Measurement Methods
Determining whether a festival, fair, or other special event has
been successful can take many different approaches. First, a mar-
keter needs to identify the goals. If you are looking to raise aware-
ness for a cause, the organizer will typically interview attendees
prior to and during the event as well as at the conclusion. Typi-
cally, at these events, organizations are looking for volunteers at
the event, while at the same time disseminating information about
the cause. By interviewing individuals who are familiar with the
event and the cause, we can gain an insight into the approximate
number of people interviewed, informed, and successfully so-
licited for volunteer positions. From this comes not only a para-
meter of participation statistics, but also general feedback regard-
ing attitudes and interest levels.
When one is trying to promote goodwill in a community such
as having a Fourth of July fireworks festival or an open house at
the local fire station, one looks to feedback from the community
in local newspapers or on talk radio shows, as well as doing ran-
dom interviews with people in the community. In some cases, one
can judge by increasing attendance as the festivals become larger.
At fundraising events, the bottom line is how much money was
raised for the cause, as well as how many people were recruited
to raise more funds on their own. When looking to see how suc-
cessfully a sponsor’s name has been promoted, one can look at the
advertising and public relations and assign these two a value. For
advertising, wherever a sponsor’s name or logo is used promi-
nently, an advertising value can be determined by obtaining ad-
vertisement rates for the specific advertisements run and then
combining the costs of all the advertisements. On the public rela-
tions side, one can look at the comparative advertising value. This
figure is obtained by collecting all press clips of the event where
a sponsor is mentioned or featured in photos and determining
what this would cost if one had to pay for all of the exposure.
Summary
Festivals, fairs, and other special events differ from association
and corporate events in nature. To successfully market your event,
you must carefully designate and take advantage of the unique
Summary 167