From a basic ‘tent wala’ till about a decade ago, the event industry has since witnessed a paradigm shift in customers’ minds and brands’ minds as well. Over a period of time it has transformed into a large and innovative platform. Feeding this demand for innovation are some great ideas let afloat ever so frequently. Here’s a closer look at five remarkable event start-ups of this year. Ola Cabs: Available in five cities at the moment, Ola cabs promises to expand to at least 10 more by the end of next year. It is always a delight to have a fleet of cars available at one’s ease after and before an event. An initiative by Bhavish Agrawal was born with the idea that it would be asset-lite and tech-intensive for its users. Only a free downloadable app or a phone call is what connected the customers to the service. They could also monitor their cabs via GPS. Another added feature, Heat maps enabled the company to track where their cabs are. Eat in my Seat: A simple yet great start up ‘Eat In My Seat’ provides a mobile application that enables users to browse the menu at the venue and order directly from their smartphones. It allows its users to pay within the app and choose to either collect the order or get it delivered. As soon as the order gets ready push notifications let users know that they can come and collect. This initiative is a fantastic way to save time as it rescues you from waiting in long queues. Crowd Mics: Crowd Mics has created a buzz in the event industry. The idea behind the start-up is quite simple yet engaging. It allows the attendees to download an app which turns their smartphones into a mic. The speaker can then plug his/her smart phone to the audio system and enjoy the technology. It came across as a powerful concept and a crowd engaging one. Floh.in: Finding the right match has always been a challenging deed and for young professionals its all the more tough. Floh is a platform that brings single people together at events with the objective of meeting like-minded people to build healthy connections. It enables members to have real, in person interactions at events and is mainly focused towards urban, educated and independent singles. More recently Floh has started allowing a selected number of people who apply for the service, an entrance fee of Rs. 7,500 for three months or Rs 15,000 for the whole year. This gives its users a chance to attend events in the company of compatible singles. CrowdCan.do: A U.K. based platform called CrowdCan.do utilizes crowd funding technology to eliminate the financial risk of conducting an event by allowing organisers to sell tickets in advance in order to raise funds. It makes work even simpler by allowing the organisers to download a free Android or iOS app that enables them to manage, scan and authorize tickets.This is a great opportunity for those starting out in the event industry as it enables them to test the idea before exposing themselves to the financial risks involved.
Read More
1 As per industry reports, the shelf life of ATL campaigns have decreased from 6-8 months, coming down to 2 months. This makes it important for the marketer to create more engaging marketing strategies, which create a greater recall. 2. BTL activities ensure greater interface with the consumers and instant feedback. This gives rise to immediate ROI and on-the-spot sales, or immense recall value. 3. BTL is becoming a strong focus area for retailers. Catchment initiatives are seen as an integral part across retail segments, especially since the growth of modern and multi-brand retail. In order to combat declining walk-ins, store managements are resorting to deeper brainstorming sessions to evolve creative catchment engagement initiatives. This is sought to be linked to store managers’ KRAs. The organised sector of the Indian events and activation industry is estimated at around Rs 2,800 crore in 2011-12. 4. The segmentation between organised and unorganised players stands at a 40:60 ratio. 5. The BTL industry has grown at over 20 per cent during the last two years and is expected to grow to Rs 4,375 crore by 2013-14. 6. Spends dedicated to below-the-line activations are poised to increase by 20 per cent more in 2013-14. 7. The relationship between events and technology is emerging. Brands are deploying social media technology as well as unique tech-engagement on-site to create an integrated campaign. 8. Food brands, and other FMCG products, which fall under the impulse purchase category are dedicating more than 60 per cent of their marketing spend to BTL activations. 9. The electronics industry is investing majorly in in-store activations. The budgets of major electronics brands have upped 20 – 30 per cent between 2012-13. Since, the final brand choice for a customer depends upon how a specific model is demonstrated and explained to him at the point of sale, this BTL activity acquires most importance as a high percentage of electronics is sold via the multi brand channel. 10. The auto industry in India is very forthcoming and experimentative when it comes to BTL activations. This industry spends heavily on activation formats like road shows.
