IBM conducted a study interviewing California state officials to see what that group had learned managing their state's complicated budget shortfall. The resulting report examined what happened to local California government revenues during this period, which services have been adjusted, how employee benefits have been treated, and what innovations have been introduced.
The authors were able to pull out three key recommendations based on the subjects' real-world experiences.
- Identify and address structural deficits in a finely grained manner, leaving no major budget category unexamined.
- Foster citizen engagement to encourage widespread dissemination of fiscal information in order to enhance the legitimacy of public policy choices.
- Improve the state/local relationship to reduce episodic, convulsive impacts on local public finance.
So what does this mean for those of you planning events and managing marketing programs that may have smaller budgets than past years?
Identifying structural deficits - take a hard look at past events and experiences. What programming captured the most audience or feedback? What programming did not seem to make an impact at all? Did you see tons of swag bags or paper print out left behind? Maybe next year spend less on pens, totebags, and printing, and redistribute that money to programs that people raved about. In other words do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Is there value in taking the event to a virtual environment?
For Marketers -- what events can you point to that generated easily measurable results? Which events can you, even off the top of your head, say "that was a success?" Look to invest more in those events or programs and/or look for similar programs for future involvement.
Foster citizen engagement for widespread dissemination- make it easy for exhibitors, speakers, and attendees to promote their participation in the show over social networks with suggested posts and tweets. Build in the ability to post activity at the show to Facebook and other sites. Monitor social media in real time to see what topics are getting tweeted and disseminated, what are people saying about the show. As stated above - make mid-stream corrections (as possible) to do more of what is resonating.
Similarly for marketers, arm your sales and marketing team (and even your executives) with social posts about your involvement at shows that they can distribute to their networks to build buzz (and hopefully traffic).
Improve state/local relationship - it's all about communication...Exhibitors need to communicate with show organizers (and vice versa) throughout the process to let them know what is working and what is not. An "I'm disappointed" email weeks after the show will do nothing to help what went wrong. Communicate in real time in-person and via social channels. Marketers also have to set expectations with corporate management - what is the goal of attending this show/event? What should we expect to see afterward for the investment?
How about you? What have you learned managing lean budgets? How has that helped you moving forward?
