Nine out of ten marketing managers say the importance of event marketing is on the up or constant, according to EventView '05, the annual event marketing trends survey sponsored by the MPI Foundation and the George P. Johnson Company.

And they are putting their money where their mouth is with 90 per cent of respondents saying budgets are to be increased or at least maintained over the year, compared to just 80 per cent last year, and reporting a 15 per cent rise in event marketing budgets over 2004.

Events are also winning an increasing share of company’s overall marketing budget. The survey reveals event marketing accounting for 27 per cent of the overall spend, compared to 21 per cent last year and 24 per cent in 2003.

Event marketing has also once again led the pack in perception of delivering return on investment (ROI) with nearly one in four (23 per cent) of respondents putting event marketing top. More than half (52 per cent) say it is a lead tactic or a vital component of their marketing plan.

The survey reports that the most effective external events, in terms of ROI, are tradeshows and conferences and that they account for the majority of budgets (54 per cent and 47 per cent respectively).

Across all regions the perceived ability of events to enhance the customer relationship shifted from third place in 2004 to first in 2005, ahead of brand awareness and brand preference as the most important success criterion.

The survey also suggests that the more companies do to prove the impact of events on the bottom line, the more increased budgets will follow. Last year just 53 per cent of respondents could provide a figure for the proportion of an event’s budget spent on measuring its impact, this year 60 per cent could provide some estimation.

Overall, 11 per cent of event marketing budgets is allocated to measurement. In Europe those who measure the impact of events are 35 per cent more likely to increase budgets than those that don’t.

The role of procurement and heightened budget pressures have caused cost to be the biggest factor in choosing a vendor to support event activity, followed by reliability and experience/industry knowledge.

EventView '05 involved telephone interviews with 700 individuals in marketing management positions from North America, Europe and Asia in high technology, healthcare, automotive and financial industries.