Marketing, Event Team Partnership Key: Research

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — One-half (49 per cent) of event planners report marketing departments at their respective companies are always or often involved in the planning and execution of events, and an overwhelming majority find value in this type of partnership, according to research released Oct. 4

The GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), in partnership with Cvent, released new research that explores the prevalence and types of collaboration between event planners and marketing departments.

“Like any cross-company collaboration, getting to a good working relationship often comes with challenges along the way, including lack of communication, control issues, budget constraints and delays,” said Kate Vasiloff, GBTA Foundation director of research. “While there is no single roadmap to successful collaboration between marketing and event planning teams, establishing clear lines of communication, demonstrating an openness to fresh ideas and accounting for time and money spent is a good place to start.”

More than half (53 per cent) of event planners feel setting objectives to support overall business goals is the most important factor to consider when planning a meeting or event. This happens to be an area event planners excel at and are well-equipped to handle. The design and content of a meeting or event, often less familiar for event planners, can be equally vital to its overall success.

This is where collaboration across departments comes into play and can help companies enhance the success of their meetings and events.
When the opportunities for collaboration are scrutinized, the highest level of collaboration (59 per cent) is around email communication. During the planning stages of the event, marketing teams and event planners frequently work together to determine the event’s theme (49 per cent), logo (49 per cent) and color scheme (37 per cent).

A majority continue to work together on-site with signage (54 per cent), but collaboration drops off when it comes to post-event communications (41 per cent) and the event debrief (33 per cent), showing opportunities to continue collaboration to determine event success.