What Are Logistics?
Logistics are all about the details. It involves meticulous planning, from putting together your strategy to creating and executing your marketing initiatives while hitting your designated deadlines within the process. It’s also about effectively keeping your customers and vendors within the loop the entire time. Making sure that all parties understand the plan is vital to a successful launch.
Logistics
The organization and execution of an operation that involves many elements
As an example, let’s focus on the logistics that we should implement when planning an event.
Here are some steps to follow:
- Define Your Budget
It all starts here. You need to understand how much money you have to allocate to secure a venue, pay your vendors, get invitations made, and create marketing assets to promote your event. - Clarify Your Event Goals
What’s the purpose of this event? Are you building brand awareness? Are you entertaining customers or launching a new product? You must first understand who your audience is and who will be benefitting from it. - Find an Event Space That Suits Your Event
Who’s your audience? Is this an intimate get-together with customers or a holiday party for employees? Picking a suitable space can make all the difference. You need to consider how much room and comfort for your guests is necessary to enjoy their experience. Does the venue accommodate your caterer and other vendors? Make sure you look at multiple locations and do a walkthrough with their staff. - Understand What Assets Need to be Activated to Make Your Event a Success
Depending on the size of the event and what it is for will determine this. For example, if you are promoting a college football bowl game, you will have numerous promotional ads for ticket sales, billboards, and TV/radio commercials. Suppose it’s an intimate event to entertain guests, and you’ve hired songwriters for their entertainment. In that case, it might be as simple as creating and printing a simple program for your guests with an itinerary for the evening along with the songwriter’s bios. - Create an Event Timeline
This is the most important aspect of this process. Build your timeline backward from the day of your event. Include every single detail to this timeline that affects your event. These deadlines will keep you on point and keep tasks from falling through the cracks. - Vendors
Finding efficient vendors who have a proven track record makes all the difference. Interview as many as possible, whether a vendor handles catering, décor, printing, or sound production. Working with vendors who can capture your vision, have great reviews, and are easy to work with is essential. - Assign Key Members of Your Team to Certain Tasks
One person can’t do it all on their own. It’s imperative when you are planning an event to work smart. Utilize your team around you and assign key tasks for them to help execute based on their expertise. - Create Marketing Collateral and Messaging Around Your Event
This depends on the type of event you are planning. If it’s a tradeshow or sponsorship surrounding a high-profile event, you’ll need to prepare messaging and marketing assets with a call to action. If you have a private event, then these types of assets won’t necessarily be vital. However, for a private event, you might want to consider print assets to go along with the décor, such as a program or event signage. - Deliver Marketing Assets
Once your creative team, whether internally or externally, has created the required assets you need to promote your event, you’ll send your collateral to your media partners for activation. - Verify Your Provider Has Executed the Marketing Assets
Make sure to go online or verify with your media partners that they have activated all of your collateral. - Final Walkthrough and Communication
A few days from your event, go through your timeline and verify that each vendor successfully executed every action item. Follow up with your vendors on days leading up to your event that everything on their end is squared away. On the day of your event, do your final walkthrough and check in with your vendors one more time. Verify that they are all systems go on their end, and from there, kick back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Technology Can Make or Break an Event
An essential logistical challenge to get right is the event technology. Tech includes everything from WIFI access to the projection and sound equipment. It’s crucial to have IT members on staff or utilize those of the venue or production company. Addressing problems before they happen will ensure that microphone is working, the video plays, and guests can easily connect to share their experience.
Put Peabody's Logistics to Work
As you can see, the logistics surrounding an event, or any launch, are very complex and critical to the success of what you are trying to accomplish. At Peabody, we take pride in our ability to be methodical and detailed. If you’re planning your next event, launching a new brand or initiative, we’d love to help you execute your vision.