One cave dweller asked another, ‘I have a Tyrannosaurus skin, I want to trade for fish. Do you know anyone who would be interested?

Word-of-mouth was the earliest method of marketing and advertising. Over the centuries, as mankind progressed more sophisticated and technologically advanced forms of marketing and advertising came into existence. Some of the more popular mediums used to advertise are Print Ads, Radio Ads and Television Ads. For many years now, event organizers have been successfully using these mediums to promote their events. However, as technology continues to advance and as new mediums of communication come into existence, event organizers need to examin the effectiveness of their current commuication medium in relation to their taregt audience if the want to remain effective.

Why? As you are aware, most events do not have a highly selective attendee list, they tend to include most age groups with a high focus on working class i.e. people with the purchasing power ( 18 to 40). The best way to communicate with this audience used to be through Print, Radio and TV ads. However, the past few years has seen a clear shift in lifestyle patterns. Individuals who fall within this target group are extremely dependent on their mobile phones and the internet. They are never leave their homes without their phones and they are constant online for various reasons emailing or chatting with friends, research and networking. They also use the internet as a social forum where they carry out all forms of discussion. They spend large amounts of time on both mediums not only for work but also for pleasure. (In 2007, there 3 billion global mobile users and this number is expected to cross 4 billion in 2008. The internet penetration global is currently over 3.5 billion.) So, if you want to promote your event to these individuals you need to move beyond the normal – posters, hoardings, magazines ads and start using the mediums that they use the most. By using innovative techniques such as Mobile Advertising and Internet Advertising, event organizers connect to their intended audiences more effectively.

What is Mobile Advertising? Mobile Advertising is a form of advertising via mobile phones. Event Organizers can send their target audiences persuasive message by an identified sponsor. There are several types of Mobile ads such as Banner ads, SMS ads, MMS ads etc. It is an an excellent way to connect to your target audience in an effective manner.

Some benefits of Mobile Advertising

	Wide Reach: Billions of users are using mobile phones and this number is increasing by millions every month, For example: India gains 8 million mobile users per month.
	Speed: Communicate instantly with customers.
	Eco-friendly: The entire process from advertising to payment takes place directly online. This eliminates paper and other admin costs .
	Interactive: This is an extremely interactive form of advertising where each persuasive message encourages potential attendees to take different steps such as call to register or sms if interested in knowing more.

What is Internet Advertising? Internet Advertising or Online Advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. There are multiple forms of Internet Advertising – paid and un-paid. Banners, contextual ads on search engine results pages and classified ads are paid forms of advertising while blogs or social networking sites are mostly un-paid. Experts within the industry say that this method of advertising is one of the most perspective methods of advertising. Examples of social networking sites: MySpace, Facebook, linkedin.

Some benefits of Internet Advertising

	Inexpensive: Reach a wider audience at a fraction of the cost of placing a print or TV ad.
	Wide Reach: Gain global exposure for your event as the internet has no boundaries.
	Instant Call for Action: Print ads give people time to agonize over their decisions. An online banner can have a click through to your event registration page where he can register and pay for you event instantly.
	Eco-friendly: Entire process advertising to payment takes place directly online. Eliminates admin costs and reduces advertising costs.