Four major trends in event marketing in 2024

This article reviews the representative event marketing in 2023, summarizes the rules from the inside out, provides suggestions for brand marketing in the new year, and is recommended for all marketers to read.

Event marketing may be a piece of news, a celebrity endorsement, or an IP collaboration, which attracts attention and focus through hype.

But what I want to talk about today is not the screen-sweeping spread that is stimulated and superimposed by magical external forces, but the "event" that can accomplish everything by itself.

By observing a year of practical cases, both large and small, we have summarized some common rules behind some seemingly fragmented phenomena, and shared them in writing as a trend guide for brand event marketing in 2024.

1. The ultimate experience awakens instinct

The guiding power of the thousand-year-old Olympic spirit - "Faster, Higher, Stronger" - shows no signs of fading because it mobilizes the innate instincts of human beings.

Awakening instincts and the senses behind them is the iron rule of all marketing.

However, if an event-centered campaign fails to fully tap instincts and emotions, it is easy to spend the budget of the event campaign but only achieve the effect of a lightweight social campaign, and it will soon be overwhelmed.

Being naughty and free, easy-going and empathetic, all seem to express some positive emotions, but they are essentially different, and the difficulty of awakening them is also different.

The strongest emotions expressed through events naturally do not produce the same magnitude of mental impact.

Shiqu Insight Engine: Matrix of 100 major consumer emotions

Meituan’s new in-store live streaming room “Baobatoan” hopes to make a splash as soon as it goes on air.

Therefore, in a series of flash mob shows in the shopping districts, a giant exploding balloon appears in the center of the scene, forming a super visual symbol that makes people unable to take their eyes off. Looking up at the giant balloon makes people feel the carnival brought by the "explosion" firsthand, and the whole venue looks like a large "invitation" from a distance, attracting more people to celebrate.

Meituan's "Baobuotuan" live IP offline flash mob

Allowing events to "go to heaven and earth" can also inspire higher-level spiritual enjoyment.

For example, the clothing brand FILA GOLF "showed off" its brand in high-speed scenes such as helicopter skydiving, sea sailing, and beach golf to show its sense of technology of "controlling the wind". There is also parkour "running" in the subway, like a giant dragon roaring through the crowds in the sky above the city; Markor celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival in the night of the Great Wall, forming a Mid-Autumn Festival spectacle with the "super moon". When you are in it, it is natural to linger.

FILA GOLF x McLAREN joint series summer Hainan flash party

Markor Mid-Autumn Festival Event Marketing

2. Provide true knowledge in the right scenario

Barbecue is available everywhere, and Zibo has become popular; football can be played everywhere, and small villages in Guizhou have become popular; snow falls all over the north, and Erbin has become popular.

If you look closely, you will find that they have one thing in common - first find something that has a broad population base, and then discover one or more rarely explored scenarios. The combination of the two accelerates the growth of curiosity and exploration space.

In addition, the Internet, 5G, short videos, and live broadcasts have made the world very flat, which gives everyone the illusion of "seeing everything and understanding everything", but they can also always sense the "information overload" of the brain, and their concentration and memory are being devoured.

The desire to explore the unknown to the extreme and embrace "true knowledge" is stronger than ever.

Rather than saying that Zibo barbecue and Guizhou Village Supermarket have become unexpectedly popular, it is better to say that people's desire for knowledge has led to the full excavation and discovery of the charm of Zibo barbecue, Guizhou Village Supermarket and the winter "Irbin".

To repeat, first find something that has a broad base of people, then explore one or more under-explored scenarios.

Let’s see how the brand “Yanpai” does it.

Everyone has a negative impression of the harm of microplastics, but is not clear about what this ubiquitous thing can bring. This is something that a broad population has - they only have a limited understanding of the impact of microplastics on health.

