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ITALY – Telecommunications companies are the main event buyers in Italy
The Events Council of Assocomunicazione, the Italian association of communications and events agencies, monitored 125 tenders in the first half of 2012 through its member agencies, assessing the number of tenders and budgets by industry, average budget per event according to sector, number of agencies asked to submit proposals for each tender and the time granted to prepare them.
An analysis of the monitoring study, which is indicative of market trends, shows that almost all companies (94.4%) that launched invitations to tender for events in the first half of the year are large corporations, with annual sales of over 50 million euros: the main investors in events are telecommunications companies (which accounted for 28.8% of tenders), banks and insurance companies (15.2%) and automotive firms (14.4%).
The 125 tenders monitored had a total value of 30.8 million euros: 29.5% related to those launched by telecommunications companies; in second place, accounting for 17.1% of the overall budget, were tenders organised by banks and insurance firms, and in third place, with 15.9%, energy companies. The investments that companies allocated to projects put out to tender were significant: 46.5% had a budget of between € 100,000 and € 300,000, 20.5% of more than € 300,000 and only 33% less than € 100,000.
The analysis showed that in general, the highest budgets were allocated for internal events, which include significant expenditure items relating to logistics and communications. The highest average budgets were those of pharmaceutical companies, which were ranked top with an average of € 797,000 per individual event. These were followed by energy companies with € 700,000 per event, and banks and insurance companies (€ 309,000), which were well ahead of the sectors at the foot of the rankings: consumer products (€ 95,000), services (€ 82,000), clothing and accessories (€ 61,000).
The Events Council monitored two further aspects: the number of agencies competing for each project and the time granted to them to prepare (creative and financial) proposals. In half of the cases, three agencies were asked to submit bids, and the association considers this number to be appropriate; in 29.2% of tender processes, however, more than three agencies were asked to submit bids. The trend is improving, as in the first half of 2011, almost half (45%) of tenders involved more than three agencies. The trend in proposal presentation times is also positive: in 42.4% of cases, agencies were given 15 or more days, while in the first half of 2011, only 18.9% of tenders granted a period equal to or greater than two weeks.
(internationalmeetingsreview.com)