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It’s Friday night, and you don’t know where to get your after-work drinks. Looking for somewhere that has a nice ambiance with an even nicer view? A place that also has good food and nice cocktails that’ll make you feel a decent buzz before having to go home? Union Cocktail Bar and Restaurant can you give you all that and more. In this article, we’re going to talk about all the great things you can find within this one-of-a-kind restaurant.

Walking into Union itself feels a bit sketchy, as there is an unfinished road and the gate of Union is so far away from the actual entrance of the restaurant. But, I think this gives it a bit of a mysterious touch, so you don’t know what to expect as you walk in. Once you enter the compound itself, you’ll start to see the design is very green and is almost as if you are walking through a garden. There is the Addis Ababa Museum on the compound, where there are photo exhibitions that sometimes take place (you can usually find out what is happening on Instagram). As you walk passed the museum, you can see the bigger seating area outside of the restaurant. A place where you can sit with a loved one or a friend and just talk while seeing the view of the newly built Meskel Square and the city behind it. As beautiful as the outside is, that is not why you come to a restaurant, so let’s talk about the inside.

In the restaurant there are three seating areas: outside, inside, and upstairs. All three places have their unique style while keeping the same theme as it is one restaurant.

The outside seating area is the perfect place to be if you want to listen to music and have a nice breeze pass by you. Food is also available to eat, and I would suggest it’s better to eat it outside as the breeze will cool down the food faster. While still having the view of Meskel Square, the music playing is afro beats, which helps you to get into the weekend mood (or into the mood of going out if that is your plan for after). The outdoor place is quite large with a lot of seating, so you have a nice variety of where you can sit while enjoying the company of your friends.The indoor seating area is cozier and quieter than outdoors, definitely a place where you can have an intimate conversation to release everything that you’ve been going through during the week. Being right next to the cocktail bar, it’s easy to access the drinks you want. The cocktail menu has so many options, it’ll be hard to choose from, as every single drink is delicious.

All the drinks are made by professionals who know exactly what they’re doing behind the bar and always make sure that their customers leave satisfied. Not only is their cocktail menu as diverse as an ABC tv show, but so is their food menu. From delicious chicken to creamy plates of pasta, to well-seasoned beef, they have food items guaranteed for you to have your mouth watering from the smell alone.  The final seating area is upstairs. Now, this has a bit more of a different vibe than the rest of the restaurant. This is a reservation only but is a place to celebrate anything you want. From birthdays to baby showers, to anniversaries. There are many different events you can celebrate; but even if you wanted to just host a special dinner with your friends, it’s possible to do it here.So, if you’re looking for the best place to have a chill night after work or a place to get your Friday night off to the right start, Union Cocktail Bar & Restaurant is the place to be. With all this, make sure you get the best tables possible, and you get your those loved ones to share this moment with.

Social media and the Internet have grown in the millions with users around the world continuously using it to talk to friends, family, to get their news, as well as just share to the general public their thoughts on certain topics.

Social media and the Internet in general can be used to spread food recipes, cute videos of animals, funny videos of people. It can help communities, as well as create them. All over the world, people can talk to one another about things they have in common. Music, films, books, and so much more can be discussed and learned about from a simple Google search. And not just for entertainment, but also for learning about the sciences, history, and politics. Information at the tips of your fingers, about anything you wish to learn about.

But unfortunately, there are downsides to this. The Internet can be a place of many truths, but also contains many lies that people choose to spread. In the landscape of Ethiopia, there has been an increasing amount of people using Facebook and Twitter to understand the ongoing political struggle the country is facing. As the use of social media goes up, so does the spread of mis/disinformation and hate speech. People who want to stir trouble, or just want to label their opinions as fact, share these articles and posts, causing real life consequences to take place.

USAID seeing this problem decided that something needs to be done. Partnering up with us at Prologue, we created an event where we tried to tackle the issue of media literacy and information verification skills. USAID wanted it to be something not only informative, but entertaining as well, so that those who attended would walk away from this event wanting to put an effort to stop mis/disinformation and hate speech.

