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Secrets of Scintillating Soirees
Remembering to make your next event simply unforgettable
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Business New Haven
2/17/2003
By: Mimi Houston
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Whether your business is hosting a black-tie spring gala, an evening of wine-tasting or a how-to trade seminar for the Northeast region, there are some marketing basics to know that can save you time, energy - and a lot of money.
"The thing is, in order to market an event - and a lot of people miss the mark - you have to have an event that's worth coming to," informs Sarah Waskuch, former marketing director of Schiavone Management Co., one-time marketing coordinator of the New Haven Colony Historical Society and current owner of Fleur de Lise, a flower and European gift store on State Street in New Haven.
"Why do I want to get in my car and drive all the way down there [for nothing]," she continues. "You have to have a hook. You can have all the connections in the world, but it's still very difficult to get any press coverage unless you have something with a twist to it."
If it's your job actually to choose what type of event your company is going to host, Waskuch has ideas for finding that twist.
"A lot of people have talent and creativity," she concedes. "There are a lot of good ideas out there, but only one is going to be the real gem. It just takes people brainstorming ideas - and you can't be inhibited, just throw it all out there because you never know what it will spark."
Waskuch says events are often born of the response of others to your ideas. She says many of her best events came from what she's heard from fellow committee members during brainstorming sessions.
"It could be just one word that gives me the idea," she relates. "And sometimes it's an idea that I never would have thought of."
Waskuch says good ideas come from being aware of the trends going on in society at the time, and taking advantage of what is popular.
"When we did the swing gala at St. Raphael's," she remembers, having she served there as donor relations coordinator, "it was popular with everyone - young people, old people - we hit a very broad market and we sold a lot of tickets."
True to her word, Waskuch added a twist: hiring the Duke Ellington Band - something she knew would get people into their cars and to the event.
"We started out with a good concept," says Waskuch, "and that helped bring in the sponsors. It was an event that was easy to sell to them. I mean, the Duke Ellington Band - they play in front of huge audiences. They came back a day early from Japan to play at this event.
"And the invitation," she recalls, bringing up a crucial part of any event marketing package, "was gorgeous. It really made people say, 'I can't miss this event.'"
Waskuch, who transformed the Yale-Omni Hotel into a period ballroom, hiring 20 professional dancers dressed as soldiers, sailors, cigarette girls and helped get everyone on their feet, said people told her not to feel badly if everyone at the gala started leaving at 10 p.m.
"They said that happened all the time, and that I shouldn't take it personally. But you know, at midnight we had to shut all the lights and push people out the door. It just goes to show: If you're going to do something, get the best. Then you can market it, because you have something to market."
Waskuch says once you've got your "what," you need next to identify your "who."
"You have to ask yourself 'Who am I trying to reach?' before you figure out how you're going to reach them," she says. "If you want everyone to come -the whole world - you've got to do newspapers. But if you have a different audience, you've got to be where those people are going to see you."
Waskuch says a major mistake many organizations make is investing insufficient time into discovering the best way to reach their target markets. Too many people rush to buy newspaper ads, which are costly, and oftentimes are not the way to best market your event.
The simple act of putting just a bit more time and thought into who your audience is can make or break your event - and your marketing budget.
Explains Waskuch: "I'm not saying you have to spend a lot of money. Just spend it well, and spend it right.
"I was working on a marketing plan for a construction firm," Waskuch recalls, "and the first thing the owner said to me was, 'I want to buy an ad in the newspaper.' But I said, 'Well, wait a minute. Tell me who you are trying to reach. Who is your market?' When I asked him that question, he told me it was real estate agencies. He built mostly new homes, and he wanted the agents to know about them.
"Once we knew who exactly he wanted to reach, we were able to see that a newspaper ad was not the best way for him to go," she says. "We designed a postcard and did a direct mailing to area real estate agencies, and built him a Web site so the agents could see the work he was doing."
Waskuch says the money she saved her client was very well spent in other venues and got the construction firm known in the right marketplace.
"By far the biggest mistake people make," she says, when discussing marketing strategies, "is wasting a lot of money by not knowing who their audience is."
One of Waskuch's biggest challenges was coordinating and marketing a street market for the city of New Haven along College and Chapel streets, a project that began in the summer of 1995 and still operates, albeit on a smaller scale than originally.
"I had just gotten back from Europe," she says, "and I was asking myself -what is the ambiance of Europe?' It's what we've lost here because we have malls. We've lost the farmer's market, where you go to buy your bread and your vegetables and your fish."
Waskuch admits New Haven was a hard sell. She know people were worried about coming into the city and getting mugged. They were concerned about where to park. Waskuch says she spent her marketing budget in numerous ways to get the marketplace word out.
"We had posters and flyers in every store," she recalls. "We had banners all over the city so that anyone coming in or leaving saw them. We also got some great, free press coverage. We were on the front page of the Connecticut section of the New York Times."
