Why event marketing competitor research needs a licence check first

What to take away

The Health and Safety Executive's health and safety basics guidance is the minimum standard against which every competitor's public safety record should be read, not a marketing differentiator.
Competitor research for events in England sits on three legal pillars: the Licensing Act 2003 for licensable activity, trading standards enforcement, and HSE duties.
The Advertising Standards Authority explains how trading standards referrals can follow a persistent breach, which is the benchmark for judging a rival's claims.
A comparison table with columns for licence type, capacity evidence and enforcement history will surface more insight than any competitor's Instagram grid.
If your own campaign is still being scoped, start with the audience research guide for England before you benchmark rivals.

Build the comparison on the legal baseline

Check what each competitor can lawfully do

Licensable activity at an event in England is governed by the Licensing Act 2003. Pull the premises licence or temporary event notice for each rival venue or activation and note the permitted hours, capacity and activities. A competitor advertising a late bar without a licence variation is a weak point worth recording.

Licensing and Safety Baseline

Licensing Act 2003

Permitted hours: check register
Capacity: check register
Activities: check register
Risk assessment: not covered
First aid: not covered
Insurance: not covered
Accident reporting: not covered

HSE guidance

Permitted hours: not covered
Capacity: not covered
Activities: not covered
Risk assessment: required
First aid: required
Insurance: required
Accident reporting: required

There is no single England-wide public licensing register. Use GOV.UK's “Find your local council” service to identify the relevant council, then check that council's public licensing register and record the date of your search.

Compare safety and welfare provisions

HSE's health and safety basics guidance sets out what an event business must do to manage risk. Use it as a scoring sheet: does the competitor publish a safety plan, a competent person, and public liability cover? If not, note the gap, but do not assume it is a differentiator until you have tested it.

The Purple Guide to Health, Safety and Welfare at Music and Other Events provides event-specific context alongside HSE's guidance. Together, these references can inform separate columns for risk assessment, first aid, insurance and accident reporting rather than a single safety tick.

Research the audience each competitor is actually reaching

Map declared audience against observed audience

A competitor's own social following is a declared audience. The observed audience is who turns up, spends and returns. Cross-check ticket platforms, venue capacity records and postcode-level attendance data where it is available. If a rival claims a national reach but only fills a 300-capacity room, that is a finding.

Keep agency, platform and event-operator research distinct. For agency peers, examples to assess include Jack Morton and George P. Johnson; compare their published event work and service positioning. For ticketing platforms, include Eventbrite and Ticket Tailor and assess their public event pages and ticketing journeys. Check the licence of the relevant event or premises rather than assuming that an agency or platform holds it.

Declared vs Observed Audience

Declared audience

Source: social following
Capacity: claimed reach
Geography: national claim
Spend: not stated
Returns: not stated

Observed audience

Source: ticket platforms
Capacity: venue records
Geography: postcode data
Spend: on-site spend
Returns: repeat attendance

Record the source and the date beside every figure, because a number you cannot date is a number you cannot defend in a client meeting.

Use a target audience definition before you compare

Without a written definition you will compare the wrong things. Set your own event marketing target audience in England first, then benchmark competitors against that definition. Age bands, travel radius and spend per head are more useful columns than follower counts.

Turn findings into a checklist you can act on

The competitor research checklist

Use this for each rival you assess:

Licence type, permitted hours and stated capacity confirmed from the public register.
Temporary event notice history checked for repeat late variations.
HSE duty holder named in any public safety document.
ASA ruling or trading standards referral search completed.
Declared audience size compared with observed attendance.
Ticket price band and on-site spend recorded.
Repeat attendance rate estimated from any published data.
Accessibility provision stated and compared against your own standard.
Environmental or noise complaint history checked with the local authority.
Marketing claims tested against the advertising rules on misleading claims.
Source and date logged beside every figure you have collected.

Where enforcement risk changes the picture

A rival with a clean record is a harder benchmark than one with unresolved complaints. The ASA route to trading standards referrals is a useful signal: it shows where a claim has moved from marketing puff to a legal question. Record the date of any ruling and the outcome, because a 2024 ruling may already be spent.

Keep the checklist updated quarterly. Licensing registers change, and a competitor that looked compliant in spring may be operating on a variation by autumn. If you cannot verify a claim from a public source, mark it as unverified rather than assuming it is true.

Common questions

How far back should competitor research look?

Cover at least three years of licensing and enforcement activity. Older rulings may no longer reflect current practice, but a pattern of repeat breaches is worth noting.

Can I use a competitor's public safety plan in my own bid?

No. Use it only to understand the standard expected. Copying another organisation's safety documentation would breach its copyright and could mislead a client or regulator.

What if a competitor has no published licence?

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Check the relevant council's public licensing register directly before drawing a conclusion, and record the date you checked.

Should I tell a competitor I am researching them?

No. Public registers, published rulings and your own event visits are enough. Do not misrepresent yourself to obtain information you would not otherwise be given.