Developing Strategy for Event Management

This article discusses the development of a marketing strategy for event management, using the example of Tomorrowland music festival. It covers various strategies such as customer journey, storytelling, community building, innovation, and more. It also analyzes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the festival, as well as the external factors affecting its marketing. The article concludes with a discussion on the marketing strategies employed by LiveStyle, the event management company behind Tomorrowland.

Running head: DEVELOPING STRATEGY FOR EVENT MANAGEMENT.
Developing Strategy for Event Management.
Name of the Student.
Name of the University.
Author note

1Developing strategy for Event Management
Assessment 2
Part A
LiveStyle happens to be one of the largest producer of music events in the world. It
has a wide range of boasting properties that does live music events. It also promotes and
produces both multiday and single festivals of music all across Europe, North America, South
America, Asia and Australia. The entities of North America include events like React
Presents, Made Event, Life In Color and Disco Donnie Presents. Along with that, it arranges
brands and music festivals like Spring Awakening, Electric Zoo and so on. The company in
Europe organizes events like AMFAMFAMF, BLNK CBVS and LIC MIAMI. In Brazil, it
owns an entity called PlusNetwork that produces vast successful events like Tomorrowland
that happens once in a year at different places each year all across the globe. It is a music tour
where international acclaimed artists and DJs come together. In Tommorowland organization
at Belgium, LiveStyle introduced the festival of Tomorrowland and promoted it in South
America for the first time. LiveStyle pursues working the organization of Tomorrowland at
Belgium as the international partner for bringing Tomorrowland into territories that are new
mostly outside Europe. The company also has its own Beatport that is the platform of e-
commerce for the producers, DJs and fans of music and dance. It also helped in launching the
careers of the renowned underground artist who define the global culture of music now. The
headquarters of LiveStyle is located in CA with the offices in NYC, Los Angeles, Denver,
Chicago, Netherlands, Australia and Asia (livestyle, 2019.)
Internal Base
This music festival, like other events, happens to be a product which goes through a lifecycle.
The music festival of Tomorrowland has gone via its foundation stage and the lifecycle of an

2Developing strategy for Event Management
introductory stages and themes. It can be predicted that maybe after a span of time, festival of
Tomorrowland might reach its stage of maturity and the sells might start to decrease. The
fairy tale like decorations and a signature design with dynamic theme each year that aims to
provide an experience to its attendees who go through a sensation of escaping reality (Laing
and Mair, 2015.) Festivals like Tomorrowland tend to usually bring humans from different
countries together by using the most powerful words that is of music. The customer base of
Tomorrowland ranges from the age of 18 to 30 (da Cunha Brandao and Oliveria, 2019.)
For effective Marketing, Tomorrowland has always been using strategies that could improve
its experience in a better way each year. Looking at the past and current strategy of this
festival, the event management company structured few strategies. They are:
 Customer Journey: The festival of Tomorrowland happens to be an end-to-end safari.
The event organizers begins to prepare the safari months back before its main date. At
the last day of the journey, the episode or occurrence ends with after-vie that triggers
every attendees to come again for the next event.
 Storytelling: Content Plan: The music festival of Tomorrowland elaborates a plan for
whole content describing the event. It also goes a step ahead by letting its visitors do
storytelling too and encouraging them to share their own content (St John, 2015.)
 Community Building: The festivals just does not build its customers, it builds fans
who are loyal. They are called the people of Tomorrow.
 Community management (Social Media): In today’s digital world, the event company
of LiveStyle makes sure to engage and update its fans on social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on.
 Innovation: During and before the event, innovative services and products get
available like a music box consisting bracelets, case of treasure and also cashless
festivals in which things are paid with virtual pearls (Park, 2016.)

