CUSTOMER-DRIVEN

EVENTS
AND PROMOTIONS
A SHIFT IN THINKING…
CUSTOMERS ARE MORE INVOLVED IN THE
PRODUCTS/SERVICES YOU PROVIDE

Robin Hovey-Stapp, Senior Marketing Coordinator

Amy Leon, Senior Marketing/Events Coordinator
Erin Holley, Marketing Coordinator/Events
 Why Develop a Promotion/Event?
Promotional activities are designed to inform, persuade, or remind
the market of what we offer and our products and ultimately to
influence consumers' feelings, beliefs, and behavior.
A successful promotion/event program should include all the
communication tools that can deliver a message to a target audience.
A promotion program should include five components: advertising,
sales promotion, public relations, sales force, and direct marketing.

 60% of US Consumers have purchased a brand due to a promotion.*

 80% of online consumers have entered a sweepstakes.**
82% of consumers will provide personal information in exchange for a
chance to win.***

*IMI International **eMarketer ***Jupiter Research: Online Privacy Report

Establish Your Objectives
 Who you are trying to reach?
 What do you want to accomplish?
 What do you want people to do because of your
promotion/event? (i.e. increase participation by
10%, increase sales by 15%, etc.)
 How much time will it take to accomplish your
objectives?
 Lay the Groundwork
Do Research Identify Your Target Market BE
CREATIVE!
 Use available resources
(i.e.
ESRI, Leisure Market Survey, Survey of
Army Families, demographic data, FAMS
database, sales data from local
AAFES/DeCA, RecTrac,
mwrbrandcentral.com, etc.)
 Research and identify popular
trends
 Know your customer!
 Conduct local research (i.e. exit
surveys and focus groups)
Develop a Plan and Theme
A promotion/event plan outlines the strategy,
promotional tools or tactics you plan to use to
accomplish your marketing objectives.
Need to identify the promotional/event tactics.

Project costs

How will your promotion/event tactics support your

marketing objectives?
Develop Your Messages
 Less is more – Focus on your call to action
 Target messages that speak to your audience and are
consistent
 Pay close attention to the non-verbal aspects of the message
 Images, graphics, fonts should relate to your overall theme,
message, and audience for the maximum effect
Choose Your Delivery System
 Formal delivery system vs informal delivery system
 Customers are spending less time in “traditional
media”
(Radio usage is down 19%, TV viewing is down 33%, and newspaper/magazine readership is

– Arbitron Research: internet and multimedia study

down 30%)

and more time here…

 Customers Are Engaged Online
 Digital Consumers are shifting from passive
shoppers to active brand participants
 200 million US consumers have shopped online –
over 875 million worldwide***
 36 million download music or videos*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
 40 million browse the web from their mobile
v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&NR=1
phone**
 50 million have created online content*
 95 million participate in online Contests &
Sweepstakes
 110 million participate in Social Networks*
 U.S. Social Network usage* (All Adults - 35%,
Adults 18-24 - 75%)

* Pew Internet and American Life **Nielson Mobile Study ***ComScore ****NY
Times E-Commerce Report
Evaluate, Evaluate, Evaluate
 Measure and evaluate the success of the
promotion/event. Conduct customer feedback
surveys and after action reports!
 FMWRC Promotion Result Examples:
 2010 Texas Hold’em promotion provided 101 additional nights to sell food and beverage
at garrison facilities
 Approximately half of all garrisons that participated in Texas Hold’em stated more than
50% of the participants were new customers
 2010 Operation Rising Star reports indicated an average increase of 18% in daily revenue
compared to 2009 results
 Eighty-seven percent of garrisons reported that the Operation Rising Star Program is
either valuable or very valuable in its ability to increase morale
 The 2010 www.Oprisingstar.com webpage increased views by 40,768 over 2009.
Case Study

Imagine you’re the head of marketing

at a theme park, and you’re charged with
announcing a major new attraction. What
would you do?

Cindy Gordon, vice president of new media and

marketing partnerships at Universal Orlando
Resort, told 7 people about The Wizarding
World of Harry Potter.

…and those 7 people told tens of thousands