This is the first of a two-part series focusing on how research can help maximize the returns on the events you plan and execute to help get your company's message out. Part
Two, which will run in the Aug. 24 issue of PR News, will explore how to use research to evaluate the overall effectiveness of events.
As more organizations strive to develop multi-faceted relationships with their customers and other publics, events have emerged as excellent facilitators. C-level executives
see the development and management of special events as being almost exclusively within PR.
At the start, you have to consider if you want to pursue existing events (via sponsorships) or if you want to start fresh.
Existing events, which have the benefit of audience data, known costs and relatively small labor requirements, tend to be expensive. Developing events can be cheaper, and
you'll be the exclusive sponsor; but these novel events are much more labor-intensive. Either way, successful events have three key characteristics:
- They interest your target audience.
- They are a good fit with your organization.
- They have the potential to cultivate the desired perceptions and behaviors.
Let's break down each of these elements. First, if you have a hunch that a certain type of event might attract your target audience, contact a trade association representing
that activity; for example, if you think your audience likes car racing, contact NASCAR.
These organizations typically can provide a lot of information on the demographics and psychographics of the people they attract, usually at no cost. Get the data from several
association activities and compare. Focus on the raw numbers of your target audience they attract, and not the percentages.
Second, if an association-sponsored event doesn't make sense for your kind of organization, your target probably won't believe you care about the same kinds of things they do.
As a result, the event probably won't deliver.
Third, be clear about the perception or behavior you're trying to cultivate because this is one of the most important criteria with which you will judge your candidate events.
There are "good," "better" and "best" approaches to determining the extent to which your candidate events might cultivate the desired outcomes:
- Good: Based on your existing knowledge, make a list of your target audiences' interests. Rank your candidate events based on their fit with these interests.
- Better: Expose focus groups to the candidate events that made it through the "good" approach.
(1) Describe the events and assess the overall appeal of each. Diagnose what participants find attractive and unattractive about each.
(2) Obtain open-ended evaluation of a small number of companies (for masking) on a few specific reputation dimensions.
(3) Last, bring the event and the company together, asking participants to tell you which event each company likely would sponsor and why.
- Best: Do a survey that exposes significant numbers of your target audience to the candidate events that made it through the "good" and "better" approaches.
(1) Hold out a control group of respondents who will not be exposed to any concepts.
(2) Have the exposed respondents rate the appeal of each event and whether they would attend or participate in such an event.
(3) Ask them about likely purchase behavior or other relevant outcomes.
(4) Compare the responses of respondents exposed to your different event descriptions and those unexposed.
Successful events are those that cultivate the desired outcomes among target audiences and that yield a good return on investment. Research can help you better screen candidate
events, and it can maximize the chances the events in which you choose to invest will yield the expected results.
CONTACT: Bruce Jeffries-Fox is president of Jeffries-Fox Associates, a Cape May, N.J.-based PR firm. He can be reached at 609.884.8740, [email protected].