Events

EVENTS

What happened to events marketing budgets in 2020?

As we mentioned earlier, 2020 was the year of canceled in-person events. It should come as no surprise that the events portion of many marketing budgets were either reallocated or had to be cut completely. Here’s what happened to events budgets in 2020:

32.4% of respondents reallocated their events budgets to other digital marketing channels. 22.2% mainly spent their budget on virtual events instead. In contrast to reallocating their budget, 18.5% of respondents told us they didn’t have an events portion of their marketing budget to begin with.

Closely behind were 32 respondents or 14.8%, who said they haven’t spent their events marketing budget. 12% of those who answered said their events budget was taken away as part of cost-cutting.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)

EVENTS

How successful were virtual events in 2020?

Reallocating their budget to virtual events really paid off for many marketers in 2020. A whopping 55.3% of respondents said they found virtual events to be hugely successful - saying they were just as good, if not better than in-person events.

Conversely, 40.4% of participants who answered said they found virtual events to be disappointing and they much preferred face-to-face events. And finally, a relatively low percentage (4.3%) found that virtual events were a complete failure, and they would not be re-investing in them in 2021.

A mixed picture then for virtual events as a B2B marketing channel - although the general trend is certainly more positive than negative.

Base: 321 professionals working in B2B revenue teams
Source: A joint study by Cognism, Turtl, Reachdesk, and Leadfeeder (December 2020 - January 2021)