Before the event starts, please warm up the event!

Good "activity preheating + hot spot leveraging" can achieve unexpected results.

People with experience should know that no matter whether the activity is online or offline, the purpose is to increase sales or attract fans, and whether the scale is large or small, the preheating step is indispensable. Why?

Preheating, originally a chemical term, refers to preheating to a specified temperature in order to prevent rapid heating. And now, it has also been given the meaning of preparing for something in advance. For an event, preheating specifically refers to the publicity and promotion before the event is officially implemented, so that it can reach a certain level of popularity in advance.

Why do we need to warm up the event?

From planning to implementation, event warm-up requires a lot of money, time and energy, and is no easier than planning and implementing online activities. As the saying goes: Good wine needs no bush. With a good event plan , are you still afraid that it won’t work? Is it redundant to warm up the event?

This is not the case. Warming up is a necessary process for activities. It at least plays the following roles:

1. Deliver information about the activities and serve as a notification

The easiest way to preheat is to inform, such as what activities will be launched on which day. It is easy to understand, right? The most basic element of an event is participants. The prerequisite for obtaining this element is to make as many potential target audiences as possible interested in the event and generate a desire to participate. And in order to make the audience think about the event, they must first know that the event exists, which is indispensable.

For example, when planning an online sharing event, you can use posters and article push to inform the audience one week in advance what kind of event will be held and when.

It is crucial that information can be delivered to the target audience accurately and in a timely manner. Notification is a prerequisite for the execution of all activities, and preheating can achieve the purpose of notification. Therefore, don’t miss the step of warming up the event.

2. Determine whether the explosion point can be brought about in advance and make estimates for activities that have not yet been carried out

A more complex way to warm up is not just to inform, but to add various gimmicky elements to try to arouse the audience's interest in the event, increase enthusiasm for participation, and even use the audience's psychology of identification, showing off, etc. to do secondary sharing and dissemination, bringing explosive exposure.

Preheating can convey the direct benefits of the event, allowing hot spots to be discovered in advance and consciously become topics of communication. Let’s take the example of Durex’s live broadcast event of trying out 100 sets of products. In the early stage, Durex kept releasing warm-up posters that made people think a lot and opened up their minds: mosaic couples , beds, and Japanese copywriting of "a hundred people’s forbidden relationship". This series of settings with similar AV cover quality whetted the audience’s appetite and became the focus of the audience’s heated discussion.

Observe and analyze the final effect of the warm-up to evaluate and predict the popularity of the event and the approximate audience participation scale.

If the preheating effect is excellent or even exceeds expectations, it can be judged that the event is very popular and the number of participants may exceed the planned number. At this time, you can prepare in advance to welcome more participants, such as increasing the server size and the number of prizes. If the preheating effect is not good and there is no good response, it can be judged that there may be a problem with the event itself, either the prizes are not attractive enough or there is a problem with the form, which requires timely analysis and adjustment.

3. Create a hot atmosphere before the event goes online

Atmosphere creation is not limited to the event site. In the early stages of the event, it is also necessary to create some atmosphere to make the event appear popular. Because people always like to join in the fun, they want to watch things that many people are paying attention to, discussing, sharing, and participating in; in addition, using countdowns, flash sales, and number statistics to constantly create a tense, urgent, and exciting atmosphere can arouse the audience's desire to participate.

In the early stage of warm-up, you can first let your internal staff, friends around you, and a group of hired water troops promote the event to expand the exposure of the event and create a good atmosphere for the event.

Through which channels to preheat

The choice of event preheating channels is very important. The most suitable channel can provide the best event exposure, avoid wasting resources and doing useless work. So, what are the better channels?

1. Internal platform

(1) Make full use of your own APP and official website

Place a pre-made event banner in a prominent location for promotion; place event-related links in the special section or other places on the web page.

The two proprietary channels, the App and the official website, can be arranged in any form and location, ensuring the best location for event pre-promotion; in addition, external traffic can also be brought to the App and official website.

(2) Own WeChat public account and official Weibo

Both have strong timeliness in dissemination, fully cover existing fans, and are simple and fast to operate, making them the best choice for preheating exposure channels.

