There is no doubt that physical infrastructure plays a huge role in the successful delivery of engaging brand experiences. The world’s most prominent brands regularly invest heavily into infrastructure to successfully leverage their commercial partnerships and provide their customers with unique brand experiences.
An effective way for brands to maximise their infrastructure investment without breaking the bank is to invest in a mobile event asset. A mobile event asset can provide tremendous value to your commercial partnerships by:
- Offering your customers a significant touch point to engage with your brand through
- Provide an excellent opportunity to generate additional revenue through the sale of your products at events via an extra service point.
However, choosing the right piece of equipment to add to your fleet should not be taken lightly. The cost involved with operating and maintaining these assets can significantly blow your budget if one hasn’t prepared themselves accordingly.
Below are five important considerations you should look into before purchasing a mobile event asset for your brand.
- Logistics
It’s essential to consider what kind of asset you are going to buy based on the amount of budget you can afford to allocate to freight and logistics. A lot of experienced marketers aren’t skilled in moving heavy pieces of equipment around the country. As a result, they often underestimate the costs involved with doing so.
We’ve built many shipping container assets for some very high profile brands. However, it wasn’t until the asset hit the road that these brands got a thorough understanding of what it took to move these assets from event to event. This being especially the case on short lead times between events, where freight companies charge a premium to ensure the successful delivery before going live.
Trailers can provide a great option for brands, as long as they have a designated fleet vehicle to tow the asset. Along with a vehicle, the cost of employing a driver/ operator is another consideration sometimes overlooked which can quickly burn through your budget.
The next level down would be a pop-up event asset, where the capital investment would be significantly less than a trailer or shipping container. A good option some brands adopt is to purchase multiple small assets instead of investing in one large asset. This would mean that you can store these smaller assets with your sales or events team across the country without having to incur the substantial transport costs associated with interstate travel for every event you plan on attending.
- Life Span
Maintenance is another overlooked aspect of owning mobile event infrastructure. If you do not have a good understanding of what it takes to upkeep and maintain this equipment, there’s potential that your budgets will also suffer, along with the wear and tear of the unit.
It’s imperative for safety reasons and risk mitigation that your assets are always in good working order. There would be nothing worse than seeing a brand present a fabulous looking piece of event equipment that is faulty and causes an injury to a patron. We all know the consequences of such an event!
Ensure that whoever you intend to purchase your equipment from gives you a thorough rundown on what the ongoing maintenance costs may be. They should also inform you of any significant ‘watch-outs’ you need to be aware of.
- Rebranding
Being able to utilise an event asset across multiple brands in your business can become a massive cost saver, as opposed to each brand forking out the capital investment to purchase something unique.
In the design phase, it’s a smart idea to make the asset adaptable across a range of brands. This ensures that even if you do intend to use it with only one brand, re-skinning or rebranding becomes very easy and cost-effective. For example, to brand a shipping container could cost anywhere between five and ten thousand dollars, which would blow anyone’s budget if they unexpectedly needed to change the branding.
- Ease of Operation
A commonly seen occurrence is when a brand purchases a new asset with excellent capabilities, impressive functionality but also severe complexity. This leads to an increase in the amount of labour and specialised skills needed actually to operate the unit. For example, if the asset has hydraulic doors, it now becomes a piece of plant and machinery. Meaning that, as a brand, you may not have the necessary insurances in place to mitigate any risk with staff injuring themselves while operating the asset. In turn, the costs for dedicating a staff member to provide the necessary training may outweigh the return you will receive on your purchase.
It’s also vital to consider how much manpower it takes to set the asset up. If you purchased an asset for one of your sales staff to operate locally, but it takes three people to set it up and pack it down each time, the costs are going to blowout very quickly.
Also, the wear and tear on your staff may end up causing them to underutilise the asset due to the stress and hardship it puts them under each time they are required to set it up.
- Is Your Asset Unique?
Trends and fads come and go quicker than ever thanks to today’s digital economy and being able to stay ahead of the curve to produce unique infrastructure are perceived to be something that only the top brands in the world have the budget to be able to do. But if you are looking to purchase an ‘off the shelf’ unit, it’s important to consider what your competitors are currently doing or what assets they are rolling out through their current event programs. This will help you select the right asset to ensure your investment doesn’t get lost in the crowd.
Slapping a logo on a generic piece of equipment is fine if you’re looking to move product. But, it’s essential to have the ability to customise the asset to make sure that it reflects your brand in a way that is aligned with the rest of your brand assets and collateral.
This is especially important if you’re:
- Seeking brand awareness
- Want to increase brand recall
- Provide a unique brand touch point for your potential customers to engage with you through
Make sure you talk to your supplier about the customisation options on their standard pieces of equipment before going ahead with a purchase like this, This will help you to understand better how the asset can be customised if you find more budget or a specific event pops up that you need a unique look for.
To wrap it up, purchasing a mobile event asset can be a massively rewarding undertaking for a brand, but can also possess it’s fair share of watch outs and budget blowouts. If you’re in the market for a new asset, be sure to weigh up the five points outlined above and ensure the asset you decide on is well-equipped to help you hit your overall marketing goals.
