So, I love organising events. I always have. This is not to say, as a marketer, everything is plain sailing. Far from it. Getting the team to agree on an overall theme or message can be, let’s say, challenging. The message dictates everything from graphics on a shell scheme to promotional items and everything in between. Don’t get me wrong, the result is always good in the end. But the build-up can be stressful, to say the least.
Recently I’ve been planning for the Technology for Marketing event at the London Olympia. This is the first time we’ve exhibited here and the pressure was on! Product launch, new messaging, new product branding. You can imagine my excitement and anxiousness by this.
As most marketers will be thinking – we need roller banners.
The theme – “Conquer your Marketing Mountain with Branded Document Automation” I was pretty happy with the title. As a team, we came together to try and think of what we wanted them to say based on our mountain theme. The brief went over to our designer.
A week passed, and they were ready. The big reveal! But instead of ooh’s and aah’s, everyone was a bit underwhelmed. Not what a marketer wants to see. So, I sat back down and thought of a new message and a different design brief. Passed this back to the designer and kept my fingers crossed.
By now a couple of weeks have passed and the countdown to the event was rapidly approaching. Fingernails are getting shorter and hair is showing signs of greying. (Okay it wasn’t that bad, but I was pretty nervous) The design came back and still, not everyone was happy! I am sure you can imagine my face by this point.
Not to be deterred, however – we tried again, and on the third attempt – victory! The team were happy.
You know what struck me? How much easier would it have been if a banner template was on our software? The frustrating thing wasn’t even about the different reiterations, that’s normal. It was just the constant to and fro.
If we had created a few different generic banner templates, that our designer could create once – ensuring measurements and placements were aligned. This could then be passed over to me, or, anyone else for that matter, to customise. All I’d have to do is pick my template option – Do I want my logo at the top, the message in the middle, one large picture that I can upload myself, areas for smaller pictures. Whatever it may be. How much of the designer’s time and my time would I have saved if this had been implemented sooner? How much money would have been saved?
By creating a responsive template, any amendments that needed to be made, I could just crack on and do. If it was a question of the messaging needed re-working, or the picture needed changing, rather than relying on design to do these tweaks, I could be the one to take control for a much quicker turnaround.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! But now we can pass this learning on to you. We’ve improved our processes and now so can you!