How do you measure the success of a playful event? The tricky question of performance indicators.

One of the biggest questions — if not the biggest — facing anyone who creates something is always the same: will people like it? Will it be a success? Which performance measurement tools should you use? What indicates that an event has worked? And how do you track performance afterwards?

A creative might be an artist, a writer, a designer or a craftsperson. But the moment an idea takes shape, it comes up against one thing: audience satisfaction.

When it comes to designing a game, as we do at Arcane Experience, we face a double challenge. We have to satisfy the players and satisfy the client. The two are rarely the same, and that’s where the difficulty lies. Satisfaction is the key to loyalty.

Here’s an example. Ms X, HR Director of a major automotive group, gets in touch. She wants Arcane Experience to design and run an event game that tackles the different strands of a transformation plan in a playful way — strands her employees will be living through in the months ahead. In short, we need to translate managerial change into a game, so managers learn through experience.
GREAT PROJECT!

So as creators, we have two audiences to satisfy:

• The managers, in this case the players, who’ll be satisfied if they can say they had a genuinely positive experience,
• The HR Director, in this case the buyer. She’ll be satisfied if the messages land, if they’re taken on board, and if her people applaud her innovative approach.

Which raises the obvious question: how do you measure satisfaction across these different audiences?

There are two ways of measuring satisfaction in the events industry today: the numbers and the enthusiasm. Neither is especially easy to put in place.

To measure performance effectively, start with the objective, so you can be sure you’re meeting it. Greater buy-in? Stronger employee motivation? Customer loyalty? Driving purchases? Building brand attachment?
Your playful event needs to be part of a wider strategy. Only when it answers one or more strategic objectives do clear measurement points start to emerge.

It’s also essential to set your performance indicators before the event, so the right tracking tools are in place and no data is lost. A good indicator is, first of all, one you can actually obtain — and one that lets you measure both your objectives and your results.

Key performance indicators

In marketing, campaigns are measured with KPIs (key performance indicators) on one side, and the famous ROI (return on investment) on the other. How can we apply those metrics to events, and more specifically to event games?

So what are the key performance indicators for a game?

• Participation rate — out of X participants, how many actually played?
• Engagement — did the players really get into it?

In terms of ROI, how can a client measure the return on a playful event?

Sticking to budget

Did the supplier or suppliers stay within the budget you set aside for your event? The event should fit the budget you’re willing to spend, without needing top-ups along the way.

Matching budget to ambition

Put simply, don’t expect to buy a Porsche Cayenne on a Renault Clio budget. It’s a shortcut, but you get the idea. It’s the game design agency’s job to give the client all the information they need to picture a realistic deliverable for their budget.

The replay value of the game

Can the initial investment be spread over time? Can the game be used several times, for more people, over a longer period? Or is it a one-shot for a very small group of players?

Analysing performance

Let’s take a second example. Mr X, who runs a plant shop, saw his sales fall after the coronavirus pandemic. His customers refused to pay the delivery charges his online shop needed to protect the plants in transit. With lockdown ruling out in-store visits, Mr X wanted to revive sales and reduce the bounce rate on his website.

Arcane Experience stepped in with a special immersive in-store event to mark the end of lockdown, helping Mr X win new customers while strengthening loyalty among existing ones.

After the event, Mr X could draw a clear before-and-after comparison on the following success indicators:

• Sales before and after the event
• Bounce rate before and after the event
• Page views before and after
• Average basket value before and after
• Click-through rate before and after
• Total new leads
• Number of new customers
• Average time spent on the site
• Total number of new online reviews
• Number of in-store visits (via a booking system) and unique online visitors
• Conversion rate: people moving from lead to customer
• Acquisition cost per lead or customer

So how do you quantify all of this? A CRM is essential for measuring commercial performance. Setting up a Google Analytics account will also let you analyse your website in depth over a given period. The tool offers various dashboards covering the key performance indicators listed above. From there, it’s up to you to judge how relevant each indicator is to your business.

Now let’s talk about enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is far harder to measure, because it’s neither statistical nor quantitative — yet it matters just as much as the other performance indicators. We’re no longer talking about performance or profitability alone. This is about the impact the playful event had on customer satisfaction, and how far it reflected well on the brand.

Enthusiasm

When a company calls on Arcane Experience for a team building event, a number of human indicators can be reviewed afterwards:

• Has absenteeism gone down?
• Have bonds between teams grown stronger?
• Has employee productivity increased?
• What direct feedback did the players give after the session?

There are measurement tools available, such as anonymous feedback terminals placed at the venue to capture opinions in the moment. At Arcane Experience, this measurement is built into the game concept itself. Knowing whether players enjoyed the event isn’t optional. We can give our clients a precise assessment of participants’ immediate enthusiasm — and that’s exactly what we do. It also highlights the improvements worth making.

The behaviour changes the game sets in motion

Did the behaviours played out in the game carry over into real life? A satisfaction survey answers this question well. You could run a survey before the event and compare it with a post-event survey — we’ve done it. That lets us check how participants’ behaviour and knowledge have shifted. You can even track effectiveness with a further survey at three months, six months or beyond, and keep analysing the event’s impact over time.

Improved image and reputation

Has the image of the organisation behind the playful event improved in the eyes of the players, or even of those who didn’t take part? This question belongs to a wider communications and marketing strategy. That’s why, at Arcane Experience, we work with several communications agencies. Together, we look for the best way to combine the game with a range of communication tools. The aim is to give our clients’ objectives real scale, while allowing them to track their key performance indicators.

Why do these performance indicators matter?

Understanding why your sales move up or down helps you decide strategically which acquisition channels and loyalty levers to favour. Spending too much on Google Ads relative to your objectives? Finding that an event brings in more new customers? Performance indicators let you judge what works — and plan more events!

In conclusion

There are relevant, measurable ways to assess the effectiveness of a playful event and of a corporate event as a whole. But be careful not to measure everything without a clear rationale behind it. When people are involved, take the time to ask the right questions — that’s how you get the right answers.