WeChat public accounts mainly display in the form of picture and text push, turning the event warm-up content into posters and copywriting, and integrating them into mass text sending; Weibo promotion is mainly in the form of posters, short copywriting, and notification text.

(3) Own WeChat, Weibo, QQ group, and Moments

Although a fan group may only have a few hundred people at most, its members are all its seed users and precise target audiences. They are highly loyal and active, have a certain understanding of themselves, are more likely to trust activities and be interested in participating, and help with secondary forwarding and sharing; and Moments can help increase exposure.

2. External public platform

(1) Paid promotion by Weibo and WeChat influencers

Big Vs themselves have a huge fan base, great appeal and influence, and significant communication effects. Therefore, considering various factors, choosing a suitable big V for promotion is also a good channel.

Each big V has a different promotion price. The more fans, the greater the number of readings and reposts, and the wider the influence, the higher the price. In addition, the charges for big V reposts and original works are very different. If your pre-heating content is good, you can just let them repost it to save costs. Finally, you must recognize the areas that the big V is good at and find out whether there is a fit between them and the event.

(2) Cooperation, mutual promotion and friendly links

Seek external cooperation, exchange resources, use Weibo and official accounts to push each other's content, and use other people's platforms to showcase your own activities. Please note that when looking for mutual promotion, you should look for a cooperation platform that is consistent or similar to the content and positioning of the event.

(3) Activity publishing platform

You can publish your own activities on the platform for free or for a fee, and directly display detailed event information. Here, Strawberry recommends several commonly used event publishing platforms:

Activity line: http://www.huodongxing.com/

Activity website: http://www.huodongwang.com/

Love activities: http://www.ihotdo.com/

Interaction: http://www.hdb.com/post

Activist: http://www.huodongjia.com/

Event Dove: http://www.eventdove.com/index.html

(4) We-media platforms and major forum communities

Most of these platforms are free and publish content in the form of registration and submission. There are mainly the following platforms:

Sohu public platform : http://mp.sohu.com/

Toutiao : http://www.toutiao.com/

Yidianzixun: http://www.yidianzixun.com/

Baidu Baike: http://baijia.baidu.com/

Jianshu: http://www.jianshu.com/

Tianya Forum: http://bbs.tianya.cn/

Baidu Tieba: http://tieba.baidu.com/

Zhihu: https://www.zhihu.com/

Douban: https://www.douban.com/

But please note that self-media platforms such as Sohu, Toutiao, Yidian Zixun, and Baidu Baike pay more attention to quality and cannot directly publish event information, so you have to write it in the form of an article for submission.

(5) Paid promotion on vertical portal websites

Including industry ones (such as: 36Kr , iHeima, iResearch, Huxiu.com, China Building Materials Network, China Information Network, OFweek); local ones (such as Shenzhen Wancheng.com, Urban China Local Portal Alliance, Qingdaoren, Guangxi Guiren.com, Sina Henan, Bagui.com, Langfang Consumer Plaza, Lijiang, Aishangjia, 360.com, Hualian.com, Parkview.com, Guizhou Life.com, Shanggao Information Network, Gaoan.com, Zhejiang Hotline, Nanchang People's Hotline, Dayue.com, Yongqing.com); comprehensive portals (such as Sina, NetEase, Sohu, Tencent, Baidu, Xinhuanet, People's Daily Online, Phoenix.com).

For example, Sina.com has multiple advertising spaces, which can be used for banner image carousels, pop-up ads, and text link ads to meet the needs of different price ranges and communication types.

(6) Outdoor advertising billboards

This type of publicity mostly appears in places with heavy traffic and dense flow of people, such as subways, bus stations, corporate LED outdoor advertising light boxes, highway roadside billboards, neon billboards, LED billboards, building billboards, etc. For example, in preparation for Tmall’s Double Eleven event, promotional advertisements were placed on the stairs at subway entrances and exits.

In general, off-site promotion should be done within one’s means. Common promotion methods include KOL forwarding, manual posting, cooperative promotion, etc.

