Case study

How valuable was their investment in conference activities?

31st January 2019
Our client is now making significant changes – from which conferences they will attend in future, to how best to more effectively engage delegates during sponsored symposia.
Brief

We were asked to ascertain whether this client was receiving value for investment from its conference attendance. This included measuring awareness of their involvement in the field of treatment, measuring awareness and usage of their product, and assessing recall of their key medical and promotional messages from their conference booths and sponsored symposia.

Audience Challenge

Assessing the attendees of the same conference from a previous year revealed that only a minority of 2018’s visitors were likely to have a special interest in the treatment areas relevant to our client.

We calculated a realistic target for the research would be 50-60 completed interviews. The aim was to complete eight interviews with respondents from each of the EU5 countries, making up the balance with respondents who work in other European countries and the Middle East.

Delivery

We hosted our own exhibition stand at the conference to speak with and pre-qualify potential survey participants. We then conducted telephone interviews with the relevant healthcare professionals after the event, using a pre-agreed questionnaire.

Outcome

Respondents felt the client’s conference activity was very good and recall of key messages and ideal patient types was high, but the style of message delivery and medical education was not interactive or engaging enough.

They are now making significant changes – from which conferences they will attend in future, to how best to more effectively engage delegates during sponsored symposia. However, the warm, positive reception to the client’s activity at the conference gave them confidence that their efforts to build market awareness of their brand and company had been successful.