China SAPPHIRE NOW + SAP TechEd Beijing
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Transcript of China SAPPHIRE NOW + SAP TechEd Beijing
// SPRING 2012
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China SAPPHIRE NOW + SAP TechEd Beijing
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IN THIS ISSUE... 1// Bao’an District Hits the Bigtime at ICIF China 2// Pico Activates SAP in China 3// GE Healthcare at China International Exhibition and Technical Exchange of Hospital Equipment 4// The Inaugural China International Sports Culture Expo 5// CNTV’s Futuristic Showroom Goes Live 6// Pico Wins Big at the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment Services 2011 in Oman 7// CG Stand Wins Best Stall at Elecrama 2012 8// Vanke Showcases New Dongguan Showroom 9// Huawei Continues to Lead at Dublin TeleManagement Forum 10// McDonald’s China Managers’ Convention in Chengdu 11// Barclays Singapore Open a Swinging Success 12// Nissan in the Driver’s Seat at the China (Guangzhou) International Automobile Exhibition 13-17// Insights: Tradeshows are dead? Bullocks! / The Common Denominator / Is being green a load of hot air? / Five Ways To Weaponise Your Brand Storytelling / Exhibit Design Q & A
IMAGEMAKER // SPRING 2012
Pico Activates SAP in China - in a Big Way!
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SAP turned to Pico to organise and project manage their large and
impressive inaugural China conference. The China SAPPHIRE NOW and
TechEd event was held in Beijing.
The thrust of the event was relatively simple: prove to the audience that
SAP is creating value, innovation and opportunities within China and
for China. However, with 15,000 attendees, there were a vast number
of elements to the conference which called for Pico’s experience and
creativity to ensure a successful delivery.
Pico helped ensure the SAP brand was properly activated by ensuring
the SAP brand message was delivered to the attendees and stakeholders
through the production of keynotes and on-site branded advertising.
The event was extremely successful - reaching over 50 thousand SAP
customers and partners in Beijing and across China. The 15,000 attendees
yielded over 3,800 leads. Media stories abounded, with over 262 unique
stories about the event published in China alone, and other stories
published across the region, by international journalists coming from
India to Japan and beyond.
This great success was due to the level of involvement by Pico in the
planning, design and production of all the essential event elements. From
the project managers who communicated daily with SAP stakeholders on
critical issues to the creative team, who stayed fully briefed on the event
guidelines and design requirements; all members of the Pico team made
sure the highest quality work was delivered to the customer at every
phase of the project.
And that’s what we do best.
- Beijing, China
Pico Organises Huge McDonald’s China Managers’ Convention in Chengdu
2011 saw a big splash of colour descend into the Chengdu International Exhibition and Convention Centre. Complete with trumpet fanfare, a huge
team-building event and a gala dinner - the McDonald’s China Managers’ Convention 2011 made a lot of waves.
With 1,900 participants, the theme of the five-day conference was “Bigger Better Faster”; and thanks to Pico, this event was all three!
This event required all hands to be on deck. We were involved at every level - from the initial creative design and content development, to the pre-event
management of everything from the convention’s budget to the catering; to coordination of transportation and on-site management during the event to
preparing the final accounts after wrap up.
- Chengdu, China
Pico Wins Big at the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment Services 2011 in Oman
With Bill Clinton as the guest of honour and His Highness, Qaboos bin Said Al Said the Sultan of Oman as the honourable speaker, the Sultan Qaboos Award
for Excellence in eGovernment Services 2011 held at The Sultan Qaboos University Cultural Centre in December was very much a big deal for the State.
Pico partnered with Visionpro to ensure the success of the event through seamless project planning, management and content development.
With the objective to be recognised and award government institutions for outstanding e-projects in the Sultanate of Oman: one of the key
touch points of the ceremony was to utilise technology. Mr. Clinton himself remarked that “Information Technology is simply the latest in history’s
long list of tools that could be used or abused. Oman has decided to use it”.
To strive towards Oman’s bold objective as the leader in e.technology, Pico, driven by a single coherent core objective, was challenged with less than
three weeks to content development with the unusually tight timeline. While Pico’s efforts did not receive any awards, we do have the distinction of
being the recipient of a commendable speech by the Sultan of Oman himself, complimenting Pico for an excellent job well done.
