Produce proof capture at an owned event

1. Why capture your events

If you're an in-person business, you have a big advantage over virtual or remote ones: every day is an in-person event. If you are virtual, you need to be strategic about capturing moments from events.

If you're not already running events at least 1–2 times a year, the suggestion is to start. They give you great marketing assets.

One business sold nothing at its events; it just gave value. But it documented as much of each event as it could, to use the media in its ads. The events cost a fortune and sold nothing, so that media was the only way to get a return, and the business had to get good at squeezing every drop of marketing out of each one.

Where events sit in the order to build the proof streams, and how often their flow arrives, is SOP 123 — Run the standing proof streams, sections 3 and 9.

2. The three kinds of ad

The three types preferred for capture at events:

1. Stage ads
2. Professional testimonials
3. Man in the street

3. Stage ads

Ads you record on stage.

• Get a photo of yourself on stage with people celebrating behind you: strong visual proof of how big the event is. Ads and short clips like this are said to do very well.
• Take several selfies yourself, and a video if you can swing it. There is only one take, so make it count.
• Timing: the close of day one, or day two before lunch.

4. Professional testimonials

Pull people from the event into a side room and film a testimonial.

• In the ideal situation, book two rooms: the event room, and a small recording room nearby. If that's not possible, book 2–3 extra hotel rooms, so testimonials can be set up and filmed all event long.
• Hire at least one extra camera team (sometimes two): one films the event, one gathers testimonials. The testimonials matter more, so give them the stronger team. Plan on at least two camera operators plus a runner who walks clients to and from the testimonial area.
• Light and mic the set so it looks and sounds good, with more than one mic and camera. Then test it, again and again. The worst outcome is a whole event's testimonials with no usable audio or video.
• Choose in advance which customers you want on camera, and confirm with them in writing.
  • Tell them it will not clash with a big keynote, and that you will hand them notes for the minutes they miss. Most won't mind.
• Keep a printed hit list on a clipboard, and tick names off as each person comes in, until everyone is done.
• At the start of the event, tell the room your team will be doing this, and introduce the handler (the person who goes up to the people on the list), so a tap on the shoulder later needs no explanation.
  • Offer an incentive for a testimonial: a bonus to the customer who leaves one, and an extra $50 to the handler for every other person they bring in who is not on the list. Working the list, a handler can usually pick up people off it too.
• Schedule when people get pulled out, and keep clear of big keynotes. If someone pushes back, move them to a second list to catch in the morning, at lunch, at breaks or at the end of the day.
• Walk them through the same six-point script. The six points, and the notes that come right after them (the hook, their name, then saving and running the videos), are SOP 125 — Run the six-point testimonial script.

5. Man in the street

During breaks, approach people for quick soundbites: one-question interviews that pile up proof around a key metric or concept.

• If you do man in the street as well as professional testimonials, hire it a second two-person camera team.
• Prepare ahead of time the 10 core questions you want many answers to. You will want 10+ responses to each. They take seconds to capture. You turn them into fast-hitting highlight reels of everyone giving a specific outcome to one question.
  • Examples: how many new customers they have gained since they started; what they made before X against now; how much extra income X has added; how much weight they have lost since starting here; how much their credit score has improved; their old credit score and their new one.
  • You can also ask the six core questions of the interview script, one at a time. That, and asking all six rapid-fire, is SOP 125, section 4.
• Print the questions for the camera team.
  • Put a space below each question to tally the responses.
  • Ask only that question until you have the number of answers you want.

There are a lot of ways to use events to capture testimonials. Use them, and use these checklists.

5.1 Before and after, matched

A short clip after the event on how it went is generic. It probably works as an ad, but one business does better: it films each attendee on arrival (the before) and matches that to the same person's clip on the way out (the after), and its owner need not appear in these ads at all. Expect few to work, perhaps one in ten, maybe one in twenty, by that owner's estimate, so capture a lot of them. Each one also suits a narrow audience, such as a single trade.

6. What this page does not decide for you

• Who the $50 is for. "Every other person" not on the list can be read as each extra person, or as every second one. This page does not settle which reading is right.
• The customers' bonus. This page gives no figure for the bonus a customer gets for a testimonial.
• What an event costs. This page gives no figure for what an event costs.
• Selling at the event. The business in section 1 sold nothing at its events. Whether to sell at yours is not established on this page.

7. The checklist

Kind	What you do
Whether to run events	If you're not already running them at least 1–2 times a year, the suggestion is to start
Stage ads	Picture on stage with the crowd celebrating behind you; selfies, and a video if you can swing it; end of day one or before lunch on day two
Professional testimonials: rooms	Two rooms in the ideal situation; if that's not possible, 2–3 extra hotel rooms
Professional testimonials: crew	At least one extra camera team (sometimes two), the better team on testimonials; at least two people on cameras and one runner
Professional testimonials: people	Picked ahead and confirmed in writing; a hit list on a clipboard; a handler introduced at the start
Professional testimonials: incentives	A bonus for the customer; an extra $50 to the handler for every other person captured off the list (section 6)
Professional testimonials: timing	Not during big keynotes; people who push back go on a list for mornings, lunches, breaks and the end of the day
Professional testimonials: the interview	The six-point script (SOP 125)
Man in the street: crew	If you do both, a second two-person camera team
Man in the street: questions	10 core questions, 10+ responses each, printed for the camera team with space to tally; one question at a time until you have enough
Before and after	Film each attendee arriving and again leaving, and match the pair; capture many, since few work (section 5.1)

8. What this page does not cover

The standing proof streams, and where events sit among them, are SOP 123 — Run the standing proof streams. The interview script is SOP 125 — Run the six-point testimonial script. The testimonial competition is SOP 126 — Run a testimonial competition judged as an ad. SOP 120 lists professional testimonials and street interviews among its kinds of ad.

The law on recording people and on incentives for testimonials is not covered on this page. Filming, lighting and editing technique are not covered on this page.