A new survey by B2B Marketing, in association with Marketing Options, underlines the importance of B2B events, with just under 70 per cent of respondents describing them as either ‘critical’ or ‘very important’. By Lilah Walker, international director of events, Marketing Options.
The recession has had little impact on the use of events as a marketing tool, or channel, with a third of companies increasing their investment in events in the last 12 months (against only 23 per cent who decreased it). A similar number expect it to increase in the next year (whilst only 10 per cent expect it to decrease).
This result is surprising given the recent recession and the investment in both time and money to make events work effectively. Also, the increasing migration towards digital communication would suggest that face-to-face interaction is going out of fashion. Despite this – or perhaps because of it – as demonstrated by the survey, B2B brands appear to be increasing their focus on, and investment in, face-to-face events, rather than reducing it.
According to the research, events take a significant portion of many brands’ marketing budgets, with almost 40 per cent spending at least a quarter of their total budget on them. Almost 20 per cent spend at least 50 per cent of their budget on events, whilst a further 20 per cent had no formal budget or were unable to disclose their spend.
