Back in the 1980s (cue the Stranger Things soundtrack), it was quite common for companies to spend big bucks on event sponsorship – without measuring actual event performance in terms of concrete marketing goals.

In fact, in 1987, a couple of business researchers made the astonishing discovery that half of all companies engaged in event marketing neglected to track any relevant marketing metrics.

Instead, many corporations – enchanted by the mystique of this new kind of marketing that was emerging – simply splashed cash on sponsoring events, without a tangible, analytical consideration of post-event impact on sales, brand perception, and the like.

Now, however – some 30 years later – companies are intimately in touch with the advantages (and acute necessity) of meticulously amassing data on event marketing performance.

Failing to do so, in 2017, means a thoroughly wasted marketing budget.

So strategically-oriented businesses invest resources in data-gathering technologies and software, and event marketing and management firms which also make use of such technologies give their clients a compelling competitive advantage.

However, one of the most powerful forms of data-tracking in event marketing is also one of the simplest: the attendee questionnaire.

The questionnaire – a list of questions asked of event attendees, designed to understand their attitudes, motivations, and more – is a staple of any well-planned event or live brand experience.

Designed with campaign objectives fully in mind, the questionnaire is an event marketing tool with both tactical and strategic prowess.

As such, creation of an effective questionnaire for event attendees requires considerable thought – and expertise in the craft of event marketing. Not every events agency can successfully pull it off.

Event management and marketing agencies which develop robust post-event questionnaires yield multiple benefits for corporate clients, including:

• A potent combination of qualitative and quantitative data produced in a format which is easily amenable to statistical analysis (and statistical analysis of such data is essential if a marketing team seeks to discover meaningful patterns of consumer decisions);

• The rapid detection of shifts in target audience behaviours as the event marketing campaign unfolds over months, seasons, and years;

• Identification of awareness (and lack thereof) among event attendees of product benefits and features – allowing a brand’s marketers to further refine its messaging.

Needless to say, these are only a few of the advantages of an intelligently planned event questionnaire. Thus, if your company’s events are not currently supported by attendee questionnaires of a high-calibre, we encourage you to contact the Femme Fatale Media Group team.