This year’s winners of the IPM COGS Awards 2019, which were announced at yesterday’s presentation event, showcased and celebrated the incredible work that enables promotional marketing and brand activation campaigns to happen.

The event took place at the legendary Café De Paris in Piccadilly, London, a premium cabaret venue first opened in 1924.  The venue introduced the Charleston to London, and was used as a set for 1990 British gangster movie, The Krays. The afternoon commenced with opening addresses from John Sylvester, Chairman of the IPM and Paul Cope, the MD of the IPM, and the host was comedian, Tom Ward.

Event Staffing Partners, Elevate Staffing, triumphed by winning the newly-introduced Team of the Year 2019 special for the ‘Oculus team’. They also took home a Bronze in Staffing and a Silver in Multi-territory. Many congratulations go to Elevate!

The anticipated Service Agency of the Year 2019 was awarded to Scene2, who also took home a Silver in Experiential, Events for their ‘Absolut Porn Star Martini Townhouse’.

The coveted Grand Prix was chosen from all of the Gold winners by the judges’ chairs.  This year the vote went to POD Staffing for their ‘Birchbox Pop-up Store’. POD also collected a Gold in Staffing for the same campaign.

Other companies who took away trophies included Granby Marketing (two Golds), LRG International (two Golds), Black Tomato Agency (one Gold and one Silver) and Cloud Nine Incentives (one Silver and one Bronze)

During the afternoon, the IPM also hosted a draw for the guests, with prizes including a Fortnum & Mason hamper, Amazon gift card and a Virgin Experience gift card provided by the headline sponsor, The Work Perk.

Special thanks go to Headline Sponsor, The Work Perk and Staffing Partner, Elevate Staffing for their generosity and support of the afternoon.

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Craig Williams & Hannah Campbell, Directors of the IPM COGS Awards 2019 Headline Sponsor, The Work Perk, share how brands should capitalise on occasion based sampling to get the most out of their product 

With a cloud of uncertainty over marketing strategies, instigated by a stigma behind irresponsible social media giants and GDPR, you can gain assurance in your planning and results through focusing on certainties.

As marketers and strategists, we play on human behaviour, whether it be the routine choices we make or more emotion-driven actions. With our office based sampling, we encourage clients to capatalise on our ability to be impactful during an occasion to get the most out of their brand/product.

Jake McKenzie, CEO of Intermark Group (one of the largest psychology-driven marketing firms in the U.S.) says; “Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in economics by illustrating that most of our decisions, including most buying decisions, are made by the part of your brain housing ‘System 1’ thinking. System 1 is an automated system that works without you asking, really without you even being aware of its existence, to make suggestions and decisions for what to eat, do, and buy…”.

For example, there are three certain occasions that are built into the make-up of our weekday (though some of us may choose to skip, the occasion still exists and has relevance); breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

As part of our mechanic and setup, we take ownership of delivering samples to offices and organisations in our network. When a brief is received, we filter our network down so we’re only communicating and engaging with companies that have the highest percentage of your target audience working there.

If lunchtime is the occasion for example, we strategically plan and deliver the samples so HR/Office Managers can begin distributing the samples at the perfect time. Your brand therefore becomes “Brand King” both in an environment free of marketing clutter, and at a time where the recipient is aware of the occasion and the sample’s relevance/benefits to it.

Brand generated occasions can also be strategically implemented in our mechanic. When working with snacking partners like Nature Valley, we targeted “elevnsies” as a key consumption period in the office, distributing samples of their Nut Butter Cups between breakfast and lunch periods. When working with Red Bull in the U.S., the strategy was boosting energy and focus at the “3pm slump” with desk drops – HR enjoyed seeing the rise in energy and motivation! Not forgetting our cosmetics and personal care partners like Viktor & Rolf, impacting the post-work/evening socialising in the city occasion, by allowing consumers to freshen-up with samples.

Strategically align your marketing to own the occasion! For more information about our office based sampling mechanic, please contact Craig Williams at craig@theworkperk.com or on 020 3841 1340.

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