A few weeks back a business acquantance wrote:

On May 5, 2011, at 7:17 PM, xxxxx xxxxxx wrote:

Hi Chris,

Hope you are well. Long time, but I have a request for you for some information, which may have some work attached to it. Still in development stages so nothing confirmed

We have a client that is looking for some comparison info for the ROI on Experiential to Above the Line advertising. Along the lines of what is the difference between $4m spent between experiential and traditional advertising. From this they may want to build this into the budget to track and report on the reach they are getting.

Let me know if you can help and I know the info is a bit thin on the ground but any questions give me a shout. If there is anything more to come out of this will definitely get in touch to get your expertise.

Look forward to hearing from you,

xxxxx

…

I wrote back:

On 06/05/2011, at 9:40 AM, Chris Clegg wrote:

Hi xxxxx -

Can you tell me the product or product category.

Thanks,

Chris Clegg

T: 207.619.2297
P.O. Box 15044
Portland, ME 04112-5044

(This message sent from a mobile device.)

…

The response…

On 5/5/2011 7:45 PM, xxxxx xxxxxx wrote:

Hi Chris,

Telco and broadband internet services.  Is that too broad?

Cheers
xxxxx

…

It wasn’t too braod at all. Here’s what I wrote back:

That make sense.

First off, it’s a hard question. Asking which marketing tactic will generate the greatest return is like asking which Stock you should buy to get the greatest return. It depends on a lot of factors and those factors can change overnight. And I believe the same conventional wisdom applies. The best answer lies in diversifying your “portfolio” of marketing tactics, measure them all in a similar way, and balance the portfolio as needed to minimize your risk and maximize the gain.

That said, Telco is a great industry for experiential. It has a high revenue point, especially with bundled packages, with reoccurring revenue. If you can get a household on a triple-play and get their loyalty to 2 years or more it’s not unheard of to bring in 1,000 plus in revenue from a single sale.

I’ve measured a lot of telco experiential and have seen a wide range of results. I’ve seen $350 small events deliver 109 household sales and I’ve seen $50,000/ month mall activations deliver 2 sales. So much depends on the market to message match, loop qualification, what the local competition is doing, time of year, and how well the agency is balancing where they apply the direct costs (on assets that generate traffic and sales or not).

You might need to be ready to expect experiential cost per acquisition at 90 to 135 per sale. Which on a sale that can generate several hundred a year in revenue is a great ROI. Your conversion rates are much higher for experiential. Sometimes three and four times higher. But this needs to be balanced with the challenge of reach. A free standing insert will reach hundreds of thousands of people but deliver only a 0.17% conversion if you’re lucky. A good experiential campaign might reach 10,000 people for the same cost but convert 7% to 8% of them. (This assumes you are properly managing the loop qualification issue and are choosing your venues carefully.)

I’d say this, Telco/ broadband is not a market for an agency who doesn’t know what they’re doing. There are a lot of ways to mess it up. Most Telco companies in the U.S. are very data driven firms and will know quickly when things aren’t working out. It’s a far more challenging execution than say a traditional event because it’s an information based short-sell and the staff need to be awesome. However, if the agency does know what they’re doing in this particular area, they can run circles around any other type of marketing and generate an ROI that far exceeds other marketing tactics.

I do a fair bit of work modeling out what specific marketing can be expected to deliver based on benchmarks. If you’d like to get into the specifics, we can look at tactics, budgets, and specific reach, GRP, and conversion estimates to see what the options look like.

Hope this helps,

Chris Clegg

Sr. Analyst | Client Services
Portland Marketing Analytics

T: 207.619.2297
cclegg@portma.com

http://portlandmarketinganalytics.com

…

What do you think?  Does this follow your understanding of things?  If you have similar questions or just want to chat about the data above, use the contact information below to reach out.

We know these give-aways draw crowds. And crowds allow brand ambassadors to deliver the speaking points; communicating brand messages that educate consumers. This education drives differentiation, purchase intent, and ultimately sales.

