If you have a quality event, promote it

Eugene Loj specializes in advance ticket sales and event promotions, but he offers this caution to potential clients:

I don’t think it’s right to hype or advertise something where you can’t meet or exceed the customers expectations. For the purpose of this article, the word hype and promoting/advertising are one and the same. If you can’t [deliver] on your promises, don’t hype it.

But then he continues:

Here is the interesting part ... I’ve seen more instances of great events not being hyped enough as opposed to over hyped. I honestly think too many events fail because they don’t advertise or [promote] enough. Not because the event wasn’t well planned or well executed.

As an example, he cites the Canadian International Air Show, reprinting a letter from Jennifer Brown, Executive Director of the show:

At Canadian International Air Show (CIAS) HQ, we receive a TONNE of calls and e-mails from people interested in scoring access to our exclusive VIP waterfront enclosure. I knew there was a market to sell the CIAS VIP Experience to; but I needed help getting it off the ground.

So you have a customer base clamoring - whoops, they're Canadian, I guess they're clamouring - for VIP tickets, and Loj helped Brown to sell them.

In 2009, we were able to generate $61,645. of VIP tiket sales; $21,270 of which came in the first 60 minutes of tickets going on sale!

And there's one more thing that Brown makes a point of noting:

And the most shocking part? The Canadian International Air Show is a FREE event.

Let's face it - any air show (planes, fireworks, whatever) is by definition a free event, since you can look up into the sky and see the stuff in the air. But in this case, people were willing to pay a premium for a more exclusive experience, and Brown delivered.

No, that doesn't mean that I'm putting my Empoprises blogs behind a paywall.

Yet.