Your Experiential End Goal: The Moment The Party Lives Forever

Aside from marketing goals like increased sales, brand awareness and advocacy - there’s the ultimate goal that we don’t really talk about - the moment the party lives forever. After all, that moment is what’s really going to drive your marketing goals. Last month, we talked about refining your brand experiences. If you missed it you should definitely check it out, but the TL;DR is that your brand experiences are defined and refined by how people experience your brand with all 5 of their senses.

Not surprisingly, your tangible experiences have the same formula for engagement.

Founder Joanna V calls it “the moment the party lives forever” - but what does that even mean? For her, it’s a culmination of subtleties, but there’s one tell-all that she thinks guides that feeling for event attendees:

The moment you stop checking your phone, or forget to take a photo.

This is an important moment because it means your guests have officially lost themselves in the moment. As a small business, you definitely want people to take photos and share them across social media - and they will. But you know you’ve really captured them when the night (or day) wears on and all of a sudden they find themselves completely lost in the moment. At that point, the only lens they’re experiencing your brand through is their own consciousness. When you see people looking up and soaking in all of the elements that are stimulating their 5 senses, you’ve hooked ‘em.

Now, brand sentiment is a difficult thing to measure in events, which is why it’s easy to think “more is more” - the more you can wow them, the more they must think of the brand. But trust us - that isn’t always the case. As we’ve said time and time again, the small everyday elements that come together in juuust the right way to make a moment extraordinary are the things that go furthest to build a tribe around your brand.

Here are a few of those subtleties, explained in the best way possible, even though they’re relatively indescribable.

1. The mood lighting is just right

   • There’s a reason lighting designers get paid big bucks to design the ambiance in fancy buildings. Why more events don’t focus more heavily on how the room is lit remains a mystery to us. To hit the nail on the head, focus on more than the average up lights, fairy lights, and candles when budget allows. Otherwise, use those things in fun, new & unique ways to really manipulate the overall ambiance. Pinterest is an amazing resource for this.

2. The DJ set is hitting all the feels

   • This is a little harder to control, but it’s still important. You’ll never have a comprehensive roadmap of what songs people like, when they like them, or why. That said, you can still do your part to make sure your DJ is trusted for the type of event you’re having, and make sure they know how to gauge the energy of the room.

3. Attendees are comfortable enough to let their guard down

   • This applies to the lighting we talked about earlier, but also to overall physical comfort. Working with your venue owner to regulate the temperature of your space, and creating comfortable seating areas for people to socialize uninhibited are a great starting point. The idea is to make them feel taken care of!

4. The combination of food & drink are exquisite

   • Bad food won’t ruin an event completely, but it sure is a downer - especially if you’re advertising the presence of food as a benefit to attending. Likewise, bad drinks aren’t the end of the world but if your attendees are expecting good cocktails, be sure your venue, your hired bartender, and/or your caterer can deliver. It’s human nature to remember the things you didn’t like more vividly than the things you did. So, make sure your flavor profiles are on point. Do a tasting with your caterer ahead of time to make the best decision.

Remember, “… people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou said that. Listen to her. She knows a few things.

In all seriousness, that golden moment that your party lives forever is the true end goal to your marketing event, and all things you do when you have your audience’s attention should be with that end goal in mind. When you hit people right in the feels, they remember that. And they come back… with friends. You want that.

Here’s to making your events memorable, friends. As always, remember to stay present in all your everyday experiences. ❤️