Events Continue to Grow in Importance Among Corporate Marketers Globally

Ninety-six percent of corporate marketing executives use events in their marketing mix and 93% view the importance of event marketing to be constant or increasing, according to EventView ‘05, the fourth annual study of face-to-face marketing trends . Additionally, more than 50% of survey respondents report the role of event marketing as a “lead tactic” or a “vital component” of the marketing mix.

For the first time, “enhancing the customer relationship” rose to the top as event marketing’s predominant criteria for success, compared with brand preference, awareness, product knowledge and leads indicated in previous years. When asked to rate on a scale of one (”not at all important”) to five (”very important”) the importance of customer or employee satisfaction to the success of an event, respondents reported a mean score of 4.2.

As critical as budget, closer integration with other marketing disciplines is identified as a key means to event success. For more than 80% of respondents, aligning and coordinating with a broader marketing campaign’s sales, marketing and public relations strategies — before, during and after an event — significantly heightens the success of an event.

New to the 2005 survey was a line of questioning on the topic of procurement and its influence on event marketing. When asked to rate procurement’s role in event marketing, more than 50% of respondents indicated it had some role in the selection of event marketing resources, with nearly 25% reporting that procurement’s role will be increasingly influential in years to come.

Comparisons of findings by geography reveal differences in market conditions, priorities and maturity. In North America and Europe, the percentages, per geography, of respondents indicating that event marketing would “increase in importance” significantly increased from 2004 findings. In North America, 49% of respondents report that event marketing will grow in importance (an increase from 42% in 2004), while 52% in Europe report similar confidence in the discipline (an increase from 45% in 2004). However, Asia Pacific’s view of the importance of event marketing has decreased over the last 12 months, with 67% of respondents in this geography citing future increased importance of event marketing, as opposed to 74% in 2004.

Although across the globe, event marketing is reported to drive the best ROI, next-best ROI drivers vary by region. While in North America and Europe, public relations, web marketing and direct marketing virtually tied with events in ROI, in Asia Pacific, public relations (15%) and print advertising (18%) fell next in line beneath event marketing (34%).

Customer and employee relationship enhancement is the most important event success criteria reported across all geographies, with North American respondents assigning it a 4.3 (on a scale of 5) mean score, and Europe and Asia Pacific respondents designating a 4.2 score.

The final EventView ‘05 report, an evaluation of the current use of and anticipated demand for event marketing among corporations globally, thoroughly explores the discipline’s changing role, levels of investments and perceived effectiveness compared to other marketing mix elements. A white paper contextualizing the survey’s findings with respect to other industry and economic trends will be available soon at both http://www.gpjco.com/ and http://www.mpifoundation.org/