How Apples iAd Platform Will Transform Mobile Event Advertising

Event Advertising has increasingly struggled in the past few years to capitalise on online opportunities and interaction. Long gone are the days when magazine advertisements alone can generate the level of promotion and excitement that are needed to get the online communities buzzing about an event. Since then we have quickly moved from desktop search, to using Smartphones, and then mobile apps. The growth of apps has been phenomenal, with Apple announcing yesterday they having surpassed the 4 billion mark for apps downloaded. This provides a tantalising market for anyone looking to broadcast their event to a sizeable growing audience right from their mobile device.

Previous attempts at online event advertising centred on using expensive banner advertisement placement on specialist websites, or running Google AdWords campaigns; but neither were able to adequately communicate all the essential information that would convince attendees to register.

Step forward Apple iAd. Yesterday Apple boss Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iAds platform which is looking to add ‘emotion’ into online mobile advertisements. From what we saw at the press launch, Apple iAds has the ability to take event marketing to a whole new level. Once launched the platform will allow app developers to provide advertisement space within their free apps, to effectively monetise them without the user having to spend a penny. With the figures that were released yesterday, this is prime real estate for advertisers to get their hands on.

The real game changer is the way these advertisements are displayed. For instance, imagine somebody using the Yelp app from their iPhone. Sensing a users search for local events within Yelp, an advert appears unobtrusively at the bottom of the app for your event. When the user clicks on the add, a pop up appears with the full page advertisement, giving options to view videos from last year’s event, check out speaker bios, see local accommodation, and most importantly the ability to register for the event. This level of interaction not only gives the user an experience that was never before possible, but will also create an instant connection with the event that would not of been capable with traditional advertising.

As has been seen with many Apple products before, imitation is the highest form of flattery. So it will be no surprise if this level of advert interaction is soon the norm for all online advertising, especially Google AdWords.

The cost of using the new platform is not clear yet, but one thing is for sure, we are moving into a new online advertising era that can be filled with creativity and revolutionary brand interaction and there is no reason why the events world cannot be a part of it.

To see Steve Jobs talking launching the iAd Platform, take a look at the video below.

EventElephant Now Offer Instant Payments For Organisers Through PayPal

Here at EventElephant we understand that sometimes it’s necessary for our event organisers to receive payment for their ticket sales in real time to relieve some of the economic pressures of event organisation. Well, we have put our thinking caps on and are happy to announce that EventElephant can now offer real time payments to PayPal accounts, meaning you do not have to wait until your event has ended to receive your funds!

This new functionality from EventElephant means that as soon as an attendee makes a booking using a credit/ debit card, the funds will be transferred to your PayPal account, ready for you to withdraw.

To take advantage of this new feature from EventElephant, all we ask is that you have a PayPal merchant account. If you would like more information on how to set up a PayPal merchant account you can find more information on their website here. PayPal is as fast, safe and secure as using EventElephant, and is the easiest way for you to receive the funds for all of your events.

We keep our ear to the ground and listen to our organisers needs at all times, and this is a new step in making your life easier, after all EventElephant are an event organiser’s best friend!

EventElephant Win Best Innovative Start-Up through Digital Enterprise Award

We are extremely happy to announce that EventElephant has won the Best Innovative Start-Up through Digital Enterprise award at the Digital Media Awards 2010. A big thank you to the judges who voted for us, and a very well done to the RateMyArea who took Gold, and RAIC Productions who took Silver in our category.

EventElephant won the award for being one of the most innovative and successful start-ups in Ireland with their online event registration product. EventElephant is a revolutionary product for the event sector, which makes it easy for event organisers to plan, organise and manage their events and their attendees online.

“We’re honored to receive this award,” said Eamon O’Brien, CEO of EventElephant. “We were ecstatic at our nomination, and to win is even better, and in such a competitive category is outstanding. It has been a great year for EventElephant and we are only getting better as this award proves".

The Satellite Broadband Ireland Digital Media Awards 2010 took place on 25th February in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Northwood. The industry gathered for these prestigious awards that recognise and reward excellence by showcasing projects, companies and organisations who produce the most stylish, creative and pioneering work in the digital media sector.

With a record number attendees at this year's ceremony, the atmosphere was electric! The MC for the night was Ray Foley with Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for Communication, Energy & Natural Resources as the Guest of Honour.

Keep an eye on the EventElephant Facebook page for photos from the night...coming soon!

Hats on for Haiti Day

The disaster in Haiti is almost beyond our comprehension, with official estimates now putting the death toll at up to 200,000 people. For those who are left behind, there are acute shortages of shelter, food and water, as well as the real danger of widespread disease to contend with. International aid agencies and governments are doing their best to help, but many are already branding the Haiti earthquake as the worst disaster they have ever encountered. They desperately need funds to try to alleviate the cataclysmic suffering being endured by the millions of people in the quake zone.

But EventElephant, along with the support of the Irish Red Cross have found a way for you to use your head to help Haiti - wear a hat to show your support!

Hats on for Haiti Day is supporting the International Red Cross Charities, and all donations collected by the Irish Red Cross will go directly to the International Red Cross' relief work in Haiti.

So what is Hats on for Haiti Day? It's very simple. In order to raise desperately needed funds for the human disaster in Haiti and to show your support for the efforts being made to alleviate the suffering, we are organising a Hats on for Haiti Day on Friday February 5th. To participate, simply click here to register and make your donation, and then wear a hat of your choice for the day (with the agreement of your boss, teacher, responsible adult, irresponsible adult...).

