ELLO Media, the engagement, loyalty and lifetime optimisation specialist, has launched today to provide bespoke loyalty solutions for the UK’s biggest brands through its proprietary technology.

Born out of The Dining Club Group, the newly-formed B2B marketing agency plans to deliver incremental commercial revenue for its clients, transforming businesses by executing the most effective and connected engagement experiences to their customers.

With an in-house team of business analysts working full-time to capture data, which can be refined to a macro level if necessary, ELLO Media will support its clients in providing detailed insight into their businesses, identifying trends to establish personalised, exclusive offers.

Michael Kalli, who has over 18 years’ experience in managing strategic direction within B2B and B2C global industries, will lead the ELLO Media team as Managing Director.

“Through our unparalleled catalogue of experiential rewards and incentives, we are confident in our ability to shape customer behaviour and deliver results for the UK’s biggest and brightest brands,” commented Kalli.

“The loyalty and rewards space has long been crowded with tentative efforts from specialist agencies to provide a genuine, fool proof loyalty offering, often masked by over-branding and short-term, convenience-oriented benefits,” Kalli added.

“With the vast majority of these agencies not owning their products and technology, we feel that now is the right time to fill this gap in the market by actually delivering on loyalty and long-term value to become a true innovator and leader in this field,” Kalli continued “We are developing more new products and technology this year to further strengthen our portfolio, and we are excited to announce our first high-profile partnership very soon.”

Following its launch, ELLO Media intends to target clients across a range of vertical sectors including finance, utilities, insurance and retail.

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Maker’s Mark, the premium handcrafted American whisky, is working with agency White Label to launch its 2018 UK bartender engagement programme, The Makers. The programme kicked off on 6^th of August in London and will roll out across London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol.

Following the success of last year’s workshops, The Makers will once again offer UK bartenders an immersive and educational experience into the world of premium bourbon through a series of intimate, hands-on workshops aimed at providing practical crafts and skills which they can take back to use in their bars. This comes in light of an exponential boom in popularity of American whisky among UK drinkers as the Premium American whiskey category continues to grow in both volume +30% and value +22% respectively – the second fastest growing spirits category behind gin.

Each uniquely designed to showcase the handcrafted credentials of Maker’s Mark, the experience will explore the fundamental elements that go into the creation of the liquid by delving into experiences based around wheat, wax, paper and wood. Bartenders interested in building on their knowledge of the bourbon category can sign up, here: www.jointhemakers.com.

Starting in London, The Makers wheat workshop features artisan doughnut making at Bread Ahead lead by renowned baker, Manuel Monade, using the same Red Winter Wheat that gives Maker’s Mark its smooth characteristics and sweet flavour. The wax workshops will encourage bartenders to personalise wax candles, representing how every single bottle of Maker’s Mark is still hand-dipped in Maker’s signature red wax – an iconic design feature in which every drip is distinctively different.

Partnering with London Print Club, bartenders will create bespoke cocktail mats as part of the paper session, signifying how every Maker’s Mark label continues to be printed and hand-pressed at the distillery. And finally, each bartender will be given training in how to expertly engrave bar tools as part of the wood workshop.

Amanda Humphrey, Maker’s Mark Brand Diplomat said: “We have a rich history and heritage of doing things differently, so we wanted to move away from traditional bartender training and offer immersive hands on opportunities to understand and experience craftsmanship. These bespoke experiences aim to offer bartenders an insight into the unique process that goes into making each and every bottle of Maker’s Mark.”

Susan Walkinshaw, Maker’s Mark Brand Mananger added: “After the success of last year’s programme, we are delighted to be back working with White Label to deliver The Makers 2018. We wanted to take a step away from traditional on-trade training programmes, and deliver unique, hands-on experiences for bartenders. Our goal is for them to walk away with both a new-found skill and an appreciation of the craftsmanship behind Maker’s Mark.”

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Promotional and loyalty travel specialists Inspire has opened an office in Brazil following demand for travel-related sales promotions in South and Central America.

The company, which is headquartered in Bramhall, Cheshire, launched its Brazil operation at the end of 2016 with offices in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Inspire creates travel platforms and programmes for businesses looking to offer incentives for customers and employees, and will use its new base in Brazil to target the South American market with its solutions.

Peter Pantelides, Managing Director of Inspire, says: “We’re continually looking for business growth opportunities and identified Brazil as a key location to base our first operation in South America. We were aware of a high demand for travel-based sales promotions and already had strong contacts in the area, so we’ve pooled our knowledge with their outstanding relationships to form what we believe will be a strong offer to the market.”

