Event Marketing: How to Create Buzzworthy Event Posters

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 shuttered many in-person events due to health and safety concerns. While virtual events offered safer alternatives, they just couldn’t compare to the fun and excitement of in-person events. For 97% of event promoters, in-person events are vital to the event marketing industry.

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Now that in-person events are back in style, it’s time to promote your event big time to ensure its success. One of the best ways to do this is by creating a buzzworthy event poster. Event posters are an integral part of event marketing, so they need to be able to grab a person’s attention and get the word out.

If you are an event promoter in the San Francisco area and are looking for ways to make your event posters stand out, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading this guide below for tips and tricks on how to create attention-grabbing event posters.

Decide on a Theme or Design

First thing’s first, you need to sit down and plan out the design or theme of your event poster. This is a vital first step in the event marketing process, particularly if it relates to a larger buzz marketing campaign.

Having a clear idea of your event’s theme will also help you with other event promotion aspects like decor and venue. Think of your brand’s target demographic. Are you leaning more toward a skatepunk vibe or is your aesthetic an old Hollywood glam vibe?

Your event’s theme can also influence the color palette you choose for your poster’s design. Decide on the primary theme and then take it from there.

Define Your Event Concept

Once you’ve thought of your event’s main theme, it’s time to go to the concept. You may think these are the same, but from an event marketing standpoint, they’re not. The theme relates to the overall tone and structure while the concept relates to the details and elements of the practical aspects of the event itself.

If your theme is Alice in Wonderland, how can you make this come to life as a full event concept? You will need to know what types of activities and entertainment your event will offer. Experiential marketing and events now comprise 38.34% of event marketing as its most successful tactic.

Will your event be a pop-up-style attraction or a festival setup? Will you have interesting attractions like an AR/VR experience and live music? Will there be food and drinks?

You need to put this information on your event posters to attract potential event guests.

Choose a Focal Point for Your Event Posters

Event posters are their own form of artwork. Every good piece of artwork has one good central focal point on it. Likewise, you’ll want a central image on your poster that catches attention and draws the eyes toward the center of the poster.

This helps you establish a visual hierarchy that directs the viewer to the information you want your event attendees to see first. Whatever is in the center stands out first.

There are 5 key elements of visual hierarchy to consider:

Scale – the size of the image or text
Contrast – dramatic shifts in the color of the image and text
Color – a difference in hues to attract attention
Alignment – the specific location of the text and image
Proximity – layout structure of like-grouped images and text together

Following these key elements of advertising and event marketing can help your event posters stand out and get the right attention.

Use Color to Your Advantage

A strategic use of color is essential for event marketing, especially when it comes to making event posters. The right color palette can attract attention to your posters.

Color can tie directly into brand awareness. This can be achieved by using the same colors on your event posters to correlate with your brand identity. Color can also contribute to an increase in brand awareness and recognition by as much as 80%.

It is best to focus on no more than 3-5 central colors to use in your color palette for your event posters. Any more and it could look too messy and overwhelming. Using complementary colors offers a unique opportunity to create distinctive color contrasts.

Professional poster design doesn’t always need to be all-encompassing either. A lot can be said for using intriguing yet subtle colors and designs as well. You should also never underestimate the power that utilizing simple negative space can have on enhancing your poster design.

Select Appropriate Text and Fonts

Another big part of creating event posters for your event marketing event is the fonts and text used. The font should help you tie your theme and concept into the rest of the marketing poster design.

You’ll want the text and fonts to be large enough that they can be read from a distance but not so large as to overpower the rest of the poster. Avoid using overly fancy fonts that could pose problems with their readability.

You may also want to include a tagline on your event posters that creates interest in the event. For example, going along with the Alice in Wonderland theme, you could use something like “Experience the Wonder for Yourself” or “Wonder No More.”

Include the Necessary Event Information

Advertising with posters requires the inclusion of several pieces of information to let guests know the main details of your event. Well-informed event guests will be more likely to attend. Make sure to include information such as:

Timeframe (event start and end times)
Cost to attend
Location of the event
Dress code
Type of event (costume party, dance, musical festival)
How to buy tickets
Age restrictions
Food and drink

This information is also necessary if you want to print out advertising flyers of your event posters to hand out on the day of the event to boost attendance.

If you’re worried about your event posters looking too cluttered, a simple QR will link event guests to the right informational website when scanned with their smartphones.

Design Event Posters with a Social Media Mindset

Any modern event promoter knows that social media plays a big role in event marketing and event promotion. You’ll want to promote your event the traditional way on the street with street teams while also implementing a digital event marketing approach on the appropriate social media channels.

Use hashtags on your event posters to keep the buzz and the hype about your event going online. Give hints and teasers to followers on your brand’s page about the event’s upcoming events if you’re planning a secret product event launch. Encourage followers to take photos of themselves in front of your event posters to share on social media for contests.

Make sure you use the same design for your event posters online as you do on the street to keep your marketing design cohesive, uniform, and on-theme across all mediums of advertising.

Expand Your Event Marketing with Thumbtack Bugle San Francisco, CA

Your event posters play a crucial role in your event marketing campaign, so it’s important that they always look their best. Following these tips will help you achieve professional poster design and ensure successful event promotion.

Thumbtack Bugle, located in San Francisco, CA, is a one-stop guerilla marketing service. We handle every aspect from distribution and planning to copywriting, designing, and printing promotional materials. We offer professional poster design services for event posters, flyers, postcards, and more across a spectrum of advertising mediums.