Council for Hospitality Management Education's (CHME)Annual Research Conference 16Th-17Th

Council for Hospitality Management Education's (CHME)Annual Research Conference 16th-17th May 2013

Submission Type: Full Paper

Track: Hospitality Management

Title: Social media…is it critical toward sustaining event businesses in 2013 and beyond?

Authors and affiliations: Mrs Nikki McQuillan and Ms Laura McKeown

Abstract

Economists claim that the current economic malaise comes as a direct result of the volatility in today’s global economy and the increasing on set of nationwide austerity measures (EIBTM 2012). Despite this, Davidson (2012) argues that the global events sector can still look forward to another period of moderate expansion in meetings, events and business travel volume and spending in 2013.

Technology has evolved rapidly in a manner that supplies event businesses, venues and planners with novel resolutions to facilitate them need to work more efficiently at all stages in the planning lifecycle (Davidson 2011). With the significant rise of social media event attendees have engaged willingly in these platforms. Furthermore, the growing trend of social media has compelled event planners to re-think how to organise and market events effectively and consider how social media should be integrated into an event strategy. Shang et al (2011) highlighted that businesses need to have a good understanding of the information shared on social media and how to manage it for the business to remain competitive and sustainable. However, information on the implementation of social media within event businesses is in limited supply in academic literature. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to provide essential knowledge to current and potential events businesses in order to gain competitive advantage and sustain a successful events business model. It will review event marketing literature, explore the features of contemporary event marketing with a primary focus on social media and Web 2.0 technologies and evaluate their role within an integrated marketing strategy toward securing a sustainable business model for events companies.

The research was qualitative in nature, with the main data collection methods being in-depth interviews and focus groups. Focus groups enabled the researcher to observe and comprehend the context within which decisions and action occur mirroring the activities of social media where decisions and actions are taken after posts or comments have been made.

Findings suggest that event planners are using social media at all stages of the event planning process: for promotion, awareness, engagement and feedback. It was evident that it is still a new tool within the industry and that many event planners have not fully embraced all of its features. However, interaction and engagement with event attendees is a particular element of social media that event planners are embracing to gain the trust of their consumers and secure audiences strategically. Bolan et. al (2012) emphasised that events revolve around communication and interaction and that social media is an essential element of successful event business models. The research also highlighted that social media enabled planners to promote and market events to thousands of people in seconds before, during and after the event and also more interestingly to non- attendees.

The research recommends that event businesses embrace new technologies such as social media, become fully literate in their features and engage with event attendees at all stages of the event planning process toward securing a sustainable events business model for 2013 and beyond.

Key Words: Social Media; Integrated Marketing Communications; Sustainable event businesses.

Introduction

Only recently has the event industry been keen to utilise developments in technology in the planning of events. Consequently, the means used by event planners to plan events is an interesting , yet very under researched topic. In 2011, the event industry embraced the variety of technological advances that are available(Davidson, 2011a). Technology has evolved rapidly in a manner that supplies marketing organisations, venues and planners with novel resolutions to facilitate them to work more efficiently at all stages in the planning lifecycle. According to Hanser and McLeod (2011) technology was the most important trend within the event industry in 2011 and they highlighted thatsocial media was of utmost importance.

In order for events to be successful there needs to be attendance from the correct target market. Marketing to the target market is an important element within event management and the essence of marketing has changed somewhat over the years. Factors which have changed the way marketing works include new technologies, consumer expectations and the way in which consumers communicate. Marketing communications have been recognised as being the main driver for the success of events (Getz, 2005; Masterman and Wood, 2005). Effective marketing relies on the sender and receiver both being involved in the communication process (Shimp, 1993; Kitchen and de Pelsmacker, 2004). Correspondingly, it is argued that traditional marketing methods such as advertising in print and broadcast media are losing their efficiency (Hede and Kellett, 2011). Perhaps the reasoning for this is due to the nature of new technologies which are more interactive with consumers, therefore allowing consumers to be involved in the entire communication process and much less costly.