- Muscat, Oman
The Inaugural China International Sports Culture ExpoThe General Administration of Sports of the P.R. China decided to organise
the first China International Sports Culture Expo and appointed Pico to
be the event organiser. With our wide range of experience and proven
track record, they knew their event would be a success.
Co-organised by the China Sports Culture Development Centre, the China
Olympic Museum and the China Sports Museum; the event ran from 15-18
December 2011. The goal of the first ever China International Sports Culture
Expo was far-reaching: to help build a platform to create awareness of
China’s powerful sporting culture through exhibition, demonstration,
networking and trade activities; and to improve the development of the
sports industry by showcasing the achievements of China’s sports culture.
Pico was not only responsible for the event organisation and setup; but
the press conference, opening ceremony and celebrity autograph signing.
This required an impressive amount of coordination and logistics planning.
Adding to the complexity was the fact that the expo was divided into
a number of unique ‘zones’, including a Sports Culture Display Area -
featuring booths from many of China’s major sports associations; an
‘Extreme Sports Culture Zone’ - which featured performances by
skateboarders and BMX bikers; and an ‘Outdoor Sports Culture Experience
Zone’, where visitors tried out a video golf simulator and the latest in
exercise equipment from Chinese and International suppliers.
- Beijing, China
IMAGEMAKER // SPRING 20124
Nissan in the Driver’s Seat at the China (Guangzhou) International Automobile Exhibition
Pico was appointed to build and project manage the Nissan display at the prestigious China (Guangzhou) International Automobile Exhibition.
To mark the global launch of the new Nissan Venucia, the company wanted to accentuate their themes of ‘innovation’ and ‘leading the future’. At
2,975 square metres, the display was particularly large and needed to be impressive. Pico decided to highlight the futuristic theme with round NET
LED ceiling, large LED screens, round mixed coloured corktiles flooring and a glass lobby.
There were several tricky elements to this project, including the moving LED screens, a ‘shadow dance’ mobile projection screen and the Venucia display’s
two-track points. The complexity of the project required a lot of testing and rigorous emergency backup planning, in case any equipment failed.
Dong-Feng Nissan were so impressed with Pico’s experts’ ability to deliver complexity on time and on budget that we were given a Reuben Award by
their Marketing Department.
- Guangzhou, China
Barclays Singapore Open a Swinging SuccessThe Barclays Singapore Open, organised and promoted by World Sport
Group (WSG) is one of the most prestigious events in the world of golf.
For the fourth consecutive year, Pico was appointed by WSG as the
official infrastructure and technical service provider for the event.
The scope of the contract was vast - from building and fitting-out more
than 10 hospitality suites and grandstand seating to house over 1,200
VIPs and corporate clients at the Serapong and Tanjong golf courses on
Sentosa Island. Pico was also responsible for the design and installation of
sponsors’ suites, Barclays hospitality pavilion a complete media centre for
international journalists, a scoring centre, and not to mention - ensuring
that the logistics for the entire, extremely complex event ran smoothly.
There were a number of challenges, including having to navigate around
the sprawling landscape of the Serapong course to construct the 92
metre long double-storey sponsor suites. With its trademark mounds and
contours, two mammoth lakes with stone-lined walls and a spectacular creek
that slices through the fairway at a 45-degree angle, the uneven terrain
of the golf course posed much technical and engineering complexity
during the construction and build up phase. The design brief foresaw
building a double storey facility on flat ground; but when faced with the
reality of the undulating fairways, the team quickly identified alternative
measures to minimise the loss of production time.
Another obstacle was the existence of a tree on the intended site location
of the media centre and patron’s suite. Despite being given the go-ahead
to remove it, the Pico team chose to conserve the tree and went back
to the drawing board to explore other options. The end result saw the
splitting of the patron suite and media centre into two different structures -
separated by the tree that still stands firmly in its original position. Pico’s
commitment to promoting environmentally conscious design solutions
through conservation and sustainable sources is a CSR activity endorsed
by WSG, and part of our ‘Pico Eco’ philosophy.