Over the course of 2 days, with performances, panel discussions, brainstorming sessions, and interactive moments, Prologue put together an event to remember. We had invited 500 people, of which were influencers, media professionals, social media youth influencers, activists, artists, poets, and more to this event. As these people have their own audiences, they will be able to share the information that they learned at the festival.

Designing this media amplification plan was something that we knew was important. In order for the population to gain digital literacy, we knew we had to find a way to spread it to the masses efficiently. Using those who attended to spread it to their respective audiences, we know that this will help a lot of people begin to learn media information literacy.

As always, Prologue is dedicated to bringing new and exciting events, and we were more than happy help USAID with this. Not only does this festival help bring light to issues that we need to discuss, but it was also done in a fun and unique way.

Ethiopia is an ever-changing platform for people in events to constantly take advantage of. Every year, with its increasing development, new places are created for the population to have fun with. More and more people are hungry to know where they can through their next event, their next party, or their next friendship gathering. Today, we are going to tell you one of the best places to do exactly that. Skylight Hotel.

With its wonderful modern design, and beautiful scenery, this place is somewhere you’d want to celebrate with your loved ones. Whether it be an engagement announcement, a birthday, a wedding anniversary, or even just a dinner because you missed your friends.

Having it’s grand opening in 2019, it has since been a place of fancy dining and lavish decorations ever since. Never disappointing its guests with every set of feet that have entered the premise, it continues to build upon itself.

Starting from their restaurant Asian Bay, a place that is a fusion of the cuisines from the largest continent in the world. With it’s simple post-communism China interior design and warm lighting, it sets itself to be the perfect place for that just right Instagram photo.

They also have their Connexions Lounge and Terrace restaurant which is more suitable for an afternoon quick-catch-up-lunch vibe to take friends and family to. Even if you would like to have a quick snack after work hours with your favourite colleague, this place with its quaint interior can make you feel as if you are dining in a 5 star restaurant.

Now if you’re flying in for a layover, or If you’re looking for a more traditional taste, you can always check out the Ethiopian Taem Cultural Restaurant. This venue allows its customers to experience a little bit of Ethiopia with its cultural band and dances, as well as the traditional menu and alcoholic drinks. Everyone who enters will leave knowing a little but more about the country surrounding the hotel.

Next up we have the ADD Restaurant. This all-day dining venue is a place that you can go for a business lunch with a new client. If you have a work friend travelling in from a different country or are just here for a layover, this would be a place to formally introduce them into one of the finest buffets that is available in Addis Ababa.

Lastly, there is the Sky Lounge. This bar, lined with its dark wooded furniture and fixtures, will give the ambiance of high-class drinking. Whether you’re having single malt whiskey, or just a regular beer, you will enjoy your time with those who you have to accompany you.

So that is everything that you can do at Skylight Hotel. We hope that this gives you more than enough information so you can make a choice of where you would like to go on any given day.

What is a crisis? According to the dictionary, it’s defined as:

1. A time of intense difficulty or danger.

2. A time when a difficult or important decision must be made.

In this context, a company in the face of a crisis must go through different management strategies in order to recover from it.

More often than not, people think that corporate communication strictly relies on high-end press conferences in fancy hotels with dinners inviting the media as well as stakeholders, but there’s more to it. Press releases and annual reports are important to put forward, but the most important thing is how the organization itself deals with the crisis at hand. This determines how well the press and the public view the organization that is facing the crisis. Two good ways to handle a crisis is through speed and credibility. Speed is so that you’re in control of the story that is being put out, and credibility is using the media connections you have developed to share the story. Trial by media is a real thing that everyone faces and the stakeholders of your organization will use it against you unless you have control over the narrative. In this era of media being read and produced 24/7, the media itself will run with whatever story sounds the juiciest in order to get more views without fact checking.