Read More
Social media can undoubtedly play a massive role in creating buzz around an event. It is increasingly being perceived as a vital medium when it comes to drawing attendance to an event, engaging the attendees during it and also to populate the content generated at it. However, simply providing attendees with a few social platforms may not be enough. The term ‘experiential marketing’ calls for an enriching and personalized experience. Therefore, to establish strong connections with the audience it is imperative to encourage deeper engagement. Here are 7 tips to ensure you are sharp as a tack when hosting your next event: Target a Relevant Audience “When targeting a specific audience, social media helps a great deal in allowing psychographic filtering”, says Pratik Gupta of Foxymoron. He adds, For example, when a company like Maybelline is segmenting its audience it knows it shares its consumers with Forever 21, Revlon etc. Through the use of social media it becomes easier to subset audiences”. Social media can also be integrated with registration to share the names of people attending and in turn lead to the involvement of many more. #Hashtags Always present the audience with a hashtag to get an early start to creating buzz. For example- to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their G-Shock range, Casio released a specific hashtag weeks in advance before a celebratory event. Attendees and non-attendees were encouraged to use the hashtag to upload photos of their Casio watches on Instagram. 3000 photos were generated which were displayed on a live-feed throughout the venue. Similarly Twitter profiles can be created for the speakers (if any) so the audience can get early access to them. Keeping the hashtag central will ensure content is not lost and audience remains engaged. Interesting Content People like to read, share and comment on interesting things. Make that available to your audience. Foxymoron executed a viral campaign integrating social media and on ground activity for launch of Maybelline’s SuperStay lipstick using a hashtag on Twitter- #DoesntLastLongEnough. Maybelline fans were encouraged to share their thoughts on what they wished ‘lasts as long as she does.’ The result was a high amount of cheeky content created by women across the country. ‘I have to do it again and again because #DoesntLastLongEnough’ and ‘I do at work because #DoesntLastLongEnough’ were some of the tweets. The topic trended #1 for 14+ hours in India and was discussed by Maybelline’s 1.7 million Facebook and 1500+ Twitter followers. Build a Community In the digital age, people are no longer willing to wait around. Ensure all questions and comments are responded to very swiftly. Act in charge before the onset of the event and remain in charge till the event is executed. Offer prizes to the most interactive and engaged attendees. Offer something extra for engaging on social media. It could be anything from a free book at a book launch, to a copy of an industry report, to free registration for a subsequent event etc. Social Media for a Social Cause There is a feel good factor in doing the right thing or contributing to a social cause. Tap that emotion through social media where applicable. Pratik Gupta, Foxymoron, states, “For Garnier Men’s ‘Powerlight A Village’ campaign last year, the audience on Facebook was encouraged to actively like, share and comment. Each activity contributed as a predetermined unit of energy which was eventually translated into actual ‘energy donation’ to bring electricity into remote villages of India”. The scale of the social cause may of course vary from event to event but there’s always a chance that the media might pick it up. Promotional/Recap Videos Teaser videos are a great way to capture the interest of a possible audience. Snippets of what the event has to offer, views of the speakers, subjects of discussions etc can be released before the event to entice the audience. Once the event concludes, highlights can be merged into a video and made available to a global audience through Youtube. Tireless Engagement Keep the community engaged for as long as you can. Share blog posts and write presentations that can be viewed on your own platform/website. Besides tying social network outposts together, a solid homebase can lead to even stronger engagement on the home site.
