Product category:
Events, meetings and conferences
News Release from: Events Industry Alliance | Subject: Events spending
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 17 January 2008
Events spend neck and neck with digital
Spending on live event marketing has come within 0.1 per cent of that consumed by the digital sector, with marketing professionals allocating GBP3.01bn to the face-to-face genre.
This new era of transparency follows concerted lobbing of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) by the Events Industry Alliance (EIA) and is highlighted in the fourth quarter 2007 Bellwether report "These figures confirm our long-held understanding that events are playing a significant and growing part in the integrated campaigns of modern marketers," commented EIA Group Chief Executive Trevor Foley
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 21 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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"Live event marketing has been surfing the digital wave as the more savvy marketers exploit the obvious synergies of the two media, in their quest for meaningful 'engagement' with customers.
"I'm not at all surprised that spending on events is matching that of its closest marketing ally, digital media, and is giving that old staple sales promotion, a run for its money.
"I look forward to monitoring spending on events through the Bellwether report for years to come, and would like to thank IPA for engaging with EIA and reaching the decision to extrapolate this powerful live media".
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Bellwether Report author, NTC Economics' Chris Williamson, said: "The 'all other marketing' spend category of the Bellwether survey accounts for a large proportion (just under one-third) of all marketing spend, so it is important to estimate its composition.
"For the first time in Q4, we therefore asked survey panel members to report on their main components of this category.
"This revealed that, very approximately, events (including exhibitions, conferences, event sponsorship, and corporate hospitality), PR and market research each accounted for just under 10 per cent of total marketing spend in 2007.
"However, it should be noted that Bellwether methodology is designed to measure change over time from a representative panel of around 250 marketing professionals, it is not designed to measure absolute sizes and should only be taken as a rough guideline".
Chairman of the EIA and Managing Director of ECandO Venues, Nigel Nathan, also welcomed the new figures: "This is another important - and gratifying - step towards establishing the use of live events as a core marketing discipline with real power to challenge for a serious share of the marketing pound.
"The figures show that a significant proportion of spend is already being channelled into this sector, implying a growing recognition of the value inherent in live event marketing, and it is now our industry's job (with and through the EIA) to ensure that this proportion continues to grow.
"The clear synergies between digital and live events bind the two disciplines, placing them at the cutting edge of modern marketing and creating a route to market that brands can no longer afford to ignore".
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