Literature Review

The potential for the use of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) in event marketing is crucial, given that it is being described as a “strategic imperative”, rather than simply a tactical method of communication (Hede and Kellett, 2011, p. 990). IMC involves the use of three key fundamentals; tools, media and messages. This novel, media focused approach to marketing has been described by Duncan (2002) as ‘‘orchestration’’ and ‘‘seamless’’ communication. The rationale for IMC is to create and grow ‘relationships’ between businesses and their customers that are of common value (Fill, 2002). In order to fulfil this, IMC insists on companies organising their range of strategies, assets and messages so that they can connect with their target audience in a way that is coherent and meaningful (Prakash & Sharma, 2010). An example of a company using this type of marketing is Bushmills Whiskey Ltd. As a company they were trying to re-brand their product and appeal to the younger generation as previously it was seen as a drink for more mature people. They held a festival, ‘Bushmills Live’ in August 2012. Tickets for this event could not be bought and could only be obtained through the companies Facebook Page. Those wishing to win tickets were required to post a picture of them along with a reason why they should win on the Facebook page (Owen, 2012). This technique is a clever way for brands to grow and promote their name. Furthermore, by doing this the company were enabling themselves to connect and feed information to their customers through this popular tool among their target audience. Furthermore, they revamped their website to ensure it was aimed to the younger generation by making it quirky and eye-catching. The aim of this was to broaden their consumer base and as social media is used extensively with the younger generation, Bushmills recognised an opportunity to enhance their product to a new target market. Hence, providing evidence that when used correctly, the use of an IMC can be a priceless tool for businesses.

For IMC to have its required result, it needs to be a strategic mix of the appropriate communication methods such as advertising, promotion, direct marketing and public relations (PR). Additionally the message needs to be carefully selected along with the correct media mix for the IMC to be successful. The success is also dependent upon careful planning, implementation and control of the entire strategy (Prakash & Sharma, 2010). A key factor of IMC is the promotion of stability and regularity of the marketing communication and management of the fundamentals within the marketing mix, the rationale for this being that they are all essential to the success of the entire marketing communications (Crowther, 2011). By combining the fundamentals of the marketing mix and integrating them into an IMC strategy additional competitive advantage can be gained by a company (Kitchen, 2005). Competitive advantage can be gained as the company are able to target a significantly larger number of people compared to only using one or two marketing strategies therefore broadening their consumer base. Strategic IMC is dependent on the situation and is circumstance explicit (Eagle et al. 2007) therefore giving more consideration for the use of IMC for the marketing of events.

Understandably, it is thought that event attendees take pleasure in high levels of participation before, during and after their event experience (Pitta et al., 2006). Very relevant to this participation is word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Communication strategies such as E-communications have surfaced as part of the IT-revolution (Holm, 2006) and are allowing word-of-mouth marketing to happen on a worldwide scale. However, it is understood that currently there is very limited knowledge available surrounding how event organisers are communicating with their target audience and market. Further to this, information is scarce on how consumers make use of novel media and innovative technologies, for instance Web 2.0 tools. Particularly, the initiation of Web 2.0 assists e-based communities and social networking prospects by means of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (Ellison et al., 2007). Tools such as these are very relevant to events, knowing that the aspirations of many events are to generate a feeling of community (Hede and Kellett, 2011).

Web 2.0 and Social Media

The exposure given by correspondents towards social media would put forward the impression that we are in the middle of a completely new communication scene (Kietzmann, 2011). Today’s population are emerging as one which is embracing the ability to record and share their personal experiences by submitting them to their friends and online communities for appraisal, thus to allow their reputations and names be spread through forms of social media. According to Shang et. al (2011, p. 178) “Web 2.0 is a network platform on which peers contribute to the development of tools, content, and communities on the Internet.” A platform such as this can lead to innovative and further intricate information. The phrase was anticipated to differentiate actions from conventional web pages as a theory of energetic and networking understanding which evolved from the Internet. It was imagined that users of the platform would have the ability to extract and supply information in a simultaneous fashion (Shang et. al, 2011). As Web 2.0 is hugely interactive and enables user contribution in numerous means in real time there have been a number of Internet based applications such as Facebook which have been built on the technological foundations of Web 2.0 (Berthon et. al, 2012). Known as a social networking site, sites such as Facebook enables communication and information to flow in both directions, even better it can be triggered and accessed by individuals in any place at any time (Shang et. al, 2011). Interactive sites provide a richer context and wealth of knowledge to users through easy to use interfaces which promote and assist involvement (Berthon et. al, 2012).

The variety of online applications available through Web 2.0 supply marketers with a series of novel prospects but also a number of substantial obstacles. Web 2.0 has been described by O’Reilly (2005) as a collection of values and systems that consist of viewing the web as a “platform” with the ambition of “harnessing collective intelligence”. Perhaps the popularity of these innovative platforms is due to the exciting new experience that gives users the power to communicate and share their lives in real time with people and brands across the globe.

