Marketing and communications for events

10 minute read • Last updated: 12 March 2025

Marketing an event has some key differences to general business marketing as everything should be done with the event date in mind.

In the lead up to an event, you should aim to create a buzz with your marketing efforts and build anticipation which should in turn create interest and attendance.

During an event, focus your efforts on enhancing engagement and continuing this post-event, by capitalising on key moments and successes.

Develop an event marketing plan

Visitors enjoying Highland Games — Crowds at the Cowal Highland Gathering
© VisitScotland/Kenny Lam

Event marketing is a crucial part of delivering a successful event. It can help you to:

increase awareness
build engagement
attract audiences
generate ticket sales and other income

Each event is unique – so as you consider this advice, think about how you can tailor it to fit your event, thinking about its size and budget and with your objectives and target audiences in mind.

It is essential for event organisers to put together a marketing plan which outlines:

objectives, budget, key milestones, channels and a timeline, which may generate opportunities for marketing and communications
an overview of your target audiences
a strategy for selling tickets and benchmarks
how you will communicate your event proposition and what your key messages will be before, during and after your event
ideas and an inventory of all digital and print content that needs to be developed
an overview of marketing opportunities which can be used including website, email, social media, PR, paid marketing and potential stakeholder opportunities and other partnerships

Marketing objectives

Use the SMART framework to set objectives for your event marketing plan - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Find out more about SMART objectives and measuring progress.

Here are some examples of key areas you are likely to want to focus your efforts on alongside some example objectives.

Income
Set a target value of ticket sales, sponsorship and any other income stream targets that the event needs to achieve and set revenue milestones along the way so you can check your progress.
Attendees
Maintain/increase audience figures by a certain percentage over the course of the year.
Attract new audiences
Increase the percentage of new attendees and/or attract a percentage of audience from outwith the local area.
Digital marketing
Achieve an uplift in social media followers/engagement rate, a percentage increase of open and click rate for emails, or an increase in the number of website visits over the course of the year.
Attendee feedback
Distribute a post-event survey within two weeks to ticket buyers which has a response rate of 30% or higher.

Marketing budget

Illuminations being enjoyed by crowds — Light installation at SPECTRA in Aberdeen
© VisitScotland/Kenny Lam

Examples of income and expenditure which you may include in your budget:

revenue streams (funding, sponsorship, tickets, exhibitors and merchandise sales)
content marketing (blogs, videos, social media, paid media/partnerships, influencers)
outsourcing tasks such as design, website development and marketing
digital and print advertising
photography or videography
branding or signage including design, print, delivery and installation costs
merchandise
complimentary tickets for guests or competitions
market research/survey tools

Key milestones

All of your marketing and communications should be based around the key milestones. This should include:

Event launch
Confirmation of the event, location and venue with dates and times.
Programme launch
Confirmation of what event activity is happening and who will be performing/competing, special guests in attendance and details on other offerings eg food and drink, exhibitions, workshops etc.
Ticket sales and merchandise launch
When tickets will be on sale, and any staggered dates/times for special tickets such as priority booking, group bookings, and general public sales.
Partner announcements
Details of sponsors or partners coming on board to support the event, volunteer calls and stories, community and charity engagement efforts, green initiatives, and ambassador announcements.
Countdowns
For example one year, six months, three months, one month, one week.
Post-event communications
This could be thank you messages, image or video highlights of the event, announcement of your next event date and/or an audience survey.

Driving ticket sales

Monitor your ticket sales targets closely and consider adjusting your marketing plan based on where you are in reaching those targets – you might want to slow down your activity if you’re ahead of target to save budget for when you might need it more. Equally, you can speed it up or carry out additional marketing if you’re behind on ticket sales (budget-permitting).

Special offers or discounts

These can be used to drive sales eg early bird, friends/supporters, concessions. If you do introduce a new offer or discount, be mindful of those who have already paid full price and may not be happy to have missed out on this opportunity.

