Live Event Marketing is Glowing in the Dark

How our Production Crew Turns a Live Event into a Glowing Marketing Extravaganza!

Understanding what events work and which never live up to the hype takes walking a very fine line. Now, more than ever, our live event marketing industry is looking for new, unique and innovative ways to get their clients and brands message across to event attendees. How does a marketing firm create this type of environment? They need help from innovative production companies! It’s important to choose a production company that has experience working with marketing firms. Only the two combined can create strategies that will incorporate the experiential components essential in making a truly successful (and memorable) live event.

A great example of our willingness to work with clients on experiential event trend is our Black Light 5K’s. At In Depth Events, we provide several clients with the live glow events elements necessary to cover crowds of up to 15,000 with high intensity UV in outdoor environments. These events are executed nationwide – offering a unique and memorable experience for all guests from all demographics. Event though my title is Live Event Market Manager, I was recently invited to help our crew build a Black Light 5K in Pomona and have a new found respect for the hardworking technicians that are my co-workers.

Hard at Work with the Black Light Production Crew

It starts with the team setting up the stage and trusses the night before in the center of the race track. It takes about 4 1/2 hours to complete the 20 foot x 20 foot stage and ADA ramp. It’s braced, locked in place and reinforced to provide stability for the DJs. And it’s built level on very un-level grassy ground. While the stage was being built, another crew built trusses at the start and finish lines of the race. This involved setting up pieces that were 20 ft. high with black lights being secured to all sides of the structure to create the glow effect the client required.

The next day the team returned at 8am to continue the build. They had their work cut out for them as they began creating peripheral staging to hold additional speakers to enhance and magnify the ultimate sound experience for the Black Light run participants. They set up 2 mini stages directly behind the main stage to literally pump up the volume. This turned out to be essential as the crowd far exceeded the expectations of the organizer!

Lighting and fog equipment for live glow events has to be secured to additional trusses that were placed on stage to help create the ultimate dance party experience which occurred directly after the run portion of the event. While half the team continued to finish setting up the sound system, lighting, and black lights for the main event area, the other half of the production crew had to set up even more trusses, lighting and audio at four additional locations throughout the run path.

Attendees began arriving at 4 pm and the gates were opened at 5 pm. The first wave crossed under the start line at 6:30 pm, and, after completing the race, went straight to the party area where the DJ’s were pumping music into the crowd. On entry to the party area, each attendee was given packets of UV reactive powder to throw in the air, on their friends or themselves! During the event, nearly 15,000 attendees showed up to Glow the night away under the high intensity, long throw black lights that were set up by our crew. These attendees came from every demographic and included every age group. However, the primary demographic seemed to be young couples with kids, definitely in the middle to upper income range and fitness minded. It was hard to see who was having more fun – the 30-something parents or the 12-17 year old kids at the stage barricades! Everyone was dancing the night away, glowing in UV reactive clothing and covered in UV reactive paint.

How to turn the Black Light Run into a promotional vehicle for my clients’ brands.

Since I was a guest on the production crew, I also was privileged enough to help with load out – and, I gotta tell you, it comes down much faster than it goes up! While I was working with the technicians, my mind turned to how I could use this event experience to promote my clients brands. Would live glow events work for promoting a sports brand? What about a non-profit? Can a glowing logo make a better impression than a print logo? Which of my clients would be interested in having their product presented at such a unique event in front of 15,000 consumers with disposable income?

The answer is, of course – all of them! But how best to utilize my new-found knowledge to help my clients? A sports drink client could certainly do giveaways. A sporting manufacturer could certainly give away UV reactive t-shirts. What if a client was willing to build an entire event to promote their brand? With a dedicated base of customers, a well-planned event could generate significant impressions for any of my clients. As I limped back to my car with the loaded trucks behind me, I was thankful that I do live event marketing for a living, and not production setup! I’ll be reaching out to my clients with my new ideas – and with the crew of In Depth Events in my back pocket, you’ll be sure to see my clients brands glowing soon!

I hope this blog has been informative for our event planner clients! For more information on In Depth Events and our event production capabilities, please Ask Us a Question today. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you on your event!

Image of Stage and Roof Systems for Live Events

Using Stage and Roof Systems for Your Event: A Guide for Event Planners

At In Depth Events, we’ve built hundreds of rooftops for outdoor events. Whether your event is using a load bearing stage and roof system or a non load bearing stage and roof system (also called a genie roof, or a shade roof), the basic rules that apply to safety and successful use are the same. Below, we’ll go over the most important guidelines for a successful show!

