Carina Filek, Global COO of Elevate Staffing and Staffing Partner of the IPM COGS Awards 2019, shares how brands can measure the impact of their event staffing teams

“There is no ‘i’ in team, but there is in win.” – Michael Jordan, former NBA player

A recent research brief shared three fundamental elements of experiential marketing success. They are strategy, process, and people. As a marketer, you likely create the strategy and oversee the process to execute it. But it takes that second element – people – to carry your plans through. This means, while you may be accountable for results at the end of the day, you know a win is not possible without the right team. To make matters more complex, you may have a few teams to manage. Yet, no matter what, you need to know that every person involved is equipped to achieve experiential marketing ROI. Just as there’s an ‘i’ in win, there’s also one in the ‘individuals’ who make up the teams responsible for maximizing results.

The people who interact with your target audience are the most valuable asset of experiential events. How they engage consumers in attendance will define the perception of your brand moving forward. And while there are multiple intangibles related to building relationships with consumers, there are great ways that brands can measure the impact of their event staffing teams.

How to Measure Experiential Marketing ROI of Promotional Staff

A Harvard Business School professor outlined four factors of knowing the effects of a brand experience. These are 1) attention, 2) attitude (changes), 3) interest, and 4) conversion.

At a basic level, attention is summed up by the number of consumers whose attention you capture. In experiential marketing, promo staff are often responsible for grabbing consumer attention, which is necessary to progress to the other three factors, which all provide measurement of promo staff’s impact on experiential marketing ROI. Which you choose to focus on will depend on your goal, but here are some questions you might ask are:

• Did the promo staff change attendees’ attitudes of the brand?
• How interested were consumers to learn more after engaging with promo staff?
• Are attendees ready to take the next step to a purchase?
• What was the conversion rate?

3 Ways to Determine Whether your Event Staff were Successful

1. Quizzes and Surveys.

When kept concise, surveys are a great way to gather simple, yet vital intel. They can be gamified by incorporating quizzes or other interactive questionnaires, which makes consumers more enthusiastic about participating. The data collected may be related to brand perception; for example, a survey can be conducted upon exit and ask attendees if their feelings about the brand have changed. This tactic worked for ASUS when it learned 70 percent of attendees felt “more positive” about the computer brand after engaging in its brand experience in a U.K. mall. Even better, 45 percent planned to buy a laptop as a result.

2. Sales.

When possible, the best way to know how promo staff performed is in their ability to close the sale. This might mean making product available for purchase, which is ideal for sampling initiatives in grocery stores, for instance, or when activating in other retail locations, like Weber did. The well-known brand of grills was able to attribute near a half-million pounds in sales to its promo staff at roadshow events. Yet, when conditions don’t allow consumers to take products home that day, event marketers may choose to make online sales available at the event, offering incentives like free or expedited shipping.

3. Sign-ups.

Both B2B and B2C companies find experiential events proven to generate leads. One such brand is State Farm, which uses promo staff to engage consumers at community events. In reaching and even exceeding its lead generation goal, it is able to know its staff measure up to the task. LasikPlus is another brand that activates local and bilingual brand ambassadors in targeted areas and sees an increase in qualified leads and conversion rates year-over-year.

Contingent on the goal, other brands measure success by the number of photos taken with staff or the number of demos product specialists give. When working with a promotional staffing agency, its team should provide insights to measure the impact of promo staff on your activation. A full-service agency will take it a step further to help secure these metrics for you with real-time reporting, online dashboards, and more, making it delivers the right team to bring home a win. That’s because its team knows, in the end, your success is their success.

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The Awards

The IPM Awards 2019 exists to recognise and reward brilliantly effective, insightful and creative campaigns in the promotional marketing and brand activation space. Work that really worked. Ideas to be properly proud of. Campaigns that deserve to be celebrated. The very best our industry has to offer.

And this year the standard is higher than ever. Following an extensive, five week judging process, we were thrilled to announce the much-anticipated Awards 2019 shortlist on 9^th May, which you can find here.

Tables are now on sale for the gala presentation dinner event at the Hilton, Park Lane, London on Thursday 4^th July, compered by our brilliant comedian host – from just £300 + VAT per ticket. It’s our biggest event of the year, and a great opportunity to treat the team, relax with your clients, catch up with a few old colleagues and meet some new friends.

You can buy your tickets by clicking here. Please feel free to get in touch with the Awards team at Awards@theipm.org.uk or on 020 3848 0444 with any questions.

