I’m a big fan of what we do for a living - events, brand
experiences, experience marketing. Whatever flavour of the business you are in,
I’m sure you’ll agree it is fascinating.
But the part that’s really got me thinking at the moment is
the constant ...er lets call it ‘tension’, between the delivery arm of the
industry and the content creation part.
Which is the most important?
Well one of the strengths of what we do is our ability to
produce the media through which we work, it’s like being your own Rupert
Murdoch, but without that troublesome Leveson business.
That ability to be on top of the production is vital. It
keeps us connected to the audience, it allows us to bring in the latest
technologies, it gives our clients editorial control on the day, plus there’s brand
consistency, image and all those other great things.
Then there is the content creation, the heart of the
experience.
We all know that content is king.
Not only is it the heart of the event, but it has a life
before and after the event. It lives forever on-line, amplifying the message
and extending the reach of the campaign.
That’s exciting; we are in an exciting industry that really
produces results.
At the moment so far so good, you can be in one camp or the
other and do a great job for your clients wherever you happen to pitch your
tent.
But here’s the thing.
Recently three clients have asked me roughly the same
question; “...if we were to allocate another sum of money to this activity we’re
planning, where would you spend it?”
You may choose to advise your client to spend it on the
production, improve the sound or the image or the lighting, but would the
audience even notice the (marginal) difference?
You may tell them to spend it on improving the content of
the event; video, speakers or even to capture the whole event again for
dissemination, expansion and amplification.
But wouldn’t you (and they) like to know what was achieved
through this event? Shouldn’t you measure some results? And I’m not talking
about what the venue was like or the temperature of the coffee.
I’m talking about hard metrics, sales, contacts.
I was recently asked during my last er..."lecture tour" if the
shrinking of the event industry over the last couple of years, especially with
regards to events for the financial community, was down to perception, i.e. they
had to cancel as it would look bad to run events in the current climate.
My answer was no, it was down to us as an industry not
having a standard way of measuring results and effectiveness.
The advertising industry realised a long time ago that if
you could measure effectiveness, there’d be no long term future for them.
If we can’t point to an event and with hard data prove that
this event, drove sales, increased awareness, encouraged consideration and
promoted trial, then we deserve to have our events
cancelled.
Posts
