Brands are built, not invented. Brands are the by-product of the many steps that companies take to create something valuable for their customers. However, if the perception of customers is that your brand only “lives” a couple of days per year, what can you do the other 362 days to keep the brand alive and continue to build value? Word of mouth (WOM) advertising is one of the keys along with traditional marketing mediums. With social media now among the viable options for building brand awareness, exhibition and event organizers have an array of tools at their disposal for lengthening the life of their brands.

A brand is “what the event promises to deliver,” says Paige Cardwell, president of CSG Creative based in Alexandria, Va. “A brand embodies what the exhibitor and attendee will experience and what they will take away from [the show]. It could be collaboration, technology or career advancement,” she says.

Impeccable execution of the event promise is critical according to Cardwell. The prime objective is making sure that customers leave talking positively about the show. This involves checking in with exhibitors, surveying participants, talking with speakers, monitoring conference sessions, making sure show managers are visible and making it easy for attendees to access information and resources.

Norwin Merens, managing director of Chicago-based NM Marketing Communications, employs consistency, innovation and the personal touch as brand building strategies during an event. Good communication and consistent follow-up to address customer requests is critical, he believes. Using electronic tools to help attendees navigate the show and keeping educational content relevant and fresh is also important. In addition, building a good brand requires what Merens refers to as the “feel good” stuff. “Make yourself accessible. Remember people’s names and address them by name. Know about the company and ask customers where they come from,” he advises.

What Cardwell and Merens both allude to is the importance of the customer experience. Lou Carbone, founder and chief experience officer at Experience Engineering, a consulting firm based in Minneapolis, Minn, believes that “engineering” customer expectations through emotional engagement, adds value to the brand. In a June, 2008 posting at the Knowledge@Emory blog, Carbone is quoted as saying, “’It is all about understanding the psychology of the customers...It requires getting into the mind, heart and head of customers,’ and ultimately, discovering the clues that make them loyal, sometimes irrationally so, to a brand.” the blogger writes.

Converting satisfied customers into passionate evangelists is a year round activity. Jane Hawley, senior vice president, Client Strategy, at global event marketing agency in Sparks of Philadelphia, Pa, helps clients engage customers long after the event concludes. “We encourage clients not to think of the show as the beginning of a dialogue but as part of a year round communications strategy,” she says. Some of the tools of long-term engagement that Sparks employs include micro-sites, Webinars, streaming videos and virtual tours. “Technology has allowed us to broaden the scope of what branding can be. There are millions of ways to reach out to people and get them involved,” she explains.

Social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin assist event producers with building communities around the show brand. Web sites that offer electronic newsletters, white papers, blogs and other content keep the “buzz” going on social networks throughout the year and help build momentum for the next event. However, technology isn’t always the answer, says Hawley. Regular marketing touches with a consistent message are more important than the specific tools being deployed. “The goal,” she says, “is to become the consummate voice for that vertical.” An integrated strategy utilizing a variety of marketing mediums is another option.

Few event brands have reached iconic status. Building a brand requires more than good customer service and a slavish attention to detail during the event, while stimulating word of mouth evangelism is a difficult and elusive enterprise. It is now more critical than ever to take ownership of the space a particular brand occupies by developing a strategy for brand enhancement that involves year round customer engagement. Failure to do so, invites competition from other events and other distractions that threaten to steal the attention of “loyal” customers.