No event can be successfully completed without interaction and inputs from the six key elements of events, viz., event infrastructure, target audience, clients, event organizers, venue and the media.
This carries an in-depth presentation of the issues involved in the interaction between these key elements.
Indian context and the other from the international sporting scene, bring out the essence of this in a concise manner.
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The Exhibits also show that the difference in the national and international events is actually the same at the conceptual level; the factors that are different depend almost entirely on the socioeconomic conditions and the technological advances of the geographical area where the event takes place.
A graphical depiction of the event hexagon that is formed by the key elements event organisers design and execute all activities concerning an event. Event infrastructure is the broad term that encompasses core concept, people, talent and structure.
The target audience is the ultimate experience of the event and for whom the event organiser consciously designs the event. The client from the event organizers’ viewpoint is the sponsor or financier of an event venture.
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The media is the vehicle used to communicate details of the event to the target audience and venue is the location at which the event is to be executed.
1. Event Infrastructure
As the name indicates, event infrastructure includes those essential elements without which there cannot be any event. These essential elements are core concept, core people, core talent, and core structure. The nature of this infrastructure varies with the event categories and variations in events.
2. Core Concept
Core concept is a term that can be used to define the fundamental underlying ethos and evolution of the various major categories of events. That is, what differentiates and demarcates the boundaries between the various categories amongst themselves.
The core concept of an event is like a root of a tree that generates the energy and lays down the base for the type of tree that shall grow.
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The exact size and shape that the tree takes varies from tree to tree in the same ‘ family. Thus, an entire event family can be built on each of the event categories.
3. Core People
These are the people who are performing, acting or participating in the process of influencing the audience to create a desired impact in terms of a favorable position for the clients’ brand in the audience’s mind. When the event gets underway, these are the people who hold sway and take the center-stage.
The audience comes to experience the expertise, charisma or knowledge of such core people and to have an opportunity to interact with them. The personality of the core people being used in an event should match the brand personality.
4. Core Talent
With every event category, the core people are required to have a specific expertise, reputation, or knowledge. It is the core talent that attracts and influences the audience. In a music concert, the types of audience that are attracted to the event depend on the talent of the performer.
The core talent, therefore, helps in creating variations in any event category. For instance, in music whether the event is a classical music concert or a pop music concert, depends on the type of instrument and the music being played.
Similarly in sports, each game has limited time, constraints in terms of boundary, number of participants, etc. The physical manifestations of these constraints that act as a challenge or obstacle vary from game to game and lead to the need for different talents required in playing each game.
An example that can be cited here is in a competitive event such as sports, core talent is game specific, i.e. talent required in cricket differs from talent required to play basketball.
5. Core Structure
The presence of a formal or informal organization to manage the event category as a whole is important to make it lucrative from its marketing point of view.
Depending upon the degree to which the event category is structured the requirements of management and marketing of events may vary. The more formal and structured it is, the more lucrative that event category becomes, since it becomes easier to manage and market.
By more formal and structured, we mean that, there is a proper organizational structure in which roles and responsibilities are clearly assigned to different members of the organisation along with proper delegation of authority to carry out these roles.
Depending on the stakes involved – not only of the monies but also of national pride and identification of the event category by the ordinary citizens – each of the categories has become structured to certain degrees. This organisation for efficient management has been denoted as the core structure.
Traditionally, across the world, competitive events have always been comprehensively administered right from the grass root level, i.e. right from the schools with league matches at every level up to the international level.
In fact, competitive events are the only category among all categories of events that have a strong and structured organisation. Among competitive events, sporting events are the most organised and structured both nationally and internationally.
Sports control bodies such as the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and the ICC (International Cricket Council) are examples of this.
Such bodies not only carry out managerial functions and other administrative activities involved with the event but also focus on the members and players benefits during, and to an extent, after their playing tenure.
6. Target Audience
Target audience is the customer groups who form the focus of events. The actual event design varies with the demographic profile of the target audience as well as the number of targeted audience.
It is from these criteria that the event gets its image and budget. Whether the event would be a mega-event or theme parties, which artist would perform or where the event is to be held etc. primarily depend on the target audience.
Therefore, starting from the initial conceptualization to the carrying out of the event the entire process cognizably takes into consideration the characteristics and the behavior of the target customer groups.
Every marketing activity is essentially customer based. Depending on the clients’ marketing requirements, as discussed earlier, event organisers decide the audience to be targeted.
Based on the target audience as a common denominator, the event organiser can canvass for other clients who would like to associate with the event, thus events can also act as a converging ground for a diverse range of corporate with the same target audience. The costing of an event will also definitely vary with both the profile and number of audience being targeted.
The importance that the target audience definition as the first step in event designing carries can be fathomed by understanding the differences that could occur in the event by a change in the target audience profile.
The Rang Barse to Holi Gyrations transformation discussed in is a classic example of how the event design varies with the target audience.
Starting with the title itself, the ethnic and traditional feel obtained from the original title had to be changed to something that sounded more sophisticated and appealing to a homogenous group of young people of a particular age, behaviour etc.
Not only does the profile of the target audience have an effect on the event but also the number of audience has a major impact on the design. This is so, because the venue and other related costing are decided on the basis of the number of expected audience.
If the number of target audience varies there is a cascading effect on the event design. Hence, not only the profile but also the number of targeted audience is important in designing successful events.
7. Clients
Clients are the people or organizations who act as sponsors at any event. They sponsor the events because they use events as a more effective marketing communication tool to create for themselves a desired position in the minds of the target audience.
They provide funds that either fully or partially subsidies an event to make it affordable for the target audience. As will be discussed later, the risk rating of an event increases if enough monies from sponsors do not support the event affecting the event organisers.
Corporate clients can be either event savvy or may need to be educated about the uses and benefits of events as a strategic marketing communications tool. The one factor that event savvy companies are always on the lookout for is greater value addition from the event organisers.
For extracting higher value from the event, clients also have to actively involve themselves with the event activities. Right from the briefing to the actual execution of the event, clients also need to be on their toes.
As explained in the on ‘Why Events’, the uses and benefits that one single event can provide need to be exploited to the hilt. Irrespective of how good the event organiser is, the client also needs to prepare and do their part in the event efficiently.