For a Glass of Wine, Can I Pitch You for an Hour?

That about sums up event marketing, doesn’t it? I mean, if a business was being completely honest, they would say exactly that. Here’s some cheese and wine, now let me tell you about my products for an hour or two. Sound like a good deal?

Uhm… No thank You.

If someone is willing to forego their evening for some cheese and wine (ok, maybe some shrimp, too) what makes you think they’re ready to spend 30k on a new… whatever? It’s a silly and expensive proposition. The way these things work is that:

  • First, you must provide the wine and cheese.
  • Then you must market the hell out of it to get a modest turnout.
  • Thirdly, the company doing all of this will hand you a hefty bill for their services and maybe you sell enough to come out a little ahead.

That doesn’t sound so bad, right? That is, until you realize the gamble you just took could have been invested in engaging an entire market for several months in a row digitally which would have resulted in exponentially more leads and yes, you could have stayed home and avoided the public that evening. The most ironic part is that the attendees you had were probably notified of the event… wait for it… digitally! That’s right, event marketing companies know they have no chance of success without using social media in some capacity.

Say… doesn’t that make you wonder why they didn’t just take the opportunity to tell them about your product while they had their attention on Facebook? Maybe it’s just me but the juice is not worth squeeze with event marketing. Never has been and probably never will be. Don’t get me wrong, a good event marketer can put on a lovely event that may result in a few sales, but you will never dominate the landscape using that strategy.

To me, it all boils down to this; why take the risk when driving attendees already requires engaging an audience? Seems to me to be an extra step designed to make someone money and it sure as hell isn’t the client!