Inspire, which has seen its turnover increase by 15% in 2015 to £17.7 million, expects the new arm of the business to generate in excess of £1 million worth of revenue within the first year.

Benjamin Ahrens, International Sales Director at Inspire, adds: “We have seen a huge interest and excitement from potential clients in the region already. It’s early days, as we are a ‘new product in town’; but, following market research, we are confident that our offering will be a huge success. We anticipate our ‘Free Flight Voucher’ campaigns to be of particular interest, as it’s a brand new concept in this part of the world which has received promising feedback during market research. Inspire has already delivered a number of similar campaigns for the likes of Samsung, Carrefour, Philips and Santander, which achieved exceptional results for our clients, so we’re excited to be able to offer these services to clients in South America for the first time.”

Inspire now has operations in over 20 countries, inclduing Germany, the UAE and Russia, and works with more than 250 global travel partners, including Expedia, Kuoni and Thomas Cook. Recent growth has been driven by the success of the company’s flagship product, The Inspire Travel Card (pictured). Launched in 2005, the Inspire Travel Card works as a physical or digital gift card which can be preloaded to any amount for recipients to use when booking travel through Inspire’s dedicated ABTA, IATA and ATOL licensed agency.

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Rather than just looking to reach their target audience, brands should aim to get them more deeply involved, says Pete Davis at Get Me Media.

If brands struggle with one thing in the audience engagement stakes, it’s getting people actively involved. They can develop highly creative and striking cross-channel ad campaigns, target consumers through social media and mobile, entice them with offers, boost customer experience both online and offline, and more; but arguably more valuable than all of this is driving a direct action – getting people to participate. To do this, brands need to push the boundaries of marketing a little further.

Lego is great at this. It’s Yoda Chronicles offers short tales from the legendary sci-fi story told through animated Lego figures via YouTube. It provides a safe way of presenting to kids what could otherwise be violent stories, is a wonderful soft sell for the Stars Wars Lego range, but, more importantly ,it’s a very clever way to reinforce the world of Lego via social media using content, which is far more engaging and effective than simply advertising its toy range.

What’s more, it has proved so engaging that some consumers have been creating their own Lego animations – and we all know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Essentially, this provides a great way of participating in Lego outside of the traditional brick building, while reinforcing this core proposition.

But it’s not just in cyberspace that Lego encourages participation. The brand has also launched movies and video games; it also offers another lifeline for parents on the High Street, with occasional pop-up cafés that let kids play with Lego, while mums and dads relax. There’s an entrance fee, but to frazzled parents this will equate with amazing value! And of course Lego kits are on sale. What’s more, all of these ideas have become highly lucrative revenue generators themselves.

Another, perhaps less obvious, example of strong participation marketing is Weetabix. Originally looking to get kids excited about a nutritious breakfast (and of course shift more units), the Weetabuddies campaign encouraged children to create faces on their Weetabix using fruit. It ran across TV, on-pack, in-store, social and online, as well as engaging parenting bloggers. The brand developed its own fun Weetabuddy characters and then encouraged children – and their parents – to create their own. It has proved a major success.

Weetabix Senior Brand Manager Claire Canty has said of the campaign: “By helping families to get creative and encouraging them to make their own Weetabuddies, we hope that kids will be reminded that a bowl of Weetabix is a lot of fun, while mum can be reassured that they are still getting a delicious and nutritious breakfast, helping us to encourage a whole new generation to fall in love with Weetabix as a result.”

Many brands that are waking up to the power of participation are turning to experiential marketing, with the discipline increasingly being used as the core for many campaigns. The latest Bellwether report from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) revealed experiential as the only other marketing discipline that had attracted increased investment (up 6% in the first quarter of 2016) after online marketing.

Ian Priestman, Head of Experiential at experiential agency Blackjack Promotions, argues: “From the more traditional brand ambassadors getting consumers involved with products directly in the real world to bespoke branded events, experiential is a great way to encourage participation if planned correctly, while the internet has provided a way to amplify this far beyond the live participants themselves.”

Find a way to get your target audience participating with your brand and you’ll ramp up engagement like never before – and, who knows, if you’re really creative you may find you’ve developed new spin-off products just like Lego.

Pete Davis, a former marketer and media controller at Nestlé, is Founder and Managing Director of Get Me Media. Founded in March 2006 Getmemedia.com helps brands and their agencies find marketing ideas, media and sponsorship solutions. It also offers key insight and bespoke training to help companies and individuals build their knowledge of marketing and media disciplines, and keep up with the latest trends. http://www.getmemedia.com/.

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