Are You In The Events Industry? How Venues Can Improve By Acting As Events.

Lots of venues have never admitted they are in the events industry. 

Bars, nightclubs, theme parks, cinemas and restaurants often live their lives believing they are mere members of the entertainment industry. This may be true, but void of the events industry they are not. 

My (and more importantly Google's) definition states an event to be:

e·vent/iˈvent/

Noun:

A thing that happens, esp. one of importance A planned public or social occasion.

Well, if that vague definition is correct then the events industry is even more vast than eventstagram initially imagined.  We fully believe that these so called entertainment industry members host mini events every single day and night.

Lets take a nightclub for example. Each afternoon they prepare their club for the arrival of multiple guests to celebrate a planned important occasion. A restaurant is the same, as is a theme park or a cinema. 

So, if a venue is really an event what can it do to maximise it's marketing:

1. Make each event unique

Technology is a great way to add a new touch each event without having to redecorate the venue each night. Eventstagram's Instagram slideshows are live, and are filled with images from the event attendees. This means each evening the content on the screen is completely unique. 

2. Use social media to attract new customers

Event marketeers are savvy to the huge benefits that great social media marketing can provide their event. Venues need to treat separate events as separate marketing projects. 



Eventstagram's live Instagram slideshows include instruction slides which promote hashtags for events. 

By using these hashtags, the crowd upload their Instagram photos to Instagram and other social media with the name of venues event. 


This gives them a wide social media promotion, and hopefully encourages peers of their current customers to feel as if they have missed out.  

3. Make your venue a brand

Events build their reputation around consistently servicing a niche. Venues can do the same thing. 

'Hypocrite!' I hear you shout, you just told us to market each event differently. 

Now here is the skill. Your venue is a brand that needs to be consistent, but the events you host allow you to change your personality, and focus on a different niche. We can maximise this with our Instagram slideshows. 

The brand of your venue is modern, innovative and fun, so perfectly suited to having live Instagram photos on display. However, one of your events may be a wedding whilst another may be a 21st Birthday party. 

Using our Platinum package we can re-brand the slideshows to allow a quick moving, brightly designed slideshow for a 21st but a professional, smooth running and subtle background for the wedding. 

So remember, your venue isn't just a venue. It's an event organiser, planner and most importantly it's an event marketer. 

Gold, Silver and Bronze; Eventstagr.am Launches It's Product Range

Eventstagrammers, 

Today is a big day for us.

Whilst you have been busy creating some awesome eventstagram slideshows, we have been frantically working on lots of new features.

Here's what we have been up to:

Unlimited Free Trials

We have now made it easier for you to instantly trial a live hashtag with our new demo:

Credits

Eventstagr.am is now operated on a credit system. Each member gets enough credits to run a Bronze slideshow for free and this is automatically renewed each month.

Credits are simple to purchase and once you have enough you will be given instant access to the additional features. For regular eventstagram users we sell them in discounted bundles to make each event even better value. 

Bronze Package

We have replaced the current free slideshows with a Bronze Package. 

Don't worry, this is still free of charge and still playable for 1 hour. But now you can quickly and easily extend the slideshow by adding credits to your account.

Silver Package

Our Silver Package gives you the chance to log in and ban unwanted photos that appear on your slideshow. It lasts for 6 hours and can show up to 1000 photos in our beautiful eventstagram theme. 

This is where your 30 free credits becomes of use - you are now nearly halfway towards gaining access to this package. 

We still have lots more to come and are constantly working on new ways to extend and improve our service. If you have any suggestions or want to ask any questions we would love to hear from you - send us a tweet @eventstagram or an email on info@eventstagr.am.

I hope you are able to give these features a go and that eventstagr.am continues to entertain your guests, transform the backdrop to your event and build your events social media impact, 

Yours,

The Eventstagram Team. 

Live Instagram Photos at Lukes Bar Mitzvah

The Event

Luke Roths Bar Mitzvah was planned and managed by Endless Entertainment. This was no normal Bar Mitzvah and the team at Endless Entertainment took it to the next level to ensure it was a huge success.

One of the major innovations they incorporated was eventstagr.ams live Instagram slideshow. 

The team at Hello Endless have become regular users of the eventstagr.am photo display software, so for this Bar Mitzvah we offered them our prototype 3D cube Instagram slideshow. 

The Hello Endless team cleverly selected a Hashtag that was simple, self promoting and specific to Lukes Bar Mitzvah. 

The feedback was awesome. The team were over the moon with the reaction to the live Instagram photos and they continue to see a rise in their social media exposure from each event. 