The communications team needs to be the first ones on this story, as well as making sure they get approval to run the accurate version of the story. Sometimes a crisis can catch an organization off guard because of the speed in which news travels. With social media being the biggest tool of communication nowadays, it’s crucial for a crisis management team to look closely at what’s being said across all platforms. Since the statement needs to go through several stages before it’s released, a crisis management team needs to begin working on it the second they catch wind of the situation. Along with these stages, it needs to be approved by various stakeholders in the organization as well as external agencies (such as media houses and governmental authorities).

Now there are several models a crisis management team can use in order to keep the situation handled. We’ll be discussing four today in this article.

Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt Model

This model identifies 3 different stages of crisis management.

1. Diagnosis of Crisis

This is when your organization first begins to detect the early indicators of a crisis. Workplace leaders and managers must sense the warning signals. Helping to prepare their employees against the potential consequences and encourage them to face it with courage and determination.

2. Planning

Once a crisis has been detected, its up to the crisis management team to jump on top of it before it gets out of hand. The first steps of this plan should always be calming down your colleagues and creating strategies that align with your company values. Doing so will allow everyone to move forward in this crisis with a clear head. After doing so you should be moving to discussing with related members of the company to come out with a solution. Your team needs to be patient as well as have the ability to make quick decisions. As you’re making these decisions, make sure that you have facts and figures and not just working off assumptions. This will cost you later on.

3. Adjusting to Changes

Your employees need to be able to adjust to situations that are happening around them as this will help with the general functioning of the company after the crisis passes. The best way to start is analysing the causes of the crisis in the workplace. Once you have found these mistakes, then it should be announced that they cannot be repeated. New rules and policies, as well as process to handle them should be put in place to make sure that this crisis doesn’t happen again.

Structural Functions Systems Theory

This theory relies on communication playing a pivotal role. This means that there is a correct flow of information being exchanged between all levels of hierarchies in the most transparent way possible. Using this theory is important when dealing with a crisis.Management needs to be able to communicate with their employees by providing them with the needed information about the situation. Ignoring people will only make the situation worse. Superiors must be in constant communication with their subordinates, and leaders must come into their roles and tell their employees to give their best.

Diffusion of Innovation Theory

Just like the previous theory, this one is also based on sharing information but especially when dealing with a crisis. Each employee should be trying their best to think out the box for solutions. They also need to come out with an innovative idea that can help the crisis be resolved, as well as a plan B. Effective communication is important to pass on ideas and information, so the second someone has a plan/idea (whether they are an employee or in management or a leader) they must discuss it with other people in their team.

Unequal Human Capital Theory

This theory is a little less dealing with a crisis, and more so how to avoid a crisis. We all know external problems can be a headache, but what if the problems are internal. The most prominent workplace crisis is inequalities between employees. When this occurs at the work place, it will automatically lead to big problems when people find out. Discrimination between different demographics (i.e. gender, race, ethnicity, etc.), job profiles, and earned salary leads to employees who become frustrated. These frustrated employees will naturally play with the company name, as well as spread baseless rumours, which will earn a bad reputation for the company.

As we can see from this article, there are a lot of ways that you can keep control over a crisis. The main way to do it though will always be through communication. No matter what kind of problems your company is facing, whether or not the conflict is internal or external, you need to make sure that everyone is communicating on all levels and is always being transparent. Don’t forget that your team is made up of people, who would want to help your company if you treat them well. Start with that, and every crisis that comes through, you all should be able to handle it with no problem.

Hello again, we’re back with another article! This week we’re here to talk about tools in PR. There are tons that you can use to help grow your business; such as identity media, publications, events, news, speeches and oral engagements, public service activities, employee interactions, charity/corporate social responsibility, printed literature (i.e. annual reports, catalogues, leaflets, direct emails), advertisement (i.e. print media, electronic and new media, outdoor media), special events (national and festival days, organizing concerts, honouring famous artists, celebrities and intellectuals), social media, sponsorships/partnerships, community relations, and so much more. When it comes to PR there are a lot of ways to boost your organisation’s image in the public eye. In this article, we’re going to be focusing on the ones that we think are the most important: 1. Identity Media and Media Relations. 2. Events. 3. Advertisement. 4. Social Media. And 5. Employee Interactions. So, let’s get started.

