Meeting Update

EventView Report Confirms Events Play

Increasingly Crucial Role in the Marketing Mix

Data shows decision-makers are turning to event marketing to drive purchase behavior and deepen engagement in the face of an intensifying worldwide financial crisis 

“This first report of the 2009 series shows that CMOs and senior marketers believe events are the
most effective medium to engage customers and move them to purchasing behavior,” said Bruce
MacMillan, president and CEO of MPI. “While we’ve seen event marketing mature as an effective
marketing channel for several years, the benefits become heightened in an uncertain economy.
Marketing decision-makers have clearly taken notice.”

Key findings in EventView 2009: North America include:
• 53 percent of respondents chose event marketing as the discipline that best accelerates
and deepens relationships with target audiences

• 26 percent of respondents chose event marketing as the marketing discipline that drives
the greatest ROI, a four percent increase from the 2008 results

• 29 percent of respondents say they will transition from event marketing to experience
marketing (integrated live and online experiences that drive deep brand interaction
through highly-relevant storytelling and brand immersion) in the next 12 months – 33
percent say they have already transitioned

• Among North American respondents, companies that integrate measurement into their
programs and track results are more than twice as likely to receive increases in their
marketing budget than those that do not measure

• 66 percent of respondents plan on implementing or have already implemented green
initiatives within the event function – a 32 percent increase from the 2008 results. Of that
66 percent, 44 percent are doing so as a result of a corporate responsibility mandate and
report that green accounts for 13 percent of their event budget.

“ EventView 2009: North America indicates that more than 60 percent of respondents have
already transitioned or are transitioning from event marketing to experience marketing in the next
12 months,” said Robert G. Vallee Jr., CEO of GPJ. “This is a pivotal trend, and it shows that in
the current downturn, senior-level marketers want the immediate and measurable business
impact that experience marketing delivers. CPM is no longer the measure of success. It’s about
engagement and follow through… what experience marketing does better than any other
discipline.”

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