The Slideshow

The Instagram slideshow, powered by eventstagr.am, was a 3D cube and was shown on a large projector screen behind the dance floor:

Photo by @mi55_coco

The Instagram Photos



Here are some of our favourite Instagram photos taken during the evening:

Photo by @ jlhfarnham

Photo by  @mi55_coco

Photo by @mckaelenelliot3

Photo by @helloendless

The Testimonial

 'Eventstagr.am was a huge hit once again at our mitzvah. The 3D added a bit of energy as well. We have begun telling all of our clients about it, and they have been going crazy over it!'

Will Curran (President at Endless Entertainment, Youth Entertainment Managers)

Hashtagging: How To Maximise The Exposure Of Your Events Instagram Slideshows

I sometimes reminisce about what life was like without hashtags. 

In years to come will we be telling our grandchildren about the difficulties of life when we couldn't group our social media? About how we had to struggle through a day trying to discover what the world was taking Instagram photos of? And how we had to actually read tweets before we discovered the days breaking news. 

Events around the world are using our live Instagram slideshows to display photos under a specific hashtag. Event managers devise their own hashtag but we want to give them some tips on how to make sure it displays the best Instagram photos, and gives their event or brand the most publicity:

Search     

Before you decide to promote your hashtag take some time to research it. Firstly, type it into Google, see if there is anyone else using it, if it has any other meanings or if your crowd are already talking about it. 

Then do the same thing using hashtags.org, this gives you some great stats on its recent use, related tweets, definitions and alternative hashtags. 

Short

Event managers can promote their hashtag to their crowd using eventstagr.ams live Instagram slideshow. 

Although they can customise the Instruction slide, as well as selecting how often it is shown, hashtags still have to be simple. The best hashtags are short, easy to remember, and even easier to spell. 

Specific

We know that live Instagram slideshows are great tools to engage audiences at any event, from weddings and parties through to conferences and festivals, however the more specific the hashtag the more engaging the content will be on screen, and the more interested the public will be in the tag. 

Subtle

Audi created one of the most successful hashtags in twitter history without mentioning Audi. 

When a persistent Audi fan began tweeting #wantanR8 they decided to turn up at her house and give her the car. They Instagrammed the pictures, videoed the footage and tweeted about it. Not only that but they bought a promoted hashtag on Twitter #wantanR8too and gave away 5 more cars.

#WantAnR8 has received over 100,000,000 impressions. It links directly to Audi without actually mentioning the brand. It's credible, specific to Audi and interesting to users.

It probably doesn't keep everyone awake at nights, but for the team at eventstgr.am the hashtag is an important subject. 

The transformation of the almost obsolete character, into a hip, young and modern tool is fascinating, and event managers need to ensure they maximise the social media potential of their event with a short, subtle and specific hashtag. 

How to Display Instagram Slideshows at Events.

eventstagr.am is a simple web application, so to display your beautiful live Instagram slideshow all you require is a screen, a laptop with the Internet, and people Instagramming their photos. 

We have looked into some of the best ways to spectacle your Instagram slideshow in our 'little guide to big screens at events' :

The Inflatable:

This blow up giant screen can be up and running within an hour. It's flexible, it's lightweight, and storage is easy. For our live Instagram feeds it's versatility makes it perfect. Festivals, concerts and outdoor exhibitions should all consider using this as a simple method for displaying their live Instagram slideshows. 

http://www.bigscreenhire.com.au/screen-rental/inflatable-screen/

The Wallpaper

Using a current landmark or building as a your big screen is an innovative way of displaying any media. Covering it in your crowds Instagram photos gives it an even more impactful and engaging appeal. 

This is a fantastic marketing method for brands that want to using Instagram or other social media as an experiential marketing tool. With eventstagr.ams platinum package we can create customised Instagram slideshows that display your brands logo and messaging along with live Instagram photos tagged under your hashtag. 

We can optimise the slideshow to suit the specifications of the building you want to wallpaper, and help promote the hashtag to crowds or passer-bys.

The Panoramic

Panoramic screens should not just be for landscape pictures. They can offer an amazing wide screen displays for any event. These impressive displays can be great for slideshows, announcements or live video.

Exhibitions can use panoramic screens as professional backings for speakers and presentations, whilst concerts and theatres and can display their imagery across the whole backdrop of their stage. eventstagr.am works with these screens to display live photos streamed from the audiences own Instagram images across the whole panoramic screen. 

Video Walls

LCD video walls are a high quality option for big screen photo slideshows. The seamless screens can be built to any size and specification that you require through Big Screen Media . 

They have an ultra low depth requirement so you can make the most of your display area, and they feature a 6.7mm image gap across bezels, creating a near seamless image. This is perfect for displaying Instagram photos, which will appear in top quality across these video walls.  




Each screen offers varying advantages, but it's important to make sure you look at the needs of each event individually. 

We at eventstagr.am like to do that too, by making sure each of our customers are treated specifically and that our live Instagram slideshows can be customised to fit any screen they want to use. 

