Heidi Olson
By Heidi Olson, Board Member, Experiential Marketing Measurement Coalition
Inherent in the development of a center of excellence is the need for accountability. If a brand is creating a center of excellence—in name or in the spirit of seeking excellence—data about performance and impact is a must. Excellence might be something we know when we see it, but in business it must be measurable… because the data doesn’t lie. It should drive the decisions we make and the journey to always do better.
I’ve had the pleasure of working across marketing competencies, most of which have a common language and approach to data, from traditional advertising to digital and social media. Brand marketers and their ecosystem of suppliers understand the crucial role data plays in their assessment of what worked and what needs improvement.
Unfortunately, this type of common understanding isn’t the case in the world of events. This is the much-needed change the EMMC is driving for the event marketing industry.
An event center of excellence must be fueled by consistently captured, credible data. I’m fortunate to have dedicated team members focused on event data, but I know this is not standard practice in most event organizations. This makes most companies heavily reliant on suppliers to provide the right information to enable them to make informed decisions. I’ve also observed that the best partners won’t only report what happened, they will include in their analysis areas where we might improve future events.
This is the moment for brand-side event leaders to require credible data from their supplier base. My suggested four key steps:
1. Outline crystal clear objectives.
Your team and your suppliers need to know what success looks like, with everyone driving towards shared goals, and understanding how you’ll evaluate the event or experience. The typical goals I suggest including are:
> Number of and type of attendees you want to attract
> What you want attendees to think/feel about the experience
> What you want people to do as a result of the experience (noting how we need to track these behaviors)
> Brand perception shifts you want to impact
> How sustainable you need the event to be
2. Develop briefs/RFPs for suppliers that ask for relevant data tied to their area of expertise.
> Ask a full-service agency how they’d manage all of your data and reporting needs
> Ask a p.r./communications supplier to track, report on and continually assess and improve attendance marketing communications
> Ask your venue and build suppliers how they will track and report CO2e and landfill waste
> Ask your creative agency how they will evaluate impact on brand perceptions
3. Ask venues and suppliers to include data collection, analysis and reporting in their scope and budget.
> If your suppliers aren’t able to offer this element, asking the question will drive them to consider building this capability.
4. Provide feedback on the quality of measurement work from your suppliers.
> This is how we’ll propel measurement improvement across the industry.
Credible data and analysis are the secret sauce to achieving excellence. And industry adoption of consistent approaches and standards needs brand marketers to demand more from their event suppliers. I hope you’ll join me in this journey.
Image credit: iStock/Tempura