          1. Identity Media and Media Relations

These two may sound the same but they are slightly different from one another; nonetheless, they do go hand in hand. Essentially, this is a tool to market your product/brand to various media sources such as TV, radio, the internet, newspapers, magazines, and so on. Focus on circulating a message through these sources; sending out a commercial or an ad without knowing what you’re trying to tell your audience will only confuse potential consumers more. Having good media contacts could also help with curating this message, as well as sending it to various media sources for you. There are many ways you can get your message across; such as press kits, audio releases, matte releases, your website, pressroom, a media tour, or even a newsletter. These are good channels for you to use to curate the information about your organisation that will be shared. But also keep in mind that it needs to be interesting and entertaining for people to take interest. Having it be well written enough so it can be shared on these different platforms will also keep you in good graces with different media contacts.

          2. Events

What’s a good way to make sure accurate information reaches your target audience? By throwing an entertaining while also informative event! Highlighting these certain events to the public is a great way to draw attention to a new product, other activities, or even achievements. Organising events such as plays, book fairs, career fairs, trade fairs, jewellery shows, and literary weeks. This helps your audience understand that you are more than just a faceless brand and that you care about your customers. These events could also take place as press conferences, online seminars, contests and competitions, exhibitions, and anniversaries (i.e. Hilton’s 50th anniversary). People also look forward to events such as these, which makes promoting your organization/product easier. Inviting media, stakeholders, and even customers is a great way of getting your name out there. Even from a sales point of view, there’s a chance for you to clear up customer doubts, and build their confidence. This helps with market research and building up your mailing list. In addition, it helps you understand how your competitors work, as customers will be comparing your brand with others. Trade shows are a really good way to understand who you are competing against in your industry as well. It also gives you a chance to share important information with people who are in the same line of work.

          3. Advertisement

We all know advertisement is one of the most important ways of getting your name to the public. As a tool for PR, it’s something that your organization should be leaning on no matter what. Some advertisements can come in the form of new stories or reviews in a newspaper, which gives you the credibility of being associated with the newspaper. Other advertisements can be done through TV either through commercials or product placement on a television show, which comes with the hired help of marketing professionals to develop the advert. Paid presentation and promotions of your product/services through different channels of communication is a good way to relay your message to your target audience. This creates a positive image in the public eye. There are various channels you can use to do this. There is print media (which includes, newspapers, newsletters, magazines, leaflets, flyers, and posters), electronic media (being audio-visual ads on television, radio, internet, and phone), and outdoor media (such as hoardings, gantries, kiosk poles, display ads on vans, airports, and restaurants). Promotional literature at the point of purchase is an essential tool to influence your customers to make the final decision to buy. An example could be a newsletter that is sent out monthly. Not only does it keep your name in the mind of your target audience members, but it can also be used as a way to convince a customer to purchase through other customer testimonials and reviews. Most importantly, an organisation needs to stand out in this day and age of advertising, and the way to do this is to have a unique brand image. Your brand image (meaning a logo, a word, a slogan, a picture, your employee uniforms, shapes, colour combination) is the main thing for everyone to recognize who you are. For example, Kaldis Coffee is a brand image that everyone in Ethiopia recognizes immediately.

          4. Social Media

Social media is the newest form of advertisement that is growing rapidly and being used constantly all over the world. This is the best way to get your message out and sent across the world, showing your brand to various demographics. Using old media (meaning television, radio, etc) gets your message to everyone, but it doesn’t get your message to the specific target audience you have researched on. This allows you to bypass the media and go straight to your customers, meaning it’s easier to reach exactly who you want. While using your own social media page to grow your organisation’s following is a smart thing to do, creating partnerships with influencers and celebrities can take you further. For example, if you create a contract with a person who has a huge following to use one of your products/services, they can tell their audience about how great it is. On top of that, you get to control the information said celebrity will be putting out. Their audience will naturally follow your social media pages as they would be interested to take a look at your organization. Your page would also be followed by journalists, drive website traffic, manage issues by responding quickly to criticisms or negative comments, all while increasing the exposure for your brand.

