One of these days, you won't have to worry about COVID. You won't have to adjust your behavior around other people, and you won't have to worry about viral transmission, closing indoor spaces, or wearing face masks.

Unfortunately, society isn't at that point yet, and everything, including those plans you had for experiential marketing events, have to be adjusted to account for how life is now and how it will be for the time being. This does not mean ending your business or never marketing. You just have to change how you do things and what your expectations are for each event.

Hold It Outside

Viral transmission is less of a risk outside, so hold your events outside. If it's the rainy season, provide shelter and portable heaters if it's cold, but keep everything outside where there is better airflow. Set up booths that have a lot of space around them and give people room to spread out. You can present it as being outside for the fresher air (which is true, to an extent), too; you don't have to present all your marketing as virus-influenced.

Provide -- and Require -- Actual Masks

Yes, there's a lot of controversy in some areas about masks, but they do help prevent transmission, both from and to the people wearing them. Make it clear that your event is open to the public but run by a private company with the power to require masks, and then require that everyone at the event wear real masks, not the gauze ones that anti-mask activists are pushing. Hire bouncers to eject anyone who pulls the "wear a mask to get in and then remove the mask once in" trick. Have branded masks available to hand out free to people who either forget their masks or whose masks slip off accidentally.

Make It Smaller but More Frequent

Marketing events rely on crowds and a lot of exposure, but that can be difficult to manage now. Arrange for smaller, repeat events that are held more frequently so that crowds are easier to manage while still allowing your product to be seen by more people.

These are odd times. No one really knows what will happen other than vaguely understanding that eventually there will be a vaccine, so for now, everyone has to make adjustments. Experiential marketing agencies have been working on plans to keep events going with safety in mind. Contact an experiential agency now to start planning your next round of marketing.

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