Through the eye of your audience

Published: August 2022

We’re growing up in a world of not looking up at our surroundings

But we interact instead with the spaces around us through our mobiles. When producing experiences, we’re surrounded by a sea of extended arms gripping onto the tiny screens, angling it perfectly to get that killer shot. Nine times out of ten that killer shot will be shared on the audience’s social media, promoting themselves with their followers and sharing those unforgettable moments.

Social media is now less about the media and more about the social. Engage with the audience in a way that inspires and the media side will sort itself out. It’s also no longer a new concept that clients need to be told about. If anything they’re probably bored of hearing about it. Having said that though, it still surprises us when clients haven’t taken the time to think up a hashtag that works for their event, or even created an event landing page on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Engaging with your audience through their phones is now a process that all brand experience agencies need to address and adapt their services to incorporate. Designers must include social media pages on all on-site graphics, suppliers must make agreements for sharing event content, and Account Managers must advise on strategies that steer off the traditional event planner role.

Here are our tips for improving your audience's view through their screen...

1. Use the right hashtag

Some suggestions around the table can sound great, but the practicality of your audience remembering an anagram or abbreviation of the event they’re attending doesn’t always work. Although shorter anagrammed hashtags look sexy, unless they're pushed at the event and ingrained into the audience’s mind, they will not work. Use the full event name if possible to ensure consistency, but if it is too long then be sure to display it in every corner of the viewer's eye.

2. Design an ‘instagramable’ space

Having an eye for an artistic shot is no longer a skill only for photographers. Our eyes are always strolling through amazing images and we’ve naturally picked up the techniques to perfectly capture the world around us.

When thinking of new stage designs, drawing site plans and creating branding assets, we now need to think of the bigger picture and the setting in which these all fall. Passers-by have a 360 view of all venue spaces, so imagine there were a hundred photographers capturing every inch and corner of your event and think again about where you place that storage unit.

We like to embrace the diversity and variance of levels in the surrounding environment, as not everyone will necessarily be on ground level. At our Philippines Tourism Weekend, we produced 6ft tall Toblerone graphics to capture the eyes of spectators on London Bridge. They definitely could not be ignored and we would like to think were spotted a mile away.

3. Make your audience a star in seconds

Permanent photo opportunities and backdrop walls are becoming more and more popular at events. Audiences love to be the star of the show and get a snap to prove it, but getting your hands on the printed photo after can sometimes be too much of a faff to stick around for.

At our Canada Day experience, we chose to scrap the professional photographer at our photo stall and hired a promo team to take the photos on the audience’s phones. This was something that was only going to be asked of them anyway, so why not skip the step - whilst reducing cost too.

4. Create FOMO - fear of missing out

Your audience’s engagement is your own free path of marketing. If they post amazing reviews or tell their own audiences on social media how amazing your event is then naturally the FOMO begins. Your audience’s audience then wants to ‘see what all the fuss is about’ and come to your event.

This goes to say for many of our weekend-long experiences but also is the case for our single-day experiences and pop-ups. At our Currys PC World #StayColourful pop-up with AEG washing machines, social media continued to show a buzz for the event for weeks after. Our Virgin Media 'Two Hearts Pizzeria' campaign boomed on social media, and the buzz continues to the present day. Continuing and managing the legacy of your events on a world stage is another topic all in itself.

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