With New York Fashion Week in full swing and runway shows, presentations and parties ruling the day and night, our curious minds naturally go to wondering how we can best determine if the events we produce year after year (Fashion Week related or not) actually make an impact.
It might feel like a scary question. And with good reason. Determining the worth and value of a particular communication effort keeps many entrepreneurs and by extension, their publicists, up at night. Of course, impact can mean many things. It can mean a positive impact on the world, a financial impact on your wallet, or a strategic advance or media hit for a client.
I’ve found that more experiential you become with the work you do, the harder it is to measure impact. We can’t simply point at site traffic or drum up an impressive number of print media impressions. So at CatalystCreativ, we have created a new term for ROI, switching it from Return on Investment to Ripple of Impact. We believe that every client we create an experience for has to have a larger ROI in the world than the basic numbers. Over the past two years, we have figured out ways to help our clients measure this ROI. Here are four ways we do it that you can apply to your own event efforts.
At CatalystCreativ, we have created a new term for ROI, switching it from Return on Investment to Ripple of Impact.
This is a challenging one, particularly with client-facing companies. Each client has completely different objectives and different outcomes, but it’s important to stay consistent with the way you provide data. We create case studies which we send to each client after the work we have provided. We also publish them our website. All our case studies follow the same format.
The more detailed you can get with matching your results to the initial objectives set by the client, the easier it is to demonstrate that you have added value.
When providing data, it’s really important to talk to your clients and ask them what they want from your services. Each client is completely different. One client’s objectives may be for people to be completely present and off their phones at an event, while another is set on everyone tweeting and measuring the use of a particular hashtag. If you agree on what success looks like, and set objectives from the beginning, it’s much easier to build our strategies that are in support of that goal. Clear objectives should be referred to again and again during a campaign to ensure you are headed in the right direction, and haven’t veered off course. when you are going in the right direction and when you stray off
When providing data, it’s really important to talk to your clients and ask them what they want from your services. Each client is completely different.
As noted, systems are important, but sometimes in order to measure the impact you have created, you need to think outside of the box. For our ongoing partner, Downtown Project, we have produced and curated ongoing monthly events for the past two years. This gets fairly difficult to manage in a Google spreadsheet, so we decided to partner with Attendify to engineer an app to make it easier. Not only will the app help facilitate more connections, but it will also measure them in real time. Sometimes a traditional system makes sense as a foundation for your strategy, but to show your value to the client you will have to go above and beyond.
Sometimes a traditional system makes sense as a foundation for your strategy, but to show your value to the client you will have to go above and beyond.
Sometimes a traditional system makes sense as a foundation for your strategy, but to show your value to the client you will have to go above and beyond.
One of the biggest ways we measure our impact is through the testimonials we receive. This can be from attendees of an event we have produced or the actual clients themselves. The more reviews you receive, the more obvious it is that you are doing something right. When we receive thank you notes or thank you videos, or positive feedback to surveys we send out, it helps me remember why I started my company in the first place.
It’s important to remember that while measuring impact is crucial for success, so is the learning process that comes along with it. It’s nearly impossible to get it perfect every time. The more you capture data and the more you learn from your mistakes, the more you can move towards creating a larger ROI – however you define it.
About Amanda Slavin
Amanda Slavin (M.A. Education) is the 29-year old founder of CatalystCreativ, an experience studio that’s focused on helping cities, brands and movements create events that engage audiences and help brands tell their stories in a more impactful way. Founded in June 2012 and backed by Zappos’ CEO and venture capitalist Tony Hsieh, CatalystCreativ designs immersive experiences that build community, increase engagement around a mission or intention and create more active participants in making the world a better place.
Image via: Still In Brigade
