Whether you're a start-up venture or a Fortune 500 company, branding is pivotal to your corporate identity. Defining who you are, what you value, and what distinguishes you from the masses, effective branding can:

• Drive recognition.
• Bolster credibility.
• Attract, retain, and inspire employees.
• Purchase incentives for potential customers.
• Forge emotional connections with your audience.

So why is it that most corporate events are carbon copies, rather than extensions of ones brand?

Corporate Event Branding: An Unparalleled Opportunity

Corporate events, be they seminars, conferences or social gatherings, offer a unique platform to bring your brand to life. Particularly B2B events, where often the only interactions are with sales teams, virtual teams or the customer experience teams.

The thing is, corporate events are the perfect way to amplify your branding efforts. And here's why:

• Tangibility: Events offer the prospects a tangible interaction with your brand, enriching their understanding and creating a stronger connection.
• Storytelling: From the location choice to the event specifics, every detail can be woven into a compelling narrative showcasing your brand identity.
• Exclusivity: By being part of an exclusive gathering, attendees feel privileged, thus adding to your brand's value.

Boosting Event Branding Effectiveness

Fusion of Venue & Brand Identity

Picking the right venue can, by itself, powerfully project your brand’s philosophy. A sustainable brand hosting an event in eco-friendly premises underscores commitment to environmental values, while a tech company’s seminar in a contemporary, high-tech location echoes innovation. The flip is a poor venue choice, with drab interiors and in a hard to find location is going to have the opposite effect.

Leveraging your venues brand to build up your own, particularly when you are a smaller player, is a great way to build yourself up. This strategy is often employed at tradeshows, where a smaller provider might buy  a higher package and be able to present on stage.

A Hero Image Says It All

Apart from the right venue, impactful visuals have an undeniable part in brand projection. In the event invitations, social promotions, and event stage backdrop, include good imagery that reflect:

• Your brand identity
• What you want your audience to feel
• How your guests are going to benefit from attending

Corporate events provide an unparalleled and multidimensional branding platform, providing direct interaction and creating a privileged sense of intimacy and legitimacy.

Branding done well

In another life, when working at a media company, you would get an invite to some sort of event every other week. If you really wanted you could probably attend a drink, presentation or workshop every day. So you can forgive me when I saw a lot of events weren't ideal. I typically leave an event with a large to-do list and in some cases, I left the event early.

The best exeuction of an on-brand event was actually the SBS. While they didn't host a huge amount of events, the event I attended had significant brand association. They has taken the approach of a branding event and made it:

1. On brand: aligned to each of the sports they typically show on their schedule
2. Interactive: everything from little soccer shootouts to tricycle races
3. Not Alcohol focused: So people of all walks could enjoy themselves
4. At the right time of day: Afternoon with all the important speeches complete before 5pm.
5. Great staff: There were plenty of event staff and SBS staff making sure everyone was engaged and questions were answered 

An event that takes brand amplification as the core experience will be far more likely to be remembered than any other event... even 10+ years down the track.