          5. Employee Interactions

Now this one may not seem as important as the others but it is probably the most important tool of all. An organization cannot be successful if there isn’t anyone that wants to work for it. Employees make the brand, and it’s unfair to not consider them as vital cogs. So how do you keep your employees happy? You can for starters, stay in constant touch with them. Keep your employees updated with the latest news of the organization; whether it be product launches or the latest events. This can be done by sending out emails, circulars, notices, or even simply communicating with them. Having a morning brief once a week is probably the most efficient way to let everyone know the happenings of the organization. Always remember, your staff are essentially ambassadors for your brand and you need to treat them as such. Creating a business culture and focusing on team relationships through sharing information can create a sense of pride in the achievements your organization receives is a good way to build company morale. This is also a good way to improve teamwork, staff retention, and productivity, as more people will feel as if they’re part of a team. Having your staff represent you as an organization can be a great way to get the right messages out to the public.

Public relations is a high stakes game and anything can go wrong at any moment. But until that happens, the best thing you can do for yourself and your organisation is to make sure that you are using as many PR tools as efficiently as possible. Getting ahead of bad news, promoting yourself as unique, creating a company culture that many admire, are great ways to ensure that you are going in the right direction.

We all know that communication can be used to influence and maintain a positive reputation. That is why the saying “communication is key” has been around for so long. But, did you know that the specific form of communication known as public relations (PR) can be traced back to ancient Greek, starting with the classical philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle? They wrote about the art of rhetoric in order to help public speakers persuade the people to agree with their arguments. This was also seen during the British abolitionist movement in the late 19th century, where the party for this movement were using pamphlets, lectures, and books to change the public opinion on the global slave trade.

And as much as we can argue that this is the beginning of public relations, I think it’s better to say that these were moments leading up to what public relations is today. As times have changed, so have we and how we receive information. So, let’s start somewhere simple. What does public relations mean? According to the dictionary: “The professional maintenance of a favourable public image by a company or other organization or a famous person. The state of the relationship between a company or other organization or a famous person with the public.” Going with the dictionary definition, there are two people who could be considered the founder of what PR is today. Ivy Lee, and Edward Bernays. People have spent a long time debating who fathered this new profession. In this article, we’ll break them down for you, so you can decide.

Ivy Lee

Many PR experts get their start in journalism, and that’s exactly where Ivy Lee started. Working at New York America, New York World, and the New York Times, his first obvious PR job was his work with the Rockefeller family. John D. Rockefeller in 1903 was struggling with his company Standard Oil. Due to their negative reaction to strikes that were happening in their mines, the public’s image of the Rockefeller family started to sour. Seeing this, Lee told Rockefeller to interact with the miners in order to boost his reputation among those in the mines, which in turn helped his image with the public. 

 Doing this gave Lee popularity and he was summoned to write the first press release ever in 1906. This was to cover a major rail crash in Atlantic City which was owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Lee’s response to the crash was to invite other journalists to the crash site itself in order to offer select information. Because the press was informed first and it was coming directly from the main source, they were able to have positive coverage.

 The reason why people believe that Lee should be considered the father of public relations is because of his ideas that led companies to begin writing press releases. But even if Lee was the one who wrote the first press release, Edward Bernays is the first one to put science behind it.

Edward Bernays

Born in Austria, Bernays’ family moved to the United States when he was a child. As he grew older, he believed that the political propaganda that was used during World War II could be used by corporations to influence public behaviour in a careful way. Through this, he began to build up a science behind public relations. Being the nephew of the world-renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud, Bernays was able to use his uncle’s theories on psychoanalysis along with other sociological theories to create and grow his methods in PR. Bernays’ main theory was that “it would be possible to manipulate people’s behaviour without their even realizing it.” This led to him launching one of his most known public relations campaigns; which was to convince women to smoke. This campaign played on what men desired in a woman, and Bernays promoted that if women smoked instead of eating, they would become thinner. Using photographers, artists, newspapers, and magazines, he promoted thin women as a special type of beauty. Medical officials were even promoting cigarettes over sweets as a way to keep healthy, also telling women that keeping cigarettes with them was a social necessity. All of this contributed to women smoking more, making Bernays’ successful. More corporations realized that the best way to promote products or push people in a certain way was to convince the public it was their idea.