Pre-planning with your production vendor

Vital to the process of setting up a successful event is pre-planning. In most cases, the stage and roof systems are central to the event, so it’s important to get an overhead site plan in place early in the game. Begin by placing the stage and roof in a central location, pointing away from any close residential areas. Then, you can sketch in vendor booths, points of entry and exit for audience and placement of vendor booths and port-o-potties. Once you have a working diagram, check for crowd flow.

It’s better to have your stage and roof systems on high ground for a variety of reasons. It’s better acoustically, because it allows the PA to throw farther. It’s helpful for visibility as well. Most importantly, if it rains, then the performance area doesn’t get flooded out.

All stage and roof systems need to be guyed down. In some cases, we’ll use ground stakes to guy a rooftop down. However, if the rooftop is to be placed on concrete, or in a grassy area where power, gas, or sewer lines are underground, we’ll use water ballast. It’s important to know which type of points we’ll be using long before our trucks arrive.

On site with your production crew

All production companies want you to have a successful event. However, we need your help to make this happen! First and foremost, make sure you or a senior member of your staff is on site at the pre-arranged load in time to show the crew exactly where the rooftop is going to be placed. Have a printed version of your overhead and a printed version of the schedule of events ready for the production crew chief. This simple step will solve the majority of timing and placement issues.

The production crew chief will need to be able to access a senior member of your event staff at all times during the event. If you are using radios, make sure he has one assigned to him and knows where to charge it up during off times. If you are using cell phones, make sure to swap numbers and check them. Communication is key!

Finally, please provide the basic necessities for your crew. Many times, a crew will show up to begin the build two days before the event starts. If the porta-potties are not scheduled until the day before the event, things can get messy. Also, please make arrangements for water and ice to be available to your stagehands as they build your rooftop, during the run of show and for strike. (The occasional pizza delivery doesn’t hurt, either!)

Promotional banners and soft goods

It’s common for banners to be used for both load bearing and non load bearing rooftops. Each rooftop has different sizes available for banner hangs, so make sure and check with your event professional to see what these sizes can be – and let them know you are planning on hanging banners on our structures. We’re happy to hang these banners for you, but please be aware of these guidelines:

All banners MUST BE made of blow through material. Flat vinyl banners will not be hung. Smilies are not acceptable.
All banners must be grommeted on all four sides. Grommets must be placed on 18″ centers.
Our crew chief or rooftop supervisor has the final authority on any banners hung on our structures.

All banner art should be above center. The most common banner placements are teaser banners (above the stage, on the downstage truss), backdrops and flybay banners.

Safety, Safety, Safety

At In Depth Events, we are rabid about the safety of your talent and your attendees. We make every effort to make sure our structures are safe, and we will always have a rooftop operator on site to make sure that all components are functioning properly. In fact, in many cases, we’ll use portable weather stations mounted to the rooftop itself to monitor weather events in real time.

Your on-site operator will always be watching for one of four occurrences that will cause us to bring the rooftop down.

#1: Heavy rain. Drizzle and small storms don’t affect us. A raging downpour does. If you see frogs coming from the sky and small rivers forming, we will bring the rooftop down.
#2: High winds. Our roof systems are rated for moderate winds, but high winds will cause us to bring the roof down. If you see Dorothy and Toto, it’s time for the roof to be lowered.
#3: Lighting in the area. Lighting strikes within a few miles of our rooftops are bad news. A metal structure higher than anything else around it is a natural conductor. Unless you want your hamburger well done, we’re dropping the roof.
#4: Someone runs a car into one of our uprights. Yes, this really has happened before. If someone driving on your show site manages to hit the large aluminum structure in the middle of the event area, he’s probably hit it hard enough to impair the structural integrity. The roof needs to come down and be checked.

In most cases, we can re-raise the roof and continue with the show once the danger has passed. However, the rooftop operator has sole authority on lowering the roof and on re-raising it. If your rooftop operator tells you it’s time to bring the rooftop down, there is a good reason for doing so.

Hopefully this blog has been informative for our event planner clients! For more information on In Depth Events and our event production capabilities, please Ask Us a Question today. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you on your event!

Selecting the Best Production Vendor for Your Outdoor Festivals

If you’re throwing outdoor festivals, then choosing the right production vendor is the single biggest decision you’ll make towards the success of your event. Take a look below to see a few tips on finding the right production vendor for staging rental, audio rental, and lighting rental for your outdoor festival!

