Three Stages of Event Operations: From Planning to Review - How to Create an Event with 10,000

Event operations, through online and offline activities, stimulate short-term improvements in operational metrics. In the short term, they can rapidly boost one or more metrics to multiples of the normal level. Ideas for event operations often come from holidays, the product itself, anniversaries, or competitors. Event operations play a crucial role in maintaining user retention and stimulating engagement. How can you achieve satisfactory results with event operations?

Let's look at an example: review the key factors that led to the success of our voting event with 10,000 participants. Which are universal event operation principles, and which can be borrowed?

Stage 1: Event Planning

Background of the Voting Event

1. The company aimed to hit revenue targets at year-end, hoping for a big bonus after a year of hard work.

2. The product's paid revenue comes from broadcasters' paid insider reports, which are investment advice shared with stock investors, lasting over a month, priced around a thousand yuan on average, and updated over a month.

3. Levers to increase revenue:

Total website revenue = sum of broadcasters' paid insider report income

In other words, broadcaster paid income is a lever: the more broadcasters participate, the more insider reports are ordered on average, and the higher the final revenue.

Significance of the Event for Regular Users

Regular users can increase their chances of stock trading success (through premium insider reports) and gain spiritual enjoyment - a sense of participation, achievement, and security.

1. Sense of Participation

With broadcasters accompanying users 365 days a year, bonds form over time. Stock trading can be a lonely endeavor, and broadcasters play the roles of mentor, friend, and playmate. Users can use their support to help their favorite broadcaster win the voting event, and participate with other fans in vote solicitation, voting, and interaction. In a reserved culture like China, people value collective consciousness; individual strength is weak, so they unite in small groups to face the outside world together.

2. Sense of Achievement

Each vote can potentially raise the broadcaster's ranking. If the supported broadcaster moves up to a good position, users feel a sense of achievement: "See, my broadcaster is great!" The relationship between fans and stars is amplified a hundredfold.

3. Sense of Security

Participating in a grand event with others can dissolve inner loneliness, and collaboration provides a sense of security. Purchasing insider reports from broadcasters with more support also gives users financial security.

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, from low to high - physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. Users participating in this event gained safety needs (the safety of collective voting), social needs (joining an activity to know a broadcaster and a stock trading group), and esteem needs (broadcasters gain honor and reputation, and seeing their favorite broadcaster succeed is akin to their own success).

With the background and significance of the event established, detailed planning was needed for this event. Around these user needs, we made several arrangements:

1. Set up voting: Users could vote for any favorite broadcaster, and voting records were public (voting amount, nickname), with nicknames masked with asterisks to protect privacy.
2. Set up a check-in feature: Users could check in once daily during the event to receive coupons. Cumulative check-ins could earn larger coupons.
3. Set up a lucky draw: The draw had a threshold - users who voted more than 10 times could enter. Sharing could add an extra chance. The threshold was to stimulate more purchases, and sharing was to encourage outward sharing for more draw opportunities.

Event Goals

The first issue in event planning is: what is the goal? Without a goal, the entire event falls into chaos. How do you set a reasonable goal?

Event goals should follow the SMART principle:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Applying this formula, the event goal is:

From the event start time ____ to the end time ____, this event should increase revenue by _______ and attract _______ participating users.

How many goals can you set at most? The answer is no more than three, with one primary goal and the rest secondary. The primary goal is the main focus. In most cases, once the primary goal is achieved, the secondary goals are also accomplished, often with unexpected additional gains.

Ensure the event goals align with the company's strategic direction. Once confirmed, proceed to goal decomposition and path implementation. Goal decomposition breaks the big goal into smaller sub-goals, with the sum of sub-goals highly consistent with the big goal.

For path implementation, it's important to link sub-goals together. Use whatever can serve as the backbone to connect them. A common mistake is getting stuck in sub-goals after decomposition without analyzing from a higher perspective; these sub-goals can often be linked in a tree structure.

When we set goals, we were very clear: the primary goal was to increase paid revenue. The secondary goal was to increase the number of new paying users. By leveraging newly discovered broadcasters, we could attract external fans to become paying users.

The Path to Achieving Goals Must Be Direct and Stimulating

We planned to use voting as the path to achieve our goals. There was some internal disagreement on how to vote. The previous rule was to vote with cash, which was then exchanged for corresponding insider report services. Data showed this wasn't ideal: from the user's perspective, there was a time lag between paying cash and receiving the product. Users are not patient enough to wait for something they've already paid for; even if they wait, their enthusiasm drops from 100 degrees to 50. So my idea was to directly count the amount spent on insider reports as votes. When discussing with the product manager and other operations colleagues, they worried whether users would buy insider reports and whether it would raise the voting threshold. It turned out that purchasing insider reports to exchange for votes was much more stimulating than cash.

