Event Lab
To encourage adoption of new technologies among its clients, exhibit and event firm Czarnowski creates What2007 a private technology showcase that prompts more than 50 percent of attendees to implement a technical innovation within four months. |
Lawson Laughs It Up
Lawson Software Inc. sets itself apart from the competition with a strategy that increases customer involvement, shatters attendance records, and more than doubles event-related media mentions. |
The Three-Word Strategy
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. grows its share of CIO and CTO wallets with an executive event built on three guiding pillars: learn, connect, and relax. |
Adapting National Events for Regional Audiences
We plan to create a scaled-down, one-day version of our national three-day conference and take it on the road as a series of regional events. Are any other companies doing this? |
Executives of the Round Table
Credit-union executives convene at CUNA Mutual Group's first annual "no sell" leadership forum to address credit-union woes and build relationships leading to an ROI of nearly 200 percent. |
Three Problems, One Solution: In-Home Events
Three big-name brands bring their products to the people with in-home events. |
HP Presents the Power of Print
After announcing a high-minded strategic vision for the company's Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Development Co. creates a two-day global conference to help its customers, partners, and industry influencers understand that vision. |
Corporate EVENT Awards 2008: Big Cat on Campus
To claw its way into cat owners' hearts and minds, Meow Mix opens a feline "acatemy" that celebrates cat ownership and schools the competition. |
Corporate EVENT Awards 2008: Going Keen
Shoe, sock, and bag manufacturer Keen Inc. employs an inside-out approach to bring its message of sustainability to 46 college campuses across the country, putting its brand before more than 1 million students in the process. |
Corporate EVENT Awards 2008: The 60-Minute Brand Launch
Boots Retail USA Inc. brings five of its brands stateside with an hour-long product-launch event, attracting 93 percent of invitees and generating mega media presence in 20 targeted media outlets. |
Corporate EVENT Awards 2008: Surreality TV
In the midst of Spain's busiest selling season, Electrolux Home Products Espana S.A. attracts hundreds of busy Spanish retail buyers to a product-launch event by playing off the country's passion for variety shows. |
Second Opinion: Designing an "Unconference"
I've been reading about "unconferences" in the high-tech industry. These events are characterized by the absence of an agenda attendees design their own topics. |
Corporate EVENT Awards 2008: Multi-Sensory Marketing
To turn a minor vehicle upgrade into major news, Renault Espana Comercial S.A. impresses jaded journalists with a launch that markets to all five senses. |
Mississippi Learning
The University of Mississippi apologizes for its racist past with an event series that rehabilitates the institution's reputation, helping to enroll thousands more students and increase the all-important endowment fund by almost 50 percent. |
The Wizards of "Oz"
Contrary to popular belief, Australian businesses make more than surfboards and Foster's Lager. To prove that point, the country's foreign affairs and trade department launches an event to drive investment in Australia. |
ProStar's Rock and Rollout
International Truck and Engine Corp. rocks out at the early launch of a new heavy-duty truck prototype and builds enough buzz to last nine months until the first production model rolls off the line. |
Three Problems, One Solution: Virtual Events
Online versions of real-world events mean results and ROI for a nonprofit, a software developer, and a microprocessor maker. |
How NASCAR Drives Loyalty
In an age of microscopic attention spans and marketing skepticism, NASCAR draws more than 100,000 loyal, passionate fans of all ages to every race weekend. |
Focus on the Family
Attendance soars and customer relationships flourish when Honeywell Process Solutions breaks from business as usual to incorporate families into its annual user conference. |
Absolut Gets Buzzed
To kickstart its entry into the pre-mixed, ready-to-drink beverage market, vodka brand Absolut rolls out a culturally-rich launch campaign built exclusively on the valuable word of mouth passed along by its precisely targeted audience. |
Authenticity: The Essential New Event Currency
Today's consumers want to do business with companies that offer more than quality and affordability they want to buy from companies they believe in. And according to Jim Gilmore, authentic events can make them believers. |
The 14-Attendee Trade Show
To spark idea sharing and rejuvenate innovation among decentralized contacts at a longstanding client firm, MG Design hosts a full-on trade show, complete with a custom seminar program and an ooh-ah dinner for just 14 people. |
All in the Family
What are some ways to incorporate attendees' families into our corporate event? Three experts weigh in. |
Charmin Scores a Royal Flush
By providing posh public restrooms in a high-need locale, Procter & Gamble Co. transforms Charmin toilet paper from a commodity into a luxury item, worthy of the 460 million media impressions generated by the event. |
How Big Brown Rebuilt its Brand
Known for decades as a package-delivery company, United Parcel Service of America Inc. repositions itself as a global supply-chain leader with a multi-year series of C-level symposia with a ''going global'' message. |
Marketing Smackdown
In a trademark move, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. crafts an unforgettable fan-focused event that incorporates its television programs, magazine, live events, and Web site into one tour. |
Mini's Customer Caravan
How Mini USA convinced 7,000 customers to spend up to 17 days immersed in its brand. |