As a final pat on the back for Pico, we received this accolade from the
Operations Manager (Golf) of WSG: “The Pico team possesses an uncanny
ability to navigate around challenging situations and have always found a
way to get the job done. They can always be relied on to create relevant
solutions and to connect the dots in the face of difficult situations and
pride themselves in executing their tasks with the highest integrity.”
- Singapore
Vanke Showcases New Dongguan ShowroomVanke is one of the largest professional housing developers in China.
The company has a strong presence in Dongguan, with several local real
estate projects currently in various stages of construction. With so many
projects on the go, the company decided to build the Vanke Dongguan
Showroom to show their customers their large range of products.
As one of the company’s most reliable and trusted partners, Vanke
appointed Pico as the official company in charge of the showroom’s
construction.
This was no ordinary real estate showroom however. At 2,000 square
metres and with multiple independent display areas, the size and
complexity of the project required a great deal of coordination, not to
mention a number of different elements and materials.
Making use of space and light and using technology to maximise interactivity,
and surrounding the entire showroom with lanterns to make it feel like
home, the showroom gives a true picture of the breadth and depth of
Vanke’s many products.
Pico easily met the three month construction timeline and once again
lived up to our client’s high expectations.
- Dongguan, China
GE Healthcare at China International Exhibition and Technical Exchange of Hospital Equipment
Employing the tagline ‘healthymagination’, Pico was appointed by GE Healthcare to bring their brand to life in China at one of the medical industry’s
premier gatherings.
China International Exhibition and Technical Exchange of Hospital Equipment (China-HOSPEQ) 2011 is a crucial platform for the Chinese medical
industry and public health services. The exhibition showcases cutting-edge tools and techniques from across the industry: all designed to create
positive outcomes and secure patients’ lives.
- Beijing, China
IMAGEMAKER // SPRING 20126
Bao’an District Hits the Bigtime at ICIF China
The China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) is
an exhibition of the best of China’s culture. As the ‘biggest show in
Shenzhen’, the fair’s mandate is to help China’s cultural industries to go
global, by acting as a channel to help visitors understand China’s rich
and varied cultural development and the current cultural market.
CG Stand Wins Best Stall at Elecrama 2012Crompton Greaves Limited (CG) is one of the world’s leading engineering
corporations. CG was established in 1937 in India, and since then
they have been at the forefront of the management and application
of electrical energy. Elecrama, on the other hand, is the world’s largest
electrical T&D exhibition, held every two years in Mumbai, India.
With Pico’s help, these two legends came together at Elecrama 2012
in January. The concept for CG’s stall this year was ‘Expansive and
Growing’. Featuring sectional arrangements of growing verticals with
large amounts of wall and podium space for product displays, the
stall was covered by a huge, tree-like floral printed ceiling, emphasising
CG’s commitment to ecology, power saving and the environment.
CG carefully worked through all the elements of its stall, and gave
Pico a lot to work with: the open concept of the stall represented
the company’s transparency, the rich colours used signified CG’s
young and fresh approach, while the mezzanine level added ‘a dash
of aristocracy’ - housing the VIP lounge and discussion rooms.
Finally, the entire range of the company’s products were on display
in various electronic and physical formats, ensuring a wealth of
information was available to any visitors who stopped by. Both CG’s
CEO and Managing Director were on hand to answer any questions.
Thanks to Pico’s careful planning and comprehensively thought-out
approach and Pico’s flawless execution of the client’s vision; CG’s
Elecrama stall won Best Stall in the Bare Space Category at the show.
- Mumbai, India
Each of mainland China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities as well as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan send delega-
tions to the annual show.
Bao’an District, to the northwest of Shenzhen is the Special Economic
Zone’s second-largest administrative region. For ICIF 2011, the Bao’an
District Government turned to Pico to design and build their 774
square metre stand.
Working with a bold red theme, Pico used a grand arch shape
to symbolise the recent rapid economic of Bao’an District. Plan-
ning the use of space and the layout of the stand required a lot of
creativity, as 24 different sub-stands needed to be located within
the main stand; and given the short production time - Pico had to
leverage all its assets to ensure the stand was on-time and looked
perfect.