Read More
So here’s a situation that almost every marketer and event organizer has faced a couple of times in his life. There’s a marketer, who is approached by A, B and C event management companies that pitch their respective ideas. The marketer likes the idea pitched by C, but gives the contract to A. When the event is carried out, C finds out that the idea used was theirs but the contract was instead given to the cheaper alternative – A. Is it fair? Who is to blame? Can C do anything except feel bad about it? In an attempt to provide the solution, EE gets industry experts to answer. “The practice is highly unethical and I, being a marketer, definitely make it a point not to do it,” says Sudeep Narayan, Marketing and PR Director, Volvo. “You will not find even one example in all my working life where I have been a part of such practice. But that’s about me; however, there are marketers who have been criticized for taking someone else’s idea and giving it to the cheaper alternative. But are marketers really to blame? This responsibility rests on event organizers that approach companies with their sales pitch. The problem is when there is any event company that approaches the client, there is no signed document that states this is the idea that was presented, so no one can prove that the idea was originated from xyz company. They should be very clear. They should have a signed doc with the client, not to use this idea without their knowledge. If they use the idea then they need to give a consultancy fee for the idea,” advises Sudeep. “Very point blank openly, the event companies just please clients. Now most of them don’t have their own fabrication in it. Let’s take the example of an international standard car display. I could be charged 4 lac or even 8 lac. It’s very simple. You look at the example of how a farmer sells a potato. He may be selling it for 5 directly from his farm, but you buy it for 20kg a kilo. Who is an experiential company? Someone who sees through the idea. They generate, execute and run the show. However, most event companies are self proclaimed. Most of them don’t have fabrication. They are just consultants – Not event companies. That cartel in India is very weak,” divulges Sudeep. “If you give honest cost with a brilliant idea, the client will not go anywhere. The assumption is that the client doesn’t know anything. There could be no real cost for the idea, agreed. But if the cost is for fabrication – ask them for the balance sheet,” says Sudeep. That was a marketer point of view. But what does an event organizer have to say when he sees his idea being brought to life by a competitor? “The key to this kind of situation is the client-agency relationship. With most of our clients we have such a strong relationship that such incidents do not happen. Nevertheless, with certain new business pitches, we have had a few experiences with clients where our ideas and concepts have been used by clients with other agencies. Legally, there is very little one can do. Often the companies that do this are very large brands who may have unscrupulous marketing decision makers,” divulges Atul Nath, MD, Candid Marketing. To take a neutral stand, EE got Harish Bijoor, Brand Expert, to give his thoughts on the same. “I’m very against the system of pitches. The first way to sort it out is to say that there are no free lunches and no free speculative pitches. I do believe that event marketing organizations must all gather around the common banner and refuse to make pitches. There are central bodies that look after this. These bodies must set norms and say that you must not make speculative pitches. If you are invited to make a pitch you must charge a fee for the pitch. The fee could be waived if the event organizer is chosen for the job. If not, then a portion of the expenditure is anyway covered by the fee. It is a wrong practice to do free pitches,” says Harish. But why would a client be willing to pay for every pitch that he may not find worth it? “When a client does a short list, he does a closed short list of the best of the lot. He should be willing to put his money where his mouth is. It shows that the marketer is respecting the vendor. Practices must change completely. And as far as ideas are concerned, they are not necessarily genuine. Nobody can prove it. I have actually been in such a situation earlier where the same idea was pitched by two different event management agencies. The order goes to one, and the other obviously blames the marketer for stealing. You can’t always blame the marketer. There is a fair bit of jealousy also in the system,” divulges Harish.
Read More
In 2011, Amul sponsored the Dutch cricket team in the ICC Cricket World Cup and Switzerland-headquartered Sauber F1 team at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix. In 2012, Asia’s largest milk brand sponsored the Indian contingent at the London 2012 Olympic Games and invested INR 10 million. What do all these events have in common? EE in conversation with Mr. Pavan Kumar, Asst. General Manager, Marketing, Amul to find out what it takes to get an Amul sponsorship. Read on to find out. 1. Reinforcing Amul as the Taste of India “We wanted to reinforce the positioning of Amul as the original taste of India. In this regard, we went ahead and sponsored the Indian team at the Olympics, supporting our nation and reinforcing our brand value in its entirety as an Indian brand supporting its country at the Olympics. We wanted the best to support our athletes and coincidentally 2012 was the year India won the maximum medals,” says Mr. Pavan Kumar. 