Davidson (2011b, p. 119) explains there are numerous types of applications (apps) classified to be within the Web 2.0 platform:

Blogs- meaning “Web logs”, are one of the rapidly increasing Web 2.0 apps. They are a personal website or space that can be customised and enable the author to post entries as regular or irregular as they wish. These entries are displayed in sequential order for fans of the page to read. More often than not Blogs are an interactive tool as readers have the ability to leave comments. Common types of Blogs include fashion, sport and celebrity Blogs.

Social networking services enable users to make a personal web space, which indeed is combined within a main website. This personal web space is known as a profile which is presented to other users of the site. By adding or liking “friends” users can connect with those who share similar activities or interests. Facebook is one type of Social network, which is currently and constantly amid the largely visited sites on the World Wide Web.

It is now common for some sites to be made up of a combination of these categories, such as Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking service whereby users can send and read other users messages known as tweets. Tweets are made up of 140 characters which are then presented on the user’s personal profile (Davidson, 2011b).

In the past number years, social media has grown to develop into conceivably the trendiest communication channels (Pelling and White 2009) and furthermore has grown into a powerful tool attracting millions of users (Kwon and Sung, 2011).

The vast amounts of users logging on to social media have integrated these forms of magnitude communication into their lives on a daily basis (Boyd and Ellison 2007). Initially the first users to embrace the communication tool were mostly teenagers. However, there is an increasing quantity of new social media users in the 25-34 age range who are adopting the social media craze by building and maintaining relationships through social media (Haythornthwaite 2005).

A study by Protalinski (2012) found that around a quarter of time spent on the Internet is on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In the UK 64% of adults are involved in User-Generated Content (UGC) based endeavour in some way or another. Between them, Facebook and Twitter possess in excess of 900 million regular active users. Indeed, at the end of March 2012 Facebook had reached a staggering 901 million monthly active users, with a further 526 million users being active daily users. Additionally, on 20th April 2012 there were more than 500 million monthly users accessing Facebook from their mobile devices.

Moreover, Facebook holds a collection of over 900 million objectives such as pages and groups, this figure would suggest that the average Facebook user would be a member and participates in around 80 pages, groups and events (Facebook.com 2011, cited Chu, 2011). Groups within the Facebook community are an extensive and well-liked app which is the foundation for a unique form of social interaction between people who have the same interests and hobbies (Casteleyn et. al, 2009; Park et. al, 2009). Joining a group on Facebook gives users the chance to interact and connect with other group members as well as share and receive information and knowledge about that particular topic quickly and efficiently. In turn, advertisers are seeking an opportunity as such to create a viral-driven, multidirectional communication with consumers (Holzner 2008).

Although there are many benefits to Facebook, there are some issues associated with it. This is demonstrated by the continual drop in Facebook’s shares since they were available from 18th May 2012. Recent reports by Rushe (2012) state that Facebook shares have hit a new low and have dipped to under half of their original public price and in turn, halving the fortune of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. This raises an issue that people do not trust in Facebook as much as they would have when the site originally started becoming a huge trend.

According to Pring (2012) in February 2012 there were 500 million registered users on Twitter with approximately 200 million of these active users, with around 175 million tweets being sent each day. With the growing rise in Smartphone’s alongside the continuous level of Internet and mobile networks, Twitter is on the brink of further expansion (Wauters 2010).

As a real time information network, Twitter joins consumers to the most up-to-date information about subjects that are of interest to them. This makes it possible for marketers to correspond with their customers who are enthused to connect with and follow their brand. Moreover, Twitter facilitates marketers to represent brands and aid the forming and preservation of consumer relationships by connecting through conversations (Kwon and Sung, 2011). Business’s are now realising these benefits of Twitter and are increasingly following the trend. Twitter (2012) recognises and promotes the use of Twitter in business as they state:

“Twitter connects businesses to customers in real time and businesses use Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in their products and services, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and influencers. From brand lift to CRM to direct sales, Twitter offers businesses an easy way to reach an engaged audience”.

As an evaluation tool this is very useful as they are receiving instant feedback and if positive they can broadcast this to all of their followers by‘re-tweeting’ the post. Furthermore, they also used Twitter to post videos, pictures and media reports of the event which enables those who couldn’t make it to the event engage. It is clear that Twitter is a very powerful tool which can help businesses in a number of areas and in relation to the events industry it is highly constructive in each stage of the event process.