So, we know that in PR, the public’s opinion is the most important thing a company needs in order to sell their product or brand. Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays have proven that persuading public opinion as if it’s their own idea is the best way. No one likes to know that they’ve been manipulated or that they’ve been told to do something they didn’t want to in the first place. When broken down, it seems as if PR is some evil profession that can convince anyone to do anything. The reality of it is that as complicated as human psychology is, human culture isn’t; therefore it’s easier to convince a person they need something they don’t actually need.

Hey everyone! Sorry for the disappearance. Due to COVID-19, we haven’t been able to write a new article that would be coherent enough to post. But we’re back and we’re here to talk about event planning! Now there’s a lot that goes into creating and managing an event; it even gets extremely complicated. But we’re going to break It down for you in this article by categorizing it into 5 different steps. Keep in mind though, that even if we do put it into simple steps, that there is still so much that needs to be done when organizing the event.

Here are the 5 C’s:

1. CONCEPT

This is when you develop the concept for the event. Why is this event happening? Is it to educate? To raise funds? To inform? Is it a funeral rite? A wedding? An award ceremony? There are so many different types of events you can make, and that’s the reason you need to know the why; to know exactly what the event is trying to achieve. Once you’ve learned this, you move on to the who. Who is invited to this event? Who is the event being held for? Are there major stakeholders? Guests? Long-time customers? Figuring this out will help bring together the creative elements, as it would be easier to understand what type of event should be done. Are there guest speakers you’d like to invite? Performers? Activities? Will there be catering?
These all need to be figured out before the planning begins. The next steps are to figure out there when and the where. These two are easy to figure out as it’s just a matter of scheduling and talking to potential venues, checking places out that you would like to have the event. But the final step is the what. The what is what the event itself is. This has to match with the needs, wants, and desires, and expectations of the audience, while combining with the why, who, when, and where.

2. COORDINATION

This is the planning stage, where you begin to organize everything and everyone involved with the event. But where do you even start with planning an event? After having the concept, here are the different things you can sort out:

• Developing a theme
• Budgeting
• Establishing timelines
• Selecting and reserving venues
• Planning for food
• Selecting speakers
• Arranging equipment
• Coordinating transportation
• Contingency planning

With all of these potentially going into the planning portion of the event, make sure that you are keeping track of all the fine details that you believe would make your event great. Designate these different tasks to other members of your team so that everyone can have a part in planning and coordinating. The best way to ensure everyone is on the same page is creating a schedule and discussion area (on WhatsApp, Telegram, etc) where everyone can consistently communicate where they are.
One of the first tasks that needs to be complete is to reserve a date and venue weeks in advance. The reason for this is because you need to stay flexible in case something prevents you from choosing the desired time and location. There will be a few things that are out of your hands, so its important to remain flexible throughout, and that includes with choosing a day and place. Once that’s done, you need to sit down with an accountant or a bookkeeper to create a budget and to make sure that you’re not going over it. This is one of the most important aspects that goes into creating an event – making sure you don’t go over the budget.

3. CONTROL

This is the most neglected and overlooked stage in event creation. This stage is when you need to put control measures in place in case anything happens that could potentially throw off the event. You should use this stage to compare process vs the actual plan, if the resources are working with the schedule, if everything is within the budget, and what still needs to be done in perspective to the timeline set up. You should be checking in on the venue and the set-up to make sure that everything is on track. Along with checking the set-up, you should be checking in on suppliers, managing relationships with the vendors. These are crucial because if you can’t get along with everyone in your team, then your event is bound for failure. Communication is key and if you’re not constantly communicating with everyone around you, the event is bound to fail.
This stage is also for creating solutions for various potential problems, and having back-up plans in case the initial plan didn’t work out. Planning for any changes that could happen will put you on top of what you need to do. When you consider the worst-case scenarios and create efforts to tackle them, you’ll make sure the event runs smoothly no matter what. One last thing to consider is the budget, and what you’d need to do if the budget is running low, or if there were any unanticipated costs.

