Digital marketing is a constantly evolving area of study; it not only has shaped individual businesses, but also industries. Having prior focused marketing positions in the retail industry, I learned to appreciate the importance of marketing in a fast-paced and constantly evolving environment. Although I enjoyed working in retail, I felt my skills were not being utilised to their full potential.
I realised that this lack of fulfillment came from a lack of drive and meaning. I wanted to use my skills to better help bring people joy and meaning. When looking back on my past accomplishments, my greatest moments of achievement stemmed from when I was working for a non-profit event management company (that fed thousands of starving children around the world) and working for a leading men's contemporary trade show company in New York City.
Working in event marketing and PR not only gives me a sense of purpose, but it is also in dire need of digital marketing. As brands and events are continuously becoming more humanised, it is vital for companies to adapt to digital trends in order to become/remain successful, especially in the event management sector. For example, there are more music festivals today than ever before. Many of these festivals even have many of the same headliners. In order to differentiate one festival from another, each music festival must carefully cultivate its own brand identity and social platform. They must offer a bundle of benefits that are unique to the one event. Instead of selling tickets to a concert, they are selling an unforgettable experience. These events rely heavily on marketers to properly brand the events in such a way.
Although digital marketing is very important for retail as well, the techniques and final goals differ. Traditional economists might argue that both industries have the same end goal to ultimately generate revenue. However, event management focuses more on creating an experience as the main selling point, where retail is a bit more focused on direct sales. It is also argued that events need to create a stronger social platform, as their users act more as a community then other industries. There also is a paradigm shift, where many of the event goers (especially among the millennial age group) want to feel as though they came across specific events themselves and they are not being advertised to them. It is creating, ultimately, a very interesting digital marketing dilemma, that fascinates me.
Although I had prior experience in event management and PR, as well as bachelor's degrees from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in Marketing and Finance, Investment and Banking, I understood that I needed more knowledge to best integrate this growing digital world into the entertainment event industry. Upon this discovery, I decided to pursue a Master's Degree in Digital Marketing Strategy at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
By integrating my prior, more traditional, marketing knowledge and experience with my newly developed digital marketing skill set, I will be providing weekly blog posts regarding digital marketing and event management (particularly in the music and music festival industries) to better tackle and divulge my personal understanding and theories revolving around new marketing trends in the event industry.