Every morning I watch the Today Show while I get ready for the daily grind. This year they devoted an entire segment to reviewing specific Super Bowl commercials for two days in a row before the game and even again Monday after the game! One Super Bowl commercial will be seen first on The Today Show, then on the Super Bowl, hyped up on Facebook and Twitter and of course watched and shared over and over again on YouTube. Even more than that, the chatter about the best commercials transcends into everyday conversations.

So we all know that your company’s event is probably not spending $3.5 Million for a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t take the new media framework for a Super Bowl commercial and use it in your event marketing. Now it’s all about being social with your event and using as many relevant channels well before and after to create a buzz.  This builds your brand and ensures event success.

1. Hype up your event with a relevant and memorable Twitter hashtag and promotional teasers. Take pictures of your goodie bag giveaways and Tweet it, Instagram it, make people wonder what is inside and make them want to come find out! With every pre-promotion, use your hashtag in order to keep the conversation focused and help you track your campaign.

2. Talk to your VIP guests and have them promote the event to their followers! Your VIP guests will carry strong weight on any of their promotions and have a greater influence over their followers.

3. Encourage check-ins through Foursquare or Facebook and announce a giveaway on Facebook for the next day after your event to everyone who checked in.  This promotes the event on social media while it is happening and after the event, drives traffic to your Facebook page.

4. Use videos. Even having your event planner give a short spiel about the event spliced with previous photos and footage from the event gives a guest a glimpse into what they are about to embark on. *This also means that if you are planning a first time event, make sure to take video footage of your event! Then use that video footage to promote it out on all social channels. Guests featured in the video are also likely to promote it out to their own social channels, which make it also important to feature your VIP guests.

5. Don’t look past traditional media. Print is not dead with 93% of Americans reading magazines and they even have a longer shelf life than newspapers with 63% of readers using it as “me” time! Find a publication that best suits your market and demographic but make sure that you are planning ahead. Place an advertisement with a few months lead-time so that you have the opportunity to have a longer campaign and get the most out of a publication’s editorial calendar.

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