Finally, many thanks to our brilliant sponsors whose support ensures our Awards can grow every year…

Headline: The Work Perk

Charity partner: CoppaFeel!

Associate partners: PHL, POD Staffing

Category partners: Cylo, Eat My Logo, Electric Live, eventeem, Granby, Jigsaw, lastminute.com

The COGS Awards

The IPM is also delighted to announce that the call for entries for The COGS Awards 2019 is now open!

The COGS Awards 2019 exists to recognise and reward all the great work you do that makes stuff happen. All the passion, graft and expertise without which most campaigns would fall at the first hurdle. All the hidden heroes, the engine rooms, the hard yards, the reason clients can sleep at night, the backbone of our industry… our Celebration Of Great Service, in fact.

The IPM listened to your feedback from last year and made a few changes…

• It’s easier than ever to enter, with fewer questions to answer and criteria to think about
• There’s less need to provide detailed results – this is about demonstrating great thinking and extraordinary service
• We’ve added a new category – ‘Team of the Year’ – to recognise the individuals who best embody what The COGS stands for
• The categories have been aligned to our IPM Communities to acknowledge the importance of The COGS to the IPM – our Communities Of Gold Standards, in fact

The cost to enter is from just £161.50 + VAT per entry including FREE entry into ‘Service Agency of the Year’ for everyone who enters one of the main categories.

You can find all the information you need in the Entry Pack here or on our website here. We’re also hosting a webinar entry masterclass at 1pm on 10th June – you can register to attend here.

Entry is via our awards website here. THE CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES IS 6PM ON FRIDAY 26^TH JULY.

Many thanks again to our headline sponsor The Work Perk for all their ongoing support.

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The IPM COGS Awards 2018, the awards and recognition programme for service agencies – the providers of specialist services which are used to build promotional campaigns – is now open for entries. The entry deadline is July 19 2018.

The Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM) launched The IPM COGS Awards eight years ago as a recognition programme for the work of specialist services agencies, to run alongside the IPM Awards, which are for creative agencies.

Richard Pink, Head of Awards at the IPM, says: “The IPM COGS is the most important awards programme for the promotional industry’s service agencies – they give deserved recognition to the companies behind the scenes who make sure that everything runs like clockwork. They are the awards for the unsung heroes of our industry.”

Entry is open to any company from a range of business sectors which support great promotional marketing campaigns – handling, print, staffing, digital, mobile, event and risk management, to name but a few.

Companies do not have to be IPM members to enter (except for the IPM COGS Awards 2018 Service Agency of the Year Special Award, which is only open to IPM members). IPM members enjoy the advantage of paying lower entry costs, however.

The online awards entry platform has been updated and streamlined, to make the entry process even easier than in previous years. In order to submit an entry, you will need to register for this new awards platform – https://theipm.awardsplatform.com/

The IPM – the marketing industry trade body which represents the interests of brands and organisations which use promotional techniques to target their audiences and also of the agencies and service providers which advise them – is encouraging members and non-members alike to seize the opportunity to show the world how their contributions have helped create world-class campaigns.

Now in its eighth year, The IPM COGS awards programme is constantly setting benchmarks and driving up the standard or promotional campaigns.

A full list of the 2017 winners can be found on the IPM website. 

The full list of categories for The COGS Awards 2018 is below:

• Coupons
• Print Management
• Risk Management
• Digital
• Promotional Merchandise
• Experiential and Event
• Handling and Fulfilment
• Staffing
• Direct Marketing
• Loyalty
• Prize, Incentive and Reward
• Innovation
• Multi Territory

In addition to the industry and sector categories, there are three special awards:

• The IPM COGS Awards Service Agency of the Year
• The IPM COGS Awards Breakthrough Company of the Year
• The Grand Prix

Information on the criteria for each category and how the special awards are selected can be found on the IPM website. Alternatively, download the IPM COGS Awards 2018 Handbook which also includes details of how to enter, timings and costs.

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The events and experiential industries can benefit from specialist apps, says Greg Lusk of Liveforce. SPONSORED COMMENT

The role of technology should be to make our lives easier.  Innovations in streamlining, problem solving and improving communication are leading us towards a greener, happier technological utopia.  We may not be there yet, but in the last 10 years there has been a huge shift as investment in software and mobile applications continues to rise at a healthy rate.

Our relationship with technology is stronger than ever, with smartphone users spending 90% of their time on mobile apps rather than browsers.