2. Platform to connect with the youth “Amul would definitely associate itself with an event where it gets a platform to connect with the youth. That’s the reason why we sponsored the Indian contingent at the Olympics too, so that we could connect with the youth who are obviously into sports and encourage them at the same time to become active and take up sports. Youth constitutes a very important part of our target group and we are always looking for ways to connect with them and deliver the right message,” says Mr. Pavan Kumar. 3. Re-establish milk as the ‘world’s original energy drink’ “As the official sponsor of the Indian team at the London Olympics, Amul’s commitment to health is best defined by its signature product, milk. Through this initiative we wanted to re-enforce milk as the world’s natural energy drink. This was our campaign and we wanted our customers to believe that if they wanted to be fit and healthy, they should make milk a part of their daily diet by relating to the athletes at the Olympics that incorporated milk in their daily intake. It is the world’s natural drink and what better way to put that across than to associate with an energy-packed event,” divulges Mr. Pavan Kumar. So everyone out there who wants Amul to shell out the moolah and associate themselves with their event needs to fulfill the top three requirements. Time to re-work the pitch and pay attention to the above details if you really want to milk the
Read More
Airlines are geared to break conventional methods of advertising as they step outside the airport with some truly innovative ideas. Here are instances of some well-known airlines around the globe that ‘gave flight’ to consumer imagination with their unique advertising. Cebu Pacific Cebu Pacific, the largest low cost carrier of Phillipines used the wet weather to ensure flyers book for a sunnier Phillipines as Hong Kong has less than 100 hours of sunshine in summer monsoon season. The smart campaign used water repellant spray to draw ads on the ground in high traffic areas in the city to make them invisible until wet weather arrives and water droplets roll off the sprayed surface to reveal the tagline `It is sunny in the Phillipines.’ The ad was accompanied by a QR code which could allowed scanning of the ground through the commuters phones and receive a Cebu Pacific discount code. Air France’s FoodTruck Air France started off the ‘Gourmet Food Truck’ through Manhattan, New York and served complimentary food to all and sundry. Chefs from the Airline caterer `Flying Food Servair’ gave free food samples based on the recipe of Air France Michelin starred chef Joël Robuchon. To name a few items on the menu were Pain au chocolat for breakfast besides cucumber and smoked salmon brochette for lunch, French Shepherd’s Pie with duck confit for dinner and assorted French macarons and petits fours for dessert. The truck was parked at different locations and its trail could be followed through Twitter and Facebook. An estimated 600 samples of breakfast, lunch and dinner were served everyday throughout the promotion. Virgin Atlantic takes over a New York park bench Virgin Atlantic gave New Yorkers a flying experience on ground. Passerby could sit on a first class bench in Manhattan and an air stewardess would offer them lunch accompanied by champagne and a choice of movies in the form of a live performance. Austrian Airlines’ Café-to-go Austrian Airlines offered free coffee to passersby in the streets of New York for ten days with its `Café-to-Go’ truck and its route was announced on twitter. Vienna is noted for its traditional coffee houses and the airlines also features a ‘Viennese coffee house’ service onboard its flights. Austrian Airlines’ Café-to-go Austrian Airlines offered free coffee to passersby in the streets of New York for ten days with its `Café-to-Go’ truck and its route was announced on twitter. Vienna is noted for its traditional coffee houses and the airlines also features a ‘Viennese coffee house’ service onboard its flights. Qatar Airways promotes Britain VisitBritain and Qatar Airways tried out an experiential marketing campaign to inspire travelers to go to UK from Saudi Arabia last year. With a total expenditure of 729 million pounds till 2020, Saudi Arabia has the highest projected value percentage growth of 181 percent amidst the 20 emerging and major markets in ‘VisitBritain’ tourism strategy. It was scheduled from November 20 to December 14 and reached out to 45,000 people in shopping malls across Saudi Arabia. Consumers at the Red Sea Mall in Jeddah, Mall of Dahran in Dammam and Riyadh Gallery in Riyadh experienced the sights and sounds of Britain and got a sample of travelling in Business Class in Qatar Airways onboard Boeing 777. A black cab from London welcomed visitors to take a virtual guided tour of the streets of London. Other major attractions in Britain were brought to life through 3D models, TV screens and directional sound. Four Queens Guards were also omni-present for an experience of Britishness and photo opportunities. British Airways’ innovative advertising British Airways in coordination with Ogilvy’s digital created 12-floor custom fit digital billboards with surveillance technology to detect and activate the billboards as their airline passed overhead. Located at Piccadilly Circus and Chiswick in London, whenever the billboard detects a British Airways flight below the clouds, visible to passersby, a child runs across the board, pointing towards the sky chasing the airplane. The billboard then displays an update of the flight details such as BA flight 475 from Barcelona. It was the first of its kind not only for British Airways but also for UK advertising. The online video of the billboard had gone viral and got more than 750,000 views in less than ten days and created a record of sorts.
