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Splashie Awards Highlight Benefits of Cohesive Branding in Event Marketing

July 19, 2021

The winners of the Splashie awards for event marketing showcase how five organizations developed a branding framework to bring their events to life.

Looking for branding inspiration? Event marketers can look to winners of the inaugural event marketing design awards called The Splashies — event marketing design awards that celebrate the most innovative and eye-catching events built on the Splash event marketing design platform — for ideas on how to incorporate branding and design through every phase of the attendee experience. From the registration page to branded livestreams to post-event emails, Splashie award winners showcase how savvy event marketers can overcome some common design challenges, from repetition fatigue to how best to showcase a brand throughout the event marketing cycle.

While design is key to both in-person and virtual events, the stakes for in-person events are higher now that face-to-face meetings are restarting as the pandemic restrictions begin to lift. Events that have well-designed and branded campaigns tend to lead to better attendance, audience engagement and overall outcomes.

And the Splashie Awards Go to…

The Splashie award winners — chosen from among 7,200 contenders — each used the Splash platform to create their campaigns. The platform includes a brand library as well as 20 themed templates event marketers can use as their jump-off point. There were five Splashie design categories, the winners of each of which were highlighted in a video now available on demand. The winners were:

The Oh Wowie Award for visually stunning event went to TikTok’s #ForYou Summit for its use of visual graphics event-wide. It included an engaging teaser video that draws the audience in. TikTok added questions to the registration form to learn more about attendees, and carried the branding through all attendee communications, including social media. The TikTok North America Business Marketing Events Team said, “We love the flexibility Splash provides us to inspire creativity and bring joy to all of our partners across the world.”
The Virtualie Award for the best virtual event of the year went to Aspen Instittute for its Aspen Show Up Ideas Festival. It used multiple Splash pages to allow attendees to choose their own journey, as well as cohesive branding through every attendee touchpoint. “They didn’t miss a beat from the in-person events of past years, which is a big accomplishment,” said Splash’s Allie DeCastro in the video awards presentation. They also sent recap emails for attendees after each day of the virtual event. Jonathan Melgaard, a producer with the Aspen Ideas Festival, said, “Customization and personalization is super important for us.” They liked the ability to construct the look and feel of the experience how they wanted it for this specific event while still staying within the overall organizational branding, he said.
The Totalie Award for the best use of all Splash touchpoints went to GumGum. Their use of bright colors and graphics for their 2021 Workout Series linked out to various daily wellness activities. Of special note was their expansion of the overall branding into individual touchpoints.on fun, nostalaigic subranding messages. “The more special and unique you can make these touchpoints, the better engagement you’re going to see and the better involvement,” said GumGum’s Shannon Scanlin in the video.
The Brandie Award for the best brand implementation went to Bazaarvoice for its World Summit 2021 event, with a special shout-out for its well-thought-out event pages.
The Holy Molie Award for the best in show went to Clubhouse, which took advantqage of a theme that includes an inline form to increase registration substantially. Clubhouse also used custom animation imagery set as background images to create a sense of surprise and delight.
The Crowd Pleasie, the people’s choice award, which attendees of the award-winner online event voted for, went to the Aspen Ideas Show Up Festival.