Waskuch says holding simultaneous events such as cookbook signings and demonstrations by the likes of Jacques Pepin and coordinating wine-tastings from restaurant to restaurant were enough to get the papers interested, offering something all events could benefit from: free - and highly flattering -advertising.
So many people came [to the market], and they were from all over, because we had the checks to prove it," Waskuch recalls. "They were coming in from Milford, Branford, Hamden. And we heard so many great comments about New Haven. Everyone was saying, 'I haven't been down here in so long. I can't believe all these beautiful stores.'"
Waskuch says time-honored recognition tactics helped market the marketplace.
"You have to have good design," she says. "Either design it yourself or hire someone to do it. Get a logo and put it everywhere - on your invitations, on your ads, on your poster. Establish one image that gets out there."
Image is the buzzword for marketing that comes into the mind of Jennifer Aniskovich, a lawyer and retired executive director of the Guilford Handcraft Center who now consults for non-profit organizations. She says having a put-together, professional but very noticeable look, is key to getting people to come to your event.
"When you are packaging your event and getting the news out," she says, "you've got to be creative. You've got to come up with something that's fun and surprising, but right on point with your mission."
Aniskovich points to one of her most satisfying success stories as an example of a good image/event marriage.
"I started the Women's Build for Habitat for Humanity about ten years ago," she recalls, "and we needed to have a fund-raising event for it. So I thought, let's have a men's bake sale. We've got women building houses; let's have the men bake."
Aniskovich organized the event, getting the famous - like New Haven mayor John DeStefano, business leaders, media celebrities, to contribute a baked good that would sell on auction to benefit the fund.
"We've got 60 to 70 noteworthy men baking now. They make two of everything," she explains. "One for tasting, and one for the auction. And we traditionally hold it the Thursday before Valentine's Day. The event is very visual and very fun, but it is a fundraiser, and it's tied directly to our mission."
Aniskovich adds that the local media loves the event.
"They could come and interview famous people," she says, "and get some of their recipes. [WPLR-FM morning personalities Brian] Smith and [Bruce] Barber even came to run a live auction."
There's nothing better than persuading the media to market your event for free.
"That's a great way to market," Aniskovich says, "and all it costs you is energy - a lot -and creativity."
"Use the media as your partner," Aniskovich counsels. "If people can read a story, they'll be more interested. But this requires that you have an event that is packaged like an event."
"If you're having a tax seminar, for example," she says, "bring a person in as an angle - as to why it should be a feature story. Have someone who is fabulously wealthy come in and give a talk on their experiences before the seminar starts.
Aniskovich agrees with Waskuch about the importance of making your event as attractive as possible to your audience. The more exciting you can make it, she says, the more likely the press will cover it. Once you've made friends with your local media outlet, Aniskovich says, there are other ways to get the word out.
"In the non-profit sector," she reveals, "we rely on guerrilla tactics when it comes to marketing, because we have almost no marketing budgets. And one thing we heavily rely on is direct mailing lists, which can be much more targeted" than mass media.
"When you have an event," she says, "you need to think of everyone who might have a list that can help you reach your audience. And if they won't share them with you, then ask them to partner up with you to sponsor your event."
She suggests finding an organization that shares the audience you want to reach, and then letting them help you reach it.
"For example, contact a tennis club and say, 'Let's give away a year's membership, and we'll put your logo on everything.' Then you can do a joint mailing and use their mailing list. Why mail to 10,000 people at this really high cost when you can mail to. say, 800 people who know you are supporting an entity that they know and trust? Your return is much better." Finally, she suggests, make sure the invitation to the event gets people excited as well.
"My husband is a state senator [Branford Republican William Aniskovich], and he always says the life span of a piece of political mail is the time it takes to walk from the mailbox to the garbage can.
"I can't help but believe this applies to all mail," she adds. "The invitation has to be intriguing.
"One of the best invitations we ever did at the Guilford Handcraft Center was to an event with [forensic scientist] Henry Lee as the speaker. We called it 'Classic Crimes: The Art of Forensic Science.' The invitation was a five-by-seven-inch silver ziplock bag with a big label across the front that said, 'Evidence.' Inside we put in seven separate cardstock pieces. One was a headshot of Henry Lee that said 'suspect profile.' We even included a little magnifying lens that you needed to use in order to read some of the pieces. We had people calling us up saying it was the best invitation they'd ever seen and could they get another one. They loved it."
And, even better, "It was not expensive to do," she insists. "We used one cardstock, one color of ink. All it really required was extra cutting."
And, Aniskovich warns, don't forget the newest form of invitations - e-mails. She suggests that, whenever possible, get e-mail lists from companies as well as direct mail lists.
"E-mail your invitations," she insists. "You can do it a few weeks before the event and then you can do it the day of the event, a few hours beforehand."
One thing Aniskovich likes most about e-mailing invitations - cost. "The thing is," she concludes, "is to spend as little money as possible while reaching as many people as possible."
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