Measure event and campaign impact on footfall
To measure an event's impact on footfall, compare visits before, during and after it against a baseline of comparable days, and count by zone to see whether the venue or the wider centre gained.
On this page
Why does event impact need measuring?
Event impact needs measuring because, from the middle of the crowd, every event looks like a success. Whether a festival, campaign or programme actually moved footfall, and for whom, only shows later: a packed square on Saturday evening can sit beside an unchanged week in the streets around it. Without numbers, the story of the evening is told by whoever enjoyed it most. With measurement you can say how many came, where they went, how long they stayed and what the days after looked like.
Why does an event comparison start with a baseline?
Any comparison needs a before. Continuous counting records one as a matter of course: visitor counts, dwell and flows by hour, day, week and season, collected long before anyone hangs a banner. Once the event starts, you read the during and the after against that baseline, with benchmarking normalised so periods compare like for like. Standard metrics are available from the day after the visit, which leaves time to react, for example by adjusting the second weekend.
What belongs in an event comparison?
The comparison covers four measures.
- Volume: visitor counts for the venue, the surrounding streets and the wider area, hour by hour.
- Behaviour: dwell time and flows, whether people stayed and moved on through the centre or arrived and left.
- Spread: the venue against the wider centre, by day and by night.
- Aftermath: the days and weeks after, read against trend.
How do you attribute footfall uplift to an event?
A raw spike makes every event look better than it was. Attribution starts from what the day would have looked like anyway. Footfall uplift can be set against weather, holidays, campaigns and events to show cause and effect, which keeps a sunny Saturday from being credited to the campaign. Event uplift is the footfall the event brought in once warm weather and other causes are accounted for, and how far it spreads matters as much as how large it is.
The City of Västerås, one of the cities and municipalities Bumbee Labs works with, uses footfall data to see which events merely draw a crowd for the evening and which lift the wider centre, day and night. That difference decides which events earn a place in next year’s budget.
Which campaigns and programmes can use the same comparison?
The before-during-after comparison works for more than festivals. Whatever the occasion, it needs a baseline, a measured period and a comparison that holds up when someone questions it.
A store reads a campaign or launch as uplift in footfall and dwell, on top of what the tills show. A library shows the attendance uplift from talks, exhibitions and reading programmes as evidence its funders accept, and a city-centre association puts event numbers in front of politicians, press and the public as shareable graphics. Advertising campaigns work the same way, with the campaign flight as the measured period and the footfall around a screen as what is measured; DOOH audience measurement covers how that is counted.
Numbers a public body can publish
Measurement is anonymous and aggregated throughout. Its figures can go into a press release without a privacy caveat.
Over the years, the same measurement becomes trend evidence. Västerås has used it to grow city-centre visits year on year and to strengthen its day and night economy. The case study Västerås Measures Its City Centre has more on those results.
Bumbee Labs is the company behind the only footfall method in Europe approved by a data protection authority.
Frequently asked questions
How do you measure the impact of an event on footfall?
By comparing it with a normal day. Footfall during and after the event is set against comparable days, with weather, holidays and other campaigns taken into account, so the uplift is the part that would not have happened anyway.
Can you tell whether an event lifted the whole centre or just the venue?
Yes. Zone-level measurement reads the venue and the surrounding streets separately, so an event that only fills the venue shows up differently from one that lifts the wider centre, day and night; the City of Västerås uses zone-level measurement to tell the two apart.
How quickly is the data available after an event?
Standard footfall metrics are ready from the day after the visit, so the during-and-after picture can be read while the event is still fresh.
Does this work for recurring campaigns and programmes, not just one-off events?
Yes. Retail campaigns, library programmes and seasonal series use the same method as festivals, and benchmarking keeps repeated editions comparable across periods.