Eleven years ago I was approached by my superiors with an urgent request from a client articulating a need for branding of a women’s empowerment conference. The client had done several similar annual events in the past but frequent name shifts and directional changes were causing a lack of resonance with their target audience and there was no clear solution for turning first-time guests into regular attendees.

In previous years, “Dream Women’s Conference,” “Forever,” “Fresh Air,” “Brave,” and “Sparkle” were used and it was placed in our hands to hone in on what the key message and purpose of the conference were about. Initially the idea for going with a short and simple word like “Love” was targeted, but the suggestion was rejected for being too broad of a word and difficult to differentiate against competitors.

When observing video playback of previous years showed that the messages spoken were largely focused around empowerment through words that were spoken. Whether it was from parent to child, peer to peer, or leader to follower, the overarching theme became clear: speaking up, and doing so with love matters, or put short, “Speak Love”

When looking over the brief again, we noticed that a sizable amount of data showed that attendees chose whether or not to attend based on if they were excited to hear keynote speakers they were familiar with. We devised a promotion to get attendees registered for the upcoming year at a 20% percent discount off of the ticket price if an attendee registered while at this year’s conference. We made sure it was conveyed on every card, video, and media format we had at our disposal.

The results spoke for themselves as not only did attendance in the following year increase by 8% (and it continues to do so, year after year) but we found that attendees demanded branded merchandise to show affinity throughout the year.