Live events have long been used as marketing tools to engage audiences but have historically lacked the concrete metrics and data collection methods needed to prove ROI. This has been steadily improving, accelerated by the uptake of digital tools during the pandemic, but marketers across different sectors are prioritizing different metrics, according to new research by Elevate, a global staffing company for brand experiences.
The company recently released its The Missing Metrics report, which looks at the state of live event data and what event KPIs matter most to event marketers. The report is based on a survey of 500 brand decision makers across Austria, France, Germany, the UK, and the US. In general, marketers agree that there is an increased need to prove the value of live events and justify marketing spend for events, but the way they measure success differs.
Elevate found that marketers in the Alcohol category view Total Purchase Value as the most valuable metric by which to measure an event’s success, while Beauty and Tech value Brand Recall Score and Retail prioritizes Event ROI Score. Overall, the most valued KPIs are Net Promoter Score, Total Purchase Value, and Visitor Satisfaction Score.
In terms of how they like data to be presented, event marketers in Beauty and Tech indicated that their top desired feature is the ability to benchmark scores, while those in Retail noted that an easy-to-read dashboard is most important.
Looking to the future, marketers are increasingly leveraging new technologies in their roles. 31 percent of all markets indicated that they value sustainability tracking tools – particularly Tech, Retail, and Alcohol — which is going to be incredibly important in the coming years. In addition, most of the beauty category (52 percent) values emotional facial recognition tools, and 29 percent of the tech sector is looking to virtual event software.
“It’s clear that there is little industry alignment in terms of how events should and can be measured,” said Elevate CEO Ed Wood in a statement. “Whilst allowing for every event working to different goals, it’s clear that there is room for greater understanding of what’s possible in event measurement across the board.
“This is why it was important for us at Elevate to create Impact, a technology platform that enables events, both online and in-person, to be quantitatively measured through the power of live data, offering marketers access to new insights that are being captured for the first time. We have seen it work with clients such as the UK government, and we are now looking forward to a time where data collection at all levels of an event becomes more targeted and receives the investment and focus it merits.”