Made to measure

"If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it"

Nineteenth century mathematician and physicist Lord Kelvin wasn't talking about the events sector when he said these words - but they will certainly hit home for most eventprofs.

With Kelvin's words ringing in our ears, we've gathered three of the most influential voices in business meetings and events to explain why event measurement is essential to any successful business.

DRPG CEO Dale Parmenter

Why do we need to measure events?

As an important part of the creative communication sector, all communications, whether internal or external, need to be justified and measured as to the effectiveness and return on investment.

All too often the client stakeholder will talk about the ‘cost’ of an event. This is completely wrong as if an event is deemed as a cost, then why are you doing it? Events are an investment and as such should have a return to the organisation. However, if we don’t measure this then how as an industry will we ever be able to turn the conversation from ‘cost’ to ‘investment’.

What event metrics are essential in understanding the impact and value of an event?

For me, the most vital metric is not what the audience feel, it’s what they do.

With every event we produce there is an intended outcome, we want the audience to buy more, sell more, etc. So, measuring the outcome and the change of behaviour is far more effective than simply wanting to know if the audience enjoyed the event. Once we can start measuring outcomes and behavioural change, we can then start putting a value and a true ROI.

Should there be a standardised measurement process?

No matter what the comms channel, the process and principle of measuring ROI is the same. The digital analytics are just the tools, not the solution.

We have to be wary of the digital analytics and ask what they really give us beyond some very fancy spreadsheets and graphs. Will digital analytics measure behaviour change? Maybe in some cases but not in others. We need to identify the difference between:

Seeing someone has logged onto a digital presentation (and maybe nothing else)

Seeing what they engaged with (and did nothing else)

Seeing if they actually did something different after watching the presentation

It’s the final point that is the most important - will the analytics demonstrate our viewer has taken action and done something different which will achieve the desired outcome?

We have to put in a common process that embraces all the measurement tools available to us, whether analogue or digital produce a tangible and simple output that clearly demonstrates any event has delivered on its outcome and returned the investment and some.

Dax Callner - founder and chair of the Experiential Marketing Measurement Coalition & strategy director, Smyle

Why do we need to measure events?

Two critical reasons:

1. To protect events from being cut when marketing budgets are being scrutinised. Event marketers need credible data tied to business outcomes in order to defend their programs.

2. To improve. Measurement provides insight into what worked and did not, and why – delivering key insight needed to improve future events.

What needs to change?

The industry needs MORE and BETTER measurement. This is achieved through changing perceptions about the importance of measurement, providing easy to use tools for event people who tend to not be data scientists, and allocating a small amount of budget in all event programs for measurement.

John Capano, senior vice president, client development at Impact XM

Why do we need to measure events?

As with any marketing initiative, it is important to implement measurement in order to understand the efficiency and effectiveness of a marketing spend, strategy or tactic. If we don’t measure effectively and accurately, the evidence is subjective and difficult to prove which can easily lead to poor decisions, wasted dollars and unachieved goals.

What event metrics are essential to understanding the impact and value of an event?

The event metrics you should use are based on many factors, including, your brand or organisation, the overall goals and objective of the event, your audiences, etc.

It’s important to develop a comprehensive event measurement framework so that you can align the event goals with the marketing and business goals of the business. From there, you can determine specific KPIs and metrics, as well as how to measure, collect data, analyse and report on each.

Why aren’t current systems of event measurement working?

It’s not so much that current systems aren’t working as there is not a lot of agreement on what and how to measure. Each individual brand and its agency partners tend to start from scratch and develop their own systems and frameworks. This is expensive and means it’s hard to truly define if your event marketing efforts and dollars are working.

Different organisations can apply best practices differently but first, we need to have some common terms, processes and methodologies to base our work on.