Even if your association has been successful at marketing your events year after year, it can still be difficult to come up with fresh new ideas.  Here are a few idea starters that you might find helpful in marketing your association event:

 

- Send prospects a game board and pieces that illustrate the benefits and features of your association's event.

- Create a quiz that has answers that support the reasons for attending your association's show.

- Offer your "Top 10 Reasons" for attending the event.  Make sure that if you inject humor that it is in keeping with your association's brand character.

- Present prospects with "tickets" that take them to fantasy locations of "success", "achievement", etc., with a short stopover at your association's convention.

- Utilize the well-worn "passport" idea, but take it to a new level with concepts of security, checkpoints and novel-like intrigue.

- Include a coupon for a free gift that attendees will receive upon arrival at the event. 

- Improve on the trite "recipe for success" by including actual food (e.g. Cheryl's Cookies, beef jerky, etc.) - this is obviously only feasible for low-volume, high price events due to the high cost of the contents and shipping.

- Send an almost completely empty brochure that hits the key benefit - the lack of text will make it irresistible.

 

There are a limitless number of creative ideas that can be generated for your event - perhaps the ideas above spurred something that will work for your association.  Just be sure that the idea is not so creative that you lose focus on the main benefits of the event.

 

What are the most creative ideas your association has used to market your event?  What ideas were creative but not successful?