The Difference Between Promotion and Event Marketing

Understanding the role of promotion and event marketing within any campaign requires a clear knowledge of the function of promotion and it’s impact on achieving marketing goals.

By design, individual or short-lived promotions drive immediate response, while long-term, repeat campaigns are designed to build consumer loyalty to a specific product or service.

Keep It Simple!
It’s important to remember that promotions need to be simple – for the product and the consumer. The product can be anything from radio stations to a can of coffee. The goal is always to get the product into the consumer’s hand. You can achieve that goal by promotion or by event, but they have different elements that make up start to finish. Promotions are (at the shortest) two weeks long and can continue for a couple of months. Events are generally from one day to a week and serve multiple goals for the client.

Promotion and event marketing are often seen as one entity, but both require clear, precise goals that are measurable by attendance, participation and/or sales. Both are an important part of strengthening customer/company relationships. Over the course of many years working in promotions, you gain experience. Experience is what you need to keep promotions successful.

Success Strategies
Here are two examples of successful promotions that were developed for clients, such as; Jack-in-the-Box, McBride Homes, Seven Up, Wehrenberg Theaters, Chads Coalition for Mental Health…all have generated response, sales and revenue for the organizations. Here’s a brief explanation of how some of them worked and the results:

Jack-in-the-Box was participating in a Mid-West event. We developed a promotion that brought the participation to the local stores by handing out coupons for kid’s meals that were specifically designed for the big event. Jack-in-the-Box created a way to stand apart from the hundreds of other companies by making themselves kid and parent friendly. They also offered value to potential customers and to a consumer market they had not cornered up to that time. Sales increased over the first weekend by 160%.

CHADS Coalition for Mental Health was looking to develop a signature event to drive fundraising and bring awareness to their organization. We developed Kids Walking for Kids focused on youth participation and increasing awareness of death by teen suicide via teens themselves. The first year, we raised over $150,000! We took an event and added a fundraising promotion element and they have steadily grown over the past 5 years.

The examples shown are just two of many successful and sustaining promotions developed for clients to meet specific goals.