Step One: Start early and plan ahead when choosing a production company

Whether it’s a college block party, a ‘City Of’, or a State Fair, having the right company for your stage and roof system, audio rental, lighting rental and generator rental can make or break outdoor festivals. Most importantly, you need someone that you can build a relationship with – someone that you trust will do what they say they are going to do.

Building a relationship takes time. Begin looking for your vendors well in advance of your show. Have your details in place when you are interviewing vendors – overhead layouts of your venue, band riders and event dates and times are key to helping your production company provide an accurate quote for your event. In addition, most production companies like to see at least a three month advance contact before the date of your show and never less than one month. Frantically calling production vendors a week before the event date is not a way to build trust!

Interview the production company, get multiple bids and check references

Outdoor festivals are arguably the most difficult type of event there is for a production company. Tight set changes, multiple bands and crowd control issues are compounded by weather, temporary power and permitting requirements. Your production company for your outdoor festival should be part of the solution, not an additional headache that you have to deal with.

Therefore, you need to make sure they companies your are interviewing know what they are talking about! Conduct interviews with sales staff and project leads – a reputable company will be thrilled with the opportunity to meet with you and see the venue. Be prepared to get multiple bids and check them for the gear you need. Your production company should be open to discussion on the bid and the equipment listed in your quote.

Finally, check references! The production company should own the majority of the equipment they are bringing to your show. Avoid ‘show brokers’ – they typically cause more trouble than they are worth and their references will reflect this. Ask about their safety records. Don’t hesitate to ask all companies bidding on your event about the reputations of their competitors. Production is a very small industry, and we’ve all worked together at one time or the other. A company that is reviled across the industry is bad news.

Experiences In Live Event Marketing:Verizon FIOS FEST!

FIOS FEST Rolls out across the US

As a live event marketing professional, I’ve been honored to be a part of some amazing live event marketing campaigns. When Verizon began to enable FIOS in the major US markets, I was selected to be a part the live event marketing group for one the largest fiber-optic roll outs of the new millennium. At the time, FIOS was a new entity, and our job was introducing it to folks that weren’t familiar with all it’s intricacies. This was a live event campaign across the country hitting all the major cities in states such as New York, Florida, Texas and California. We created a campaign that encompassed all key elements to execute a flawless marketing campaign. We named it FIOS FESTS. The following were elements that we implemented to ensure the best outcome possible for the client.

How we did it – by the numbers!

1. Pre-promote. Letting the local consumer base know where, when, what, and why in fun, creative ways to motivate consumers and drive interest for the live marketing event. For FIOS, we would set up in front of local businesses and speak to consumers one on one and offer fun incentives for their time. We also incorporated music by offering free music downloads from our site. For this campaign, pre-promotion was a key target for creating a great, well attended event.

2. Location. Finding a centralized location was another key factor in the overall execution of the FIOS events. With the FIOS FEST, we needed a football field-sized area that would hold several 20 foot x 20 foot tents, a fully loaded event stage and a footprint for vendors. Permits and approvals had to be obtained well in advance to avoid any last minute snafus that might have arisen. The idea was to make the event as accessible to as many of the locals as possible without having them make a major trek from end of the city to the other.

3. Production. For the FIOS FEST, and for every other event I’ve been a part of, the final and most critical element is incorporating the right production equipment. This will enhance and make sure your event comes across as professional endeavor and not some thrown together, last minute after thought. The stage is the focal point of any live event as it features the entertainment and contests going on throughout the day. For FIOS FEST, we used a SAM 550 mobile stage at each of our locations. This StageLine SAM550 model is the flagship of the StageLine fleet with a deck size of 50 feet x 38 feet and a load bearing rooftop capable of supporting 44,000 lbs. With flown Line Array, state of the art lighting, and (of course) FIOS banners, it made an impressive centerpiece to the FIOS FEST.

From FIOS to Production Experience, Inc.

My experience with the FIOS FEST campaign, as well as several other live event marketing promotions, has made me a valuable addition in my current position as Live Event Marketing Manager at Production Experience, Inc. The main keys as listed above are my steps to executing a flawless event anywhere from a few hundred, to thousands of participants. As always, “Go big or go home”! Your target consumers are worth it and they deserve the best in execution with the right production pieces at the core.

Category: Events