• First, broadcasters could publish paid insider reports with various features, such as extended validity, VIP exclusivity, discounts, etc. This allowed broadcasters to customize their products and interact with users.
• Second, votes generated from purchasing insider reports were directly added to the total vote count, and users received tangible services. This gave users a direct sense of security.
• Finally, a broadcaster's room could catch up with others by adjusting the update time, price, and frequency of insider reports.

When planning an event, you can rehearse your implementation path. If it takes too many steps to reach your goal, change the path and remove intermediate steps. The internet is about eliminating intermediate links; remove redundant steps, and the remaining logic should be sound and stimulating.

For goal decomposition, we broke down the revenue target into targets for each broadcaster's room, estimating revenue and participant numbers based on historical sales data. This approach has the advantage of transferring goal achievement to others: not just you working hard, but many people working toward the goal out of self-interest.

You need a good model to mobilize surrounding resources. If your model allows everyone to achieve win-win outcomes, then your goal becomes everyone's goal. This requires a systematic and structured way of thinking.

Junior event operators may know how to write event processes and rules, possibly copying a competitor's event. In contrast, a good event operator integrates product, users, and event model organically, leveraging their own product features. For example, Alipay's AR red envelope feature, where scanning objects gets red envelopes, had a less smooth experience but encouraged people to use Alipay and enjoy social fun.

In general, any event format like likes, lucky draws, flash sales, floor-grabbing, comments, or quizzes can be implemented anywhere. If it's just a formality, users won't remember the product. These must be organically combined with your own product.

Once the path is clear, write the event rules: participation rules, prize claim rules, and disclaimers. Be sure to include a statement that the event is not affiliated with Apple. The rules should be logically coherent and structurally complete.

Remember: your brain is no worse than a group of a dozen people's brains combined. When communicating your event plan externally, be confident.

Stage 2: Event Communication and Execution

Once you believe the event plan is perfect from logic to creativity, communicate with relevant departments. These include execution departments, supporting departments, and awareness departments. A common mistake is thinking you've thought enough and then approaching others, but if the event plan isn't polished or even nonsensical, you'll face disdainful looks and be blamed for wasting time. Check every detail and fix anything that doesn't make sense.

At minimum, use several documents during event operations:

1. Event planning document
2. Event product document
3. Event prototype
4. Event project schedule
5. Event execution task assignment table
6. Event prize budget table
7. User feedback log

Consolidate these into one spreadsheet for easy reference and quick sharing with other staff.

The Heavy Lifting in Event Operations is Communication

Continuously communicate and follow up to ensure every colleague involved understands, supports, and can execute immediately. The most effective way to communicate is to organize meetings. Some people talk endlessly to prove their abilities, but meetings are the best time to absorb others' suggestions. Listen to others' views and openly accept feedback to improve the event.

During execution, track event data in real time. Share participation numbers and revenue with users and colleagues. Only by sharing in real time can you further stimulate participation. Data fluctuations can stir emotions. The ups and downs stimulate nerves. Taobao's Double 11 data is well-presented, with nationwide participation, and box office numbers are often publicized. Data may not connect directly with us, but with fluctuations, we sense an impending climax.

Show Your Data, Let Data Speak

We crave exciting things; even in the most mundane times, we want something to happen. We released data within an hour of the event going live, something unprecedented. The excitement was ignited, and within days, we nearly completed half the goal. With momentum, we ultimately achieved 150% of the target.

The event lasted a month, and there was inevitably a slump period. What to do? We further stimulated by adding a sub-event: guessing the champion's vote count. This idea came from a group chat; sometimes creativity sparks from casual interactions. This sub-event breathed new life into the main event. For longer events, consider adding sub-events to boost atmosphere, maintain momentum, and further stimulate user engagement.

Collect Every User Feedback and Improve Timely

Treat every user's feedback sincerely. Even if it's one in ten thousand, listen carefully to how they think and how they view the event's significance. Users may participate in only part of the event. If they have a good experience with every detail, they'll think the whole event is good. Conversely, a single bad experience is amplified tenfold. Therefore, polishing details and timely communication and feedback are very helpful for adjusting and improving the event.

Stage 3: Data Summary and Analysis

Reviewing the event's strengths and weaknesses at the end is very helpful for future events. If a different employee executes the next event, the templates accumulated can be reused and optimized. When summarizing, collect feedback from all parties involved in the project, including project progress, event flow smoothness, user experience, communication issues, and design feedback. These should be compiled into a document and sent to relevant colleagues after the event.

Event operations require systematic and structured thinking, efficient communication skills, and unwavering execution. Only with these key factors can you successfully run an event. Success in event operations is relative; what's successful for you might be a failure in others' eyes. Views differ from different angles. However, how to gradually improve your operational skills with each event is something you can control.