It doesn’t come as a surprise that digital interactions are ruling our everyday life. However, even the screen-addicted millennials and Gen Zers favor in-person interactions over virtual ones.
That’s the main reason why event marketing is among the most effective marketing strategies your business can adopt. Even digital channels such as digital advertising and email marketing are not as powerful.
Let’s see what the numbers say.
Top Event Marketing Statistics: Editor’s Choice
- Event marketing is the most effective channel, according to nearly 31% of marketers.
- Live events will be increasingly crucial to success for 81% of marketers.
- Almost eight in ten marketers generate sales by using event marketing.
- Less than half of event planners organize their events at least 6–12 months before.
- During the pandemic, the wedding planning industry saw a 7.6% decrease.
- B2B marketers assigned 20%–50% of their budget to event marketing.
- 80% of marketers say that video content is responsible for increasing their sales.
- 85% of people are more inclined to purchase after attending an event.
- 90% of virtual event organizers use surveys to measure attendee satisfaction.
General Event Marketing Stats
How many marketers think event marketing is the best option for their business? What’s the main reason behind it?
Let’s take a look at the following trends and stats.
1. About 31% of marketers agree that event marketing is the most effective channel.
The way companies build brand awareness has changed over the decades. During the 1960s and 1970s, businesses invested heavily in print ads and TV advertising. In the 1990s and 2000s, they started to use the first digital channels like email and social media.
Nowadays, event statistics demonstrate that live events took the lead—whether they are in-person or virtual meetings.
2. Live events will be increasingly crucial to success for 81% of marketers.
In the upcoming years, live events are not expected to go away. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the attendance for in-person events, many of them have moved onto virtual platforms, such as Zoom and Google Meet.
3. 65% of attendees said live events gave them a better understanding of the product.
The figure has hugely exceeded digital and TV advertising as methods of learning about a new brand and its products. Event-based marketing gives a clearer picture of what kind of goods the company is offering. That’s why people attend conferences, trade shows, seminars, and other types of events—they’re able to explain much more about a product than an advert can do.
4. 77% of businesses use experiential marketing as their primary advertising strategy.
Most marketers use seminars, conventions, conferences, and trade shows to sponsor their new products. Due to its successful outcome, more than three out of four businesses use the experiential marketing strategy extensively, according to the latest experiential marketing statistics.
5. 79% of US marketers generate sales thanks to event marketing.
Americans mostly use event marketing to generate sales. 78% of US marketers measure event programs, 72% increase their event marketing activities, and 65% fund the events directly. Only 14% of the respondents claimed event marketing had brought them a return on investment of a 5:1 ratio.
6. The global event industry is expected to reach $1,457.2 million by 2028.
Thanks to the increase in sponsorships for events, the global event industry market size will most likely grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.1% during the 2021–2028 period.
However, the global pandemic has impacted the event industry significantly. Because of the strict lockdown measures, most events got delayed or canceled in order to limit the virus’s spread.
Event Planning Industry Statistics
Event planners are responsible for organizing, executing, and promoting events.
The competition within this industry is relatively high and becoming an event planner isn’t easy. Still, what makes a trade show, a conference, a corporate meeting, or other types of event marketing so successful are personal interactions with customers and the ability to manage costs and budgeting, for the most part.
7. 48% of event organizers start preparing for their event 6–12 months in advance.
Almost half of the event planners decide to work in advance on negotiating with vendors, choosing the best venue for the event, working with clients on the concept, event planning statistics show. There are many responsibilities that come with preparing a profitable event, so make sure to schedule everything carefully.
8. In the US, the event planning industry is expected to hit $3.2 billion in 2022.
Although the coronavirus pandemic is not showing any sign of leaving soon, the event planning size is estimated to increase by 4% in 2022. During the previous year, the market size was $3,029.9 billion.
While event marketing management has declined in recent years due to the pandemic, the event planning industry statistics for 2022 prove how this figure is slowly recovering.
9. Event planning jobs have grown faster than the national average by 4%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics demonstrates that event planning employment has been expected to grow at a rate of 11% during the 2016–2026 decade.
While the estimated national growth is about 7%, it’s clear that event planners will see fantastic career opportunities ahead of them.
10. In Hawaii, the average salary for an event planner is $56,436 per year.
According to event planner statistics, the average salary for a planner in the US highly depends on the state of residence. Zip Recruiter detected that at least 11 states earn a yearly income above the national average of $49,992.
The fairly active event planning market makes Hawaii the highest-earning country in the industry, beating the national average by 12.9%. Massachusetts and Rhode Island complete the top three, with an average of $56,425 and $54,482 yearly salaries, respectively.
11. The wedding planning industry has decreased to 7.6% per year till 2020.
Many reasons justify the downfall of this industry. Travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines are giving the wedding industry a tough time. Wedding planning industry statistics report that fewer couples request a wedding planner to host their marriage. The spread of the virus is not the only reason behind this fall; expenses play a big part as well.
