By Samantha Filipi

When thinking about marketing, most of the time people think of seeing a digital advertisement or a certain social media post. However, there are other ways to create awareness and lift engagement, which is through event marketing. It is one of the best tools to engage individuals and bring them together for a certain reason.

I work as an events intern for the University of New Hampshire’s Paul College, and through my involvement in the Marketing and Advertising Club, I hold the position of Director of Events. So, you could say I enjoy event marketing!

MAC SMAC: The Summit For Marketing and Advertising Careers

One of my biggest assignments this year with UNH’s American Marketing Association Chapter and MAC was planning and executing MAC SMAC. The Summit for Marketing and Advertising Careers is an interactive event that brings students together to explore marketing, advertising, and real-world business challenges in a fun and engaging way. It’s a big mix of networking, competition, and hands-on learning, giving attendees a feel for the industry, and if they can see a potential future in it. It also helps students learn more about student organizations available for them to join and how our club would be a great fit for them. But an event is only successful if people attend, so marketing MAC SMAC effectively was key for us as students. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how we used marketing to make this event a success.

Marketing Strategies

As a team we wanted to create a brand experience that made people want to attend this event, so we had built excitement and boosted participation within the students of UNH. Our marketing team executed this by creating various social posts on LinkedIn and Instagram by sharing countdown posts and engaging stories. We made sure students and faculty could find the registration link for the event on all MAC pages as well as UNH Paul college accounts. We also had AMA members post about the event on their personal accounts to boost engagement and for students to see that their peers will also be attending. On each of our posts we used the branded hashtag “#paulpride” that is used on almost every Paul College post, which creates more engagement and reach. Professors also volunteered to advertise our flyer to marketing-specific courses to get students to learn about the opportunities of attending either the Marketing Career Fair or one of the panels offered. This helped with word-of-mouth marketing, especially coming from faculty which can add credibility. We also made sure to hone in on what was being offered. The marketing team made sure to include the possibility of real-world marketing experience offered at the event to show the value of participating, along with mentioning the opportunity to meet industry professionals from strong, reputable brands.

These marketing strategies that we implemented as a team led to one of the best MAC SMAC events yet. We had a great turnout of students and faculty from our advertising efforts. The student engagement was great to witness firsthand, so many attendees actively participated in networking and were a part of attending the keynote and panels held. New students expressed a desire to either join MAC or AMA in the future and would want to learn more about the meetings we have to offer. There was a great load of positive feedback from not only the students who attended, but the faculty who work in the building along with the marketing professionals who took time out of their busy schedules to help be a part of the event. The best part – some attendees and panelists were UNH Alumni – many had reported this event as a “full circle moment”, which was amazing to witness as a student looking for a career post-graduation.

Key Takeaways

As a student actively working in Event Marketing, it is always important to evaluate the lessons learned after the executed event and to look over what went right or wrong.

Overall, there was a lot of positive takeaways from this event. Knowing your audience and how to target them was the main aspect we focused on when advertising for this event, while using digital and social media promotion through Instagram, LinkedIn, and interactive content to build excitement. We also made sure that the event itself was engaging, educational, and fun for students to be a part of.

Having a detailed event flow was critical in order to make sure each part of the day was timely and well done. Everyone that was a part of this conference knew their part being played in the event, and knew when it was happening so there was no confusion. Overall, being organized and having detailed information was an important part of the event planning process that made the day a huge success.

MAC SMAC was a perfect example of how event marketing can create an engaging and memorable experience. By combining strategic promotion, interactive activities, and valuable networking opportunities, we turned the event into something that students wanted to be a part of.

Interested in joining our AMA Chapter?

The American Marketing Association prepares students for real-world marketing scenarios and skills for the workforce. Applications are open NOW until April 11th! Hurry – spots are running out!