How to Build a Paid Event Strategy in Washington, D.C.
How do you break through? That’s the question on the minds of so many advertisers vying for attention in a fractured and competitive media landscape. With so much information coming at us, we are all distracted. Even movies are now optimized for viewers who are spending at least a chunk of that 90 minutes on their phones.
In DC, sponsoring in-person events is an impactful solution to break through. They’re immersive and built to work with attendees’ busy schedules, offering them speakers or topics that get them out of their phones and paying attention to the conversation–right where advertisers want them to be. These events are typically extremely relevant, brand safe and optimized for their audience, while also providing an immersive experience for the advertising touchpoint. Read on for our tips on how to get the most out of them.
Audience First
As with all paid media, knowing your audience is your starting point. Finding the right audience affects the entire discussion, from determining timing and venue to topics and speakers. In DC, custom roundtable discussions, editorial publisher events and day-long summits regularly bring together CEOs, government officials, Hill staff and industry experts across all fields. You need to know who you are talking to before you can decide how and where to gather or meet them.
For example, if your goal is to reach Hill staffers, you’ll be considering whether the event is walkable from the Hill and whether or not you want it to be on a day when Congress is in session. If you’re hoping to reach business leaders, you’ll consider times that are best for catching them in (or out of) town and topics they will find most useful.
Who’s Hosting?
Once you know your audience, you need to decide: are you hosting and building all aspects of the event, or are you looking to sponsor part of a larger program?
When you sponsor the full program, you get more control of the program, but you also have to control the program. For owned events, everything from the topic, moderation, venue and guest list are up to your team to manage. For many sponsored events, custom activations can be open to your team to curate and execute in collaboration with the selected media partner. On the other end of the spectrum, some publisher events take full responsibility for logistics, with minimal editorial and logistical control of the program needed from sponsors. You have options!
Think Local
When it comes to working with publishers, you may intuitively know that opinion leaders in DC are more likely than the average person to read the Washington Post, but what about Punchbowl News? Have you worked with POLITICO, Axios or NOTUS?
Many well-regarded and widely read news sources for leaders in Congress and the administration were built in Washington for Washington. They’re also bringing together the biggest names on both sides of the aisle for events. From large-scale, newsmaking summits to custom events focused on industry issues, local publishers regularly work with lawmakers and business leaders to provide conversations for opinion elites about the issues that matter most on the Hill.
Check the Calendar
What’s happening around town?
You can make your event much more successful by considering what else is happening in DC and how you can take advantage of the timing. You may be able to activate as part of a larger regular event that brings the right business leaders into town or catch busy members of Congress when they are most interested in a particular issue. Why do you want to activate, and is there a moment you can take advantage of?
Getting Started
ROKK Solutions has a full-service team skilled at identifying audiences, building bespoke events and working with publishers to execute successful events. Get in touch with our team to learn how we can help you plan to tell your story in person to the audiences that matter most.