4. CULMINATION

This is the day that the event is happening. This day is when you show off all the planning and effort you’ve put into preparing this event. You need to make sure that everyone involved in making the event has access to the venue before the event starts, so that set-up and rehearsals can be done. Like in Coordination, you need to have a communication plan with everyone involved. There are several activities that are involved with this step such as:

• Team management
• Supplier/vendor coordination
• Crowd control
• Security
• Frontline management
• Backend management
• (We cannot stress this enough) COMMUNICATION

All of the above will determine how much the attendees will enjoy your event. Your best bet is to make an itinerary that everyone can follow. As the event is going on, you need to make sure that everyone is following the itinerary to the tee (if a speaker is meant to go on, make sure they’re preparing 10 minutes in advance).
You need to be on alert during the entire event. Control is like riding a bike, and culmination is managing to go in a straight-line while being prepared for contingency or back-up plans that need to be put in place. Don’t forget that something will go wrong with your event, whether it’s a big issue or a small issue, it will happen. But there’s no need to panic if you’ve prepared in advance for something like this to happen. Especially when the wrong thing happening is communicated to you in a timely matter, and you can work well under pressure then you’ll be more than okay.

5. CLOSE OUT

This is when the event is ending and the attendees have all gone. Here are the different things you need to check on as you’re closing down:

• Review and evaluation
• Reporting
• Quality improvement
• Reward and recognition of team members
• Formal termination of contractors where applicable
• Payments given to those that were promised

Of all of these activities though, the first one you should have is the review and evaluation with your team and the client. The client needs to approve of how the event went before moving on to things such as quality improvement and payments. Once you’ve had a word with your client, you move on to your team and telling them what they did well and what they could improve on, as this helps for them to understand how it really went. This is also a good opportunity to ask your team how you did as the events manager, so that you could improve on how you manage future events. Along with asking your team about how you did as a manager, reach out to the other players that had a hand in helping you with your event (vendors, performers, etc) and ask them how they enjoyed the event and what could be better next time.
Don’t forget the most important last step, which is cleaning up. One way to keep a good relationship with venues is to ensure that the event will look like it never happened, and that you understanding cleaning up after yourself is just as important as the event. Once the event is completely over, it’s time to take a look at it overall. See if you’ve achieved the goals you had set out, and how you can use what you learned moving forward.

Thank you, as always, for reading, and we hope to see you again in two weeks to read the next article.

We’re back with our third and final part of our 3-part series! In these last posts we have talked to you about the other two forms of marketing; Below-The-Line, and Above-The-Line. We learned that those two options are great for brand building and brand credibility, but what are the benefits of Through-The-Line (TTL) marketing? Keep reading to find out!

So, what is Through-The-Line marketing? TTL is an integrated communication approach that involves messaging across multiple media platforms, which creates a customer’s perception of your brand or company. This allows you to engage with a customer at multiple points; such as seeing a YouTube ad, and then listening to an AD on a music streaming service, and seeing the product in a shop to test for themselves.

In the past, it was advisable to go with either ATL or BTL tactics because integrating the two seemed impossible. But now, as social media has blurred the lines that had previously separated marketing techniques, creating a new technique that is a combination of both.

The most widely known example of TTL is digital marketing strategies that offer ATL advertising benefits while using BTL communication to connect with customers. There are tools and resources that are currently available such as social media and pay-per-click platforms that help reach national coverage without the cost of doing ATL advertising.

Another example of TTL is 360° Marketing. This means that you integrate BTL and ATL ad mediums (such as a PPC platform and a flyer to hand out on the street). These are then planned and carried out to get the maximum advantage possible.

