Awards Ceremony Entertainment Ideas

No matter your age, gender, or profession, you’ve most likely heard of the BAFTA and Grammy Awards. Every year, millions of people stay up to watch the Oscars and can name all the celebrities who were outfit-shamed at the latest red carpet event.

So what’s the secret of awarding virality? Naturally, people strive for reaching new heights. According to Henry Murray, the need for achievement (nAch) is one of the fundamental psychogenic needs that is intrinsic to human nature. While any awards ceremony is, basically, a showcase of human achievement, there is no wonder that people love watching others being recognized for something.

Due to growing demand, the landscape of awards incentives expands every year. This means that you might have many competitors seeking the attention of your target audience within your niche. Highly engaging entertainment ideas for awards ceremonies can help you set your event apart from the rest.

Popular awards ceremony entertainment ideas

If you’ve ever watched the Oscars with your friends, you know how important it is to complement the Sunday night party with snacks and fun games. The same is true for in-house ceremonies—even a beautifully planned event feels bland without entertainment.

We’ve picked some awards ceremony entertainment ideas that will spice up your show and keep the audience tuned in throughout the entire event:

Musical guidance

If you go on a sightseeing tour through a foreign city, you typically hire a tour guide, ask a local to show you around, or at least scout out some good tips on the Internet. The role of music at awards ceremonies is very similar to the role of a tour guide. Accompanying each stage of a ceremony, music can shape the mood, anchor our senses towards specific activities, and tell the story of a ceremony.

Here are several ideas for using music as your awards event entertainment:

• Hire a live band. The best remedy for boredom at awards events is live music. A professional live music band is not only a great ceremony opener but can also help you maintain the atmosphere of fun throughout the whole event.
• Create thematic musical stings. Short snippets of music that are often used to mark transitions from one award to another have a very strategic role: keeping your audience hooked. Choose stings that resonate with the moods and event styles, or ideally, compose music specifically for the ceremony.
• Add a creative edge. This is a good idea for Grammy-style music ceremonies. If your target audience is keen on music, you can treat the guests to entertainment activities like matching songs to singers, or you can encourage them to join strolling musicians who move throughout the venue during the breaks.

Social media walls

As we’ve already mentioned before, awards ceremonies are events with great potential for driving public attention. While buzzy experiences and social media are almost synonymous, you can’t avoid using this weapon at your ceremony. Social media walls can be a great entertainment source if you use them right. Here’s the short action plan:

• Create ceremony-related hashtags before the event.
• Build some pre-event buzz on social media platforms to prepare the audience.
• Place social medial walls strategically around the venue.
• Ensure there’s a person responsible for moderating social media content on the day of the event.
• Display real-time discussions on the screens as the ceremony starts, and encourage your guests to engage.

Relevant: Why social media is your best friend for award ceremonies 

Games

Gone are the days when an event audience was filled with people who attended events just to watch something. Today engagement takes the upper hand. No matter the size of your audience, keeping people “in the process” is critical to success. When it comes to awards ceremonies, putting the spotlight on every guest isn’t the easiest task. Boost engagement capabilities by making use of some exciting gaming ideas:

• Leo awards: The joke about Leonardo DiCaprio fighting for his Oscar is classic for awards ceremonies. Create “Leo challenges” for your guests on the ground to add an engaging touch. For instance, you can ask people to come up with the funniest ideas for what each candidate should do to win a given award.

• Fill-in-the-blank game: Acceptance speeches are usually an integral element of any awards ceremony. Create a fun fill-in-the-blank activity where a guest is given some parts of a speech and the task is to weave it into a full story, such as adding five animal names or ten names of flowers. You decide how crazy you want to be!

Special lighting effects

Creating memorable lighting effects will do more than add a wow element to the onsite journey. It is also something that will get people talking and sharing photos even after the ceremony is over. What could be better than entertainment that boosts your post-event marketing?

Wake up your creative genius, and get going! We’ve picked the top two innovative technologies that can help you create a full-scale entertainment activity with lighting:

• Produce a light show. Treat your audience to a fascinating lighting performance. This can be the perfect fit for a break before the winner(s) announcement. Since it usually takes time to sum up the results, or even if you just want to add some excitement, a light show won’t allow any boredom to creep in amongst the attendees. To make it work, hire a lighting engineer who will design the effects beforehand and then manage the show at the ceremony. From moving and flashing lights to sound effects, choose what suits your event best, and make it memorable!
• Use motorized structures. Apart from shining brightly, lighting structures can also produce a stunning effect through movement. Simply connect lights to controlled motors and then program the motors for specific movements. Check out the short video from PHILIPS trade fair here to get a better idea of how you can use motorized OLED installations at events.

Conclusion

Exciting ideas for awards ceremony entertainment are the best tools for banishing boredom from your events. Keep the audience tuned in at every stage of a ceremony using social media walls, gaming, or a top-notch mix of sound, lighting, and music!