The Post-Event Impressions from Promotional Items

Primary research conducted in 2008 by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) found that the impressions generated from premium distribution is best calculated, “based on the number of times items were worn or used per month and the average number of people that came in contact with the user.” (ASI, 2008)

The research found the following monthly uses for the following common premium categories:

• Branded Bags average 9.33 uses per month
• Branded Caps average 6.06 users per month
• Branded “Other Wearables” average 4.62 users per month

Furthermore, the research found that the number of people the user is in contact with when using the branded premium ranged from a low of 14 to a high of 111 (on average). Specifically for the three promotional item categories outlined above, the research found…

• Branded Bags were typically used when in contact with 111 people on average
• Branded caps were typically used when in contact with 79 people on average
• Branded “other wearables” were typically used when in contact with 14 people on average

Take together, the potential average unique impressions generated per month from these items ranged from a high of 1,036 for bags to 65 for “other wearables.” On average, branded caps or hats generate 479 impressions per month.

The average number of months someone holds on to a premium can be applied to generate a total potential impressions estimate for each individual premium distributed. The research had “other wearbles” lasting the longest with 8.7 months, followed by bags (8.6 months), then the catch-all “other non-wearables” (7.8 months).   Branded caps or hats tended to be used for 7.1 months on average.

Finally, before we can calculate the impressions generated by event marketing premiums, we’ll need to take into account the frequency by which someone who is around someone using a branded promotional item actually recognizes the brand being promoted. It turns out, people tend to recall the advertiser on a branded promotional item roughly 84% of the time. This varies by product type with Bags posting 90%, Caps at 89%, “Other Wearbles” at 94% and “Other Non-Wearabls” at 84%.

Therefore, we can estimate the following overall impressions generated for each branded bag, cap, or other wearable by multiplying monthly impressions by average months used and percent where the advertiser is recognized:

• Branded Bags generate 8,019 post-event impressions
• Branded Caps generate 3,027 post-event impressions
• Branded “Other Wearables” generate 532 post-event impressions

It’s interesting to note that “other non-wearables” were reported to generate around 1,387 lifetime post-event impressions.

Premium Impression Data Source:
The facts in this post were drawn from the Advertising Specialty Institute’s 2008 Study, “Advertising Specialties Impression Study: A Cost Analysis of Promotional Products Versus Other Advertising Media.”

The ASI’s study is based on primary research conducted in 3Q08 where 465 US business people were interviewed regarding the promotional products they had received. This research was supplemented with an online panel survey.

Respondents were asked if they had received any promotional products in the last 12 months. Most respondents were business/ professional people (84%) and were all age 21 or older.

Premium Impression Reference:
(ASI, 2008); Original source at http://portma.net/ASI2008

Also see:

• Marketing during Recession/Number of impressions
• Number of impressions
• Promotional Products Industry Report

Regardless of what your event marketing involves, you can always measure it.  Here’s how…

Event marketing is a fascinating field of marketing that poses an especially difficult measurement challenge.  It’s a field of marketing that thrives on the unique.  While a traditional direct mail piece depends on tradition and consistency to generate predictable response, the event marketer is often challenged with coming up with something completely new.

The Three Keys to Event Marketing Measurement

1. Establish Event Marketing Goals
   Any event marketing effort will tend to lean toward driving one of two outcomes.  Either you’re focused on changing future consumer actions or you’re focused on changing consumer perspective.  If you’re focused on actions than you can typically measure this with a corporate data analysis project such as coupon redemption, register receipts, call center volume, etc.  If you’re focused on changing consumer perspective, than a solid control/ test survey will get you what you need.
2. Quantify Your Event Marketing Plan
   With your goals and a related measurement strategy in place, the next step is to make sure you’re keep tracking of the actual event.  Your goals are the “affect”.  Your event is the “cause”.  You need to measure your event activity in order to bring these two together.  Key metrics typically include staffing levels, consumer touch-points, venue, and distribution counts.
3. Merge Event Activity With Goal Measurement to Derive Cause & Affect
   When done correctly, items one and two above can be brought together to complete the cause and affect equation.  When you know that handing out fliers at a bus station produced higher call volume than when you handed them out at a sporting event, that’s power.  And that power will allow you to deliver better results for your brand, your Clients, and your consumers.

There are many different ways to measure your event-based marketing.  For a limited time Portland Marketing Analytics is offering a free on-site workshop to assist your team in better understanding how to measure event marketing.  These event marketing measurement workshops may be exactly what you need to make 2010 the year where you truly demonstrate the impact of your event marketing.