Measuring the performance of corporate events : an empirical study of measuring practices in Finnish companies

摘要

Corporate events as an effective part of marketing communications strategy seem to beunderestimated in Finnish companies. In the rest of the Europe and the USA, investments in eventsare increasing, and their share of the marketing budget is significant. The growth of the industrymay be explained by the numerous advantages and opportunities that events provide for attendees,such as face-to-face marketing, enhancing corporate image, building relationships, increasing sales,and gathering information. In order to maximize these benefits and return on investment, specificmeasurement strategies are required, yet there seems to exist a lack of understanding of how eventperformance should be perceived or evaluated.To address this research gap, this research attempts to describe the perceptions of and strategiesfor evaluating corporate event performance in the Finnish events industry. First, corporate eventsare discussed in terms of definitions and characteristics, typologies, and their role in marketingcommunications. Second, different theories on evaluating corporate event performance arepresented and analyzed. Third, a conceptual model is presented based on the literature review,which serves as a basis for the empirical research conducted as an online questionnaire.The empirical findings are to a great extent in line with the existing literature, suggesting thatthere remains a lack of understanding corporate event performance evaluation, and challenges arisein determining appropriate measurement procedures for it. Setting clear objectives for events is asignificant aspect of the evaluation process, since the outcomes of events are usually evaluatedagainst the preset objectives. The respondent companies utilize many of the individual techniquesthat were recognized in theory, such as calculating the number of sales leads and delegates.However, some of the measurement tools may require further investments and resources, thusrestricting their application especially in smaller companies. In addition, there seems to be a lack ofknowledge of the most appropriate methods in different contexts, which take into account thecharacteristics of the organizing party as well as the size and nature of the event. The lack of inhouseexpertise enhances the need for third-party service-providers in solving problems of corporateevent measurement.