BPA Worldwide Blog

Event Audit Q & A—Why Should I Audit My Event?

The question and answer article below first appeared in the March 2008 edition of the IAEE's Exhibitions & Events e-newsletter.

Question: I have heard the recent industry buzz about auditing shows. I have always been forthcoming with my attendance numbers and, quite frankly, my exhibitors are not asking for audited data. Why should I audit if no one is asking for it?

Answer: Being forthcoming with your attendance numbers is always a good business practice and for many years decisions to exhibit were based upon this type of trust. But in today’s competitive media environment, the executive suite wants to know exactly where the marketing dollars are going—and why.

When asked why we are doing these shows, the stock answer that “we have been doing this show for years and it meets our target market” is no longer an acceptable response. Marketing execs want to see independent, verified information that is backed by a legitimate source. Audited event data provides that valuable marketing intelligence that is reported in a consistent manner by an objective third party.

Of course, the biggest reason your exhibitors are not asking for attendance audits is likely because they are not aware this information is available to them—free of charge. If they knew about events audits, don’t you think they would ask for them? I would bet they would since this would be a terrific way to legitimize and rationalize to their execs why they should spend money on your show.

An event audit also serves as a very powerful marketing and sales tool to sell exhibit space. Data from an event audit report allows you to sit down with an exhibitor, review all of the verified attendee segments and drill down and identify their target markets. This also sets the bar for your exhibitors’ future expectation levels.

For a new exhibitor, your relationship will be built upon a foundation of trust and the audit data will reinforce that trust. The audit will also help you to manage the expectations of your new exhibitor so they will more likely to renew for the following year.

The audit can work for non-renewals too. Verified data will enable you to show the exhibitor those market segments that they were unable to reach at your show. After identifying your exhibitors’ specific market segments, you will then have the opportunity to upsell via booth size or conference sponsorships.

Click here to see the review a BPA Worldwide Event Audit Report.

If you have a question about event audits, please comment below or submit your inquiries to jzuccerella@bpaww.com.

Media owners take note: Christmas retail shows continued consumer shift toward online

It may not quite spell the death of retail just yet, but Christmas 2007 was undeniably an internet holiday.

Consumers in the US spent almost $28bn online during the Christmas season, up 19% on the previous year, whilst around 4.4m surfers - equivalent to one in thirteen of the UK population - purchased items online on Christmas Day itself, a year-on-year increase of 269%.  According to internet security company Retail Decisions, over the whole three-day holiday period total online spend in the UK hit an estimated £440m.

That’s great news for retailers, of course. It’s also a further indication for media owners, buyers and advertisers that, not only our media consumption, but so much of our social interaction will increasingly revolve around the online space. Shopping, social networking, entertainment and news are already internet-led activities.

However, as trading online becomes the norm, as it surely will within five years, it is essential for the credibility not only of the medium but also of those that operate in it, that the same safeguards and standards that we have applied to our offline activities are carried through to the online space.

The internet is maturing fast, despite the fact that new opportunities are unveiled literally by the day. The time when the dot-com collapse rocked our faith and led to a pull-back in investment in online seem a long time ago.

And this means that media owners, buyers and advertisers can no longer afford to conduct their business in silos. Advertisers need to make buying decisions across all media platforms and based on evidence of where potential consumers are going to source their information or buy their products. 

This focus on ROI demands that online embraces the same level of independently verified, in-depth data as their print contemporaries. It will lead to demands for media owners to report the geographic origin of traffic to their sites, so that those who advertise globally can make informed decisions on where to place their spend; it will lead to greater scrutiny of ad serving networks, and above all, it will demand demonstrable evidence from media owners that what an advertiser pays for, it actually gets.

It’s going to be an interesting year.

Event audits can help prove ROI to marketers

A recent survey on BPA’s homepage asked, “How important are trade shows and events in today’s media mix?” Not surprisingly, more than 51% of you voted that face-to-face events are “more important”, and another 26% indicated trade shows hold the same importance as they have in the past.

Media owners understand that today’s advertisers/exhibitors are making strides toward an integrated marketing mix, including print, online and face-to-face. But while print and online data are relatively easy to quantify their return on investment, event data remains somewhat elusive.

Recognizing the need for events marketers to prove ROI, the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) has developed an ROI Calculator designed specifically for pre-event planning and post-event measurement. This tool aids exhibitors in their decision to exhibit or return to the show, provide guidance with respect to their marketing investment in areas such as booth size and number of personnel, products/services to be displayed, and measure their performance and potential for ROI from exhibiting.

Of course, the ROI Calculator is only as good as the data that is entered into it. That’s why independent and accurate event audit information is so valuable. Without audited data to plug in, the results of the calculator are no better than a wild stab in the dark. And event audits are standardized so that users can make accurate comparisons between two or more events.

If you already have an event audit, check out the ROI Calculator. I would be very interested to hear back from you in the “Comments” section below.