Mobile apps have changed the way we shop, the way we work, the way we date, the way we manage our time and communicate. Now we are seeing significant growth in apps designed to help ease the burdens of our working day, particularly in the events and promotional industries.

Technology and the promo event manager

Great promo events don’t just happen.  There’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes, most of which falls on the shoulders of Event Managers, who have a special set of juggling skills.

On any given day, there are brand ambassador and freelance staff to collaborate with, venues to coordinate, a long list of tasks to check off, pressure to increase attendance – and all of this within strict deadlines.  The outcome is time-consuming and stressful.

Yet the events industry has been relatively slow on the uptake to digitise.  Notoriously analogue, surrounded by paperwork, a typical planning wall has traditionally been covered in post-it notes and cross checked with excel spreadsheets.

There’s no need for that any more, however. In recent years, developers have been designing software to help streamline tasks and salvage the sanity of the over-worked stressed out events manager by.

Arguably, we are now firmly in the age of automation, and the digitisation of Event Management is revolutionising and professionalising the industry.

Impact of the ‘Gig Economy’

One area where technology has particularly changed lives is in employment – and in driving the growth of the so-called ‘gig economy’. The whole process of finding freelance work is now easier and much more rewarding.  An estimated 5 million UK workers are now employed through staffing apps and platforms.

These are replacing more traditional modes of employment with a system which offers a far more flexible working schedule, and one which many believe drives productivity and performance. Mobile devices are the gateway to a more agile and responsive workforce, regardless of where they are.

Event management software leading industry growth

The Events and Experiential industries are going through an exciting growth period.  Automation is a culmination of a multi-decade evolution.  It seeks to change the traditional experience of event planning, moving away from the current complex and manually intensive model.  Event Management Software is a fast-growing sector.  Forecasts suggested a growth from $5.44 billion in 2016 to $9.28 billion in 2020, a CAGR increase of 11.3%.

Factors pushing growth

• Smartphone users increase – 203% increase in mobile app usage at live events.
• Expectations – most attendees will assume there is an app for the event. They want to engage and enhance their experience.
• Rising budgets for events.
• Use of cloud platform.
• Existing products.

This leads to a need for products that have the capabilities to constantly change, adapt and improve.

There’s an App for that…

Born from the need to digitise, there are a number of products available that can problem-solve for event planners or improve the delegate experience.

Among others, Etouches, Bizaboo and CVent provide an all-in-one offering.  Eventbrite is a well-known and widely-used ticketing site that also successfully attracts attendees.  Boomset allows guests to check in and print their badge in one easy click.  Then there are experientials, like the Savor Band from Event Farm.  There is constant innovation in these areas, year after year.

Automation improves efficiency, saves time and sanity

The benefits of Event Management Automation are reduced stress and increased productivity for managers, this in turn has a positive impact on ROI.  Event Managers are reporting improved communication and tracking, the ability to create complex plans in minutes – all of which allows them to be more strategic & productive. This gives EMA users a competitive edge.

Taking promotional staffing software a step further

For the Events Industry and Promo Agencies, there are particular struggles and staffing issues are nuanced.  Managing multiple projects, multiple staff members, scheduling and sourcing crew used to result in hours spent scouring databases or excel spreadsheets or on the phone chasing staff or payroll.

The future of events and promotional planning lies in the development of apps with seamless integration and good user experience.

Greg Lusk is Founder of Liveforce AS, which offers an online automated freelancer booking and management tool for event and promo agencies.  It enables managers to easily recruit and manage crew, create job boards, manage timesheets and expenses.   With more and more freelancers, crew and promotional staff to manage, an interactive, powerful and flexible App will drive productivity.

Liveforce addresses the problems faced by event planners, managers and promotional agencies and delivers an app that resolves these issues.  The aim is to make working in the events and promo industries easier to manage for both organisers and freelancers, ultimately enriching the customer experience.

Liveforce is a sponsor of the IPM COGS Awards 2017.

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Integrated marketing communications agency Text100 triumphed at the IPM COGS 2017 awards ceremony today, taking the Grand Prix and also a Gold in the Innovation category for creating the world’s first pizza box which is also a playable DJ turntable.

Working with interactive print specialists Novalia, Text100 created the innovative promotional packaging and related campaign on behalf of client Pizza Hut. The box features conductive ink which lets people mix and scratch tracks by pressing on and stroking the cardboard. The DJ Pizza Box includes turntables, cross-fader, pitch volumes, cue buttons and ‘rewind’ controls, and syncs via Bluetooth to smartphones or laptops running DJ software.