Event Marketing and B2B Statistics
Meetings, conferences, tradeshows among B2B marketers are gradually increasing. This growth underlines the constant possibility for the event industry to generate worth and expand its reach. This value will contribute as a significant investment in the B2B marketing industry and boost innovation.
12. Most marketers planned to allocate anywhere from 20% to 50% of their total budget to event marketing.
In 2020, organizers were very optimistic about the event marketing growth for the year. Their hopes got quickly shattered in the first quarter of 2020 when important festivals were delayed or canceled.
Event marketing statistics for 2022 reveal that marketers will slowly start to invest more in this industry, as vaccinations are pushing the population to get back to normal.
13. 76% of B2B marketers feel that in-person events are a better strategy than any other.
In-person events are the most efficient marketing strategy, especially for creating customer engagement. Moreover, 58% of marketers judge lead nurturing campaigns and webinars to be the best marketing strategy. Case studies (40%) and videos (38%) are also vital to engaging customers.
14. A staggering 80% of video marketers agree that video content helped them boost their sales.
Online videos and Tiktoks are a more innovative way of making B2B experiential marketing, as it attracts a significant number of people to the brand. As most B2B marketers agree that creating experiential content can be highly beneficial for the business, this marketing strategy is something businesses should keep in mind when dealing with event marketing.
When it comes to video advertising, length matters too. As marketers are aware that consumers’ attention span is generally low, 80% of them create videos that are 3 minutes or less.
Event Attendance Statistics
When taking part in an event, attendees come together to better learn about the company and its products and services. So, it’s important for hosts to provide the best experience for their potential customers.
Attendance satisfaction is crucial to define whether an event was successful or not—here are the most remarkable statistics about attendance.
15. A whopping 85% of people are more likely to purchase a product after attending a live event.
If you saw a product promoted at an event, you probably purchased it right after. Although there are no available event industry statistics for 2022, the reasons why people are more likely to buy after a person-to-person interaction stay the same.
Consumers can fully explore the product, while that wouldn’t be possible in front of a computer screen or television. Moreover, marketers can respond immediately to the customers’ queries and accomplish their wants and needs on the spot.
16. In 2021, US companies attended around 6.4 national events.
This Statista survey mainly focuses on consumers’ attendance in national, regional, and international trade shows.
Trade show attendance statistics prove that industry professionals engaged in 10.2 regional shows, 6.4 national events, and 4.4 international trade shows in 2021. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has put the event industry on its knees, the overall attendance for trade shows slightly increased in 2021. That considered, the forecast for 2022 and the years to come seems very promising.
17. 92% of people attend trade shows to find new products.
According to the most recent event industry statistics, only 13% оf соmраnіеѕ promote their рrоduсtѕ and services at events. This indicates that businesses should put more effort into featuring their goods, as most consumers attend trade shows to look for new products. That doesn’t guarantee they will buy on the spot, but this marketing strategy can help you generate new leads.
18. Surveys are used by 90% of virtual event organizers to gauge attendance satisfaction.
Besides considering their sales and social media, marketers mostly gather their feedback and measure the overall attendee satisfaction through surveys. These virtual event attendance statistics will probably keep changing in the future, as many marketers are taking virtual events to the next level.
Especially during the pandemic, virtual events have become crucial for every company. Hence, surveys are the most effective and fastest means of getting feedback from people.
19. Before the pandemic, 81 million Americans attended business meetings.
Not only did meetings attract a large number of individuals, but they also gave jobs to over 6 million Americans. These conference industry statistics state that conventions register way larger attendance and revenue than football and baseball matches. In terms of employment, conventions create a higher percentage of jobs compared to the NFL.
Additional Event Marketing Statistics and Facts
Now that you have a better understanding of the event planning industry, event marketing in B2B companies, and event attendance, we will cover additional stats and facts about this type of marketing.
20. Only 24% of marketers transfer the entire in-person event experience online during the COVID-19 situation.
The lockdown enforced by the government made many professionals host their events on online platforms. However, switching in-person events online is not as easy as it seems. Virtual event statistics prove that one of the marketers’ top challenges includes moving a whole in-person event conference on a virtual channel. Only a small percentage agrees that it’s the best decision during these troubling times.
21. On average, the estimated cost for an event venue ranges from $950 to $1,250 per hour.
Whenever you decide how much budget you should allocate to an event, the venue is the first thing you should keep in mind. Yet, the price for the location varies from service to service and vendor to vendor.
Overall, the average cost of hosting a conference also depends on other factors, such as food and beverages and hotel accommodation.
22. In 2020, the music industry hardly sold 13.4 million concert tickets worldwide.
It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic had negatively impacted the music industry. In 2019, the figure showed 57.7 million sold music tour tickets. As the concert industry happened to be above 50 million since 2011, we can say that this sector reached its lowest point in 2020.
However, Live Nation is slowly increasing the number of concert ticket sales, statistics show. The company sold 25 million event tickets in the second half of 2021 and 14 million for 2022.
