Last week we shared about the 2nd Annual Women in Events Agency Roundtable that we co-hosted with Event Marketer magazine. This week we’re sharing what makes Hype! stand out as an experiential staffing partner, the biggest mistakes when it comes to staffing and whats to come in 2019!
How do you describe your company?
DG: Hype is an event staffing and execution partner. The ‘bread and butter’ of our business is event staffing and we are proud to have been awarded Inavero’s Best of Staffing® Award presented by CareerBuilder for providing superior service 5 years in a row!!
SW: We are a boutique staffing agency that is selective about the clients we work with to remain passionate about the work we do. We have spent a great deal of time selecting the teams we have in-house to deliver the best results in the field. Our internal team all bring something different to the table. We thrive on a culture that is fueled by collaboration, problem solving, and creativity. We partner with our clients from start to finish, remaining flexible and guiding the ever-changing process of events!
Experiential marketing is….
SW: The opportunity to take an idea and make it come to life by letting the consumer experience it first-hand. A successful experiential marketing campaign results in a brand connection that lives on after the experience ends.
DG: What Stephanie said. We like to call it “the Hype effect”; an experience that ignites the conversation and propels your brand.
What are the three biggest event marketing mistakes?
DG: (1) Thinking of the staffing last. Too often, we are the last ones involved in the process. We get it, there is so much to plan with the event, but the brand ambassadors are the face of the brand and the last point of contact with the consumers. They can make or break the entire experience. Engage with your staffing partner as early as possible! (2) Over promising and under delivering. One of the worst things to do is to over promise and over “hype” something to leave your clients or attendees underwhelmed. Be realistic and calculated in what you expect to deliver. (3) Not gathering valuable data from the event. This doesn’t have to be done with any fancy technology, it can be as simple as encouraging brand ambassadors to gather feedback, report the attendees, or overall interest. This is first-hand data from your target consumer.
SW: Not all experiences are created equal. Activations fail when they don’t have the right brand ambassadors representing the brand and they don’t have enough time to properly execute the engagement. Yes- I know that’s only two! The more time you have for an event, the more time you can spend finding the right person, or finding cost savings with giveaways, vendors, uniforms, and more.
Last business book you read and thoughts on it?
DG: I recently read “Lead Your Tribe, Love Your Work” by Piyush Patel. This book centers on corporate culture and the importance of how you interact with our staff. Two of my favorite take-aways from the book were the Core Values Meeting, a company-wide meeting centering around the core values of the company, and Happies, which we adopted as Hype Happies, a time once week where we share 2 personal and 2 business happies to our team before we start our day. Corporate culture is extremely important to any business, but I take enormous pride in the culture Hype has created in our offices. As a business owner, I am always looking for ways to strengthen our tribe, learn from each other, and build our team. This makes us a stronger company and better partners for our clients.
SW: I wouldn’t qualify it as a business book, however Admiral McRaven’s “Make Your Bed”, has some great takeaways that I’ve implemented into my professional life. “Make Your Bed” takes 10 lessons that McRaven learned during his Navy SEAL training and relates them to life challenges. Things like “failure can make you stronger” or “you can’t go at it alone” are common themes that we face every day working in experiential marketing. And when it comes to my day-to-day at Hype, they correlate to my two favorite core values of accountability and collaboration.
What are you excited about?
DG: Seeing our industry continue to grow and evolve. Event marketing isn’t going anywhere, in fact, it continues to gain momentum.
SW: I’ve been at Hype for 5 years now. I cannot wait to see how in the next 5 years I will grow, Hype will grow, and the experiential industry will grow.
What keeps you up at night?
DG: As a business owner, mother and wife there is plenty keeping me up at night. I put all the people in my life first, my family and my employees, so I am always worried about the “what ifs” and there are too many to list. However, I strive to maintain a solid foundation and infrastructure both personally and with the business, so I feel very good about the future.
SW: Ha- what the next 5 years will look like! I’m always looking to the future, setting goals and getting excited for what’s ahead. And with that excitement comes nervousness, anxiousness and insecurity. I’m always trying to think of how we can continue to diversify ourselves to stay ahead of the game and stay far away from complacency.
Any changes on the horizon for your company?
DG: Early 2019 we’re rolling out a brand-new staffing management portal. It will be a game-changer for our staff, internal teams, and clients. We continue to innovate and solve the world’s staffing woes!