Read More
Sports make lot of sense as a way to enhance corporate image and increase product visibility. Sports Sponsorship in India is pegged at 3250 cr. and is estimated to be 12500 Cr. in the next 5 years. With so much of money involved the sports industry has embraced sponsorship ROI/ROO and statistical analysis as never before. Sponsorships are made for sound business reasons and need for effective data and research to advise that decision is vital. Repucom, a global sports marketing research firm, utilizing the leading technology and facilities for market research, media evaluation and commercial auditing, has created a full-service portfolio for sports marketing research and consultancy. In the following article Repucom’s Senior Vice President – South Asia, Joseph Eapen, provides key snippets from the report along with market data and insights. As you look at the changing consumption of goods, sport sticks out. Sports attract a strong and engaged audience, and certain sports can attract hard-to-reach demographic. Though live viewing drove most of it, now social media is also driving the conversation hard and can be used as the counter on sports. Social media tells the whole story about attitudes of people sitting out there in living rooms, venues and even bars. The relationship between sports and entertainment is inseparable and interchangeable. Need to Evaluate In a country as obsessed with sports (also beyond cricket) as India, Sports Sponsorship Evaluation is the foundation of all relevant information, public perception and to-the-minute statistics. With finances of this magnitude and the fervent passions of an entire nation at stake, a sustained and reliable inflow of premium information and analytics is of crucial importance. The best way to make sure the sponsors understands the returns is to provide an evaluation report detailing the benefits received. It is also good business practice to show evidence of accountability. Evaluation also helps a club/franchise/right owner/sponsors formally review its activities, provides a frame of reference for future projects and aids the planning process. The keys to success lie in bringing a marketer’s sponsorship to life in real and meaningful ways. A key element of the sponsorship decision is determining what success looks like at the outset of a campaign. You can’t start to measure success until you know what success means for you; any evaluation program is therefore a measurement and a comparative tool. It doesn’t also help if key constituencies have a different view of desired results and don’t have a clear understanding of what success looks like before committing money and resources needed to support a sponsorship investment. Other common problems in developing sponsorship programs is spending the majority of marketing dollars on the cost of sponsorship with little or nothing left to advertise, promote and publicize a company’s involvement. And more importantly, in assigning value on a sponsorship, brands should consider the cost of not being a sponsor. For developing strategic and creative sponsorship campaigns, one has to consider all elements in the marketing toolbox. More often than not, public relations, product placement and social media set the stage for future advertising, sales, events, promotions, and hospitality that will drive the sponsorship message home. And all of these need to be evaluated, benchmarked and developed into a KPI scorecard. The key elements of Sponsorship evaluation area as follows MEDIA EVALUATION Sports holds a prominent role in the global media landscape as a means to drive audience, passion and engagement. The need to measure, evaluate and audit sponsorship activations and campaigns across TV, online, radio and social networks, print and mobile devices is vital to arrive at media analytics, focused on the impact of sponsorship in various broadcast and other media environments. Media evaluation and audit involves constant surveillance on sporting ventures, cutting-edge media monitoring and analytics to determine the nature, impact and presence of sport sponsorships for individual types of sports, across multiple broadcast environments across various cultures, geographies and investment markets. Combining updated and intensively-verified information and valuable industry insights from experts, media evaluation and analytics incorporate extremely comprehensive and accurate market analytics on in-stadia, print, online and on-air broadcast networks; maintaining exclusive databases containing exhaustive details, press bytes, performance benchmarks and competition analytics that allow unrivalled access to brands, signage points, teams, stadiums, sporting meets and sponsorship bodies. Add to it the use of all emerging social media channels to constantly track properties and monitor sports assets, giving the clients a hawk-eye insight into the chaotic world