23. The global online event ticketing market is expected to reach $61.7 billion by 2027.
Sport and movies are among the industries that felt the economic crisis induced by the global pandemic the most. Still, the numbers will most likely recover to a 3.4% CAGR for the next seven years.
During the 2020–2027 decade, the event ticketing market size will surpass $61 billion, at a CAGR of 3.3%.
24. A whopping 92% of event marketers rely on event software and mobile apps to accomplish their business goals.
In today’s digital world, the use of the internet and mobile have widely influenced our everyday lives. For this reason, more and more businesses started adopting mobile devices as means for planning, promoting, and even hosting their events. Bizzabo’s benchmarks demonstrate that most companies believe technology can have a significant impact on their events.
According to the latest mobile marketing statistics for an event, mobile devices and apps surpassed desktop usage. As a result, event marketers are continually looking for new ways to reach potential customers on mobile devices.
25. 40% of marketing events are estimated to be entirely virtual in 2022.
Statista has recently surveyed 8,227 marketers and reported that virtual meetings would continue to be the leading type of event in 2022. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, more and more companies switched their events to virtual platforms and chose to adopt online meetings for the years to come.
However, these fascinating virtual events statistics prove that 30% of events will be hybrid, or better, a mix between in-person events and online meetings. Another 30% of marketers believe the best decision is to keep events and conferences in person.
Event Marketing Statistics: The Takeaway
Consumers seem to abandon traditional methods to the new experiential marketing trend. Experiential marketing is focused on creating a more interactive experience so that consumers find it easier to associate with the brand.
The strike of the global pandemic put the event industry on its knees, causing a lot of trade shows, conferences, and festivals to cancel or postpone. This is one of the most affected industries globally, with huge revenue losses. However, despite the ban on large gatherings, businesses have found a new way of bringing people together—with the help of technology, most of them have moved their events online.We hope that these fascinating event marketing trends and stats helped you better understand this type of marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How effective is event marketing?
Many event planners believe that hosting face-to-face events is the most effective marketing strategy, even more than email marketing and social networking.
Suppose you are an event planner. In that case, you know that events just don’t sell themselves—it takes a lot of hard work, early organization, and advertisement to accomplish a successful event. Early discounts for tickets, blogging, promoting it on social media, partner outreach, and emails are among the most effective strategies to achieve success.
How do you market an event?
Successful event marketing highly depends on carefully planned strategies. Although the whole process might seem overwhelming at first, following the right steps will make it easier. But if you’re still uncertain how to start marketing an event, we made our own research on the most effective marketing tips.
To create a great marketing event, it would be best if you consider your goals first. Then, think about creating an effective event page and pre-event emails. You should also consider the use of technology, send a news release to the media, and use all social media channels.
How many events are in a year?
In the US, about 1.8 million events occur annually — 270,000 are conventions and conferences, 66,000 are incentive meetings, and 11,000 are trade shows. Moreover, about 1.3 million consists of corporate meetings, and the remaining 178,000 include festivals and other events. In total, these events attract a staggering 205 million participants every year.
How big is the live events industry?
In 2019, the events industry size had a value of $1,135.4 billion. Allied Market Research’s report shows that this figure will increase to $1,552.9 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 11.2%. The numbers drastically dropped in 2020 due to the strict lockdown measures caused by the spread of the COVID-19; however, the event industry is expected to recover by the end of this decade.
When should you start event marketing?
It would help if you started planning at least 90–180 days in advance. It’s essential to thoroughly start building your advertising plan and event marketing campaign before the event’s announcement.
It’s highly recommended not to announce your event way before releasing additional information about it. However, don’t wait too long to spread your advertising if you don’t want people to forget your event.
Where can I promote an event?
To promote your event, you can use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, or even your website, based on what works best for your business. It’s not necessary to use as many channels as possible—adopting only one of them can be enough to deliver your message. Keep in mind that when it comes to event promotion marketing, quality is more valuable than quantity.
What percentage of virtual event costs come from technology?
It’s no surprise that virtual event costs vary from in-person meetings. Marketers that choose to host an in-person event need to allocate 25% of their budget to technology. In comparison, the remaining 75% goes to venues, decor, staffing, food and beverages, and hotel accommodations.
On the other hand, the only cost concerning marketers hosting virtual meetings will be technology. In fact, virtual event planners do not have to worry about expenses related to location, F&B, and travel.
How much do event planning companies make?
According to event marketing statistics, event planners make, on average, $16.07 per hour, or $33,000 per year. This figure depends on the clientele, the type of event, the hours worked, and the state. In the US, event planners in California earn around $20.83 per hour. As for other states, they receive $18.50 in the District of Columbia, $17.85 in Massachusetts, and $17.50 in New Jersey.
Sources
Aventri, Aventri, Bizzabo, Bizzabo, Convene, CVent, Events Force, Exhibit City News, Globe Newswire, Globe Newswire, IBIS World, IBIS World, Instapage, Marketing Charts, NBC News, OptinMonster, Simple Booth, Social Tables, Statista, Statista, Statista, This Is Capitalism, The Trade Show Network, Zip Recruiter