely on attendees reading copy from start to finish or following the event journey that you expect them to. By keeping it uncomplicated, it allows for attendees to join at any point and still understand the narrative you’re trying to communicate.
One of the easiest ways for attendees to grasp the narrative, is by creating an easy-to-understand tagline for the event. This simple piece of copy used across all event materials and physical spaces, clarifies the narrative for attendees joining at any point in the event journey.
A great story is one that turns someone from an attendee into an advocate. Advocates want to share their experiences with a great brand, so give them the tools to do so. Create assets that are easy to understand when shared. By creating these opportunities for continued conversations, you can also help to lengthen the experience of the event.
When building out your story, it’s important to always remain authentic to your values, brand, and mission. Don’t deviate away from what’s important to you as a brand or you can lose trust from your attendee base. You can have a strong story, but if you don’t bring in trust signals that reinforce the story throughout, your audience might not get behind you as well as they should. This can be as simple as the calibre of speakers and agenda topics, the quality of the comms or how sophisticated the production is.
The event story shouldn’t just be confined to a paragraph of copy on the event website. It’s the essence of the event and should run through everything. From your PPC ad copy through to branding. Even your choice of venue can help to tell your story, whether you’re considering sustainability-focused, luxurious, tech-first, country or city. With every element, from your venue, comms, production and marketing, consider whether someone could understand your purpose if that was their first interaction.
As Mark Ritson (Professor, Mini MBA Marketing) says ‘the best brands are disruptively consistent’. So, at the centre of any good event strategy should always be consistency. Keep your narrative consistent across all event imagery, physical spaces and pre, during and post event comms. Your story should be appreciable from any point of entry to your brand.
A personalised narrative will always resonate more than one that is designed to target anyone and everyone. In an era where our attention spans are shorter, personalisation can help to keep people engaged with your story from beginning to end. We’re continually surrounded by personalisation in our lives, from our Spotify music choices through to our Amazon recommendations. Therefore, when it comes to events, we expect that same tailored experience.
If you’d like support with crafting your event’s story, we have a talented team of strategists, communication experts and creatives who can support. Contact patrick.ockendon@bcdme.com