Brand experiences have significantly evolved, and it’s time for the ROI conversation to catch up. How we evaluate the success of a brand experience has shifted to include evaluating the Return on Innovation, more specifically, how innovative strategies deliver more impact, increase engagement, and inspire stronger connections. Brands want to dive deeper than traditional, post-event numbers allow, to better understand their audience and a brand experience’s long-term impact. Isn’t this always step one? Of course it is, because it’s an essential part of the process! Remember, committing to clear, measurable goals early in the process will guide your entire team, resulting in a more strategic program as well as a more painless evaluation process.

1. Brand experiences have significantly evolved, and it’s time for the ROI conversation to catch
up. How we evaluate the success of a brand experience has shifted to include evaluating
the Return on Innovation, more specifically, how innovative strategies deliver more impact,
increase engagement, and inspire stronger connections. Brands want to dive deeper than
traditional, post-event numbers allow, to better understand their audience and a brand
experience’s long-term impact.
Isn’t this always step one? Of course it is, because it’s an essential part of the process!
Remember, committing to clear, measurable goals early in the process will guide
your entire team, resulting in a more strategic program as well as a more painless
evaluation process.
CHECKLIST:
HOW TO MEASURE EVENT ROI
We’ve created a checklist intended to guide your approach to ROI and help you build
brand experiences that yield the best possible results.
ESTABLISH CLEAR GOALS
We challenge you to think about ROI differently.
When you’re setting goals and establishing metrics, throw out the rulebook. Keep in
mind that no creative brand experience is the same and therefore, there are no
industry-wide standards for measuring ROI. It’s important to have this mindset as you
begin to design your brand experience, otherwise you’re in danger of allowing stale,
traditional metrics to dictate your approach.
THROW OUT THE RULEBOOK
Doesn’t a customized program deserve a customized ROI strategy?
Most likely, you’re creating a brand experience in order to stand out, break away from
the clutter, and create something that is unique to your brand. So, don’t be stunted
by templates or “in-the-box” thinking! Just as your brand experience is uniquely your
own, a ROI strategy must be customized for each program. Define key metrics or
performance indicators in a way that makes sense for your brand experience.
LET CUSTOMIZATION BE KING
You care what they think!
Evaluate “brand love” by looking at how well you developed an emotional connection
with the audience. Do they believe in what your brand has to say? Are they excited by
your brand and message? Was the brand experience memorable? Are they feeling
the love? Ultimately, this is the goal of every experience as brand love and perception
are key goals of every event or engagement.
GET EMOTIONAL
Don’t let results live and die with the experience.
Analyze and archive your findings, but also take the time to understand what these
metrics mean beyond your event or experience. You evaluation process is pointless if
you don’t leverage the results, learning and using your results to make adjustments.
What elements of your program resonated most with attendees? Which messages
were best received? Then, evaluate what this means for your marketing efforts
moving forward. Will you publish a different type of content? Adjust your social media
activity? Design a secondary program to build on your success? Your ROI conversation
must not only influence the design of future brand experiences, but also impact how
your brand connects with its audiences every day.
LOOK TO THE FUTURE
Why you need both Return on Innovation and Return on Investment.
A well-rounded ROI strategy will reflect both Return on Investment and Return on
Innovation, or how the innovations introduced at your experience impacted your
brand story. Did they shift the way attendees see you, or reinforce how they already
feel? How does your strategy engage the audience before, during and after an
experience? Understanding both investment and innovation allows brands to more
comprehensively evaluate the brand experience. Common ROI metrics include:
CATEGORIZE METRICS
RETURN ON INNOVATION
Engagement – The number of attendees who exercised a heightened
level of participation during the experience.
Memorability – Likelihood of the audience will remembering a brand
and its key messages following the event. Buzz converted to an
impression that resonates.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Attendance – The number of people physically present
Share of Voice + Market Share – The percentage of online content and
conversations about a brand compared its competitors. How much of
the conversation do they own?
A Brand Experience Agency / agencyea.com