The efforts paid off and the Bao’an District stand attracted many visi-
tors, including the mayor of Bao’an himself!
- Shenzhen, China
CNTV’s Futuristic Showroom Goes LiveChina Network Television (CNTV), China’s national web-based TV broadcaster, has
been a huge success in the Internet world. To reflect their accomplishments, CNTV
turned to Pico to boost their profile in the physical world and deliver a showroom
worthy of a world-class dual platform service provider.
The showroom highlighted CNTV’s focus on reprocessing and repackaging traditional
TV programming to produce a novel ‘interactive TV viewing experience’.
Taking this theme forward, Pico decided to make the showroom as interactive as
possible. With dozens of computers and live monitors arranged around the 128
square metre showroom at their office in Beijing, streaming live webcasts, the new
showroom captures the essence of CNTV’s fast-moving and exciting style.
- Beijing, China
Huawei Continues to Lead at Dublin TeleManagement ForumTeleManagement Forum (TMF) is a global non-profit industry association
which aims to simplify the complexity of running a service provider’s
business. As an established industry thought-leader, the Forum serves
as a unifying force, enabling more than 850 companies across 195
countries to solve critical business issues through access to a wealth of
knowledge, intellectual capital and standards.
At the same time, Huawei is also an industry-leading global information
and communication solution provider. Huawei’s products and solutions
are used in over 140 countries, and serve over one-third of the globe’s
population. Huawei became a TM Forum member in 1999 and this year,
they won an Industry Leadership award.
Pico was appointed to build 81 square metre two-storey Huawei’s booth
at TMF Dublin, held at the Convention Centre Dublin.
- Dublin, Ireland
Pico Awarded Hong Kong Smoke-Free Grand Award
Pico Hong Kong has been awarded the Hong Kong Smoke-free Leading
Company Grand Award. This illustrates the strength of Pico’s commit-
ment to maintaining a healthy and smoke-free working environment for our
staff members.
The Smoke-free Workplace Leading Company Awards were first organised
by the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (COSH) in 2004 to
encourage the business sector to proactively set up smoke-free workplaces
for their employees, as part of a wider effort to improve public health.
Pico has been a strong supporter of the Council’s work, and is proud to
have their comprehensive employee health protection efforts officially
recognised. The honour is especially great this year, as out of a field of 213
participating companies, Pico is one of only 15 companies receiving the
Grand Award.
The Grand Award was presented by Dr York Y N Chow, GBS, JP, Secretary
for Food and Health to Mr K D Ho, Executive Director of Pico Hong
Kong at a ceremony on 14 March.
Creating and maintaining a smoke-free environment for our staff
underlines Pico’s core brand values of excellence and harmony. A
healthy and sustainable natural environment is also part of our ‘Pico
Eco’ philosophy. By going above and beyond what is required of us, Pico
is safeguarding the health of its people, and by extension, safeguarding
the company.
- Hong Kong, China
Insights: Five Ways To Weaponise Your Brand Storytelling - Mike Walsh
Right now, as you read this, the world’s most dangerous symbol is only
inches away from your eyes. That small blue thumbs up icon may look
harmless enough, but believe me - some things are more dangerous
because they are deceptive. The future of social media is not chasing
friends and followers, but rather influencing what they are talking about.
Here’s my prediction - your most important decision this year will not be
the amout of money you spend recruiting fans on Facebook, but rather
the investment you make in the stories your brand tells its customers
about what it stands for.
When a fighter jet approaches an aircraft carrier to land, after a high
gee turn to throw off speed, they then do the unthinkable - they rev to
full throttle. The idea is simple. If the jet misses the arresting gear wire,
it needs enough velocity to take off again. Stranger still, is the fact that
I learned this not from talking to a pilot but the marketing director of
IWC watches in Geneva. At the SIHH watch fair this year, IWC staged
an incredible, immersive brand environment that created the illusion you
had stepped on board a high tech naval vessel - aided with a cast of real
life Top Gun veterans and celebrities - all recruited to do the one thing
that luxury brands do better than just about anyone else - tell sophisticated
brand stories to sell their products.
