When in the event business, why not host your own?

THE CHALLENGE

While working at The Falls Event Center, I was presented with some very challenging issues and needed to invent way to substantially increase revenue without increasing my budget. The Falls had 8 event venues across the Western U.S. with 14 buildings to host events in. A couple of times a year we were paying a large amount of our budget to purchase booths at large wedding shows in each of the locations. These events brought us some leads but typically did not produce valuable leads that actually booked the venues. 

OUR APPROACH

After many brainstorming sessions and lots of coffee we had come to a consensus, why were we paying other venues to attend their bridal shows when we could hold our own? Thus our Bridal Showcases were born! We created a niche in the market so the Showcases were marketed as smaller, more intimate wedding shows where attendees would get as much one-on-one time with the vendors as they needed. If you've ever been to a large convention center wedding show, you know that it can be crazy.

Top Wedding vendors in each city were contacted offering them the opportunity to have a booth at the Showcases. Initially vendors were offered a free booth in order to get these events launched. The first launch was such a hit, that we eventually started charging booth rental fees. Vendors participating became our local influencers and marketed the events for us. They used their own social media accounts to advertise and also invited their own clients.

Printed invitations were mailed to all prospective clients and existing clients, in addition to personalized email invites. Targeted social ads were created pointing to unique landing pages designed specifically for these events. Sales people delivered collateral at local bridal shops, tuxedo rental shops, florist and other wedding related businesses.

By doing more of a grass roots marketing approach focusing on local business and clients, these events were very successful. We created a very personal experience that really went over well with the people that attended. The customers felt taken care of. Not only did these showcases increase our leads and bookings by 10%, over just attending larger bridal shows, we were increasing our revenue with booth rentals.