Toyota's Word-of-Mud Marketing
Toyota Motor spends millions of dollars to connect with just a few thousand customers - then lets them do the marketing. |
Four Problems, One Solution: Pop-Up Events
Four companies, offering products from cell phones to spuds, pop up in temporary locations to revive slumping sales, promote corporate philanthropy, launch a new product, and attract female customers. |
Empathy Marketing
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans rolls out a mobile road show to promote its partnership with Habitat for Humanity, recruiting donations and volunteers by showing attendees what it's like to live in squalor. |
Bank of America Takes Manhattan
To launch a new trading service, Bank of America storms New York for a day, interacting face to face with more than 500,000 people and generating nearly 180 media mentions. |
Audi of America: Affinity Marketing
To launch its new luxury SUV, Audi of America partners with like-minded brands to create a one-of-a-kind luxury-lifestyle experience, driving the sale of 2,800 vehicles. |
Booz Allen Hamilton Drives Vendor Innovation
The international consulting firm's partner program and annual symposium for learning vendors not only turn the traditional vendor-client relationships on its head they also save the company an estimated $2.5 million each year. |
Emotional Branding
Doctors Without Borders invites event attendees to contract fatal diseases and experience life in a refugee camp to drive awareness, donations, and volunteers. |
HP's Hidden Hype
To build a community of customers for its large-format printers among emerging artists and designers, Hewlett-Packard Development Co. launches a series of pop-up art galleries with no visible tie to its brand. |
Own Your Market: Get Set, Mow
Gold Eagle Co. abandons conventional marketing strategies and creates a nationwide sensation: lawn-mower racing. The result: 90-percent market share and 86 million media impressions in 2006 alone. |
Four Solutions, One Problem: Professional Education
Four companies provide learning experiences at their events that reach far beyond boring lectures. Their innovative solutions include museum-style tours, field trips, and a symphony orchestra. |
Thomas Kinkade: Marketer of Light
The Thomas Kinkade Co. has become a marketing tour de force through its event-marketing strategies of mass customization, storytelling, and philanthropy. |
Toshiba's Customer Evangelists
To teach medical professionals about its new technology, Toshiba America Medical Systems lets its customers do the talking by organizing an official Speaker's Bureau and sponsoring educational events. |
Using Corporate Events to Drive Innovation
Northrop Grumman Corp. retools an obligatory technical-development event from a bare-bones science fair to a strategic innovation showcase. |
Frostbike
Every winter, Quality Bicycle Products lures its top dealers and distributors to its headquarters in the frozen North to learn about its products and build relationships as solid as the ice on the company pond. |
Building Buzz Without Branding
Europa-Fachpresse Publishing House rejuvenates its flagship networking event for marketing professionals by provocatively stripping it of the attendees' bread and butter: brands. |
Volkswagen's Targeted Test Drive
Volkswagen of America Inc. invites 12 automotive journalists to the French Riviera for an exclusive test drive of the fifth-generation Golf GTI and gets 12 rave reviews. |
Microsoft's Partner-Driven Road Show
To reach small businesses nationwide, Microsoft Corp. rolls out a high-tech show on wheels and puts its partners in the driver's seat. |
Xerox's Colorful Demand Strategy
To position itself as the leader in color technology and launch its new color printer, Xerox Corp. focused on convincing its customers that color means much more than pretty pictures it means competitive advantage. |
Ford Stops Traffic
When drivers think SUVs, they don't usually think 'green.' To turn the tide, Ford Motor Co. holds a series of events for police departments across the country and enlists their help to promote its new hybrid SUV. |
Four Problems, One Solution: Philanthropy
Four companies develop philanthropic events to address four different objectives: build customer relationships, differentiate an event from the competition, strengthen retailer loyalty, and unite corporate executives. |
Michelin's Value-Innovation Strategy
Michelin wheels out a three-day event to teach distributors how to sell its new, premium tires based on value, not price. |
HP's Accidental Event
To help customers feel like company insiders, HP transforms its trade-show-affiliated customer meeting into an annual, standalone event now worth $33 million. |
The Event is The Product
RSA Security Inc. grows its annual event from a small, informal gathering to the premiere event in its industry. Its secret? RSA considers the event as one of its key products, with its own research and development strategy. |
Event by Objectives
FastSigns International Inc. focuses every element of its annual convention on achieving the company's core business goals. The result? Franchisees who attended the 2005 event grew annual sales by an average of 12.5 percent. |
This Issue: The Piggyback Solution
Four companies in industries from farming to shipping build private corporate events on a platform of pre-existing events, saving time and money, raking in leads, and making sales. |
Summit at C-Level
SunGard Higher Education invites high-level clients to an executive summit to establish itself as an industry leader, identify future technology needs, and develop strategic solutions. |
Saving Customers One Event at a Time
For three years, AgVantage Software Inc. failed to attract a single new customer. To rebuild its reputation and rejuvenate customer relationships, AgVantage redesigned its annual user conference. |
Why Don't We Do It on the Road?
