Meetings technology firm Etouches, which acquired
sourcing solution Zentila in June to form a more complete end-to-end meetings
management tool, has introduced a self-contained meetings intelligence
dashboard called Event ROI. The tool draws real-time data from Etouches'
technology stack—sourcing, registration, mobile and onsite activity—to give a
view of an event's return on investment.
Research released by Etouches and BizBash late last year
showed that while 91 percent of the 400 meeting professionals surveyed attempted
to measure event ROI, only 11 percent were happy with their ROI methodology or
confident in their results. "They told us that they needed to do more
[with ROI] and a better job," said Bill Bosak, who joined Etouches in June
as global director of data and analytics. "This tool provides a
methodology, not a laborious methodology but one that can help get all meeting
stakeholders on the same page and return a more complete view of ROI."
Rather than focusing on the meeting organizer and process
efficiencies, the Event ROI tool approaches ROI metrics per stakeholder. Bosak
enumerated a handful of potential stakeholder inclusions: the meeting
organizer, the chief marketing officer, exhibitors and sponsors. Each of these
stakeholders will have different views on how to calculate event ROI.
Etouches preset a host of metrics into the tool; Cost
against budget, overall revenue, detailed revenue from sponsors, ticket sales,
registration fees, attendee engagement metrics, training effectiveness measures,
sales value and traffic to booths are just a sample. In addition, the tool
allows users to load custom measurements. "Users need to dial-in on their
own objectives," said Bosak. "Based on how they define success, they
can look at ROI in their own terms. The templates get them started so they're
not staring at a blank slate."
Even experienced travel managers have expressed concern
about that "blank slate" when it comes to evaluating performance
against meeting objectives that are outside traditional cost versus revenue.
The Etouches and BizBash research showed that 48 percent of meetings
professionals were most challenged to show ROI against the marketing and
attendee brand engagement of their live events.
Speaking
to BTN in July specifically about mobile meetings app data, which several tech suppliers have touted for its ability to capture engagement indicators, Siemens director of
event management services Bobby Badalamenti said suppliers will have to do better than offer the data. On an industry level, she said, the onus "is on the
supplier as much as it is on the corporation to come up with advantages for
using the data."
Etouches hopes to deliver not only by putting Event ROI data
into context across the lifecycle of a single event but also by providing
benchmarking against historical event data. The context will help users
understand where to focus their energies and deploy appropriate resources against
performance shortfalls.
Comexposium global chief digital officer Dan Elder, whose
company participated in Event ROI's beta program, said improving visibility and
focusing on key metrics in the lead-up to the company's events has had "a
positive impact on event team behavior," which in the past was challenging
due to the globally decentralized structure of the team. Bosak added that another
Etouches client, from the financial industry, had a similar experience when
tracking regional registration against commitments to event sponsors. When the
company identified shortfalls in the lead-up to their event, the events team
tapped contingency marketing funds to close the gaps. Real-time tracking
allowed them to cut the extra spending immediately upon reaching goal.
The tool will also provide a built-in "professional
services" feature that can automate best-practice recommendations when
performance lags target objectives. For example, said Bosak, an event planner who
guarantees booth traffic for sponsors and tracks it via iBeacon technology can
set the system to detect traffic shortfalls and, if needed, message attendees in
order to promote a specific sponsor or draw attendees to a certain area. "The
recommendations are often in terms of event technology that is relatively new,"
said Bosak. "We don't want to tell event professionals how to do their
jobs, but helping them optimize the newer event technology is important."
Event ROI is available as part of Etouches' Plus offerings of a la carte tools that can be
added to a client's Core or Pro package. Bosak conceded that, along with the
preset templates, most clients would need Etouches consulting services to help
them get started.
"The majority will need support," he said. "The
concept isn't new, but actually doing this is new. The vastness of the waters
here can turn people off, and we want to avoid that." His advice is to
start small. "Choose one or two [objectives] per stakeholder and get the
data flows locked down … and be clear about the target value."
Event ROI pulls the majority of its data from the Etouches
technology stack but can integrate with local client systems that include
marketing automation and customer relationship management systems. Larger integrations
with public APIs for Marketo, Eloqua and Salesforce are scheduled for a later
release.
"We want to put practical solutions in the
hands of our clients," said Bosak. "With other marketing channels
largely going digital and becoming highly measurable, we know it's time to
strike. Marketing automation on the front end and CRM on the back end—those
have matured over the past 20 years. We have event tech coming into play. …
There's a need to respect the data for what it is and put it to work for
meeting and event professionals."