Sonia Andresson-Nolasco

Ruud Janssen has a background in marketing in the hospitality, meetings and events industry and is the founder and owner of The New Objective Collective, which counsels organizations on using live and digital strategies as part of their event programs. He’s a partner with The Event ROI Institute, and hosted Event ROI Week in London last month. Janssen is also an accredited trainer for MPI Global Training+. Here, he talks about social media-driven ROI at events and offers six ways to get a social media plan in place.

Major concert tour sponsorships can be powerful platforms for developing an affinity between passionate music fans and your brand. But if the tour turns out to be a one-time gig with a group of disparate co-sponsors, is it really worth the investment? Corona and Hooters are two brands that have discovered the value of building brand synergy and a long-term relationship with major recording artist Kenny Chesney that fits both Chesney and the brands like a well-worn cowboy hat.  

New York only passed the same-sex marriage law this July, but the LGBT community has been fraternizing on the state’s Fire Island since the 1960s. For the uninitiated, the island is divided into several sections, two of them mostly frequented by the LGBT community—the Pines primarily by gay men and Cherry Grove by lesbians. The Pines also boasts having the most expensive real estate on Fire Island with about 700 houses in one square mile. The thousands of vacationers that flock to the area—most on timeshares—live and work in Manhattan.

When McDonald’s launched its “I Am Asian” campaign nearly eight years ago with the Asian and Pacific Islander-targeted website i-am-asian.com, the program attempted to bridge American life with Asian culture by peppering the site with history, testimonials and activities that would inspire the demographic to pursue their passions and dreams with McDonald’s support through scholarships and local events.

When it comes to delivering a personal touch, other marketing disciplines have nothing on experiential. So when social media came on the scene, it was only natural that the two forces would come together to create a killer combination of live and virtual experiences.