Salesforce.com Event Hijacked by Competitor

A funny story came out of Newsweek last Thursday about how SugarCRM, a small competitor of Salesforce.com (a sales force automation provider), showed up at the DreamForce ‘09 annual conference in San Francisco to ridicule Marc Benioff and his company, putting a new spin on event marketing as we know it. Marc Benioff is known for his bombastic (or egotistical, as Newsweek puts it) personality and... [Read more]

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Usedeventstuff.com

Used Event Stuff is a great website that’s been so successful in the US it’s now branching out into the UK.  It’s essentially eBay, except more tailored towards event planners and marketers. Event professionals can find pretty much everything here, from practical items like vases and easels, to furniture (6 glow bars for $1000!),  to more exotic items like custom made crickets, Marilyn Monroe... [Read more]

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MJ Movie – “A Unique Cinematic Event”

Last week Michael Jackson’s movie This Is It premiered around the world in 16 cities.  Time magazine elaborates on the ingenious marketing behind the movie, and makes note of how the release seems less like a movie premiere and more like a “unique cinematic event.”  Indeed, many of the promotional tactics employed come straight out of the event marketer’s handbook for generating event demand,... [Read more]

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Critical Event Invitation Elements

We’ve seen many events flop from the moment they hit the market. Many times failure comes from the event’s invitation. Your event invitation is the prospect’s first impression and you don’t want that impression to be – DELETE ME. We cover a number of event best practices in this blog. We discuss design and copy. We make recommendations on what elements to include in your messaging.... [Read more]

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Why Are Demanding Clients Great For Business?

In business it can be comforting to have a laid back client that trusts you to make the tough decisions. Sometimes it’s nice not to have to justify or explain your choices. While there are cases where a trusting client is great, they can also be a liability. Customers that let you do your thing aren’t challenging you. You aren’t pushing the envelope to please them regularly. Instead, you can... [Read more]

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Don’t Be Afraid of Plain Text

At first I loathed what I considered to be boring email invitations – plain text. They make it harder to track response rates and I didn’t consider them as effective as fully designed html invitations. But in the era of Blackberry and other handheld devices, I’m warming up to the idea of plain text emails. Plain text is e-communications at its most honest. No frills or graphic tricks to draw... [Read more]

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Volkswagon Fun Theory

Does turning a flight of stairs into fully functioning piano make people more inclined to climb them? Volkswagen launched a successful media-bending brand campaign earlier this month centered around the notion that fun can change peoples’ behaviour.  Thefuntheory.com is a site with 3 experiments captured on video that showcase Volkswagen’s efforts to make the world more fun while at the same time... [Read more]

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