What if you could accurately predict Experiential or Event Marketing return on investment in response to a client’s RFP? Would that be helpful?
Of course!
We work with Agencies to develop custom, predictive, return-on-investment models for their campaigns. When delivered to the brand team as a part of the RFP process, these models almost always reduce the sales cycle. Brand managers can be confident you’ll deliver results when you can demonstrate a clear plan to do so. Predictive ROI modeling does exactly this.
Event Marketing Benchmarks and ROI
To explain this method further, I first have to talk about benchmarks. I’ve written other articles about Event ROI methods and Event Benchmarking extensively in other posts, so I won’t go into detail here. Instead, we’ll focus on how the two come together.
ROI is derived from Reach and Impact data collection and analysis. At PortMA we do a lot of data collection and analysis, so we have been able to establish a solid understanding of how results vary by industry and activation strategy. From these historic results, we are able to derive benchmarks. We can use those benchmarks to predict ROI.
- For example, we know that the typical wet sampling should generate 25 samples per hour.
- Therefore, we know that a campaign that has budgeted for 1,000 consumer-facing, sampling hours (all else being equal) should distribute 25,000 samples.
- By repeating the process for resultant purchase behavior, we are able to accurately estimate the total number of new purchases the brand should expect from the sampling.
- When we can project purchase behavior, we can project revenue.
- By dividing revenue by cost, we can predict the ROI of your event marketing campaign.
Using Predictive Event Marketing ROI Modeling to Build a Better Program
The predictive event marketing ROI model is really a spreadsheet that combines the program plan with industry, event-marketing benchmarks. Using this information, your plan can be designed to impact ROI in a predictable manner.
What if you added more staff? Campaign costs increase, but so do samples distributed. Do these increased costs generate a greater return or do they weigh down the overall program performance? When you use event marketing benchmarks correctly, you can have a real, intelligent conversation in response to these questions, internally and with the Brand team.
You share your expertise because you have the expertise. You shorten the sales cycle because you build trust. It’s a win for everyone involved.
At PortMA we provide a license to access our benchmarking database directly through a subscription service, or we provide custom, direct consulting and to the work for you. Visit our Benchmarking Services page to learn more about how we can help you include predictive event marketing ROI as a part of your next RFP response.
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