PROMO Magazine (US) have just reported that event marketing opportunities topped the list of strategies integral to marketing plans, in a recent survey. Marketers spent a total of $132.3 billion on event marketing and budgets are expected to rise 15 - 20% this year.

Measuring return on investment is the top priority of those using events to market their products, according to the survey. The Promotion Marketing Association's Event Council, for example, is currently working on a number of initiatives and guidelines to help marketers measure the impact of events on branding.

Currently, the most common methods for measuring ROI at an event are: counting heads (67%) sales (49%) and the number of samples or literature distributed (35%)

79% of those that use event marketing, do so to boost sales, followed by raising brand awareness (74%) and capturing market share (64%)