3Developing strategy for Event Management
 Special PR Technique: The event managers here does not offers great communication
deals. Rather it does not revels every particular thing associated with Tomorrowland
at once. This is a strategy to hook their fans and make them more curios. It also gives
opportunities for multi Medias. Every Tomorrowland press release comes with special
buzz and speculation.
 Yesterday is history-Today is a gift-Tomorrow is a mystery: This translates to the
loyalty of fans who experience a journey with delight and surprises.
SWOT Analysis
Like every other company, LiveStyle also has its own strengths, weaknesses, threats and
opportunities. They are as follows:
Strength
 Brand: The festival of Tomorrowland comes up along with products that the
customers or fans can purchase from the festival. It can be both used during festival
and also for future use. Purchasing souvenirs is also available (Curran, 2018.)
 Best Logistics and employees: The employees of this music festival are experienced
already from previous festivals across the globe. They are extremely skilled
employees that follows the briefing of the company and implement their skill set
accordingly.
 Location: The festival was first introduced at Boom in Belgium. It continued in
Belgium from then on but later expanded to various parts of world mainly in Brazil
and The United States.
 USP (Unique Selling Proposition): The festival has been developing since its
appearance into the industry. The USP of this festival is the innovation and variety it
offers to the attendees (Facon, 2015.)

4Developing strategy for Event Management
Weakness
 Competitive Festival: The festival of Tomorrowland has competitions with other
music festivals like Ultra, Coachella, EDC and so on.
 High demand for tickets: As it is a major festival of music, generally the tickets get
sold out in few minutes. The high demand of tickets makes it difficult to obtain it.
 Crowding: In any music festival, crowding in a way has always been a general
concern. As Tomorrowland happens to be one of the leading festivals of music, the
issue of crowding could be bigger concern to overcome (Vidotto, 2018.)
Opportunities
 Branding Belgium.
 Tomorrow World.
 Nomination of ‘Best festival of the year.’
Threats
 Rival Festivals: Tomorrowland has many rivals who want to take away the market
they have gained. This is a threat for Tomorrowland as the rival festivals put constant
effort in improving themselves.
 Drugs: This has always been an issue in Tomorrowland. It is addictive and harmful
especially in music festivals where people get drunk and end up doing stupid things.
Moreover, drunk people have a tendency to consume drugs very easily without even
knowing they are consuming (Ting et al. 2017.)
Currently, the event management company is working on using technology in the
form of e-business in a wholesome manner and implement their marketing strategies
there. The innovation on the other hand needs to get improved with introduction of new
activities and more stalls.

5Developing strategy for Event Management
External base
According to the insights of Festivals, the industry of music festival is valued more than
billion euros of 2.3. It is expected to get doubled by the year of 2020. The course of music
festival and music tourism is growing as the visitors of festivals choose to go abroad for
attending events like this that contributes to the turnover annually. Magazines like Forbes
have identified that market of the electronic music festival have observed a growth of 54%
amongst 2013 to 2016. It highlights the perspicuous value of what this genre brought into the
industry of music festivals in recent years (Dolan, Makarevich and Kawamura, 2015.)
Although along with the growth in Tomorrowland in the recent years, there are also factors of
some risk factors associated with the festival that needs to be taken care by the event
company. They are:
 Personal Theft: It is of no surprise that theft can happen in music festivals. In the
crowd where people are busy waving to the music, it is very for someone with an
intention to steal do his work smoothly. The event management company shall come
up with more security measures and make Tomorrowland an experience of joy
without any theft.
 Hearing Damage or Loss: Children are not allowed into music festivals for a reason.
The ears need to be covered with sound-reducing earplugs for protection (Munn et al.
2017.) However, children are not allowed but the adults also need some gears to
project themselves. The event management company shall provide all the equipment
related to safety measures.
 Violence and Altercations: Whenever there is a crowd, opportunities of fights,
violence, verbal altercations and so on definitely have a high chance. Concerts are
basically environment of high adrenaline habitat where people feel either excitement