According to Karoline Huber, head of marketing at the Swiss watch brand,
IWC tells two kinds of stories to attract its customers. There are horizontal
stories that establish heritage, explain provenance and reassure customers
of the brand’s long history of quality, engineering and authenticity. And
then there are vertical stories - annual themes like military aviation, deep
diving, ship navigation or Italian south coast lifestyle - that support specific
product lines and provide a contemporary edge to the core brand values.
In the luxury industry, stories are what establishes a brand’s prestige - not
just because they defend premium pricing, but because they provide
something for their customers to believe and talk about.
So why should this matter to you? Luxury brands are one thing - but
you sell washing machines, industrial tunneling machines, legal services
or mortgages. Truth is - whatever business you are in - if you want to
engage your customers on the new social platforms, you need to think
very deliberately about what you want them to talk about. Unfortunately,
it is no longer enough to just hire a team of copywriters to invent clever
fictions about your brand. In the near future, you need to start thinking
about how you can turn your stories into weapons in the war for attention.
Here are five ideas to get you started:
1. Build A Dedicated Content Team
The worst thing you can do is outsource your storytelling and content
to your marketing agency. Think seriously about bringing your content
resources in house - even if it just some good editors to drive strategy. If
you don’t have them already - you need a strong set of video assets for
YouTube, reguarly articles for your blog and newsletters, whitepapers
and controversial thought pieces, and other interesting things for people
to share on their networks.
2. Close The Loop
Storytelling may seem like an art, but these days it is also a science.
Spend time understanding the new tools of inbound marketing, and
track which articles and videos attract the most leads, and which of
those leads end up becoming customers. The platform integration and
data analytics can be tough to implement, but when you can understand
exactly what types of content really engage and convert consumers - it
will transform the way you think about how you allocate marketing
funds.
3. Bring In The Anthropologists
You may know what kinds of stories you want to tell, but what stories
are your customers already telling each other about your products? How
are these stories changing, and what is driving these changes? All of
these may be anthropological questions, but they are certainly not
academic ones. Immerse yourself in your customers lives and you will
gain critical insights into how to make your brands truly part of them.
4. Leverage Pinterest
The persona board is a favourite tool for brand experts. They are a quirky
way of illustrating a consumer segment through a collage of products,
pop culture and activities that best represent them. Spend some time
on Pinterest and you will realise that the future business model of that
platform may lie in the incredible data on product and brand affinity
it offers marketers. As a very early example, check out the Women’s
Inspiration Day campaign by Kotex in Israel (http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=UVCoM4ao2Tw), where the brand used Pinterest to find out
what inspired fifty women from their pin-up boards and sent care packages
based on their contents.
5. Global Values, Local Context
The most compelling stories always have a local twist, and social media
is no exception. I’ve been watching for some time how global brands
like Converse have successfully engaged new consumers in markets like
China by contextualising global brand values with hyper local content
strategies. And in emerging markets, local celebrity endorsement whether
on Weibo in China or Orkut in Brazil - is a critical part of local engagement.
Social platforms may standardize in many markets, but consumers will
retain a very native perspective on the content and individuals that
influence them. Global CMOs will have the increasingly tough challenge
of navigating the tensions between global values and local context - but
the companies that become adept at this, will be clear winners in the
digital space.
When I wrote my book Futuretainment a number of years ago - I predicted
that brands would need to behave more like media companies, and
media companies more like brands. If anything, that is truer than ever.
When so many are competing for 140 characters of consumer mindspace,
brands have to be both deliberate and ruthlessly strategic about how
they craft and articulate their stories in order to get cut-through.
As usual, Oscar Wilde’s said it best - ‘the only thing worse than being
talked about is not being talked about at all.’
Mike Walsh is the author of
Futuretainment and a keynote
speaker on future trends. You
can read more at http://www.
mike-walsh.com
IMAGEMAKER // SPRING 20128
Insights: Exhibit Design Q & A - Jerry Firbank
Jerry Firbank, Pico Concept in UK’s Chief Creative
Officer, was recently interviewed by Exhibitor Magazine.
He has been an active inventor and exhibit designer
since the 1960s, and has designed everything from
exhibits, pavilions, and retail spaces to public and
private events. His work has received awards from
EXHIBITOR magazine as well as the UK Queens Award for Industry. He
shared his thoughts on the shape of the exhibit-design industry in general
and the RFP process in particular.
