Online to Offline: Event Design Tactics That Elevate the Experience

Hagar Brockmann, Creative Director at AppsFlyer, shares her expert advice for designing a cohesive event program with branding that carries through from the digital to the physical world. 

At AppsFlyer, we throw more than 250 events a year — from client mixers to day-long seminars to educational summits like our signature MAMA (Mobile Attribution & Marketing Analytics) event — so, chances are, our design team is working on an event every single day.

As the Creative Director, I own both the offline (swag, signage, etc.) and online (event pages, event promotions, etc.) branding of AppsFlyer. When thinking about designing an event program, the process is similar to promoting any other product or service. Except... 

1. You don’t have anything tangible to show (a product or service).
2. Your ultimate goal is to get someone to physically show up to your event.

Below, I share our team’s tried-and-true best practices for solving these two challenges. This is by no means a formula — since every brand has a different definition of success — but I hope it’ll help get you thinking about the role of thoughtful design in hitting your event goals.

Tableau's very first customer conference in 2008 took place in a hotel conference room and featured 187 guests.

My best piece of advice is to always start at the end, i.e. what do you want your event to achieve? Think about your audience and the action you want them to take. Then, consider this in everything you do — from the event’s design to the content to the on-site experience.

We’ve found it beneficial to always begin the event design process with a kick-off meeting that includes all key stakeholders (internal and external). We use this time to align on the goals and expectations for the event and on how everything will be branded — from the email invites to the coffee cups.

Here’s who to consider including to ensure you’re on the same page:

1) Your marketing or event team: before my team starts designing, our first step is to always gain an understanding of the overall strategy around the event. What is the goal or metrics? Who is the audience? What action do you want them to take? What value will the attendees get out of this? Are there promotions (social, email, etc.) planned for it?

2) Partners or sponsors: many of the events at AppsFlyer are joint efforts with other companies, which adds an extra layer to the way we design our assets since we have to coordinate with — and be sensitive to — multiple brands. How do your event’s stakeholders (for example, any guest speakers or vendors) and partners want to be represented? Do they have any specific branding requirements on their end?

Here’s the truth: people are busy and have a lot of choices about how they spend their time. So when you build an event, you also have to create a compelling case to get someone to actually step away from their everyday life and commit to attending.

So when it comes to events, while you may not have anything really tangible to show, there’s always something that will attract a guest. Focus on the most attractive part and create a key visual around it.

If the event is a mixer, happy hour, or party, focus on the: 

• Fun people attending

• Quality of the food and cocktails

• Uniqueness of the location

• Exciting entertainment

For an educational event, the benefits are naturally about what a guest is going to learn. Some good things to highlight include:

• Profile of the speakers and what guests will be learning

• Key topics on the agenda

• Value of the ideas that will be shared

• The positive impact that attending could have on their career

Here’s a real-life example: for our client mixer in Los Angeles, we had nothing to promote content-wise. But, since the event was hosted at a Mexican restaurant with a “Día de los Muertos” theme, we focused our event page design on the same theme.

Remember: there is always something that will attract your guests.

It’s also important to mention that different aspects of an event may appeal to different prospective guests. If you highlight enough attributes that make your event special, there should be something that everyone — from foodies to music lovers to business professionals — will find attractive.

Tip: Adding a GIF or simple animation to your event page is a great way to evoke feelings on your event page in a dynamic way (and several feelings at the same time). 

When I begin working on an event, I like to create two or three key visuals that will serve as the foundation of our design — that way we ensure the event’s brand and message are consistent across every offline and online asset.

Once these visuals are approved, we leverage them across all event components, and adapt or add to them as needed. Creating these distinct visuals allows us to do three crucial things: (1) reuse components on multiple occasions, (2) build standalone event pages that have their own unique look-and-feel but are still on-brand, and (3) create a full-on 360 experience for our guests.

Tip: Use your event communications to tell a story over time — don’t give everything away in that first email. Reserve some elements for the event page and save a few surprises for people when they land on the page.

Here’s a real-life example: the theme for our MAMA Sonoma event was “Mobile All-Stars,” where we spotlighted our guests.

Along with the theme, we gave out Converse All Star shoes with the event logo on them.

We created stars on the pavement with our guests’ logos.

And it didn’t stop there. Two weeks after the event, our guests got a custom jersey with the event’s logo and the guest’s name on it:

No matter your event’s goal, your number one mission leading up to it is to get people in the room. And so, your event page needs to be the perfect marketing product: informative, creative, engaging, and yes, FOMO-inducing.

You want to make your event page so enticing that guests won’t just want to attend — but that they’ll feel like they’d be missing out on an incredible experience if they didn’t.

In the end, the event page is one of the biggest factors in whether or not people will step away from their regular schedules and make a commitment to show up. It should generate a sense of urgency that makes it clear that if someone doesn’t register and attend, they’ll be missing out.

One of the biggest mistakes designers make is to base decisions on their own preferences and perspectives.

Don’t let yourself fall into that trap: always think like a good host who puts their guests first, and try to put yourself in their shoes. You want to really think about what will resonate with your target audience and get them excited about your event.