One judge said the entry was “a great innovative solution which added real value and excitement to the consumer and delivered fantastic results.” Another just said: “Wow, I wish I’d thought of that!”

The IPM COGS Company of the Year 2017 award went to The Flash Pack, which provides a range of innovative photographic and image-related services to brands, agencies, events and venues. The judges said that The Flash Pack has “carved out a unique proposition which delivers fantastic results for their clients” and which has “revolutionised the photo opportunity and made a significant impact on the industry.”

Other big winners at The IPM COGS Awards 2017, now in its eighth year, included:

• Digital employee and customer engagement company 3radical, which took a Gold and two Silvers;
• Prize sourcing and management firm The Black Tomato Agency, which took Gold, Silver and Bronze in the same category (the second time it has achieved this feat);
• Umbrella, which won Gold, Silver and Bronze awards across different categories;
• and Adare International, Pro-Ad and MRM, which all received Gold and Silver trophies.

The IPM COGS Awards 2017 celebration lunch was held on Friday September 22^nd, 2017 at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London’s historic St Pancras Station. The host for the event was award-winning stand-up comedian, writer and TV star, Tom Allen.

The COGS Awards were launched by the IPM in 2010 to recognise the huge contribution made by marketing services providers to the success of promotional campaigns.

The full list of winners, covering 14 industry, channel and specialist categories, plus the two Special Awards, can be found on the IPM website.

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Award-winning marketing services business MRM (Multi Resource Marketing Ltd) has launched a new brand identity following the company’s management buy-back from French group HighCo last year.

The new identity has been chosen following a full review of its previous branding overseen by Managing Director Marc Rigby, who was appointed in February 2017. The business undertook a number of internal workshops to help understand the critical components of its operation and define how it wants to be seen in the market.

Marc Rigby says: “We are proud to be able to announce the launch of our brand new logo. We’d like to think this identity captures some of the core elements that make up our business – process, digital, flexibility – as well as using a colour pallet that conveys energy, purpose and a greater sense of modernity. With the logo now in place alongside a revised mission and vision, our next task is an overhaul of our website which we hope to complete before the summer’s end.”

Rigby joined from shopper marketing agency Howell Penny, where he had been Client Director. Rigby has also worked at Interfocus, IMP and Saatchi & Saatchi. Founding partner Peter Kerr took on the new role of Executive Chairman following Rigby’s appointment, while former Chairman Mike Wood became Strategic Director.

Established in 1993, MRM was acquired by the French-based HighCo Group in 2011 but established its independence following a Management Buy-Out in 2016. Now again independently-owned, it is based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire and has strong industry links via the Institute of Promotional Marketing. MRM provides both digital and physical (fulfilment) marketing campaign support to some of the UK’s best-known brands. It numbers the Department of Health, The Co-operative Group and British Gas amongst its 70-strong client-base across a wide range of industry sectors.

In the 2016 IPM COGS Awards for marketing services providers, MRM won the Grand Prix for its work on the 2016 Sport Relief campaign on behalf of Comic Relief. It also won Gold for the same campaign in both the Handling & Fulfilment and Direct Marketing categories.

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All the companies which supply essential elements to translate great creative ideas into brilliant promotional marketing campaigns need to get their entries in for the IPM COGS Awards 2017 – the entry deadline is just three weeks away, at 23:59pm on Thursday, July 13 2017.

The Institute of Promotional Marketing (IPM) launched The COGS Awards seven years ago as a recognition programme for service partners to run alongside the IPM Awards, which are for the creative element of promotional campaigns.

Entry is open to any company from a range of business sectors which support great promotional marketing campaigns – handling, risk, print, staffing, digital, event and risk management to name but some.

Companies do not have to be IPM members to enter (although members pay lower costs) and the Institute – the marketing industry trade body which represents the interests of brands and organisations which use promotional techniques and the agencies and service providers which advise them — is encouraging members and non-members alike to seize the opportunity to show the world how their contributions have helped create world-class campaigns.

Now in its seventh year, The IPM COGS awards programme is constantly setting benchmarks and driving up the standard or promotional campaigns.

Examples of last year’s award-winning work can be found on the IPM website.

The full list of categories for The COGS Awards 2016 is below:

• Coupons
• Print Management
• Risk Management
• Digital
• Promotional Merchandise
• Experiential and Event
• Handling and Fulfilment
• Staffing
• Direct Marketing
• Loyalty
• Prize, Incentive and Reward
• PR and Marketing Communications
• Partnership and Sponsorship
• Innovation
• Multi Territory
• The IPM COGS Awards Company of the Year.