You also need to be comfortable on how many discounted tickets you can sell, and still bring in enough money to cover your costs and make a profit.

Ticket giveaways

Consider giving tickets to the media in return for free exposure.

You may want to allocate some tickets to members of the press or influencers to attend and provide coverage/create content about the event. If your event runs over a number of days, having them attend on the first day or a special preview night could mean there is time for people to see their content and be encouraged to purchase tickets for a later date.

Livestream and/or on demand

Streaming events online is a great way to reach a wider audience but it may impact potential in-person sales. You should consider if the cost and resources of offering a livestream or catch-up video of your event is worth the revenue it may generate.

You could decide to offer this for a selection of your programme only, such as sold-out in-person events or those with more of an international appeal. It could also help encourage online audiences to potentially attend in-person in future years.

Images, video and content creation

Opening event at Edinburgh International Festival
© VisitScotland/Kenny Lam

Tailored messaging and assets such as photographs and videos are crucial to creating compelling content. Think of key information to include in your messaging that communicates the value of attending your event and help motivate people to find out more. Your messaging should include:

basic event information
what the event experience will be like
why it shouldn’t be missed
the event’s unique selling points (USPs)

Find out more about establishing your event’s USPs and creating good content.

Capturing images and videos

Capturing images and videos during the event is critical for future marketing. Before the event, put together a detailed list of all the shots you would like to have such as:

performance/action shots
shots of crowds, people enjoying themselves and special programme moments
shots of the venues and event backdrop
shots of exhibitors, suppliers, food stalls etc to show everything your event offers
sponsor branding to document recognition and visibility at your event
a mix of both landscape and portrait shots

If you haven’t had your event yet, consider staging a pre-event opportunity to give you assets to use in your marketing. Consider options for photos and footage including ‘behind the scenes’ content eg venue set up, backstage footage, interviews with performers and teaser videos.

Stock image options

You can access images of Scotland through the VisitScotland Toolkit, and submit your own event images for use across our marketing if you would like.

Find more photography tips.

Copyright and model release forms for event photography

Hiring a professional photographer or videographer for your event is highly recommended if your budget allows. Typically, the photographer holds the copyright to the images captured, so it’s important to reach an agreement that grants you a licence to use these digital images in future marketing. If you intend to share these files with another business or organisation to promote your event, you may need to discuss purchasing the copyright (intellectual property rights) from the photographer.

If you decide to take your own photographs, it’s important to obtain permission from attendees before capturing their images.

Inform attendees in advance

Make it clear on your website and in all email communications about ticket sales that photography and videography will be taking place during the event. This level of transparency helps attendees understand that they may appear in promotional material.

Display signage at the event

Install prominent signs throughout the event venue to notify attendees that photography and filming will be taking place.

Obtain model release forms

When you plan to use images for marketing or commercial purposes, its essential to get permission from anyone who is featured prominently in the photo or video. A model release form is the contract agreed between the photographer and the attendees. This is particularly important if the images will be used in paid advertisements, promotional materials, or on social media platforms.

Find more information on and examples of model release forms.

Respect privacy and boundaries

Always be mindful of attendees’ comfort levels. If someone declines to have their photo taken or requests that their image not be used publicly, it is vital to respect their wishes.

You should ensure that your photography efforts remain ethical and legally compliant, while also enhancing your event’s promotional opportunities.

You can find further resources around data protection from the ICO. 

Content distribution

There are three defined marketing channels; owned, paid, and earned.

owned are channels that belong to you like your website, email and social media channels
paid is when it costs you to reach a certain audience eg influencers, radio, social media, print media, outdoor and digital advertising
earned is when a third party promotes your brand or event for free eg VisitScotland can help promote your event for free through its event listings.

There are other ways you may be able to work with VisitScotland and align your business activity.

Marketing opportunities through VisitScotland

VisitScotland offers event listings on the consumer website visitscotland.com, guidance on social media content, free access to our media toolkit and more.