Crowd Power - Maximise the Social Media Marketing of Your Event with Instagram Slideshows

Events such as festivals, wedding's, parties and conferences are all real life gatherings of people.

Lots of human beings physically congregating in one place, just like the good old days. But because there are actual people, many of us are guilty of forgetting about the social media marketing potential that these event goers have on their huge virtual networks outside of the venue. 

One of eventstagr.am's key benefits is its potential to increase the social media marketing of any event from parties through to brand experiences and large scale festivals. 

Here are a few ways you could use a live Instagram slideshow to maximise the social media marketing of your live human crowd:

1. Think Outside the Venue

Instagram photo by @soundofconfusion

Once you have your attendees assembled at your event, tickets in hand and enjoying your services, it is very easy to forget about marketing to new customers. 

By using eventstagram's live Instagram slideshow attendees are encouraged to share photos of your event and your specific hashtag on their Instagram network, and most likely on their twitter and facebook pages too. 

By doing this they are spreading their thoughts of the event in real time to their whole network. 

Of course, this makes customer satisfaction even more important. But it means if you get it right, you don't just leave with a crowd of happy customers, you leave with a crowd of happy customers and a network of new customers. 

2. There is No Such Thing as Free Promotion

A tweet from a friend, a like from a colleague or an Instagram image from a customer are all forms of social media promotion for your event, but in general they don't come for free.

Crowds have become more savvy to companies asking you to retweet their news, tag locations, with no benefit for you apart from an unhealthy dollop of new spam.

By using eventstagram you can offer them a reward in exchange for marketing your event on their social media networks. 

For all our live Instagram slideshows the crowd are encouraged by having their photo displayed on the large screen, but eventstagram also can stage photo competitions, spot a star or Where's Wally type treasure hunts to inspire attendees at your event to use your hashtag.

A mock up of how we could have helped Park Live at the Olympics

3. #OneForAll

With a live Instagram slideshow there are instruction slides displayed on the big screens, encouraging your crowd to take Instagram photos but also ensuring that when they do, they use the hashtag that you provide. 

This is key to maximising the social media marketing of your event. 

Our live Instagram slideshows are a way of assembling all the Instagram photos and their varying hashtags that your crowd may have previously been using. With the promotion of a single hashtag (in conjunction with the reward for taking a tagged Instagram photo) the impact of your events social media marketing will be vastly increased.

Remember a physical crowd are not just customers, they are leads to a whole social media network of new customers.So when they are all in one place you should look at innovative ways such as live Instagram slideshows to get them all promoting your event and hashtag. 

Picnics, Music, Instagram Photos and Big Screens - eventstagr.am at Picnic in the Park

The Event

Picnic in the Park is the largest live Music and Dance festival in Hong Kong. With between 10,000 and 15,000 attendees every year, in 2012 they were looking for something special to engage their crowd and grow their social media presence.  

Localiiz, the event organisers, got in contact with the team at eventstagr.am about using a live Instagram slideshow of their crowds photos during their all day event.

We set to work and created them a fully customised and branded Instagram slideshow that could display 4 photos at any one time, with some cool animation to have each photo appear separately. 

We unlocked the approval feature, allowing the organisers to decide on which photos should go up on the big screen, and formatted the slideshow to suit their huge mesh screens, working closely with the team right up until the test day.

The results were incredible, Hong Kong love their Instagram photos, and we saw a huge increase in their social media activity as a direct impact of the instruction slide being displayed on screen. We wanted a cheer-o-meter, as the feedback was every time a new photo was displayed the whole crowd  were screaming and shouting, proving their engagement and interest with the live Instagram feed. 

The Slideshow

Using a giant 5m x 4m mesh screen, live photos were displayed on our customised Instagram slideshow in between live music acts - approximately 30 - 40 times throughout the day:

The Instagram Photos

Here are some of our favourite photos from the Instagram slideshow at the Picnic in The Park festival:

Instagram Photo By @tinydancer2K12

Instagram Photo By @richardcodrun

Instagram Photo By @tinydancer2K12

Instagram Photo By @scottybowl

The Testimonial

  "Eventstagr.am is a classic example of a simple tool that can have a massive impact at an event. We used it at Picnic in the Park (Hong Kong) in front of 10,000+ people, showing it on a 5m x 4m mesh screen behind the stage (it looked fantastic!). Each time photos appeared we heard cheers from the people who took them - the live interaction that it enabled brought a whole new dimension to the day.

The tool itself is incredibly simple to use and the team at Eventstagr.am act as a partner rather than just a service provider. It's such an easy way to get people involved on the day and it also enables an event to go viral as it's happening. Not much more to say other than 'give it a try!' "

Scott Bowler (Digital Marketing Manager at Localiiz who were Digital Media Sponsors of  Picnic in the Park 2012)