Findings from the survey on corporate investment and buying behaviour conducted by the Piepoli Institute for BTC are positive overall: budgets have been confirmed or increased in both Italy and Europe, albeit to different extents.
European companies express satisfaction with Italy as a destination.
30 JUNE 2011 – The survey The 2011 events market – Investment and buying behaviour of Italian and European companies was presented this afternoon at BTC, Italy’s events exhibition currently being held at the Fiera di Rimini Exhibition Centre. The survey was commissioned by BTC, conducted by the Piepoli Institute and endorsed by Federcongressi&eventi (with EventReport as media partner). The findings were revealed to a packed conference room by chairman of the Institute Nicola Piepoli, an expert in market research and opinion polls.
Based on 308 interviews with managers of Italian and European companies, the survey explores demand for events in the corporate segment, which today represents the biggest buyer of events (75%) taking place in Italy.
Data is overall positive, in Italy and Europe, with a marked prevalence of companies confirming or increasing their budgets for meetings, conventions, incentive travel and special events compared with the previous year.
According to the budget analysis, 69% of Italian companies in 2011 show the same or a greater propensity to invest in events compared with 2010. Of these, 16% have increased their budgets, on average by 17%. The percentage of European companies with investment levels equal to or greater than last year’s levels is even higher at 83%. Of these, 29% have increased their budgets, on average by 21%.
In terms of budget size for 2011, the survey shows that in Italy, investment is fairly limited, with 57% of those interviewed planning to spend less than EUR 250,000; those with a medium-sized spend, of between EUR 250,000 and EUR 1 million, total 34%, while the big spenders account for around 9%. As a percentage of the overall marketing and communication budget, events represent on average 37%. European companies spend more, with 52% of those interviewed declaring investments equal to or greater than EUR 500,000: of these, 14% have a spend of more than EUR 1 million. European companies dedicate 31% of their marketing and communication budgets to events.
The analysis of types of event planned for 2011 shows that the behaviour of Italian and European companies is broadly the same: “small meetings” of an operational or educational/informative nature for company staff are the most common type, planned by 73% of Italian and 65% of European companies; these are followed by special events (company dinners, parties, open-air exhibitions, roadshows, awards ceremonies, promotions at sales points, etc), with 51% and 45%, and conventions (50% and 44%).
Within companies, the marketing department is the main events “buyer”: within Italian firms, however, the decision-making process is more diversified (senior management, sales, communication, human resources and procurement departments), while in Europe, decisions mainly lie with marketing and senior management.
Operationally, the survey shows that most companies organise events internally (59% in Italy and 60% in Europe), for budgetary reasons and with a view to optimising resources, and that the services most purchased are catering, technology services, hostesses and transport. Hotels are the service most purchased by Europeans (46%), but not by Italians (22%).
Agencies are mainly chosen if they are already known, tried and tested, particularly in Europe (79% versus 55% in Italy, which puts services provided by agencies out to tender (40%). Companies mainly choose agencies based on their “professionalism and competence” and “good service/cost ratio”.
As regards the use of Italy as a destination by European companies, 46% have organised an event in Italy in the last three years. The main sources of satisfaction mentioned were ease in reaching the specific destination, the quality of the venue chosen for the event, the professionalism of their suppliers, the quality of the hotels, and the quality and propriety of the destination. The companies that have never organised events in Italy stated that the country is not an important market for them (39%), that they have not received proposals/offers for Italy (29%) and that the country does not have suitable venues or destinations for their events (21%).
“BTC aims to be the main reference point for those organising events in Italy”, said Paolo Audino, CEO of Exmedia, the company that organises BTC. “This survey on corporate events is further confirmation of our commitment to providing tools to understand the sector, its players and current market trends, which enable operators to identify new growth opportunities. Our next step in this regard will be to conduct the new Italian conferenced market survey Osservatorio Congressuale Italiano on behalf of industry association Federcongressi&eventi”.
The survey, which includes analyses on the planning for 2011 of companies in terms of quantity, duration and number of participants for each of the four types of events analysed, will be available (in Italian) to download from the BTC website (www.btc.it).
