New study from Cvent highlights critical opportunity for planners and marketers to better leverage technology

Cvent, a market-leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, today unveiled the results of an independent study conducted by Atomik Research. The study, commissioned by Cvent, highlights areas of opportunity for marketers and event organisers to maximise the impact of their event programmes in the new digital landscape. For example, research results show that only one fifth (21%) of senior event and marketing executives in the UK and Europe are capturing attendee data at all stages of the customer journey (pre, during and post event). In addition, over half (57%) are not formally relating their event programme results to customer acquisition and onboarding efforts.

In an era where many businesses across the UK and Europe are focused on recovery, Cvent’s research offers insights into how event organisers and marketers can better leverage technology to capitalise on the digitisation of events. There is optimism from the majority of respondents as 68% state they expect their business lead generation  to  increase  over  the  next  12  months. Taking this increase into consideration, many could unwittingly be missing opportunities to drive results and maximise engagement by not leveraging delegate insights across their entire customer life cycle. According to the study, part of the issue for fragmented data aggregation is due to “not understanding or knowing how to further data”, whilst other organisations are not adapting quickly enough to the new digital-first landscape. Of those surveyed who did not collect data at all, the highest proportion (32%) said it was because their company did not have the right technology in place to do so effectively, securely, and in a compliant manner.

The study also found a critical opportunity to increase collaboration between event organisers and marketers to drive results. Only 11% of respondents said that the marketing and event teams work closely to develop event programme goals and measure event success. However, 60% of respondents cited that in the future there is going to be far greater collaboration between event professionals and marketers regarding strategy and event activity.

“This is an encouraging statistic which supports what we are calling the new event marketing opportunity; a more collaborative approach between event organisers and marketers which offers the potential to collect and review a wider set of data across multiple channels, and in turn can support more targeted marketing efforts and facilitate more personalised, engaging experiences for attendees,” says Patrick Smith, chief marketing officer at Cvent.

Additional highlights of the research include:

• Six in ten (60%) of respondents said more emphasis will be put on delivering virtual and hybrid events, highlighting the critical importance of leveraging technology that can support an organisation’s Total Event Programme – in-person, virtual, and hybrid – to better engage delegates across all event types.
• Nearly half (42%) of respondents cited sales leads as the most important driver for hosting events, whilst a quarter (25%) cited a positive event experience as the number one driver when measuring event success. Planners and marketers should instead look at these two metrics together because a better experience leads to more engagement, and better qualified sales leads.

Smith commented: “Most organisations are only just scratching the surface when it comes to the data opportunity, so we commissioned this research to identify where the sticking points are and to provide insights into how event and marketing professionals can better facilitate gathering and leveraging engagement data. When planners and marketers are aligned in their strategies and have the right technology to measure engagement across the entire customer journey, they can deliver more personalised touchpoints and dynamic event experiences, which ultimately results in better business leads and improved outcomes.”

The research study includes responses from 2,105 senior event and marketing professionals across the UK, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, and Netherlands who work in a range of industries including IT, technology & telecoms, financial services, education, retail, healthcare, construction & property, media, leisure & entertainment and governmental. Three in ten of these businesses have a turnover between £1-6 million, with 18% working in businesses £6 million plus.

To view the full report click here.