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One of the essential parts of the event's pre-production is selecting the event's theme. The theme plays a vital role in the planning and delivery of the events. It sets the tone and flow of the event and creates a long-lasting impression.
A correct theme and concept will help your planning and keeps the message & output clear, understand the audience's needs and drive audience engagement while delivering the event and business objectives.
The theme will assist in the selection of tone, colour, lighting, event agenda, event content, marketing direction, and engagement features in line with your business branding.
So, event themes can be defined as the one central big idea consisting of a creative concept and simply represented by a clear and concise tagline.
Why having a theme is important?
1. Themes ensure unity and connectivity
The fundamental purpose of the event theme is to anchor your communication and reflect on the event objectives. Be it a virtual annual meeting, virtual product launch, virtual inauguration, a virtual trade show, a gala etc., - each event will have its own objectives, and the theme should reflect upon those event objectives along with brand objectives and unity theme. As a whole, an event theme should reflect the event's purpose and embody its host's brand.
As the theme acts as the central idea, other planning will happen around it and save a lot of time. It also helps the participants identify the event's core subject and what they can expect to learn, train or be entertained. A theme lets the event planners make better choices of communication tools, content and media, and it helps to channelise event needs better, which in the end brings in better ROI.
2. Themes attract and persuade
A perfectly chosen theme according to the interests of the target audience can create a buzz among them. And when the event agenda and activities are well adapted to the theme and objects of the events, the target audience will likely to be promoted with their peers and social circles. It is a great promotional and marketing effort.
Build a strong social media and email marketing strategy where people can know what exactly they can expect from the event. Build anticipation in the first phase of the promotions and then steadily reveal the activities, guests and other interesting elements in your event.
3. Themes help in bringing focus
As mentioned earlier, themes are the central idea on which the entire event will be built. It will help the organisers grounded in the selected tone, content and communication methods instead of going into a broad research and selection process for every feature in the event.
Themes influence every part of the event space from branding, tagline, marketing strategy, virtual event platform, communication media, event activities, gamification elements, networking features, expert sessions and guests, lighting, tone and flow of the event.
A carefully chosen theme conveys the objectives of the event in an interesting and entertaining way and ensures that the participants gather around a common idea, network, learn and have fun. A perfect team will facilitate the organisers, sponsors and other backend partners with better networking, lead generation, learning and ROI.
But to achieve all these, you need an impeccable theme that will build excitement, interest, and audience attention and enhance engagement. Here are the three essential tips that will help you choose the best theme for your event.
3 tips for deciding virtual event theme
1. Tailor it around your audience
The audience demographics are the primary component on which a virtual event theme is selected. So the first step towards event planning is defining the target audience and demographics you want to work with. And then, you need to understand their needs and interests to build a theme around it.
You can conduct surveys, post polls on social media or use any other third-party sources to study your audience. You can include a sample audience group in brainstorming sessions to understand them better and get their feedback. You must also know the latest trends and arrive at the best theme.
2. Consistency is essential
As mentioned before, an event theme is the one central idea upon which the entire event will be built on. So, while choosing the theme, make sure the theme you choose will have scope for running a whole event on it and is aligned with your brand.
For example, if you are a maternity lifestyle brand and you are organising an event for new parents, your theme should roam around post-pregnancy or postpartum issues or topics. And for instance, if your event theme is on raising awareness of postpartum depression along with the launch of your postpartum yoga classes - you need to organise every section of the event related to them.
So the communication, media, content and other features in pre-production, on the event day, and post-event communication should be consistent and aligned to the theme. All the marketing plans, emails, invites, and social media communication much be consistent and aligned with the event theme.
3. Aligned with your branding
Ensure your event theme is aligned with your brand identity and objectives and further help build brand awareness. You have to pay details and consider what your event audience needs to know and feel about your brand and its product/services. Use your brand’s core values, vision & missions, goals and objectives as your main base to select the theme. Brainstorm core concepts and taglines around them, and create sample event agenda. Choose the theme that evenly carries your brand values and audience interest, and go ahead with that.
Summing up
Remember, the virtual event theme is the central idea to all the aspects of your event in its all stages. Use it as a driving force to build brand awareness, provide a fun and enriching attendee experience and attain the best ROI. When planning, researching and brainstorming, include a sample audience and other common members to arrive at a perfect theme that your target audience will love to participate in and have fun with.
Wiz365 is an intelligent, all-in-one virtual event platform with all the necessary features that will make the event engaging and memorable to the audience. If you are looking for more in-depth advice on virtual event planning or need support in organising your next virtual event, don’t hesitate to contact us!