6Developing strategy for Event Management
or anxiety at peak level. The adequate measures are to be taken and arrangements to
be made accordingly (Mun and Gogaert, 2019.)
In the industry of music business, the economic activity, labor force and population
affects the marketing the company in high level. During the recent years, Tomorrowland
has seen a massive growth in population, economy and the force of labor that makes it
one of the most happening event of world. The demographics have been seen to increase
since its first edition and people from all races and ethnicity come together and join the
tribe from all across the world. As per ( Gibson and Cornell, 2016) the economy also got
influenced by this as tickets sold out real quick. As far as the labor activity is concerned,
the company keeps a track on shifting demographics that results in the workforce. The
rise of individual choices determines the skills and labor charges accordingly. The
revolution of technology has bought a major change in labor efficiency. More time is
saved and works are done quickly comparatively. The sophistication of client and dawn
of data collection says that in these recent years, the company has recruited more labors
with varying skills. They have worked before so they are experienced enough to undergo
the work and do the arrangements efficiently. Current information of comparative market
includes information of practice, benchmarking and information of competitor.
Tomorrowland has many competitors like Ultra, Coachella and so on. The current
customer and industry trends suggests issues for the company that might have an
influence on development. They are economic, environmental, governmental, cultural,
demographic, social and so on that determines the changing demography of
Tomorrowland’s fans. On the other hand, there are some ethical, legal and sustainable
constraints also impacts the business of event management companies. The legal
constraints of the festival are issues related to license of alcohol, decibel rate of music,
speakers and so on. The ethical constraints are related to the age limit, safety measures for

7Developing strategy for Event Management
the visitors and so on (Holmes et al. 2015) The sustainable constraints are the matters
related to the resources that might not harm the environment like using of paper plate
instead plastic plates, plastic bottles and so on. After the introduction of new
technologies, the event managers has shifted to business of e-commerce. They have social
media accounts via which engagement with the audience is done. The tickets are also
booked online. When people arrive in the venue they are given a virtual pearls and using
that they can purchase the goodies sold inside Tomorrowland.
Developing marketing strategy
The event of Tomorrowland is an outcome of skilled labors. The company of
LiveStyle structures a productive strategy based on its previous records every year. They
include some major points in their marketing strategy. They are described as follows:
 Networking/ Referrals: The planners of events are by nature social animals. It is of
no surprise when most of the event planners are accustomed with networking,
which happens to be one of the most effective tool of marketing. Nurturing and
developing relationship is very important for event managers. Tomorrowland has
fan base from all across the globe (Khan and Khattak, 2017.) People coming here
becomes family for few days. This is a good tool of networking in a way. Apart
from that, it has a big community of people on social platforms and as well as
physically all around the world.
 Search Engine Marketing and Optimization: In today’s digital era, having a
website for any company is very crucial. LiveStyle has a separate website for
Tomorrowland. The event planners use the method of search engine optimization
effectively and do the required things like producing ads, optimizing the search
and so on (Hudson et al. 2015.) This helps in more engagement and reach more
number of audience all across the world.

8Developing strategy for Event Management
 E-mail: The Company also sends invites and offer mails to both the subscribers
and sends promotional mails to people out there. They also form groups or
communities with strangers and form a virtual collective where every update
about the event is posted throughout the year.
 The legal, ethical and sustainable considerations are addressed by introducing
sustainable raw materials, taking permission from government prior to the event
and introducing careful and safety measures for the attendees.
 In the process of strategy development, the stakeholders are kept in mind and
consulted accordingly. They are a part of the company and need to know about its
whereabouts in details for investing (Markwick, 2018.) LiveStyle holds a meeting
with all its stakeholders once in a month and discussed the collected data of entire
month with updating strategies for the upcoming month (livestyle, 2019.)
Marketing Plan
The fans of Tomorrowland range from age 18 to 30. Attendees belong from any race,
culture and ethnicity. There is no division or biasness in Tomorrowland as it is a music
festival for all. Visitors come from different countries all across the globe. It mostly attracts
the youth who like the genre of electronic music. The objectives of this business behind
festival is to expand the company of LiveStyle into the industry of music festival. It aims to
be the leading company of music festivals. The company has some key strategies to expand
that includes search engine optimization marketing, being active of social media consistently
by engaging with the viewers, giving offers in packages, introducing new activities for
festival to attract more customers and shifting everything into a virtual form. The steps for
achieving this goal can be are broken down and being followed ritually (Holt, 2017.) The
entire business has been shifted into e-commerce. The advertisement of festival shows in
social media and the search bar gets loaded with its name in the peak time that is three

