Consumer goods companies are realising the potential of event marketing to target specific audiences. By creating its own ‘youth’ event Snickers can control the customer profile it wants to attract and associate the brand with youth culture – thus further boosting sales to the target audience.
Masterfoods is holding a Snickers branded two-day ‘street sports’ World Championships and music festival at the Dome in London, UK, to promote itself to younger consumers. Masterfoods hopes to reposition Snickers as a source of energy rather than a way of satisfying hunger to this group.
Event marketing is one of the fastest growing areas of marketing activity in Europe. More and more consumer goods companies are turning to the power of event marketing, prompted by the rising ineffectiveness of conventional advertising and the increasing fragmentation of both media channels and consumer lifestyles.
Over the past five years, spend on sponsorship has risen at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5% in Europe. This is more than twice as fast as for advertising, which has grown at a CAGR of 4.7% over the same period.
As consumers’ needs and desires broaden it is harder for marketers to identify and target specific audiences. However, by their very nature, events attract similar types of people drawn by a shared interest in the theme of the event.
It is expected that the number of ‘do-it-yourself’ events staged, of the sort Masterfoods is undertaking, will increase as more marketers realise that creating and running their own event may offer the best opportunity to maximise the benefits of event marketing.
By self-designing and staging events marketers can be the sole sponsor, select the customer profile of event followers through event design, and avoid the rise in marketing ‘clutter’ that plagues today’s popular events.
Masterfoods should be able to build strong emotional bonds with its event audience by creating a meaningful event that can engender a much stronger appreciation of the Snickers brand and hence further boost sales.
(c) 2003 Datamonitor. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent. Datamonitor shall not be liable for errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Go deeper with GlobalData
