We’re in the midst of recapping a national event marketing campaign for a spirits brand. The measurement strategy is fairly standard: increase brand awareness, reach the target consumer, generate purchase behavior where it hadn’t existed before. However, a new question arose during the analysis…
At what time of day should program staff execute events to achieve those objectives?
Analysis by Time of Day
This was a whole new layer of analysis for event marketing.
In past campaigns, I usually concentrated on differences in impact by venue, (e.g.. bars versus restaurants), but it did not occur to me to measure differences in impact by what time of day the events took place. Luckily, our survey software tracks timestamps, so the data was readily available.
The client wanted to know if teams were more effective at reaching the target consumer and influencing purchase behavior at particular times. The event teams used three time-of-day categories:
- Brunch (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
- Happy Hour (4 p.m. to 8 p.m.)
- Late Night (9 p.m. to midnight)
We segmented the survey data into those three groups and identified some key opportunities in the analysis.
How did results vary by time of day
65% of the time the program staff engaged the program’s target consumer, it was during a late night event. 82% of the time it was at a bar.
This led to the conclusion that the prime time and location to reach the target consumer and have her sample the product was between 9 p.m. and midnight at bars.
It’s a great finding, but does the program staff maximize purchase intent by activating at more late night events?
It turns out that 82% of target consumers who sampled the product said they were likely to purchase the next time they are shopping. This was nine percentage points higher than any other consumer (73%).
How do we know that difference in purchase intent is not just caused by a more enjoyable event experience at late night hours? It is a spirit after all.
General consumers who sampled the product during happy hour (74%) were just as likely to purchase as those who sampled at a late night event (74%).
Key insights from the analysis
This suggests that the event marketing strategy made a positive impression on the target consumer, who is likely to be reached during late night hours.
The key recommendation for the event marketing team was to increase activations at late night hours, while continuing to focus the marketing strategy on the target consumer.
The end of program results should yield an increase in purchase intent and a positive ROI.
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