9Developing strategy for Event Management
months prior to the event. Though the tickets get booked like probably a year ago but due to
the rush in last moment, the prices generally rise because of its high demand. The social
media accounts of Tomorrowland gets loaded with images and video clips of festival from
the previous year’s edition to trigger the adrenalines of its viewers. The proposed budget set
by the event managers is between 80 to 90 million. The budget is divided into stage, stalls,
alcohol, other beverage, food and stays. The timing to undergo this activity is throughout the
year because it takes a lot of planning and time to arrange everything for such a grandeur
(Lopez and Leenders, 2019.)
Evaluation of strategies
When preparing and initiating the strategies for marketing, some criteria needs to be
kept in mind regarding the application of those strategies. It is to be kept in mind that a daily
tracker is maintained by all the employees. Every department has its tracker that gets added
up and observed at the end of month to calculate the productivity. The benchmark of keeping
the trackers, maintain a consistency of being socially active and utilize the new feature of
polling on social media, optimizing the search engine, increasing the number of
advertisements prior three months of the event and come up with innovative activities will be
used to impact the success of company (O’Reily, Larsen and Kubacki, 2016.) The
preparation of Tomorrowland happens to be throughout the year for very right reasons of
extravaganza. The venue gets selected at different countries each year. Tickets get available
very early and sold out real quick. The stage is the main attraction which takes six months to
get ready. The lighting department starts its work one month prior to the event. Rest,
everything is taken care of by the event managers. The only thing that needs to be improved
are the safety measures related to theft and using of speakers that are soundproof. Drugs in
music festivals is a big concern that needs to be taken care of by strict security set ups to

10Developing strategy for Event Management
avoid chaos (Laing and Mair, 2015.) Social media engagements and strong networking with
press release shall be focused on for communication.
Preparing the implementation of strategy
Goals to achieve Tenure
Search Engine Optimization Throughout the year
Press Release Prior to one month of the event
Social Media Engagement Throughout the year
Networking Throughout the year
Safety measures During the event
New ideas During the event
All the ideas implemented with great care. The search engine optimization is done
after the announcement of the event when theme and everything is revealed. Though, the
company does not reveal everything at once that makes the audience more curious. It reveals
miniature tings and main surprise lies at the event. The social media engagement is done
throughout the year to keep the people engaged and hype about Tomorrowland. Same goes
with networking as the event managers do hardcore public relations. New safety measures
and security will be introduced in the upcoming event with new innovative activities (Carah,
2017.) The process of communication is face to face networking and digital communication
through social media and website.

11Developing strategy for Event Management
Part B
Marketing Report
The research was conducted to analyze the marketing strategy of LiveStyle events for
the music festival of Tomorrowland. The internal and external environment was observed by
overviewing the records and data collected by event managers and employees working in
different sectors. Based on that, a SWOT analysis was made of the festival where it was
found recognition and innovations are strength of the festival, nomination for awards is the
opportunities, competition with other festivals as weakness and illegal consumption of drugs
in the venue as threats of the music festival of Tomorrowland. The external environment is
analyzed by the feedback and already existing hype for the festival. The networking game of
the event managers is very strong. Feedbacks are always encouraged in every platform. Due
to the huge fan base and brand identity of Tomorrowland, the fans also engage on giving
feedbacks along with asking for updates (Krugger and Saayman, 2017.) This kind of
engagement is always encouraged and shows the brand value of its loyal fans. Marketing
strategy was developed based on the aspects of internal and external analysis. The data which
is collected by the employees every month keeps a record of productivity and updates are
initiated based on that. The benchmark of keeping the trackers, maintain a consistency of
being socially active and utilize the new feature of polling on social media, optimizing the
search engine, increasing the number of advertisements prior three months of the event and
come up with innovative activities will be used to impact the success of company
(Pietikainen, 2016.) The company has some key strategies to expand that includes search
engine optimization marketing, being active of social media consistently by engaging with
the viewers, giving offers in packages, introducing new activities for festival to attract more
customers and shifting everything into a virtual form (Allagui and Breslow, 2016.) The steps
for achieving this goal can be are broken down and being followed ritually. The entire

12Developing strategy for Event Management
business has been shifted into e-commerce. The advertisement of festival shows in social
media and the search bar gets loaded with its name in the peak time that is three months prior
to the event (Brunsma, Chapman and Lellock, 2016.) Though the tickets get booked like
probably a year ago but due to the rush in last moment, the prices generally rise because of its
high demand. The social media accounts of Tomorrowland gets loaded with images and
video clips of festival from the previous year’s edition to trigger the adrenalines of its
viewers. The strategies are implemented and informed to the other employees accordingly.
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