Nearly 50 per cent of event organisers involve their marketing departments in the event planning and execution process, with most valuing the partnership, according to a Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Foundation survey.
Teaming up with event management software company Cvent to conduct the research, GBTA Foundation examined the prevalence and types of collaboration between event planners and marketing departments.
“Events are critical to business’ bottom line, so marketing and event planning functions must be in sync to ensure that events deliver on the marketing department’s goals,” says Stacey Fontenot, Cvent vice president of platform marketing.
“Business-to-business marketers rely heavily on events, so event planners can create significant business value by collaborating with their marketing peers, elevating the importance of the event planning team within an organisation.”
The survey otherwise found that more than half (53 per cent) of event planners believe that setting objectives to support overall business goals is the most important consideration when planning a function.
The highest level of collaboration (59 percent) takes place over email.
The numbers
Percentages of respondees who said marketing and event teams collaborated during:
Planning:
– On theme – 49 per cent
– On logo – 49 per cent
– On colour scheme – 37 per cent
Execution:
– On on-site signage – 54 per cent
Post-event:
– For general communications – 41 per cent
– For debrief – 33 per cent
Percentages of respondees who identified the following challenges while collaborating:
– Communication – 43 per cent
– Control issues between departments – 42 per cent
– Budget constraints – 41 per cent
Participants shared best practices to tackle these challenges, which included designating a point of contact in each department and formalising a partnership between departments with buy-in from leadership.
The survey is based on 10 one-on-one, in-depth phone interviews with individuals with large-scale event-planning responsibilities in North America.
A supplemental online survey of 157 travel buyers in North America who have some level of involvement in planning or overseeing meetings or events for their organisation was also conducted in February.
