The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) report revealed event marketing budgets rose from +2.4% to +5.7% over the first quarter of 2015 – the second highest of all sectors.
Melissa Noakes, head of experiential marketing at Sony Mobile Communications advocates social and online platforms when it comes to promoting events.
She told Event: "We should continue to drive social and online amplification of live events – this drives recommendation and consideration and has a much bigger impact.
"In addition the industry needs to continue to improve and build on measurement and ROI metrics for events, as this enables brands to demonstrate the impact that live events have."
She attributes the industry’s success to brands' understanding of the fact that they need to interact with consumers face-to-face, an effective approach that also drives "buzz" online and across other platforms.
Dom Robertson, managing director at experiential agency RPM agreed with Noakes’ first point: "Our industry needs to ensure that there is a real focus on relevant measurement and evaluation of brand experience campaigns.
"Ensuring that ROI and shifts in brand advocacy are well documented, allows for event-led campaigns to be viewed as justifiable competition when vying for marketing spend versus alternative channels in clients’ boardrooms."
Sian Bates, client services director at brand experience agency, TRO added: "As with every marketing discipline, our role is to continue to show return on investment for our clients and for this there needs to be clear objectives from the start.
"Event marketing is such an exciting and dynamic sector, and our account teams continue to push the boundaries with creative executions and effective ways of bringing brands to life across live events, experiential marketing and retail experiences."
Bates added the agency has already delivered a number of campaigns this year, with more in the works and potential new clients on the agenda, which points to the fact that event managers see the benefit of face-to-face experiences.
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