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making a business case for events
 After going through a budget review with execs for our annual event program, one of my smaller — but in my opinion, strategically important — events is on the chopping block. I was able to head off the axe for two weeks by convincing management that a more detailed evaluation of the event would be important for their understanding of its strategic value. They agreed, provided I come back with a full business case for the project. Now, gulp, I need to prepare that business case.
What case structure will help me most effectively prove the event’s value in terms my CEO and CFO will appreciate? Moving forward, what kinds of measurements should I be capturing for all my events so I’m better prepared the next time I’m confronted with a “prove it” challenge from the top?
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Build Your Case with KPIs
To make a case for an event — or the value of any of its component parts — identify your company’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), then measure and communicate the event value in those terms.
KPIs are measurable, quantifiable financial and non-financial metrics that help a company define and track its progress. They typically come out of an organization’s profit model and business goals, and can vary significantly from one organization to another. KPIs for one company, for example, might include customer-satisfaction ratings and percentage of business from repeat customers; while the KPIs another company tracks may be staff-retention measures and sales-productivity growth.
In addition to examining your company’s profit model, other ways to uncover the KPIs that matter in your company include mining the content of CEO and CFO speeches, inviting a finance manager to a coffee house and asking him or her, and taking the time to read (and understand) the data in your company’s annual report.
Analyst reports also provide valuable information, but are often overlooked. Most marketers don’t understand how analysts look at a business or project its future value. But we need to. Remember, Wall Street is future-oriented; its focus is on what’s down the road.
The data examined by market and financial analysts includes everything from same-store sales and costs to acquire a customer to customer equity. As marketers, we must understand these KPIs — and work to show how our marketing programs, including events, affect them.
Once you have identified your corporate KPIs, you can even create event-specific KPIs that align with them.
Another word of advice? Don’t be shy about making assumptions about how your event activities will yield business results. After all, making assumptions — about capital, stock price, and so forth — is what finance is all about. You can base your assumptions on past experience, a computer model, your intuition, or any combination thereof. However, take care to be transparent, clear, and systematic about anything you report that is — or is based on — an assumption.
 Roy Young,
co-author, “Marketing Champions” (Wiley, 2006),
and vice president of development, MarketingProfs.com
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Tie Events to stages
in Purchase cycle
To prove an event’s value, first define your target audience and the goals you want the event to accomplish in relation to that audience. At Audi of America, one way that we define target audiences is to look at where people in the audience are within the purchase cycle. The goal of each event is to move them to the next phase of that cycle.
If we are doing an event meant to introduce Audi to those who don’t know us at all or are only somewhat familiar with the brand, for example, our event goal won’t be to generate sales, but to expose the audience to Audi and ensure that their perception of the brand improves as a result of attending the event. We can measure this improvement quite easily by comparing answers related to brand perception on both pre- and post-event surveys. Another event goal for this audience is to gather as much information about attendees as we can so that we can continue our conversation and keep them in the fold, while pushing them to the next phase of
the purchase cycle.
If we’re doing an event for an audience segment that is further down the pipeline, such as those who are actively considering purchasing a luxury vehicle, our event goals are very different. At that point, we want people to visit a dealership to test drive an Audi. We want them to put us on their “short list.” And, ultimately, we want them to purchase an Audi.
Our measurement strategy for this type of event is based on factors such as the number of test drives that occurred either at the event itself or at
a dealership post-event, the number of leads sent to dealerships as a result of the event, and the number of sales made as a result of attending the event. We track all of this through incentives. For example, we offer incentives that encourage attendees to visit a dealership, test drive a vehicle, and actually make a purchase. We then track the use of these incentives to measure the ways in which each of our events benefited the company financially.
As for talking to the top? Sure, any CFO would love to see event ROI numbers tied directly to sales, but we all know that isn’t always possible. It just depends on the event. However, by presenting your execs with a full portfolio of events, each of which touches prospects at specific purchasing stages, you’ll help them see the value of events that aren’t necessarily tied directly to sales, but that do successfully move prospects in that direction.
Finally, when you talk to the top, be simple and straightforward. Think measurable objectives, strategy, tactics, and activities — in that order. Then, craft your presentation and discussion points accordingly.
 Stephanie Valentine, general manager,
experiential marketing,
Audi of America Inc.
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focus on roi
One term that CFOs and CEOs always understand is Return on Investment (ROI). In other words, how much did the event cost, including the cost of time for all of the people involved, and what results did the event produce in terms of real money?
One can craft a credible ROI estimate for any kind of event. “Credible” means that your estimate is sufficiently accurate for management to use as a basis for decision-making. Crafting a credible ROI estimate, however, calls for a lot more work than simply adding a few questions to your attendee exit survey. It typically involves fairly substantial research, and your execs may not want to spend the money necessary to conduct that research unless they really need to know the financial ROI of your events.
Where does that leave you? Between a bare-bones accounting of event costs and a full financial ROI impact study, there are many evaluation alternatives. Among the best is to report actual event results against your projections.
First, make sure that those objectives are absolutely clear and agreed upon among all stakeholders. In other words, what do your stakeholders want customers to do (not just think or feel) after the event? What messages do you need to communicate to get that behavior to occur? How will you communicate those messages so that participants not only understand and remember them, but also change their behavior accordingly?
Then, measure the learning. Check in with attendees a week or a month after the event with a quick online survey to find out whether they still remember your message. Go a step further and ask attendees whether they actually did what you intended for them to do. Did the event change their behavior, for example, by prompting them to do something they would not otherwise have done, such as visit your Web site, request more information, call a sales representative, or make a purchase?
Finally, provide management with the results, as measured against specific learning or behavior-change objectives. Do this, and your executives may realize they can’t live without your event.
Elling Hamso, European Event ROI Institute Ltd.,
in Hagendorn, Switzerland.
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