Maximizing Success: The Crucial Role of Mock Events in Experiential Marketing Tours

Summer experiential marketing tour season is rapidly approaching and that means mock events on our campus.

What is a mock event?

These pre-tour rehearsals serve as invaluable opportunities to fine-tune every aspect of our mobile tours before stepping onto the main stage at public events. For our staff, in addition to practicing set up, mock events provide  immersive experiences that allow them to view the event from the customer perspective. While lists and spreadsheets provide valuable guidelines, there is no substitution for actually experiencing your experiential tour.

Kicking off an experiential tour with a mock event allows us to identify and address potential key issues before they arise during a live tour.

Why start your mobile tour with mock events?

As event marketing experts, TideSmart knows the importance of mock events. We prepare for each experiential marketing tour by running mock events before hitting the road for several reasons:

1. Identifying and Resolving Issues:
   • Technical Glitches: Mobile tour mock events help uncover technical issues with audio-visual equipment, internet connections, and other technological aspects that could disrupt the event.
   • Logistical Problems: It helps in spotting logistical challenges, such as event layout problems, traffic flow issues, or seating arrangements, allowing organizers to address these before the actual event.
2. Testing Event Flow:
   • Timing and Pacing: Practicing the sequence of events helps ensure that the timing and pacing are smooth, preventing delays and ensuring that each experiential tour event runs on schedule.
   • Coordination Among Staff: It allows the mobile tour manager and other event staff to practice their roles, improving coordination and efficiency during the actual event.
3. Answering the Unanswered:
   • Moving to the Practical: Sometimes questions cannot be answered until you go through the process. Moving forward even when all questions are not yet answered helps solve many of the unanswered questions.
4. Enhancing Participant Experience:
   • Audience Engagement: Mock events provide an opportunity to test audience engagement strategies, such as interactive sessions, Q&A formats, or entertainment segments, ensuring they are effective and well-received.
   • Feedback Collection: It offers a chance to gather feedback from participants, which can be used to make necessary adjustments to enhance the overall experience once the mobile tour begins.
5. Confidence Building:
   • Performers and Speakers: For the experiential tour staff, mock events serve as rehearsals, helping them build confidence and deliver their best performances. In experiential marketing this is critical.
   • Organizers: It boosts the confidence of the event organizers, knowing they have addressed potential issues and are well-prepared for the live event.
6. Improving Communication:
   • Clear Instructions: It ensures that all instructions and communications are clear and understood by everyone involved, from tour staff to participants.
   • Feedback Channels: Establishing and testing feedback channels ensures that any last-minute issues can be communicated and addressed swiftly.
7. Marketing and Promotion:
   • Content Creation: Mock events can be used to create promotional content for the mobile tour before it even hits the road. This can include things like behind-the-scenes videos or rehearsal highlights, which can be used to build excitement and anticipation for the live events throughout the mobile tour.

At today’s mock mobile tour stop, we learned how important flat ground will be to platform for the spinning photo booth, discovered a QR code that goes to an old landing page, had the opportunity to measure the full set and got a better understanding of all the steps involved in sampling the product so we could streamline that process and bring the right amount of product.

Embracing Best Practices

Seasoned experiential marketing experts understand the importance of conducting mock events before every tour. By investing time and resources into these pre-tour rehearsals, you can identify and address potential issues proactively, ensuring that your experiential marketing tour delivers unforgettable experiences for your audience.

Make sure your mobile marketing tour begins with a mock event!