How Contingency Planning Can Protect Activation Events

What happens if it rains? A sudden downpour, a power failure, a broken water main, a shipping delay: The number and variety of circumstances that can upset even the most carefully made marketing plans is vast. That’s not comforting news for brands and agencies planning brand activations, pop-ups, and other experiential marketing events, but it’s a fact of life. Fortunately, while none of us can control the weather, local infrastructure, or the behavior of individual guests, we can control how we respond, and we can respond in ways that salvage the event — perhaps well enough that attendees won’t even notice. How? Contingency planning.

What Is Contingency Planning?

We generally understand contingency planning on an enterprise-level scale rather than as something applicable to an individual pop-up shop or brand activation. It’s the sort of planning done to ensure business continuity in the event of catastrophe. “A contingency plan is a roadmap created by management to help an organization respond to an event that may or may  not happen in the future — whether it’s a large-scale event like a natural disaster or a small-scale roadblock like employee theft,” explains an article on lucidchart.com.

Like business contingency planning, contingency planning for a brand activation means proactively identifying potential risks that could disrupt the event and developing strategies to address them, ensuring the activation can still achieve its goals even if unexpected situations arise. “A solid contingency plan ensures you can adapt quickly with minimal disruption,” says an article on ctcconferences.com.

“Event contingency planning empowers event experience leaders to assess various scenarios and predict potential outcomes,” says a post on marketingprofs.com. “The approach increases your event’s resiliency by adding another layer to event strategy planning.”

Why Create a Contingency Plan?

By definition, a contingency plan is something you hope you never need to use. Depending on location and the nature of the event, among other factors, the event might face very few risks. But even if your brand’s contingency plan is never implemented, there are benefits to having gone through the planning process:

A contingency plan minimizes disruptions: Having a plan in place means your team can respond quickly and effectively to situations that have the potential to negatively impact your activation. Even if the disruption doesn’t rise to the level your plan prepared you for, you’ll be better positioned to respond for having thought it through.

A contingency plan can help protect your brand reputation: Not only can a contingency plan ensure that the challenges the event faces impact guests as little as possible, a good contingency plan shows preparedness and professionalism. “With an effective contingency plan in place, organizations may be able to endure otherwise debilitating events, without customers or competitors ever taking notice,” says an article on se.com.

A contingency plan improves decision making: The process of reviewing risks, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and developing solutions is intrinsically valuable to any business. “This not only helps to develop a more detailed, systemic contingency plan; it can also provide valuable insight into other areas of business,” says se.com.

What to Consider: Key Aspects of Activation Contingency Planning

While it’s tempting to brainstorm around every possible occurrence that could impact the event, start by focusing on a few key areas:

Transportation: Consider how people — participants, principals, and guests — will arrive at and depart from the event. Example: What if needed equipment, sets, or props get lost or delayed in shipping? Consider the impact of serious transportation breakdowns and how to keep the event on track.

Weather: Outdoor events may need backup plans, such as indoor venues, in the event of a serious weather emergency. Consider how to ensure the safety of guests and participants should the weather turn extreme — where will they shelter? How will they leave the event, and where will they go?

Security: Consider potential safety concerns and establish clear protocols for security and safety incidents.

Communication: Determine how best to contact attendees and vendors about plan changes, including who on your team is responsible for disseminating information.

Attendance: What will the team do if attendance falls far short of expectations? Consider last-minute promotional tactics to attract a bigger crowd.

How It’s Done: Steps to Creating an Effective Contingency Plan

Identify the risks.

You need to know what your event could be up against, so “brainstorm possible scenarios that could disrupt your event, from logistical challenges to emergencies,” says ctcconferences.com.

Assess each risk’s impact and likelihood.

Few organizations have the resources or time to prepare for every possible contingency. That’s why for most brands, the goal is to spend the time and resources prepping for events that have a relatively high chance of occurring. Sure, an earthquake could wreck your activation plans, but not every area has a high chance of earthquakes. On the other hand, “If your area is prone to flooding,” says lucidchart.com, “you should spend more of your resources preparing for floods.”

Create action plans.

Come up with detailed responses to every risk on the list, “including who will handle them and how they’ll be addressed,” says ctcconferences.com. Put these in writing, ideally with visuals or step-by-step instructions. Create alternative plans for each identified risk, including adjusted timelines, alternate locations, backup speakers, communication protocols, and damage control measures.

Communicate the plan.

Make sure everyone on the event team — including staff, vendors, and any key stakeholders — understands the contingency plan and what their role will be if it must be implemented. “Establish a decision-making hierarchy so your team understands the group’s structure should it need to enact a contingency plan,” advises marketingprofs.com.

Test the plan.

marketingprofs.com recommends conducting “run-of-show exercises” to help the team get inside the event, step by step, to identify “individual event elements that have a high probability of not going according to plan.” In marketingprofs.com’s example, a speaker flying from Italy to the U.S. is facing delays — a high-probability occurrence. The contingency plan should break down the impact of the problem and changes to plan needed to keep it from derailing the event, asking questions such as these: Can the speaker present the remarks virtually? At what point should we shift to a backup speaker? Have we chosen a backup speaker? Have we drafted messaging for this scenario — what we will tell the audience and media?

“Pay particular attention to parts of the event most likely to encounter obstacles, and prioritize those scenarios to ensure backup plans are in place.” Ranking issues according to severity and likelihood can help keep the team focused on the most likely and most damaging contingencies.

Promobile Marketing is a dynamic experiential marketing agency based in New York City. For over a decade, Promobile Marketing has collaborated with a range of brands—from budding startups to major CPG brands—on immersive marketing campaigns. Get in touch to discuss your next project.