Live from PROMO Expo: Event Marketing Warms Women, Gen Y

Experiential marketing is especially effective with women and younger consumers, according to research presented yesterday at PROMO Expo by Jack Morton Worldwide.

VP-account director Jeffrey Miller presented the data as part of an event-marketing workshop conducted by Jack Morton.

The study found that 43% of women say experiential marketing is the marketing medium most likely to prompt them to buy a product quickly (versus 29% of men). Fully 26% of women said they prefer experiential marketing to other forms of marketing. Women spend an average of 14 to 15 minutes at a brand’s event, depending on the activity and the venue—longer at mall and store events, slightly shorter at fairs and public events.

Forty percent of Gen Y respondents say experiential marketing is most likely to prompt them to purchase; 31% say it’s their preferred method of marketing communication.

Jack Morton found that a combination of entertainment and product sampling is the most effective format for all consumer groups. Sixty-one percent of all respondents said they best like to sample products at an entertainment event, versus 34% who prefer straight sampling. A whopping 83% prefer that events have a product representative there to answer questions about the brand.

Ninety percent of consumers said they pay more attention to brand ads after having attended an event for the brand; 83% are more interested in a brand’s event if they’ve seen an ad for the brand. Consumers spend the least amount of time (an average six to seven minutes) at brand events that piggyback sports games, concerts or other entertainment dates.

Event marketing is most effective for big-ticket or high-tech items including cars, computers, software and cell phones because events demystify high-tech goods and let consumers try on high-cost items.

New York City-based Jack Morton conducted the online survey of 800 U.S. consumers in October 2003 via Sponsorship Research International.