One of the most important responsibilities of a marketer is to get peoples’ attention. To influence behavior, you must first create awareness. Your audience needs to know what you want them to do, how they can do it, why they should do it, where they can do it, when they can do it and, most importantly, what’s in it for them.
That’s a lot of information to convey in a short period of time.
When it comes to meetings and incentive programs, the way to draw people in quickly is with a creative theme. When people see a good theme for the first time, it piques their interest and makes them want to learn more. If the information they learn is valuable, they will respond to subsequent messages more readily. The theme acts like a code: it quickly positions a message so the audience understands what it’s about before they read it.
Calling your meeting the “2010 Sales Training Meeting” may be descriptive, but it’s not inspirational or even interesting. A creative theme will influence the way people think about that meeting. A theme like “Winning with Wisdom” will surely do more to create a positive first impression—and help people see how they will benefit from attending.
A good theme provides a platform for the look and feel of the meeting or incentive communications materials. It can also suggest content. Using the example above, a theme based on the concepts of winning and wisdom could lead to the creation of competitions based on mastering training concepts, with awards for the winners. It could lead to the presentation of case studies of successful companies who have used training to create a strategic advantage over their rivals. Or it could lead to the selection of a speaker whose bio aligns with the theme.
A good theme will help you create awareness of your meeting or incentive program—and help you generate great ideas for its execution. In addition, the theme will make the meeting or program memorable well into the future.
Work with your marketing agency to help you create your theme and weave it into your meeting, event or program. You’ll get a different perspective on your challenge. And you’ll wind up with a better, more focused value proposition which in turn will lead to higher levels of attendance and participation.
Get your theme on!
