According to a new study released by the Association of Event Organizers, individuals who attend events are more valuable to brands than the general population, they have more reach and influence on and offline, and are more likely to make recommendations to their peers.
Officials say these are key findings of FaceTime, an AEO-funded research project. The aim of the study was to understand the behavior of visitors who attend events so that organizers and exhibitors can work together to attract more high-value visitors to future shows.
The study also found that within an event community there is a sub-group of super-high influence attendees who spend more at the event and in the following 12 months than other attendees. The research also identified that high-influence attendees make up 32 percent of overall attendance at consumer events and 34 percent at tradeshows. “The Event Advocacy research has found that high-influence attendees, in particular, go on to actively recommend events and the exhibitors they see,” says Jenni Jaques, (pictured right) marketing director at AEO. “In addition, they spend notably more than other visitors over a 12-month period – 84 percent more for trade and double the amount for consumer events. We’re hoping these compelling results will be a springboard for event organizers to find ways of identifying who their specific high influencers are, what the purchase potential of their shows is and, ultimately, what they can do to increase numbers of high influencers at their events.”
The research, conducted by event research company Explori, gathered detailed responses from 12,366 event attendees and 1,000 non-attendees who acted as the control group. The events researched included a mix of five consumer and seven trade exhibitions.
For more info, visit www.aeo.org.uk.