Information on the criteria for each category is on the IPM website https://www.theipm.org.uk/awards/COGS-Awards/The-IPM-COGS-Awards-2017-Categories.aspx as are details of how to enter, timings and costs.

You have to be logged in to the IPM site to view details of how to enter, but registration is free.

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Prize promotion specialist The Black Tomato Agency has added another new hire to bolster its team with the appointment of Ellie Clarke as Fulfilment Manager.

Andrew Rae, Head of Promotional Marketing at The Black Tomato Agency, says: “Winner fulfilment is at the very core of our service offering. The hard work initially invested in a campaign from a plethora of different agencies, all responsible for varying touchpoints of the promotion, can be undone with anything but perfect winner fulfilment.”

Clarke joins the team with years of experience already under her belt, gained from working in Melbourne for corporate events and leisure specialists Encore Journeys and, prior to that, in consumer insight. Rae says that her knowledge of how to deliver intricate, group experiences as well as tangible ROI reflects the kind of brief that Black Tomato are more regularly delivering.

Rae observes: “We are seeing an increase in brands wanting to deliver more complex itineraries, multi-centre experiences and those that reward groups of people, not the standard ‘trip for two’ prizes. Ellie’s experience and contacts, and the in-house expertise The Black Tomato Agency has with its sister agencies, means we have an unparalleled access to the skills required to deliver ‘remarkable experiences that inspire’.”

The Black Tomato Agency is part of The Black Tomato Group, a collection of innovative teams – Promotions, Agency, Leisure and Studio – headquartered in Shoreditch, London. under one creative roof. The Black Tomato Agency creates, manages and fulfils prize experiences and curates and delivers ground breaking group travel experiences all over the world on behalf of some of the world’s top brands, agencies and companies. It won Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Prize and Rewards category of the 2016 COGS Awards, an industry first.

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The IPM has launched The COGS Awards 2017, the recognition programme for service partners, and is encouraging members and non-members alike from business sectors such as handling, risk, print, staffing, digital, event and risk management to seize the opportunity to show the world how their contributions have helped create world-class campaigns.

Now in its seventh year, The IPM COGS awards programme is constantly setting benchmarks and driving up the standard or promotional campaigns.

Examples of last year’s award-winning work can be found on the IPM website.

The full list of categories for The COGS Awards 2017 is below:

• Coupons
• Print Management
• Risk Management
• Digital
• Promotional Merchandise
• Experiential and Event
• Handling and Fulfilment
• Staffing
• Direct Marketing
• Loyalty
• Prize, Incentive and Reward
• PR and Marketing Communications
• Partnership and Sponsorship
• Innovation
• Multi Territory
• The IPM COGS Awards Company of the Year.

Finally, the IPM COGS Awards 2017 Grand Prix will be awarded to the entry which, in the eyes of the judges, demonstrates best-in-class service provision for a promotional marketing campaign.

Information on the criteria for each category is on the IPM website as are details of how to enter, timings and costs.

You have to be logged in to the IPM site to view details of how to enter, but registration is free.

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Prize Promotion specialists The Black Tomato Agency have bolstered their team with the appointment of Chelsea Gurr as Business Development Manager.

Riding high after their success at the 2016 COGS Awards (the service provider recognition scheme administered by the Institute of Promotional Marketing) where they won Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Prize and Rewards category (an industry first), Black Tomato have sought to refresh their new business strategy, supported by this latest appointment.

Chelsea Gurr will be driving all new business and comes with a rich and varied client-focused background. Having been responsible for all new business at Buyapowa, the referral marketing software provider and Pearlfinders, the market intelligence platform, she has an unparalleled understanding of client needs and the most relevant solutions to their requirements.

As The Black Tomato Agency offer a range of services to agencies and brands alike, from prize creation to reward scheme management, an immediate understanding of client requirements and delivering against those needs are more important than ever.

Andrew Rae, Head of Promotional Marketing at The Black Tomato Agency says: “We have experienced a significant increase in work since the success of the COGS Awards and having Chelsea on board to help land and expand these opportunities is a great help.”

This most recent hire is a sign of the agency’s continuing drive to ‘create remarkable experiences that inspire’ and is in line with Black Tomato’s intent to hire creative and diverse talent from varied backgrounds in order to provide their clients with the most current and unique experiences available. Chelsea, a professional Trapeze artist and DJ, will bring something more than just business development skills to the Black Tomato family.

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