Q1 : If you had a catch phrase about exhibit design to share with
exhibitors, what would it be?
“It’s not what it is — it’s what it does.” It’s not enough for an exhibit to
look nice or be appealing. It has to perform. Good design should be a
given, however, ingenuity with customer engagement isn’t a given and is
often sadly missing. Make an impression on attendees with your exhibit,
with a prominent brand statement, modern, appealing architecture,
lights, color, movement, and style. It’s not enough to just leave it to the
sales team, some demos, and a meeting room.
Q2 : Obviously, making an impression on attendees at a trade
show is priority numero uno for most exhibitors. Do you have any
advice on how to increase engagement?
Engagement with attendees is won or lost in the first few seconds. People
want new information, things that they don’t already know, to hold their
attention. Build an innovative initiative to provide information in a way
that is new, exciting, and memorable. And keep in mind that a majority
of any engagement at an event is lost upon parting. Develop and manage
a follow-up process with post-event activity, such as mailers, phone calls,
e-mails, etc., to build opportunities for future engagement.
Q3 : What do you wish exhibit managers knew (or did) to better
facilitate the exhibit-design process?
Exhibit managers should determine a far more sophisticated,
experienced, and qualified method for assessing a creatively strategic
and tactical bid proposal via a professional selection process.
Corporate selection committees typically don’t have the time or
resources to fully understand, quantify, and assess the large numbers
of bids that they request through RFPs. For example, in a typical RFP
process, exhibit houses are asked to spend large sums of money to design
a proposed exhibit, which often has no stated budget and no real
direction regarding the desired response from attendees. What’s worse,
all this is done with little or no interaction between the exhibit designer
and the company requesting the bid.
While it seems like a good idea to get designs and responses from a lot
of exhibit houses, it can really distort the outcome. The reality is that
the best companies in our industry are the ones that ask the toughest
questions upon receiving the RFP, and are the ones least likely to bid.
The real exhibit-industry experts add true value to a company’s exhibit
program because they’ll take the time to learn about the company’s
challenges and objectives.
Source: Exhibitor Online
http://www.exhibitoronline.com/topics/designerQA-archive.asp
IMAGEMAKER // SPRING 201210
CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, is always a
highlight of the year for me. Not only do you get to see some great
work from some of the most creative minds in the event and exhibitions
industry, but you also get to check-out some new technologies that can
be potentially used in future work.
I didn’t get to go this year so I spent a bit of time recently online trying
to catch some of the action. There was a lot of buzz about Microsoft
announcing that CES will not be as important in their plans beyond 2012.
Related articles had quotes like “the final nail in the coffin” or “tradeshows
are dead”. I think that such turns of phrase make catchy headlines, but for
a topic that has been regularly discussed over the years, I was again left
wanting for an intelligent argument in support of the hype.
While some event organizers are letting their shows become extinct
through a lack progress or change, many are far from dead. In fact,
many brands would suffer negative consequences to their business if
these shows were to disappear. Someone from IBM once told me that if
it was not for Sibos, he would need to work four times as hard, because
the tradeshow was guaranteed to bring almost all of his clients under
one roof. Tradeshow equity is, in large part, made up of how they
contribute to how an industry runs.
For Asia, we can learn a lot from what is happening in tradeshows
in Europe and North America because the maturity of many regional
tradeshows is less than these markets. It is not that the older tradeshows
are becoming obsolete; instead they are simply losing relevance to some
sponsors and exhibitors. This is perfectly natural. As some exhibitors
leave, new ones come along. New industries will require the creation of
new tradeshows. It’s not Armageddon; it’s just life.
For would-be sponsors and exhibitors in places like North America, they
get to a point where they already know who their customers are and
decide that they no longer need to aggressively look for new ones. In
such situations, scaling back investments or reallocating to spend to
other types of events or relationship building activities makes sense.
In developing markets where you need to reach new customers, then
tradeshows work as a platform to introduce you to new markets and
prospective customers. Or in the case of Sibos, they provide a very
important part of doing business on a global scale. Sometimes simple
economics explains why tradeshows are dropped (i.e. budget cuts and
discretionary spend).