of popular commercial sports. All these is used to build data into extensive databases that deliver analytics and insight that allow comparative media equivalencies across brands, signage locations, teams, stadiums, sports and markets. We’ll design outputs based on specific objectives, including competitor analysis, portfolio benchmarking, stadia rating, best practice knowledge, and much more. The outcome of Media Evaluation is the universally accepted measure called Quality Index (QI) developed by Repucom – is used to measure the quality and duration of sports fans’ exposure to sponsorship elements such as on-screen graphics, branding on apparels, courtside signage and courtside branded assets such as cups and coolers etc.. RESEARCH & ANALYSIS Social Media Measurement, Syndicated Sports Studies & Fan Research are the heart of the whole process as the ultimate focus is to deliver intelligence and analytics on viewer behavior and sports-fan access for major sporting events. There is almost always a massive buzz of feedback, reviews, expectations and analysis from sports-fan around major sporting events and tournaments that happen in the public sphere, from broadcast media to blogs and social media networks. If it’s pure, uninterrupted fan support that you are interested in, then these fan reviews and crucial, allowing brand owners, agencies and federations to build greater brand recognition, marketing opportunities and commercial awareness. To close the loop, it is imperative to study an understand sports markets through Fan Research to identify and tap into exclusive catchment areas of each sport, asking the right questions and gathering unique insights about the sports, and their stars who are constantly in limelight. By systematically gathering, collating and analyzing crucial data on sports and sports brand, the studies can accurately report brand impact, reach and value in key markets. Continuous studies, fan interviews, market surveys and monitoring brand associations with individual supporter bases to deliver accurate and highly customizable brand insight form a knowledge base for clients. Clients use these databases across policy meetings and board congregations to accurately estimate emerging trends, fan reviews and reactions and even gauge future business opportunities. Sports Studies, with their unique market and brand insights, and their sophisticated analyses, also allow firms to accurately rate, profile and monitor public perception of specific sporting franchises and events, and thereby estimate endorsement values, advertising rates and brand impact. Popular large studies available are SportsDNA & SponsorLink, covering 30 countries in a continuous manner. It covers all sports and associated sponsors/brands in their respective markets. The studies also allows clients to add specific/custom questions related to their brand and it associations. Apart from these syndicated studies, bespoke research are conducted during, in and post tournaments, leagues and events and a KPI model and scorecard is developed for tracking ROO. CELEBRITY DBI (Davie-Brown Index) Celebrities posit massive exposure and associative brand-recognition to any brand they endorse, and global celebrity evaluation services are instrumental in breaking down the DNA of popular stardom, and find out what is it that makes celebrities such global phenomenon. Instruments like Celebrity DBI undertakes brand evaluation and assessment, delivering accurate analytical data and maintaining extensive databases on stars and their stardom across the world. Global and local clients count on these measurement to deliver data on an international basis that tracks various celebrity endorsements, market impact on specific demographics, market reach and brand recognition. The Celebrity DBI is an independent index that quantifies and qualifies consumer perceptions of celebrities. It’s the only global celebrity evaluation service designed to provide superior brand-relevant insights. The Celebrity Index employ superior research methodology that allow them to go deep inside celebrity catchment areas, and deliver research data filtered through age, market, gender and income levels, to name but a few. Be it an international rock star or the next Diaego Maradona, celebrities all over the world have an immense capability to influence consumer habits for a multitude of products, and celebrity evaluation services provide updated, relevant market intelligence to identify key markets that account for maximum celebrity brand impact. The list of celebrities (over 5500 worldwide) tested can also go beyond Sportsmen, Film stars, Musician’s etc. The recent wave of Celebrity DBI in India covered Arvind Kerjiwal, Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, measured on all the 8 factors of the study – Appeal, Aspiration, Awareness, Breakthrough, Endorsement, Influence, Trendsetter and Trust.
