Product category:
Events, meetings and conferences
News Release from: Events Industry Alliance
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 15 May 2007
EIA challenges IPA for burying events
business
The IPA's latest quarterly Bellwether report on UK marketing spend has once again failed to give credit to the robust and lucrative events sector, claims the EIA.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising's latest Bellwether report recorded the strongest upward revision of UK marketing spend for three years: news that one in four companies is now reporting an upward revision to total current marketing budgets was welcome relief for a struggling sector Internet marketing budgets, accounting for around £2bn of marketing spend per year, outperformed all other sectors and their 5% slice was highlighted again
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 21 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
EIA highlights how events complement new media
Of all the media at brand owners' fingertips, it is event marketing that is not suffering ill effects from the digital revolution, writes Events Industry Alliance chief executive Trevor Foley.
DVD explains the Art of Successful Exhibiting
Jack Dee stars in the Events Industry Alliance's film, available on DVD with an accompanying e-learning package, that explores the mysterious art of successful exhibiting.
It seems strange then that a whooping 23% is allowed to wallow in an actuary's no man's land under the catch-all 'other' - that's £9bn.
Aren't advertisers interested to know more about nearly a quarter of their pie? Digging just a little deeper into this 'significant other', the Events Industry Alliance has discovered that it comprises tick box only entries for such staples as PR, event sponsorship, conferences, exhibitions, corporate hospitality and entertainment, newsletters/other corporate literature, product sampling, competitions, mobile phone (including SMS but not Mobile TV) and anything else that is not classified elsewhere.
The EIA claims five of these nine, which implies a spend on 'live event marketing' of over £5 billion pa.
Further reading
Bolton Bear maker strikes gold at Toy Fair
The wealth of orders won by Imran Hakim of iTeddy after he took a stand at the Toy Fair demonstrates the enormous power of events to generate business.
Marketers plan greater role for live events
The latest report by Internet Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers does not make great reading for the wider advertising industry but the events sector remains buoyant.
Trevor Foley, Chief Executive of EIA, said: "We have been tracking these reports each quarter, quite amazed that such a large other amount seems to be swept under the carpet each time.
"Other recent independent research by JMA Research found that 61% of UK marketers planned to allocate more budget to events in the next 12 months, so we know what's happening.
"You only have to look at Channel 4's investment last year in Taste Events, a high-profile programme of food and drink festivals, and O2's all-embracing sponsorship of its O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park as well as its re-branding of the Dome in the summer, to see that money is moving into live events.
"Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP commenting on April's Bellwether, said it 'reflected what WPP is seeing in the UK - a recovery against, admittedly, weak comparables, with the spending increase being dominated by expansion in direct, Internet and interactive media'.
"Come on Bellwether, let's have some detail on the most interactive of all media, live event marketing.
"EIA has offered to help IPA in this regard: we hope that as IPA's members regularly claim to be media neutral, their trade body will have the courage to look beyond the 'A' in IPA and show members where their clients are really spending their money in today's modern marketing world.".
• Events Industry Alliance: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Marketingservicestalk email newsletter
• Marketingservicestalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