Whatever the catalyst for change, there is usually a negative side effect
from not participating. It is simply a matter of working out which is the
lesser of two evils.. Microsoft is a perfect example of this and they did
the right thing by going to great lengths to communicate the thoughts
and rationale behind the change in their participation in CES going
forward. They realized that if they were not to show-up next year, this
would send tongues wagging about why. Would it mean that Microsoft
are going under?
Some within the events industry have often used hype to advocate
spending on proprietary events or small targeted brand experiences. I
am not saying that such events don’t have a place. My company does
these for clients because they are the right tactics to deploy in the right
circumstance. However, I feel that tradeshow protagonists often have
ulterior motives and I question how genuinely they are concerned about
your business and brand. Be warned!
The simple fact is that tradeshows offer a unique business opportunity
for brands and they always will. Brands often need to work out how to
make them more relevant to your current or future needs by leveraging the
equity that many tradeshows have in different ways. For some, guerilla
marketing efforts are popular as they leverage the draw of the tradeshow,
but allow the creation of exclusive brand experiences offsite.
Ultimately, I really believe that there is an onus on brands to push event
organizers to provide them what they need. Just don’t believe the hype
that some in the industry are spreading! Many event organizers are willing
and open to explore ways to make their shows better and relevant.
Often new ways of participation are simply needed to make tradeshows
a better part of your marketing mix.
Tyronne O’ Callaghan has more than 12 years’
marketing experience from events to data planning
and is currently the Director of Brand & Strategy
at Pico Group. He provides strategies and insights
for many renowned global brands and in particular
creating engaging and integrated brand experiences
across multiple platforms.
Source: Campaign Asia Online
http://blog.campaignasia.com/tyronne-ocallaghan/tradeshows-are-dead-
bullocks/
Insights: Tradeshows are dead? Bullocks! - Tyronne O’Callaghan
Insights: Is being green a load of hot air? - Tyronne O’CallaghanEarly in my career I worked at a small boutique agency in Sydney called
McCorkell & Associates. At the time we specialised in marketing
communications for the ICT industry and during the late 90’s it was
a booming business. Every year there was something new. A piece of
software that would revolutionise the way we would work. A piece of
hardware that was larger in capacity, but smaller in size and more secure
than all the rest. One year there was Y2K – that crafty date bug that
was going to lead to Armageddon!
This was the agency where I learnt many things about my trade. It was
also the place where I first begun to question how genuine a trend was
or if it simply just hype. To this day, I still don’t know how much of a
problem Y2K was. It certainly did not lead to a world meltdown. Was it a
job well done or just a whole lot of hot air? I don’t know.
Every now and then I find a subject matter where I struggle to form an
opinion on. It’s not that I am being impartial; it is simply that I just don’t
see any evidence that helps me form an opinion one way or another.
Today, I feel that being green in marketing leaves me in that same no
man’s land of opinion.
In 2007/2008, I was working with a number of different clients on how
to make their events and exhibitions greener. Virtual events were being
touted as the green way forward. Buzzwords such as paperless environments
or low carbon events were rampant. Being green often meant being
more expensive, but many clients were willing to pay more to be green
back then.
A personal observation – then the GFC hit and all has gone quiet! Cost
became the primary decision maker.
I appreciate that at the time it was a matter of survival. Discretionary
spend is the first thing that gets cut. However, 3-years on and I am still
not seeing any signs of sustainability practices in marketing becoming
main-stream – beyond that of paperless environments. This is certainly
the case in my industry and I have not observed it too much in others.
Even fly-in and fly-out events are becoming popular again!
This is not to say that being green in marketing has not continued. It is
simply an observation based on of lack of observations. I see huge efforts
by brands to make the manufacturing of products greener and
more sustainable. Is it just that these stories are taking center stage? Or
is it a matter of “green blushes” – the want for marketers to be seen
as authentic in their sustainable practices which makes them shy about
talking about them?
