Of all other media at brand owners’ fingertips, it is event marketing that doesn’t seem to be suffering ill effects from the digital revolution. In fact, evidence shows that the industry is being thrown to the forefront of brand campaigns, in part because of its symbiotic relationship with online.
The second coming of digital media has taken the form of a tsunami of a wave, sucking the traditional, mass media sectors under its pull..
Ironically, it is event marketing, the oldest kid on the block that is riding the digital wave. It’s not just that event marketing is complementary to digital, but that the two have so much in common, to the exclusion of the traditional mass-market media.
The key characteristic of both digital and events is pull’ rather than push’ media. Unlike the interruptive push techniques of broadcast, direct mail and other media forms, pull, or permission marketing, is exclusive to digital and live marketing formats.
In 2007 “engagement” is taking centre stage for marketers and in our increasingly fragmented world, where customers need to be able to make sense of the messages they are bombarded with. Taking a brand into a live, face-to-face environment allows the brand to build a relationship with its audience beyond what is achievable online, or in any other media form. Where communities and relationships can be built online they can be consummated face-to-face.
So event marketing, which for so long has not even been regarded as a mainstream marketing medium, now joins digital on the stage as a “now media” star.
The evidence backs this up. George P Johnson’s EventView 2006 research (which surveyed 900 marketing managers from across the globe) identified that 49 per cent of respondents say the importance of event marketing is increasing. According to the research, event marketing represents 25 per cent of global marketing budgets, and rates as producing the greatest ROI.
MICE Group’s Experiential Marketing : It Works project (another global study) evidenced 62 per cent of respondents predicting “experiential” to be one of the big marketing growth areas over the next five years. And growth is well underway, with 58 per cent claiming to have increased experiential budget over the past two to three years. Add the convenience of digital media to the “trust” building qualities of the experience and you have a compelling media platform for years to come.