Read More
As the 2014 FIFA World Cup builds its tempo, a report released by Repucom shows Nike and Adidas at the centre of a heated battle to maximize the advertising and sponsorship potential of Football’s greatest occasion. Player endorsements and team kit manufacturers have traditionally been where the rivals face off every four years, and that competition continues unabated. This year, adidas can boast stars like Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Germany’s Mesut Ozil and Robin Van Persie of the Netherlands, while Nike’s list includes Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr. of Brazil and England’s Wayne Rooney. In 2010, adidas kitted out 25% more of the teams than Nike, but Nike predominates in Brazil, outfitting 10 of the 32 teams, one more than adidas. Since 2010, social media has begun to redefine the competition with users of Twitter, Facebook and other platforms soaring from four years ago. In overall fan and followers, currently Nike has the edge with over 36 million Facebook page ‘likes’ and 1.8 million Twitter followers- twice as many engaged fans across these platforms as adidas. Facebook is where both brands find more traction. In early June of this year, Nike had approximately 18 million more Facebook page ‘likes’ than adidas. Back in February the gap was under 5 million. In the developed markets of the US and the UK, the two brands’ Facebook fan bases have grown by no more than 10 per cent during 2014. But among the top 10 ‘most engaged’ countries for their Facebook sites are the likes of India, Mexico and Colombia. And it is in these emerging markets that Nike has enjoyed the greatest success in growing its online fan base. The current page likes on the adidas Football Facebook page are 18.6 million while that on the Nike Football page are 37.3 million. But this gap between the two brands in terms of online followers is likely to decrease as the World Cup approaches the Finals. Nike may well have taken the first steps on this battleground but with their official FIFA partnership status, adidas commercial strategy will certainly be a strong force throughout the FIFA World Cup months. Ambush Marketing Most football properties already undertake extensive policing of their brand and environment through compliance monitoring or commercial auditing across media platforms and around the venue. The key remains how the policing is enforced if any breaches are found. The best principle to follow is that prevention is better than cure. Ambush campaigns tend to be national in nature and so their reach is usually quie limited compared to the potential global reach of an official partnership. More genrally, the best defence is a properly executed and sufficiently leveraged official campaign. Given its primacy of position and credibility of authorization, official activity should always overshadow more loosely connected and less universal ambush activation. When buying an official partnership, a brand is tapping into legacy, tradition and history, three crucial aspects of how football fans view the game. An ambush campaign can, at best, stimulate a current association, but we have yet to see a credible campaign that links a non-sponsor with the past. One of the most important keys to a successful marketing campaign is an integrated activation. Multiple platforms and vehicles should transmit a common theme. Official partnerships enjoy a much richer palette of opportunities than outside brands. This is a potentially powerful head start. Nike’s Risk Everything campaign certainly got people sharing and engaging, their social media fan base growth illustrates this well. In two weeks, the campaign had 52 million You Tube views, 98000 Tweets and 504,000 Facebook interactions. In terms of companies who are not official FIFA World Cup partners or sponsors, Nike’s activation has proved fruitful. In contrast however, Samsung has not fared so well. It is the official FIFA World Cup partner adidas who has performed the best, showing themselves to be a company which is doing well to protect against ambush marketing. Their share of voice online could well increase further during and following the 2014 FIFA World Cup as their exposure increases.
Read More
Panasonic Corporation has a global partnership with Futbol Club Barcelona (FC Barcelona), which will continue for 3 years from April 2013 to March 2016. Through this partnership, Panasonic collaborates with FC Barcelona on marketing activities and brings the passion of football to people all around the world. Since April 2013, Panasonic has been carrying out promotional activities in the global promotion of Viera as the “FC Barcelona Official TV”, including the display of 3D match footage in stores, shop front displays, goods campaigns and the use of the brand and image of FC Barcelona on the company’s websites and Facebook pages. Panasonic Viera, the Official ‘FC Barcelona TV,’ is carrying out a global promotion including the release of the Star Generator, a smartphone camera app, and the Barca Clock Screen Saver, which turns your PC desktops into Camp Nou, FC Barcelona’s home stadium. Star Generator, the Smartphone Camera App Now, you can see yourself either on the headlines of a newspaper or TV lined up together with FC Barcelona stars like Neymar Jr. and Messi. You can also share the images you create on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, and send them to friends via e-mail. Barca Clock, the PC Screen Saver This PC screen saver allows you to enjoy photos of FC Barcelona star players in action or in rare images of practice scenes together with some great tunes. You’ll also be in for a surprise at certain times of the day!