(7) SMS and email notifications

Needless to say, you may receive various activity information every day or every few days, such as promotional activities, exhibition activities, competition activities, salon activities, etc. The push of text messages and emails ensures the arrival rate of information, and it is also relatively easy to operate and low-cost.

Common types of event pre-event posters

1. Confusing type

Generally, small clues related to activities and products are cleverly embedded. These clues leave enough room for imagination, triggering the audience's thinking and speculation, and making them eager to uncover the true face as soon as possible.

What is captured is the ubiquitous curiosity and strong desire for knowledge of the general audience. This kind of "half-covered face" poster design is the most likely to go viral during pre-promotion.

Of course, you must grasp the degree of creativity, and don't let your imagination run wild without any basis, or be unrealistic. If the final event announcement is far different from the pre-heating, the audience will feel cheated. It should be "unexpected yet reasonable".

2. Highlight the type of guests

The guests here may include celebrity endorsements, industry leaders, experts, etc. Adding one or more guests to the poster can highlight the scale and influence of the event; at the same time, it can also make the event produce a celebrity effect and further expand the effect of communication.

Familiar guests can often be seen on posters at various film and television conferences, exhibitions, industry sharing sessions, etc., allowing the audience to sense and generate strong interest: Hey, isn’t this the so-and-so that I know (like), I want to attend just for this.

3. Type of activity/product highlights

Directly present the core and most critical highlights of the event/product on the warm-up poster, and use the event/product itself as the promotional point. It is particularly simple and crude, and the promotional effect is concentrated.

This form of exposing the highlights in advance lacks novelty, but it attracts precise participants who are truly interested in and in need of the event/product.

4. Types that resonate

To put it bluntly, it is to play the emotional card, move people with emotion, and reach the hearts of the audience directly.

By exploring the story attributes of related activities (products), we can establish emotional connections with the audience (family, love, friendship, nostalgia, loneliness, happiness, etc.), hit the audience's G-spot, arouse strong identification, and generate resonance.

The best way to warm up an event is to take advantage of the momentum

The warm-up period for an event can be long or short, some can last for several months, while others can be as short as one or two days. Different preheating plans are often formulated depending on how much time is available during the preheating period.

If the activity is launched urgently and the warm-up period is short, it is necessary to centrally integrate all resources (materials, channels, people, etc.) and promote it quickly in a short period of time. When there is enough time to warm up the event, promotion can be carried out in stages and according to different situations. In this way, it becomes possible to cleverly take advantage of certain hot spots.

Hotspots are divided into predictable and sudden hotspots. Predictable hotspots are hot events that are known in advance and break out at a specific time, while sudden hotspots are hot events that are unpredictable and break out suddenly and in a concentrated manner.

Sudden hot spots are hard to come by and are difficult to grasp. During the event warm-up process, if you encounter sudden hot spots, you first need to react quickly and conduct a matching analysis with your own activities to see if you can find a matching point and decide whether to take advantage of this momentum. Be careful not to blindly take advantage of the situation. Irrelevant or negative hot spots should not be pursued. At best, it will waste resources and be ineffective. At worst, it will cause disgust and even violate the moral and legal bottom line. As for hot spots that are really suitable, you should also consider how to best take advantage of them.

Predictable hot spots are excellent targets for preheating activities. You can plan the combination of activities and events in advance, find the commonalities between the two, and integrate the activities into them; after clarifying the time period when the hot spot will explode, you can choose to push it before or during the outbreak to achieve the maximum exposure effect.

The predictable hot spots are mainly holidays such as the Spring Festival, National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, Women's Day, Singles' Day, etc.; large-scale events such as the Olympic Games, the World Cup, and the European Cup; and large-scale shopping festivals such as Double Eleven, JD.com 618, and Tmall Super Brand Day.

A good "event warm-up + hot spot leverage" can achieve unexpected results. As the event ferments and reaches a climax, it can attract the audience's attention to the maximum extent. It has a wide coverage, great influence, rapid dissemination, a huge audience base, and low cost investment. Therefore, if possible, try to let the event take advantage of the trend.