British Marketers Find Value in Events

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 4/30/2007

British marketers are using events more as part of their overall strategies, concluded a recent report by JMA Research, which public relations agency Wyndham-Leigh commissioned to conduct the survey.

Forty-six percent of the 200 British marketers surveyed said events would play a greater role in their communications strategies in the future, while only 10 percent said their use of events would decrease. In addition, 61 percent said they would budget more for events in the next 12 months, while 13 percent said they would reduce their event budgets.

The survey noted that the practice of integrating events into marketing programs would likely lead to growth, with 30 percent predicting the use of events to support Web-driven activity. Direct marketing (by 15 percent), advertising (6 percent) and public relations (4 percent) programs were also projected to see greater integration with events.

Those responding to the survey ranked events most effective for all media, and ranked them tops in impact, second in measurability (to direct marketing), and second in value (to Web and viral marketing).

Trevor Foley, Events Industry Alliance group chief executive, said the EIA was addressing the measurement issues raised by working on a live event marketing effectiveness project to quantify the added value live marketing brings.

"A key role of the EIA is to increase awareness and usage of live event marketing by marketers, so these independent survey results represent another positive step," he said.

Foley added that exhibitions are a significant forum for live marketing, as indicated by an EIA-commissioned study that KPMG did of the U.K. exhibition industry 18 months ago. That study put a value of £9.3 billion (U.S. $18.7 billion) on the sector, "a figure that is sure to be growing, as this most powerful marketing medium continues its upward trend," he said.