This article was quite short, but if you understand how ATL and BTL works, then understanding TTL is simple. There are a lot of different marketing tools and techniques that can be used when promoting your brand or your brands newest product. We hope that you enjoyed reading these articles as well as learned a thing or two. Join us again in two weeks for a new article!

Hello everyone! We’re back with the second part of our 3-part-series!

Last time we talked to you guys about Below-The-Line marketing; how it works, and why its an efficient marketing tool. Today we’ll be looking into Above-The-Line marketing, and the different ways this marketing tool can help your brand grow.

So, what is Above-The-Line (ATL) marketing? ATL is when a brand uses mass media to market to a wide (or wider) audience. This is the opposite of BTL, as these campaigns tend to be largely untargeted and undertaken at a general level. So rather than having specific ads that are targeted at an already consuming audience, this is meant to broaden the horizon of your brand. Meaning to reach more people and to establish your brand, along with a clear image. Even though this is a good way to promote your brand, it’s difficult to keep track of the impact it has on audiences and the return on investment. The main purpose of ATL is to make potential customers aware of your brand, and to increase your visibility, not to see a precise conversion of sales rate.

Then how are you meant to measure your success? Well, there are different ways to do this.

1. Reach: How may screens/radios it was played on
2. Frequency: How many times has it been played
3. Gross Rating Points: How much impact and exposure it has received

Even though these three ways are a good form of measurement, it’s still difficult to measure clear results (i.e., how many people have bought your brands new product since the commercial has been on television/radio). But this isn’t about seeing how many people purchase your product, it’s about how many people you can reach with your commercial. Another issue people encounter with ATL is that It may be irrelevant to some audience members, but there is definitely a huge potential of new customers who are willing to purchase your product. The best way to ensure that this is a relevant commercial is to do research on different ways to impact an audience. Here are examples of brands using commercials that have practically nothing to do with their brand, but yet are able to tie it back in.

1. The Dunk | State Farm® Commercial (featuring Chris Paul) – This ad was featured during the NBA. State Farm is an insurance company that regularly features their ads during the NBA games. Chris Paul is a famous basketball player who is usually a part of the commercials. “Jake from State Farm” is a character that has been involved in these commercials since 2011. Here we can see a clever and fun way to promote insurance. The tagline is “Like a Good Neighbour, State Farm is There.” State Farm has always used clever advertisements that involve celebrities, and using the same character “Jake”, it makes it feel more familiar to audience members.
2. Metro by T-Mobile “Big 5G Upgrade: Unlimited for $25 Per Month, Free Galaxy 5G” – This ad was featured on the radio nationwide in the USA. T-Mobile is a phone company that has been established for many years. This commercial was a clear way to tell their audience about their brand new 5G upgrade. The catchy music that they used in the background was a way to keep the audiences’ attention on the ad, as it’s really easy to change a radio station because of ads.
3. Kit-Kat Lockdown Ad – We all know that Kit-Kat’s famous slogan “Have a Break, Have a Kit-Kat” is a very relevant saying. They’ve been using is for the last 10+ years. During the pandemic, a lot of people were having struggles from differentiating between working from home and relaxing at home because everyone was always home. In this ad, Sam Hennig teamed with One Minute Briefs and used a calendar of Zoom calls, and in between a block of time are two bars of Kit-Kit, playing on their slogan without having to actually write it.

As you can see these brands are already well established, but not everyone watching these commercials may think its relevant, which is why they make it more relatable to the audience, rather than more relatable to their brand. But even if ads don’t feel relevant to their brands, they still find a way to bring it back to their brands. This is how a lot of big brands keep their audiences’ minds on them, by repeating their commercials on radio and television. But be careful, these commercials tend to cost upwards of hundreds and thousands of birr, so make sure that the commercials that you’re putting out are hits.

Thank you guys for reading! Catch us again in two weeks for the final part of our three-part series where we talk about Through-The-Line marketing.