Northstar

FEATURE | BRANDING 40 Jul-Aug 2016 meetings & conventions • mcmag-asia.com based in Washington, D.C. "The most successful brand experiences today disrupt the traditional model and tap into the deep-rooted need for audiences to connect on multiple levels via virtual and instant communities," he says. One group that radically changed its traditional show model is the Direct Marketing Association. The organisation unveiled a completely new show in October in Boston, under a new name, "&THEN, a DMA Event." "We literally blew up the old event," says Lindsay Hutter, senior vice president of communications for DMA. The rebranding began with a survey of members to identify their needs as marketers, and also targeted those who had stopped coming to the annual show and those who had never attended. "The initial insight was that the new event needed to be for and about the marketing industry, and not for and about DMA," says Hutter. "And it needed to speak to the new generation of marketers we call GenD, who are data-driven and focused on creating demand with a capital D." To design &THEN, DMA invited a diverse group of marketers. Armed with the association's research, they developed the layout and content for the refreshed event. For starters, they did away with all the ho-hum speeches from the association's leaders, as well as all awards and recognition ceremonies. Next, they went the nontraditional route and hired CNN contributor and syndicated talk show host Mel Robbins to emcee each day's keynote sessions, which included nonmarketing executives like Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms, a Maine shoe company that has donated 35 million pairs of shoes to needy children around the world over the past 10 years. The overhaul extended to the exhibit floor: A central area called The Hub provided a networking forum for attendees to connect, while the Hot Zone featured a Shark Tank-style competition for young advertising- and marketing-tech firms, during which half a dozen judges from Facebook and other leading companies doled out cash prizes of up to $25,000. DMA's new strategy also included leveraging the brand power of its speakers, from the likes of Adobe, Oracle and the Harvard Business School, across multiple social media Hashtags are not just Twitter's domain anymore. With its ability to generate discussion among individuals and entire groups who bond over a topic or event, this onetime curiosity of a symbol practically has morphed into social media wallpaper. And that makes it a simple yet powerful tool in any branding strategy, says K.C. Hopson, CMP, founder, president and chief executive officer of Baltimore-based EventRebels (eventrebels.com), an event software company founded in 2000. "You need to think about what the event's hashtag will be while you are branding the event, and not treat it as an afterthought," he advises. Hopson offers the following tips on making the hashtag the cornerstone of an event's social media branding effort. # Choose your hashtag carefully. It should be an easy one to remember, easy to type and less than 10 characters. # Search Twitter to make sure your hashtag isn't already in use. # Avoid hyphens or special characters, and anything that can be misconstrued, such as a profane text-messaging acronym. # Keep it relevant to the event, and remember that hashtags are not case sensitive, so you can play around with capitalisation effects for branding purposes. # For annual events, consider adding the year to differentiate between them. However, because the hashtag needs to be typed quickly, use only the last two digits of the year (for example, #ABC15 not #ABC2015). # Advertise your hashtag on signage and templates, and begin posting the official hashtag before the event, so attendees can get involved in creating an early online buzz. # If your industry has a popular hashtag (such as #eventprofs for meeting professionals), include it in your Tweets. There's no rule that says you can't use more than one hashtag, and this way you will reach a greater audience — and perhaps attract future attendees. — C.A.S. Hashing Out the Hashtag # From top: CIC's lounge-style buffet at this year's IMEX America; Craft beverages and specialty foods are new features of the Texas Restaurant Association's annual trade show

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