You can have a hat day at school or at work, or organise a hat party with some friends. If you wear a hat for work, perhaps you could customise it for the day to show your support for the Hats on for Haiti day. The only limit to what you can do is your head!

EventElephant Special Offer For Our Twitter Followers

If you are a complete newbie to Twitter, or indeed an avid user, you will want to hear about the latest deal from EventElephant.

@EventElephant on Twitter is the best place to keep up to date with all the latest offers, promotions and news from EventElephant. We have weekly blog updates, as well as great offers that are for our Twitter community only.

As this week’s special offer, we are offering a 10% discount on all event fees for anybody that follows us and tweets the message;

‘I have organised my event with @EventElephant’

If you tweet this message we will send you a reply with your promotional code, entitling you to your 10% discount. If you are already following EventElephant, tweeting the message will entitle you to a 10% discount on your next event.

Hurry though as this offer will only last until the end of the week!

You can follow EventElephant by clicking here. Happy tweeting!

EventElephant Receive Nomination for Best Innovative Start-Up

EventElephant are proud to announce their nomination for Best Innovative Start-Up at the Digital Media Awards 2010. EventElephant has grown in leaps and bounds since its launch just a year ago and this has never been more evident than through this recent nomination.

On Thursday 25th of February 2010 the industry will assemble at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry to honour this year’s winners. The annual Digital Media Awards will present awards in 21 categories, to the companies, people and organisations producing the most stylish, creative and pioneering work in their field.

EventElephant were included in the nominations for being one of the most innovative and successful start-ups in Ireland with their online event registration product. EventElephant is a revolutionary product for the event sector, which makes it easy for event organisers to plan, organise and manage their events and their attendees online.

The Digital Media Awards are granted at three levels. Entries that receive the highest average score from the judges within that category are awarded the ‘Best in Industry’ Digital Media Award and will receive a personalised trophy. The remaining entries will then be judged with the top two receiving gold and silver certificates. These winners will receive a personalised certificate of achievement.

Eamon O’Brien, CEO said "We are ecstatic at our nomination and the recognition these prestigious awards give our company. It has been a great year for EventElephant and we are only getting better as this award nomination proves".

All our fingers are crossed for the ceremony in February, and we will let you know the result as soon as we do!

How to Plan and Promote Your Small Event

So you have got a good idea for an event. That’s great but how do you make it happen, and most importantly a success? Amazingly the same rules apply if you are organising an international conference for 2000 attendees, or a charity bake sale in the local church hall. The keywords you have to remember are Plan, Promote and Communicate. I will now take you through the best way to organise and promote your small event while trying to keep the budget down and attendance numbers high.


Plan
This may seem rather obvious but one of the key ingredients to a successful event is good planning. Leaving things to the last minute will always result in complications and puts all your hard work in potential jeopardy. Make sure you start organising your event in adequate time, after all you will want to let your attendees know about it as soon as possible so they can add it in to their diaries.

Once you know the logistics of the event i.e. venue, theme, capacities and guest list you need to start thinking about compiling all the information for your attendees. A great way to do this is to use an event registration website from EventElephant. This website will allow you to add all the vital information about the event such as the where’s and when’s, and crucially it will also allow people to RSVP/ buy tickets. To view an example of an event registration website click here.

You now have a launch base for the event, the next thing you need to do is promote, promote, promote.

Promote
Demanding attention will get your event noticed, and will make more people want to attend. The only way to do this is through efficient promotion. Event promotion doesn’t have to cost the world and can often be done for free by using tools that I will go through now.

Now that you have your event registration website, there are many inherent tools available within the system that will get your event off the ground. The basic first step is invitations. Choosing a method in which to invite your attendees will completely depend on the type of event you are organising. Use the email invitation functionality within the system to instantly share your event with your contacts list. This is the cheapest and easiest way to direct your attendees towards your registration website but if you decide that good old fashioned paper invitations is the way to go try using one of these MyGatsby, MyExpression or BallisticBlue.

Another great tool to use is social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Adding your event to these sites will give your event much greater visibility. It couldn’t be simpler to do and can instantly be performed from your event registration website by clicking the ‘Share This’ button. This will then send a link to all your social networking pages in one go, making the event visible to your whole networking group. This is a great tool to use if you don’t have the contact details for all of the people you would like to invite.

Communicate
Event promotion doesn’t stop after the invitations have been sent out; in fact this is where it really starts. Invitations allow people to say whether they are going to be attending or not, so your job now is to get the people who accepted excited about the event. This should be an ongoing process and should last right up until the day of the event.

You can communicate with your attendees through many channels. Make sure you add any updates to your event registration website, this will let all attendees know any new information and will keep them fully up to date. You should also be talking about your event on social networking websites, this allows people to talk back to you and in turn will build more ‘buzz’ for the event. For more information on this read my blog ‘Using Twitter Hashtags to Promote Your Event’.

This two way communication can now stretch into a multi way communication as your event attendee’s talk between themselves about the event. In doing this the event starts promoting itself as more people will hear about it, and in turn may also encourage them to sign up themselves. Make sure you keep an eye on all of these communication activities though as you will want to respond to any queries people may have about the event. A good way to do this is to use tools such as TweetDeck or Google Alerts.

These are great first steps to get you on your way to planning and promoting your new event.

Please feel to comment if you have any further suggestions.