From brand activations to award shows to social events to the most elaborate weddings, all are mostly being organized at this time of the year. And being an experiential marketing journalist my work enables me to visit all such events with a ray of hope of finding something new and interesting to write on and feature every single time.
But lately all the events that I have been to can be observed to be following a peculiar monotonous pattern; a pattern that blurs the divide between different genres of events so that even a first time attendee forgets that did they just visit a wedding, an activation or a charity dinner. Yes I am talking about the excessive integration of social into events.
Event managers today are obsessed with technology and social media today. Yes, tech and social are definitely ‘the trends’ of the decade that facilitate the amplification of an event content but it is high time that event curators understand the fact that technology integration has to be a part of your overall event rather than being all of your event.
As you step into an event today be it a brand meet or even a wedding, what you as an attendee are told out right is that so and so is the hashtag of the event and please use it to tweet ahead. And then it becomes a battle, whatever an attendee finds at an event be it a magnificent art installation or even a dying tree one has to have a selfie taken with it and float it on social media. Why you ask? Just to get social showoff brownie points. Yes, that is what all attendees are doing at events.
Trying decoding the reason for this? Well, probably because the event manager failed to deliver any real engagement to the attendee that they could truly relish and experience. I remember going to circus carnivals in my childhood when technological elements did not exist in the first place. And even though we had no tech driven charismatic elements to blow our minds then, the sheer experience of enjoying the carnival was greater and the engagement level was higher.
What brands and event planners do not understand today is that if your attendee is too busy using your event to gain social media hype rather than enjoying what you have created for them, then sadly your event has created no experience for them. There is no engagement, the same attendee will go to the next event and then tweet or share the same updates for that event. Where is the experience? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of experiential marketing in the first place?
Why can’t we go back to the old times with future events and have authorized personnel or a dedicated photography staff take pictures on request and then make it a shared content to be accessed by everyone as soon as they move out of the event. Because with the current predicament we are soon heading towards a time when all you will see at an event will be a couple of heads staring at their mobiles, tablets and laptops while there is so connection, involvement and engagement between them.
When was the last time an event planner saw their attendee completely lost in the beauty of what they presented? Well the answer to that lies in the fact that while digital is supposed to be a helpful hand for event managers and planners it has recently taken over from the event itself. Hence, it is of utmost importance that event managers should restrict the use of social media at their upcoming events it is only then when an attendee will leave his consciousness behind and try to not fill awkward silences with phone usage but actually become an indispensable part of your overall event.