From computer chips to coffins, five very different companies show how mobile-marketing programs can increase sales. |
Get the Picture?
To showcase the breadth of its product offerings, Canon USA Inc. creates a non-competitive, invitation-only event featuring interactive demonstrations spread over 120,000 square feet of exhibit space. |
NASCAR: Why Sponsors Keep Renewing
To jump start business-to-business relationship building, NASCAR adopts a sponsor-retention plan that puts 13 of its official sponsors in the driver's seat at its quarterly B2B Council meeting. |
Code Camp: Using Events to Drive Innovation
Every time Orange S.A.'s developer partners crank out a successful application, Orange's revenue flares up like a booster rocket. To fuel the fire, Orange developed Code Camp, a three-day, around-the-clock event. |
Volkswagen: A Luxury Brand?
Besieged by skepticism over the launch of two new luxury vehicles, Volkswagen of America Inc. converts its doubtful dealers into enthusiastic evangelists by redefining its marketing strategy with a luxury ride-and-drive experience. |
Under the Influence
Diageo turns bartenders into brand evangelists with a series of strategic events designed to educate, pamper, and recognize the talents of its customers. |
Marketing Warfare
Nothing says renegade technology company like VMware's robot-war hospitality event. |
The Mailer of Champions
General Mills Inc. whips up a winning two-part mailer that creates industry-wide buzz. |
Mystery in a Box
Royal Philips Electronics launches its new corporate identity and brand campaign with a strategic event that combines suspense, secrecy, and surprise. |
Cultivating Customers
To create a sustainable competitive advantage, Farm Credit Canada launches a strategy of customer advocacy, using a hospitality event to create sales and networking opportunities for its clients. |
The Amazing Race
MC2 lures jaded exhibit and event managers off the Vegas strip with a city-wide scavenger hunt. |
Beauty Mark
Kao Corp. uses the side of a 30-story hotel to make its mark on the Japanese media, not to mention 5,000 mesmerized consumers. |
Is That Sewer Pipe Taken?
To cut costs and put its product center stage, Ferguson Enterprises Inc. builds its event dιcor out of its own plumbing and building products. |
Relaunch
After a dismal product launch, Compuware Corp. shifts its target audience from executive-level decision-makers to the software developers who actually use its products, creating an interactive customer event complete with hands-on education. |
The Power of Authenticity
Ford Motor Co. lures media representatives to its product-launch event at the North American International Auto Show by capitalizing on its rich corporate heritage. |
Hot Launch
Need a hot launch event for a cool product? Take a lesson from these four events that captivated the media and generated positive press. |
Rebuilding a Reputation
In the aftermath of an accounting scandal and plummeting stock prices, Xerox Corp. uses a strategic product-launch event to regain credibility. |
Experience-ing Your Event
To compete in today's Experience Economy, you must stage meaningful, compelling experiences. Here are four ways to enhance your corporate event, with examples from successful consumer experiences. |
Using Events to Build Customer Community
To create a community of customers who have almost nothing in common and who are scattered across the globe, eBay invites them to a get-together with classes, parties, and even a wedding. |
Gartner Events: Education as a Strategic Weapon
The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo uses a range of unique educational activities to attract high-profile attendees from diagnostic workshops to consulting theater-in-the-round. |
Earth, Wind, and Fire
Unique event venues where the temperature is 100 degrees, the wind is 200 miles per hour, and the room is more than 300 miles long. |
