Whether you’re hosting a tailgate to celebrate valued customers before the big game or inviting a popular DJ to launch your restaurant’s latest location, partnering with local radio on an event spotlights your business and rewards loyal clients.
Live events drive sales and enhance your company’s reputation, delivering a powerful return on investment that blends revenue and long-term goodwill. Events generate business and burnish your company’s reputation, and the return on investment combines sales lift and reputational value.
Why Live Events Matter
Local radio stations are masters of live events. When our popular hosts and DJs appear in the community, fans turn out to meet them. The connection can help local businesses attract crowds to their events, creating a massive marketing opportunity.
Our talent can be emcees, host live on-site broadcasts, or simply mingle with customers, and these appearances create extra value for our brand partners. Live, local personalities cut through the clutter and make a difference.
There are two ways to calculate the ROI of your live event: financial returns and reputational value. Let’s break them both down.
Calculating The Return of Investment Of Events
To calculate the ROI on a live event, we use this formula:
- Add up all the revenue from an event (including ticket and product sales).
- Tally the cost of the event.
- Subtract the costs from the event revenue (that’s your net revenue).
- Divide that net revenue amount by cost of the event.
- Multiply that figure by 100
Here’s an example:
Your restaurant hosts an opening night cocktail party with a local radio DJ hosting. You sell tickets in advance and guests can purchase discounted gift cards for future dining. The total cost of the event is $20,000 and you collect $5,000 in ticket and gift card sales, your net revenue is $15,000. Divide that by the cost of the event and multiply by 100, and your ROI is 33.3%, a solid gain on your outlay.
In the event marketing industry, a 20% to 30% ROI is generally considered to be a success and a 50% return is a home-run on your investment. Many events may only break even, and that can still be a success if it generates new leads that could become future sales.
Pro tip: To preserve positive returns, it is important to design a tight, realistic event budget and stick to it. If costs exceed your estimates (which can happen quickly), it will eat into your returns and could even result in a loss.
Reputational Benefits
When radio hosts and DJs attend local business’ events, they create a halo effect for that company. These trusted figures bring loyal audiences and, when they endorse a business, listeners lean into those recommendations. For fans, it feels less like advertising and more like hearing something valuable from a trusted friend.
It’s hard to put a dollar value on associating with radio talent, but the benefits are real and measurable.
Social media buzz: When fans post photos and videos from your event (especially with their favorite radio hosts!), they’re amplifying your business to their networks. These posts can drive traffic to your website and brick-and-mortar locations, boost your social engagement, and increase awareness for your business.
As an added perk, our DJs and hosts can talk about your event on-air and share your event on their social channels, increasing awareness and reach exponentially!
Boost customer loyalty: Hosting an event with food, entertainment, and promotions creates memorable experiences for new and existing customers. In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, these moments create invaluable touchpoints with consumers, fostering loyalty and keeping your company top-of-mind. Attendees can turn into loyal customers.
Generating new leads: If someone attends your event but has never been a customer, the experience could open doors. Meeting your team, experiencing your products or services, and enjoying your event creates lasting impressions and nurtures future business. If someone’s favorite DJ is there too, that’s an added (and memorable) bonus.
Make sure your event attendees become leads by collecting the contact information of people at the event. A great way to do that is to offer an incentive and ask for contact information during the registration process. People will be willing to share their basic contact information and answer a few questions in exchange for the chance to win a great prize.
The Bottom Line
Live events are an investment in time and resources, but the rewards can be substantial, delivering return on investment and lasting reputational value.
Federated Media’s marketing experts specialize in bespoke live events that showcase your business and create memorable experiences, and our beloved DJs and hosts can help make your event a success. Contact us to begin planning your next unforgettable event.
