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Return on Investment for Events

The next time you are involved in planning and executing an event consider this 4-step process to optimise your return on investment.

Define Objectives

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Design to achieve the Objectives

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Delivery of the Design

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Post Event Evaluation

1.       Defining Objectives

Although this sounds like an obvious start-point, very often this step in the process is ignored.  There can be an assumption that objectives are obvious and therefore don’t need enumerating, or there may be no clear objectives at all, or perhaps the objectives were clear in the past, but repetition has allowed them to be lost in time.  Without clearly defined and recorded objectives, how can any measure of return on investment be taken, because we haven’t defined a scale of measurement.

After an initial stab at identifying the objectives it can be helpful to use a couple of techniques to test and clarify.

a.                   Look back at the return on investment for last event you did and ask:

·        What outcomes did the event achieve?

·        Were these the outcomes we wanted?

·        Are these the outcomes we need this time?

·        What wasn’t achieved?

·        What “missing” outcomes do we need to specify this time?

·        Could the outcomes be delivered more cost effectively?

b.                  Look at the last event from the mind of the visitors and ask:

·        What outcomes did the event give the visitor?

·        What did they learn at the event?

·        What will they do differently because of the event?

·        How has their perception of us changed because of the event?

·        Did the event add value to the visitor?

·        Was the event “value for money” for the visitor?

This should throw up a number of additional objectives for our next event.

Having got a list of objectives, group them together as over-arching objectives so that in the end you have no more than 3 or 4 core objectives you want to achieve from this event.

2.       Designing to achieve the objectives

The design of the event will now have a clear focus and at every stage suggestions need to be measured against the yardstick of the defined objectives.  If a suggestion does not help us to achieve a desired objective, then it is superfluous and should be improved or abandoned.

The event design incorporates three distinct time zones:

·        Pre-event

·        Event delivery

·        Post-event

In every zone the return on investment should be considered using our yardstick of objectives.  Every zone should have the same ethos and a visitor’s journey through the time zones should appear to them as a seamless whole.

There are three further intangible factors which need to be made explicit in the design phase of the project.

·        Brand Integrity

·        The Wow Factor

·        Customer Delight

a.       Brand Integrity.  Events are definitionally experiential.  An event puts your brand on show like almost nothing else.  So it is essential that the whole event re-enforces your brand message and your brand image.  Through the three time zones, every contact your visitor has with the event will help them distil the essence of your brand and allow them to build and define or redefine what your brand stands for and what your company, service or product is.  Manage this process, don’t leave any part to chance or assumption.

b.      The Wow Factor.  In the competition for your visitor’s attention, your event starts off as one option in a sea of options.  Without a wow factor you may never even rise above the potential visitor’s horizon.  When you have wowed them to attend the event, you have already raised their expectations.  The bar has been raised and you need to jump it.  On event day, the wow factor needs to exceed expectations.  Following the event (and this is historically the weakest link in the chain), ask yourself how you can wow them yet again.

c.       Customer Delight.  At many events there are factors outside your control.  The weather is not under your influence, yet can make such a difference.  You may be unable to manage the traffic outside the event, you may not have any control over toilets or food or signage.  Work with those who provide the event “services” to try to optimise the visitor experience.  For the “services” or as I will call them “hygiene factors” under your control, make sure you delight the customer.  Don’t “make do” but seek to “delight”.  Sometimes the little things are the most important, and often the little irritations are those which get repeated to colleagues or mentioned derisively in tweets or Facebook posts.

 3.      Delivery of Objectives

After careful planning the day of the event looms. 

·        The pre-event marketing has already been delivering our objectives and will continue to do so. 

·        The physical construction has been completed and is designed to deliver our objectives

·        The service we will offer visitors is designed to deliver our objectives

·        Our people are all motivated and all have a clear vision of the objectives we want to achieve, and who, how, where and when they will be achieved.

So that’s it? 

Well, hopefully that is it, but you need to now do some real-time evaluation.  Someone needs to be partially removed from the hands-on action in order to manage the event and re-specify if required.  Much you cannot change, but lots you can, particularly in the service delivery aspect of the event.  Someone needs to monitor the hygiene factors, move people to better or busier locations, even make physical changes if necessary and possible.

Remember that post-event, the delivery continues.  If we said we’d call someone, we’d better do it.  If we want to send out follow up evaluations, make sales calls etc, these all need to be followed through on, until the event really is over.

4.       Evaluation against Objectives

Well, was the event a success?  Did we achieve our objectives?  What was our return on investment? What was our visitor’s return on investment? Perhaps start with a simple tick box:                                                        

Evaluate, reflect, learn and next time, you can do it better, or not at all if this isn’t the right investment to deliver your objectives.