Blackfriars Predicts Stronger Spending

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 5/30/2005

The outlook for event spending is much higher this quarter, especially for the financial sector, according to the latest Blackfriars Marketing Index.

Event spending netted 154 on the index, meaning that the 300 U.S. business executives surveyed expect to spend 54 percent more on events this quarter than they did during 2003, the baseline year. Overall, executives expected to spend 40 percent more on marketing this quarter than in 2003.

In the fourth quarter of 2003, companies forecast that they would only spend 97 percent of their 2003 expenditures on events.

Furthermore, the positive outlook for events spending is expected to continue. "Blackfriars believes that this is a trend that will continue throughout the year, boosted by 2005's robust economy and incentives provided by events venues that are eager for more business after the events drought of the past four years," the researchers wrote.

The Maynard, Mass., consulting firm also broke down spending by industry sector, finding that financial firms this quarter are expected to spend more than one-quarter of their budgets on events, the largest of any sector. In comparison, professional services firms are forecast to allocate 19 percent of their marketing budgets to events, manufacturing firms will spend 17 percent, retail companies 13 percent and information and media companies are projected to spend 9 percent.