Read More
Incentive travel has long been recognized as a powerful business tool for helping organizations achieve key business objectives and drive bottom line results. Smart business leaders in India know that the skills and attitudes of their employees can be the very thing that sets them apart from their competition. “Incentive travel is one of the fastest growing segments within India’s outbound MICE movement. Many Indian companies organise annual incentive travel as a business tool to reward and motivate top-performing employees as well as external channel partners to drive topline sales. As Indian incentive groups become more mature and discerning, Singapore aims to provide a selection of customised, value-added experiences that cater to the tastes of this important market through its INSPIRE incentive programme. ”says Chang CheePey, Executive Director, South Asia, Middle East & Africa, Singapore Tourism Board. Indian Corporates from Pharmaceutical, Cement, FMCG, Retail, BFSI and other industries are seeking new destinations for MICE trips beyond traditional destinations and themes, thereby providing their employees and distributors unique experiences and are actively holding regular MICE programs abroad with departments dedicated to take care of business travel & incentive groups of sizeable proportions. India’s new “elite middle class” who are spending exorbitantly for their holidays abroad as well as Indian HNWIs & “Closet Customers” are also a segment that are too important to be ignored. According to Mischa Mannix-Opie, Regional Manager – South & South East Asia at Tourism New Zealand, “New Zealand currently hosts many Indian incentive groups annually with group sizes usually ranging from 50-150 passengers. However it is not uncommon for larger groups of up to around 400 passengers to travel to New Zealand from India. The eagerness of Indian travellers to explore and experience new places, coupled with the increase in their spending power, makes India an important market for luxury travel as well.” Mr. Byungsun Lee – Director, Korea Tourism Organisation, India Office adds: “India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world with rising travel potential. With stronger business prospects and the rupee getting stronger, business travel and MICE from India all set to grow. Korea offers unique travel experience with state of the art facilities and outstanding services that is fairly unexplored in the Indian market.” In the current business scenario, it is vital that suppliers have direct access to senior executives, with final decision on vendor selection, and the ultimate sign off on all budgets. Reaching the decision maker, however, is costly, time-consuming and hard to achieve. This is where the 2nd Annual MICE India & Luxury Travel Congress organised by QnA International comes in, a curated gathering of India’s biggest spenders for MICE & Luxury Travel from the largest enterprises & agencies from all across the Indian sub-continent. “As a part of our marketing plan in India we are targeting corporate houses, MICE planners, event management companies and travel agents to market MICE destinations in Korea. MILT congress was appealed to me as an event bringing genuine buyers from all our target industries under one roof which makes it a must visit congress for us.” – says Mr. Byungsun Lee – Director, Korea Tourism Organisation, India Office. Estimates show that the number of Indians travelling abroad by 2020 will increase making India one of the fastest growing tourism markets. Teresa Santos from AIM group Portugal estimates “We strongly believe that Indian market has the same potential than Chinese market probably more for some segments and less for other. Chinese market started to operate to Europe before but it is turned especially to a leisure target while Indian will position itself much more on a Mice target.” “There is a growing interest in European destinations that are a new alternative to the traditional main destinations. Portugal has been one of the leading MICE destinations for European and North and South American continent and it is now becoming relevant for the Indian tourism. “ Her colleague Raffaela Polla from AIM Group further adds: “Italy is also recognized as one of the most important tourist destinations in Europe and in the world, able to offer a complete experience Made in Italy from culture, art, food to fashion and nature. Indian tourists love the city of art, but also our Islands and the South of the country. Bollywood films attest they are also interested in the countryside landscaper. Italy is a popular destination for Indian tourists and it is becoming more and more a mono destination.” With a number of suppliers rebooking for the 2014 edition of MILT Congress, the expectations with the upcoming event in July are soaring high. Ramzi Assily, Cluster General Manager, Avari Dubai Hotels & Apartments says: “This is our second year at the MILT congress. Due to the extensive contacts we have made in 2013, we are looking forward to do the same in 2014. Our data has showed an increase of Indian nationals using our properties over the last year. It has also given us the opportunity to get in touch directly with major corporate entities, enabling us to make direct deals with them, on the corporate level. Switzerland Convention & Incentives Bureau who are continuing their support to this year as well also believe that MILT Congress is an important event in their calendar. “We did participate last year and it was a good experience. The pre scheduled 1:1 appointments with top buyers were very good, had an opportunity to meet more buyers then scheduled. The panel discussions were helpful too. For this year edition, we are expecting the same high quality. The strong & positive image of Switzerland in India along with the high awareness levels, the comfortable flight connections from various Indian cities to Zurich/Switzerland, the economic growth in India make it an ideal offer for Zürich/Switzerland as a MICE and luxury travel destination” says Aishvarya Guhagarkar From Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau. Organised by Dubai based QnA International, the MICE India and Luxury Travel Congress took place in Mumbai on 24 and 25 July as a by invitation only business driven congress with a deal driven format of pre arranged meetings.
Read More
