Ever enjoy the success of a well executed customer event? How about one with 10,000 people?
Last week, my wife dragged me to Nike’s Run Hit Remix, a five mile fun run that had over 10,000 participants. As I enjoyed the pre-race atmosphere, noticing the banners, the booths, and the apparel, I suddenly realized this was very different from the typical 5k charity race. We weren’t running to fight cancer. This was a Nike event; a customer event; and it was an incredibly successful one.
So what can we learn from this event to help our own business? As I sipped my beer, (5 kilometers I’ll do, 5 miles is a different story) I came up with eight truths to hosting a successful customer event.
1. Know Your Target Demographic
Nike targeted, what I’ll call, the youthful adult running demographic (runners ages 21-35) and built the entire event around these people. The bands they booked, the food they served, the time of the event, it all seemed to mesh perfectly with the demographic. Their strategy banked on answering the question, “How do we get 10,000 of these people in the same place and leave them with a positive experience?”. It worked.
Who are your customers? Keeping that group in mind is key in yielding success.
2. Make it Spectacular
Nike didn’t stop at making a small event for their customers. They made their event spectacular. Lake Shore Drive, a major city street, was completely shut down. The route snaked by major city landmarks, Solider Field, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Shedd Aquarium. Most spectacular of all, every mile marker had a different cover band playing at it. Finishing racers, in between trying to catch their breath, exclaimed, “That was awesome!”
What will really wow your customers? There’s a big difference between event attendance and utter astonishment.
3. Promote it Well
You must have people at your event, and Nike spread the word well. They used some standard radio and print advertisement, but their most successful promotions seemed to work through running groups and word of mouth. Nike had a spectacular event, once the word got out, they didn’t need to do any further work to promote it.
How will you get people to attend? Non-traditional methods can often be more effective.
4. Invite Prospects Too
The nature of the event pretty much guaranteed that prospects as well as customers would be attending. I saw all kinds of shoes that night: Nike, Adidas, Reeboks, New Balance etc… Some people are afraid to invite prospects to customer events, but it is one of the best ways to close a deal.
Not surprisingly, people at the event talked to each other about their shoes. When a woman complained about how she needed new shoes, four friends volunteered honest reviews about their own shoes. If you believe in your product or service, you should trust in your customers to talk well about it.
Are you inviting your prospects? Positive reviews are always more credible when coming from current customers.
5. Collect Information to Build Your Marketing List
Nike did a great job of collecting information for later marketing efforts. Do you want pictures of the event? Details of upcoming races? Runners quickly signed up for these offers in exchange for accepting marketing messages at a later date. Nike now has a list of event attendees to target when there’s a promotion on the latest running shoe.
What makes your customers readily accept marketing messages? Customers are more likely to read mail they ask to receive.
6. Offer a Taste to Leave Them Wanting More
The best product placement Nike pulled off was in the race giveaway shirt. Rather than the typical poly-cotton blend t-shirt, Nike printed your race number on its New Tempo Short-Sleeved Top with Dri-FIT properties. 10,000 people were forced to use this new Dri-FIT shirt. How many of those had considered purchasing a running shirt that would wick away sweat, but didn’t because they lacked confidence in the technology. Providing a taste eliminated any future hesitation for these customers.
What can you offer customers a taste of? People love to try and buy.
7. Bring in Partners for Support
You can always use help from your friends. Bringing in good partners can enhance the event, build good brand association, and defray costs. At this event, Nike was definitely the lead brand, but there was also a tent for Goose Island Beer, Robinson’s #1 Ribs, and Gatorade. Nike received a sponsorship fee, but all these partners added value to the event. After a typical race, most people go home. In this case, most people stayed to drink at the Goose Island tent, eat at Robinson’s, and re-hydrate with Gatorade.
Who would your customers love to see at your event? Good partners always add value to an event.
8. Show Off Your Product
I’m a big proponent that every marketing activity should eventually lead to sales. Yes, building brand awareness and customer goodwill is important, but if it doesn’t eventually contribute to the bottom line, it’s not effective. Following this theory, your product or service should be featured somewhere during the event. Nike nailed this.
When reading the brochure, I was excited to see that Nike was offering a chance to try out their latest shoes and other athletic gear. It sounded like a smart idea, but with a beer tent and ribs station yards away, I couldn’t imagine a lot of people would line up to try on shoes. I was really wrong. There must have been a line of 200 people waiting to see the latest Nike products. When I walked by 30 minutes later those 200 had been replaced by another 200.
I learned that customers enjoying your products or services really want to see your latest offering. This holds true even when beer and ribs are in visible sight.
Do you have something new to offer customers? They want to see it.
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