Study Says Events on Path to Clutter

Los Angeles -- A new "Event TrendWatch" study conducted jointly by TBA, an independently held agency, and Event Marketer magazine indicates that experiential marketing is rapidly becoming a more important part of the overall marketing mix, but its growing use may lead to more shoppers tuning them out. "The study was e-mailed to about 500 marketing people, all brand managers or above, at Fortune 500 companies," says Alison Jenks, vice president of marketing, TBA Global. "We got several hundred back, well over a 50% rate of return, making the study very projectible."According to the survey, "Nearly 60% of the marketers we polled expect that more event marketing will force consumers to tune out event-related marketing messages," says Jenks. "And 43.6% look into their crystal balls and predict that the growth of the event discipline will turn what is not cluttered now into a very cluttered medium."So, how do event marketers plan to change their strategies over the next five years? "Fully 50% of them say that they will do fewer events but try to get more out of each one," says Jenks. "Nearly half cite the need to tie in better pre- and post-event communication, and to move from a mass conversation technique to trying to have deeper, richer conversations with consumers."According to the survey, measuring sales is viewed by 34% of respondents as their greatest strategic challenge. Some 23.5% ranked the need to drive interactions to point-of-sale as their biggest challenge.Also part of the study, the results of a survey of 600 consumers, conducted by Event Marketer and sponsored by Polaroid Corp., showed that events have the power to influence consumer behavior even long after they occur. Among the findings:When asked if they would be more or less inclined to purchase after a positive brand experience, 87.6% of consumers said more.When asked how soon they would purchase following an event, 26% of consumers said immediately, 25% said within a month and 24% said within a week.Some 75% of consumers said they understood the brand or product better after an event.Based on these surveys, Jenks sees several trends emerging. "It is very likely that event programs will change their exhibits, physical assets and even their overall messaging and offers by venue, target and day," she predicts. "An event's media, signage and promotions could even change by the hour depending on how the home team is performing."It is also likely that marketers will turn existing daily activities into corporate immersions. "Car wash water jets might spell out a tagline," she says. "Grocery store express lanes could become members-only affairs."The Internet will become a legitimate live medium for experiential marketing, too. "Branded gamer teams will head onto Xbox Live and play video games against consumers, talking up a product or service on their headsets and Web cams," says Jenks. "Instant messages will become branded communications, cell phone users will get discounts if they mention a company in their voicemail recordings, and equipment providers will sell their own sponsorships."

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