Corporate EVENT Magazine Co-sponsors New Market Study ''Staging & Gauging: Do Events Pay Off?''.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- 70 Percent of Chief Marketing Officers View Event Marketing as a Vital Marketing Function

A study being released this week by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and the Computer Event Marketing Association (CEMA) shows nearly 70 percent of CMOs view events as an important part of the marketing mix. The survey, co-sponsored by Corporate EVENT Magazine, includes 230 event marketing managers and 189 CMOs of companies across various industries, and was entitled "Staging & Gauging: Do Events Pay Off?" The report also shows that support for events is broader than just marketing departments with 71 percent responding strong advocacy for events coming from sales departments.

CMOs rank events second behind direct response marketing (31%) in terms of ROI, but half of the marketing executives feel events are difficult to quantify and adequately gauge their true return on investment. CMOs and their event managers however differ on the ability to track effectiveness. Event managers who implement these corporate strategies report that in over half of the companies they do measure results, but not consistently. In a third of companies less than $10,000 is spent annually on event measurement, and in 18.5% of responding firms there is no budget for measurement - the key element to measuring ROI.

"Corporate event marketing managers need education and formal tools to improve measurement and raise executive level awareness of the value of events. It is issues like these outlined in this CMO Council study that have helped frame the foundation for the launch this month of Corporate EVENT Magazine," said Lee Knight, Founder and CEO of Corporate EVENT.

Corporate EVENT Magazine, a quarterly journal in 2005, will be augmented with online, web programs and conferences as needed to best serve the senior event management professional. According to Knight, "This publication is really an analysis of how events should support and fulfill the CEO's goals and initiatives."

Jason Chudnofsky, Principal with Harvest Alliance in Needham, MA and an industry watcher of corporate events commented "Today's company CEOs need direct access to the customer. It's through these events that the executives can meet with their customers, hear their concerns, and work to maintain the strong customer relationships so key to their business. We see a growing number of companies look at larger and more complex events, and finally the CMO position understands the importance of face-to-face marketing."

For a copy of the full research results visit: http://www.CorporateEVENTMag.com/corpevent/DoEventsPayOff.asp

For additional information on this launch contact John Pavek at 507-289-6556 [e-mail] or Bill Sell at 508-903-9216 [e-mail].

About EXHIBITOR and Corporate EVENT

Founded in 1982 by Lee Knight, EXHIBITOR is the recognized leader in trade show and corporate event marketing education. EXHIBITOR provides business-to-business marketers with the tools and education to produce high-performance programs with measurable results. For information on EXHIBITOR magazine, EXHIBITORFastTrak, EXHIBITOR SHOW, CTSM Professional Certification Program, EXHIBITOR INNOVATION SERIES, and Corporate EVENT magazine, visit www.ExhibitorOnline.com.