What does inspire me is the effect when government legislates or
mandates sustainability practices. For those brands sponsoring the
London Olympics, they and their agency partners are being challenged in
ways like never before by the One Planet Living concept and the London
Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) sustainability
approach – which is a good thing. Through the creation of a necessity
to be sustainable, new approaches, techniques and materials are being
explored. I just hope that these just don’t stop at the end of the games,
but continued to be applied elsewhere.
Event and exhibitions must be one of the least green out of all types of
marketing tactics. When phrases such as build and burn are commonly
used by clients to describe exhibition stand builds in Asia you know that
there is a lot of room for improvement. However, I fail to believe that
there could not be progress in this industry or in marketing as a whole
within the region.
I do fear that we may have gone backwards in the last few years.
Perhaps, it is that we lost the momentum created by government policy,
corporate desire and consumer demand all being aligned and united by
the global warming debate. However, I am not sure if we actually have.
I see sustainability in the CSR policy of some of my clients, but fail to
see it in many of the briefs that we receive. I see the effort of some Pico
teams, but fail to see an industry wide movement that has substance (i.e.
not green washing). I see what happens when the weight of government
demands change and what can be done as a result. I fail to see this in
many Asian countries. I also fail to believe that there is not some sort of
innovation taking place.
I have no opinion, but would like one.
If you have any insight or examples of green marketing practices in Asia,
please feel free to share!
Source: Campaign Asia Online
http://blog.campaignasia.com/tyronne-ocallaghan/is-being-green-a-load-
of-hot-air/
As a brand activator, one of the greatest challenges in my job is to create
singular experiences that connect with multiple audiences.
There is great danger in targeting multiple segments in a shared environment.
In trying to recognise their differences, you can make things too complex.
By trying to be too many things to too many people, sometimes you
can lose sight of the fact that there is only one brand. Or, in an effort to
simplify things and create a singular brand engagement, the experience
becomes too diluted and meaningless.
I have always admired ATL campaigns that are able to nail this balance by
sparking the right emotions though copy, sound and visuals. But what about
“live”? Can you really be something to everyone? The answer is yes.
The great thing about “live” is that it gives an opportunity for audiences
to truly engage with a brand; so much so that they actively contribute to
the experience. The creation of audience-specific journeys are great for
achieving specific marketing objectives, but there is always an element of
brand in every live engagement – sometimes it’s passive and sometimes
it’s more overt. The challenge is in creating this common brand link.
For those who are planning their next event, exhibition, sponsorship or
shopper activation that will involve multiple audience segments (or for
those who feel challenged to do so); I would encourage a simple thought
process in your planning, something I call the Common Denominator.
The Common Denominator is simply the activation of common ground
amongst the audience members. It is more than just a shared space. It is
the experience, content and messages that are delivered in this shared
space. It is not just your keynote speaker, but what they talk about or
how their profile appeals to more than one audience segment.
The best execution of the Common Denominator that I have seen recently
was last year at a Manchester derby. Football fans, by their tribal nature,
are very different. So what do you do if you’re a brand that feels it’s
important to stimulate the competitive nature of opposing fans, yet remain
impartial and a friend to all? You find something that you all can hate!
In their activation at the Manchester derby, Betfair focused on the fact
that Carlos Tevez was a hated figure for both Manchester United and
Manchester City football clubs. Fans were encouraged to “Trash” their
Tevez jerseys and collect a new replacement. This simple insight turned
into a brilliant way of creating common ground between two bi-polar
audiences - as well as activating a brand while they were at it.
So what are some areas to look at when trying to find the Common
Denominator?
Pain-point
Who is the common enemy?
Culture
Are there any common links between the audiences based on location,
race or sub-culture?
Aspirations
Are there any shared dreams or places that the audiences would rather be?
Needs
Is there a common need from a product or service category that the
audiences share?
Opinions
Is there a common theme in views/opinions expressed by the different
audiences?
Trends
Are there any macro- or micro-trends that are impacting how the
audiences live?
Whilst this list is not exhaustive, researching for insights into some of these
areas could go a long way to helping design your next multi-audience
engagement.
Source: Campaign Asia Online
http://blog.campaignasia.com/tyronne-ocallaghan/the-common-
denominator/
Insights: The Common Denominator - Tyronne O’Callaghan
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IMAGEMAKER // SPRING 201212