Yanpai's [Urban Plastic Man Removal Plan] has found the subtle connection between the impact of "plastic" on health and the mental anxiety caused by "constraint" - being bound by plastic is also being constrained, and passively accepting the fate of becoming "urban plastic man".

When the concept of reducing cognitive difficulty is grafted onto City Walk, which has been popular but not completely popular, a boring biology class is transformed into an aesthetic of "plastic" street behavior created by real people, making the little-known fact of "the harm of microplastics to the human body" a memorable point.

Yanpai Plastic-Removing Probiotics· New Product Launch Integrated Marketing

3. Re-experiencing or predicting the future

Marketing needs resonance, but the basis of resonance is that you have experienced it before, or have the same expectations. Recreate the experience and create a sense of continuity to gain control over the passage of time; or predict the future so that people can fight against the confusion of the pursuit of meaning.

Therefore, reviving the "old era" has become a new direction for events to create traffic.

Technology company Sinocare returned to the "1983 Pager Era" during the New Year season, using the event slogan "Let China's first paging station reopen for business" to cleverly link the "antique" of pagers. This naturally triggered a wave of New Year memories of the 70s/80s and reconnected with the B2B customer base.

Coincidentally, based on its insight into the growing alienation and emotional nostalgia among generations in today’s society, China Resources Sanjiu created the “Uncle San’s Home” event as a creative idea, which revitalized the memories of the “big family” and brought the Sanjiu brand closer to young people.

Sannuo revives "BB machine" in the new year

The home of three uncles built by China Resources Sanjiu

Revitalizing a person or thing is just as appealing as nostalgia.

Mofa Technology, a company in the AI ​​field, wanted to create a "debut" event for the virtual brand manager JING, but it was completed with a cross-time and space dialogue between a boy who is about to get married and his deceased father. In an event that showcases the integration of warmth and technology, the debut of the virtual person JING was remembered.

In addition to looking back at the past, predicting the future to gain a certain degree of certainty in life is also something that everyone hopes for. However, the best way to predict the future is still the past, but this past is a more distant history.

We are constantly taught that everything we experience today was already experienced by our ancestors in ancient times, and that the present is just a repetition of history. Using AI to create an event of dialogue with ancestors and gain a certain a priori experience is believed to be an event scenario for brands to seize minds and traffic.

Mofa Technology's Digital Human Family

Video account @AI.Talk

4. A spiral rhythm

The Maotai and Luckin Coffee-produced Maotai-flavored latte became the joint product of the year.

If we look at it from the perspective of event marketing, we will find that there is a clear chain of questioning rhythm behind the entire marketing, which stimulates coffee, liquor consumers and the general public to observe and experience different aspects of both brands and products.

Is Jiangxiang Latte alcoholic? This has triggered a rush of urbanites to try out the product’s taste.

Can young people afford Moutai? This article draws public attention to Luckin Coffee's evolution from "fruit coffee" to "tea coffee" to "wine coffee" over the years.

The youth-oriented strategy of liquor has inspired new consumer brands to join the trend of creating new products, such as soy sauce-flavored boiled water, soy sauce-flavored hot pot, and soy sauce-flavored xx... emerging in an endless stream.

Is drinking Maotai considered drunk driving? This turns a consumer topic into a social issue that the general public can participate in, providing more opportunities for brand language implantation for ingredient science popularization and social responsibility.

Customize questions for products, brands and society, and then bring them into the communication of products and brands in a spiral rhythm. Events will become as vital as if they have wings and fly a little longer.

Summarize

Awakening instincts and advanced emotions to the extreme, delivering new knowledge through the integration of rarely explored scenes and ordinary things, helping people to re-experience or predict the future, and constantly throwing out discussion topics in a spiral rhythm are the essence behind successful event marketing that "goes out of the circle".

In 2024, we expect more brands to follow the trend of events becoming popular, grasp the essence of events, and do a good job of "event marketing".

Author: Shiqu Research Institute; WeChat public account: Shiqu Research Institute