VisitScotland.com listing

VisitScotland.com provides a host of information and inspiration for visitors considering or planning a trip to Scotland including things to do, events, accommodation, food and drink and lots more. The site is seen by 22 million visitors a year and available in multiple languages.

You can list your events for free on the consumer website. You'll be asked to fill in a short form that's hosted by third party Data Thistle, which will allow for the inclusion on other third party sites such as The List. This means even greater exposure for your event and the opportunity to reach new and wider audiences.

You can read our approval guidelines before you submit an event on visitscotland.com.

Submit your event for visitscotland.com.

Other VisitScotland opportunities

Funding

EventScotland, a team within our Industry and Events Directorate, offers funding for sporting and cultural events across Scotland. This can open up additional marketing and communication opportunities to supported events.

Find out more about the National Events Funding Programme and International Events Funding Programme.

Training

VisitScotland also provides a calendar of training and industry events. Keep an eye on these listings for any upcoming sessions on marketing.

Marketing evaluation

Refer back to your SMART goals to identify key metrics to measure and make sure to track and measure the performance as you go along, and not just at the end of the event. This is helpful because some activity will likely work better than others and you may want to change tactics to do more of one thing and less of something else.

Ask the following questions after each marketing activity:

did it give you a boost in ticket sales?
did it drive more visits to your website?
how did people engage with the content?

You might use the following metrics to gauge performance:

tickets purchased
clicks/conversions from adverts or posts
total revenue amount (including tickets, sponsorship, funding and merchandise)
value in kind amount
social media reach (how many people see your posts) and engagement metrics (the number of likes, comments, shares and follows of your page)

You can also send a post-event survey for direct feedback from attendees. This can help steer future marketing activity by providing you with details on:

who your audience is
where people found out about your event and where people bought tickets from ie box office/venue, event website, or third party ticket company(s)
how you can improve the event experience / customer satisfaction

Find out more about gathering insights from your website and social media channels.

Creating a communications plan

The 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles
© VisitScotland/Jeff Holmes

PR and communications are important to help you raise awareness of your event and support the sale of tickets. Developing a PR/communications plan will help you to:

manage your reputation and customer expectations before, during and after your event
deliver key messages to new and existing customers
increase visibility of your event

Developing a plan involves the production, distribution, and measurement of strategically planned content. Usually, this content is designed to support your overall business goals.

When writing a communications plan, we recommend using the OASIS model - objectives, audience, strategy, implementation and scoring.

Objective

Consider what the objective or purpose is of the activity. Examples could include:

organise and manage a media call for your event’s programme launch and generate coverage in at least two local newspaper titles or websites
enhance local community engagement by delivering clear, consistent and compelling messaging across a range of communication channels to increase awareness

Audience

Who you are trying to reach will dictate what element of your event or message you should promote, what channels or publications you use to reach them and what tone and style you use.

Strategy

This is how you will meet your objectives and the tactics you use ie channels, audience and key messages. Don’t forget to outline a realistic timescale, budget and available resources as part of your planning.

Using the same example of enhancing local community engagement, you might look at posting on local social media groups to highlight how your event connects with people and the place they live.

Implementation

This is the detail of tactics, actions and channels you will need ie content creation, press releases, and social media posts. Remember to consider partner channels to amplify messages and monitor the performance across channels.

Using the example of posting on local social media groups, you might want to consider contacting the owner of the group in advance, having strong images / video ready to use, good content on external links if you sign post to these and preparing and encouraging other partners / interested parties to engage with your posts.

Scoring

Set key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the activity such as reach, engagement or media coverage. Try to measure results as you go as this will allow you to see whether you are on target or have more work to do.

Planning for crisis communications

We all hope it doesn’t happen, but you need to be organised for any scenarios that would negatively impact your event, for example: guest, venue or transport issues, extreme weather or other unforeseen circumstances.

Have a variety of messages prepared so that you can respond quickly if needed. Nominate someone to be responsible for posting the messages and agree what channels you will use to share them.

Find out more about planning for risks or crisis in delivering your event.

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