Q: How do you measure the on-site event?

A: In the first part of our three part series, we laid out the different metrics you could use to measure your experiential marketing campaigns. In this second part, we’ll dive into the metrics you should use for the on-site event itself and its attendance. It’s critical to keep track of the on-site event metrics to properly count the effectiveness of the on-the-ground component of the campaign. After all, it’s often the focal hub of the campaign with the most impact.

Here were the on-site event measures we outlined:

Number of Giveaways
Number of Interactions
Number of Leads
Time to Capture Lead
Time of Average Engagement
Verbal Feedback

So now let’s break these down.

Number of Giveaways

People love free stuff. Incentives are powerful and when used in the form of premiums or other giveaways, they make it easier to calculate how much it cost to acquire a customer. Typically, giveaways work best if people give something of their own, such as contact or survey info, creating a better prospect and a more engaged customer to target or gain valuable insight from.

Number of Interactions

The number of people that interact (stop by, respond, ask a question, or any sign of intentional engagement) is a necessary input for several key metrics . For example, by looking at the number of interactions vs. the number of leads, you can understand your lead rate, honing in on what to change if an event draws people quickly but doesn’t lead them to share their information for follow-up. It could also be the reverse where the number of interactions may be low, but the lead rate is extremely high, signaling a campaign that has succeeded in targeting the right customers.

Number of Leads

When doing a campaign that has a main objective of generating leads or capturing consumer data, this metric is of course what the whole operation hinges on. But it’s also critical for the post event metrics, such as sales conversion (how many people go on to buy the brand.) This input is also helpful to calculate ROI for your clients, as it can lead to new sales, which means it directly impacts the bottom line, validating the campaign.

Time to Capture Lead

This metric can be crucial in determining the tactic you wish to use to capture leads and/or how much staff you will need to man the on-site event. Knowing your target goal will be helpful in assessing the max number of leads you can collect if the event is a huge success. Knowing this upper bound will help you make wise choices from the tactic to capture the lead (mobile app, sign-up sheet) to the minimum staffing required.

Time of Average Engagement

By calculating the time of average engagement of each person that interacts with your event, you can properly gauge foot traffic capacity, helping you make decisions about the scope of the campaign, the size of footprints and the flow of participation. This number will be obviously different depending on the tactic (say, photo stand vs. a game show), but it’s good to know so you can match appropriate tactics that align with your campaign goal (such as brand awareness vs. lead generation.)

Verbal Feedback

Not every measure has a number value, often some of the most important insight you can get is straight from people’s mouths. This is especially great to have on hand for clients concerned with brand perception, as participants can be open and vocal about distinct instances and impressions. This feedback gives helpful cues such as to how unique the event was and how they ultimately felt about the experience.

There are of course other metrics to measure the on-site event attendance but these are the key inputs that effect top-level strategy and implementation. In our next installment we’ll shed light on the measures that live before and after and event, as well as during, to show a full data story to understand the impact of the entire campaign.