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 magine being given the chance to create the event of your dreams. Forget about budget. Forget about deadlines. Forget about trying to make a client happy. Just create.
Sound like a fantasy? Well, Global Events ID Corp. S.L. had the chance to make that fantasy a reality in 2008, when it staged an 18-act theatrical showcase — and recouped all of its costs. But that’s not where the story begins. For that, we’ll have to go back 12 years, to the company’s birth in 1997.
In its infancy, Global Events, based in Madrid, Spain, was the production department of a separate company and consisted of a collection of creative arts and entertainment professionals from a variety of industry sectors, including television, film, theater, and advertising. The department concentrated solely on set design for the various media, until its clients started requesting more integrated event production versus simple staging. “There were no true event agencies at that time in Spain, and after asking for stage design,
customers approached the company and asked if it could also manage logistic work like catering and arranging accommodations,” says Jorge Hernandez, creative director at Global Events. “A point came when that ‘staging department’ was actually organizing the whole event.”
So instead of simply producing one-off sets and stages for the entertainment industry, Global Events evolved into a one-stop shop for event production. To position itself as the go-to company for events that required audiovisual and theatrical elements — and to prove that creativity and theatrics have a place in corporate events — Global Events capitalized on its creativity and experience in the entertainment industry and created a technical-capabilities showcase for its roster of A-list corporate clients. The multi-act showcase demonstrated the company’s audiovisual tricks and lighting effects, and featured performances by the company’s dancers and actors. Global Events knew the small production, called “Dreams,” was key to demonstrating its capabilities, since it’s almost impossible to explain, for example, how various lighting effects will look without actually demonstrating those effects to customers.
Though the production was planned and rehearsed, it never made it to the stage in its entirety. “Just when the project seemed to have the green light to open, other professional interests left it standing by,” Hernandez says. Unwilling to drop it completely, Global Events offered portions of the production as entertainment during client events. However, the company eventually had to stop working on “Dreams” altogether so it could concentrate on the additional client projects it was booking as its capabilities grew from simple set design to full-service event production.
DREAMS PART DEUX
Fast-forward to 2006, a year before the company’s 10-year anniversary. After nearly a decade of producing award-winning events for its clients, Global Events decided to express its gratitude — and showcase its now-expanded capabilities — with a client-appreciation event. And thanks to the legwork that was completed for the original “Dreams” production, Global Events decided to simply reprise a few acts from the show.
The performance at the client-appreciation event would follow the same outline as the original production, but would showcase the company’s advancements in audiovisual tricks and lighting effects over the past 10 years. Global Events hoped that by showing existing clients all the tricks it had up its sleeve, the demo might convince some of them to add a few more bells and whistles to their own events — thus adding a few more zeros to their events’ budget figures.
For Global Events, it seemed to be a cut-and-dry task: Take something that was developed and rehearsed 10 years ago, goose it up a little bit with more sequins and maybe a laser-light show, perform it in the company’s own warehouse, and voila — a low-cost, easy-to-produce technical showcase that doubles as a client-appreciation event. But things aren’t always as they seem.
As word of the client-appreciation event — and the reprisal of a portion of “Dreams” — got out to Global Events’ suppliers and partners, a wave of companies signed on to help with the production. And this was no gentle wave splashing against the shore. No, this was a tidal wave of volunteer support, including everyone from special-effects firm Molina Efectos to dancers from Italian artist Luka Iexy’s studio (which is partly owned by Global Events). Other suppliers joining in the production included the Madrid-based Juventas Orchestra, a group of local musicians who perform at no cost so long as part of the profits are donated to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) — the European equivalent of nonprofits. In addition to the opportunity to take part in the reprisal of the popular “Dreams” production, these companies were eager to showcase their talents for Global Events’ clients as well.
With all the people clamoring to get involved in the production, what started out as a small warehouse performance with a few acts soon ballooned into a full-on fantasy world with 18 acts, pyrotechnics, water features, and a plethora of performers, acrobats, and Cirque-du-Soleil-style dancers. However, the larger production came with a larger price tag.
FINANCING A FANTASY
“It was clear the amplitude the show was taking would require a far bigger venue than what our budget could
afford,” Hernandez says. “Bearing that in mind, we started talking with our closest clients and asked them if they would be interested in somehow acting as sponsors and sharing the celebration — and obviously higher costs.” According to Hernandez, one of those clients suggested, half-jokingly, that the show should be open to the public, as he couldn’t justify the expense of a sponsorship without potential buyers for his products in the audience.
Making the production open to the public had two clear advantages for Global Events: The company could charge admission, which would help defray the costs of a larger show, and a larger audience meant more people could see what Global Events could do when it came to event production. So the company decided to take its client’s idea and run with it — all the way to the Madrid Sports Palladium, which would accommodate up to 5,000 prospects and clients along with 3,000 paying audience members from the general public.
But since the expanded performance required equally expanded resources and planning, Global Events realized it couldn’t raise the curtain just yet. So it revised the timeline and settled on a one-night performance at the Palladium in the fall of 2008 — a year-and-a-half after planning began and a year after the company’s 10-year anniversary.
With the venue and date selected, Global Events secured a deal in July 2008 with a Spanish department store to serve as a ticket broker and sell tickets to the public in its store locations and online. By that time, enough buzz about the production, called “Dreams 2,” had built up in industry press that word of the showcase made its way to mainstream Spanish media. So much hype was building that the company organized a press conference to answer questions about event. “To our surprise, some of Spain’s most important newspapers not only mentioned the show in their printed editions, but gave a special illustrated report about it,” Hernandez says. “Our only request when answering questions from members of the media was that when they published their stories, they included the Web site people could visit to purchase tickets.”
However, Global Events didn’t rely on media and word of mouth alone. In addition to the press mentions, the company staged mini-performances by “Dreams” dancers during the awards ceremonies at several sporting events in Madrid leading up the production, including the Madrid Tennis Masters tournament. “In exchange for those performances, tournament staff distributed balloons and promotional information about ‘Dreams,’” Hernandez says. “Branded placards with the event’s Web site and ticket locations were also displayed.” Even with all the word-of-mouth buzz Global Events was generating for “Dreams 2,” the company was still nervous that it wouldn’t be able to sell all 3,000 tickets it had set aside for the general public, so it began actively promoting tickets for the performance on its Web site in September.
As Global Events was promoting the production to the general public, it was simultaneously working to ensure
attendance from its VIP clients as well. The company e-mailed invitations to thousands of its top clients, asking them to RSVP for complimentary tickets. Based on client response to the e-mail invitation strategy, Global Events was confident at least 5,000 of its targeted clients planned to attend. To the company’s surprise, however, the one-night performance sold out to the public shortly after the company began promoting tickets on its Web site. Faced with the dilemma of not having enough seats to sell to an eagerly paying audience, the company scheduled a second performance, and would have booked a third night at the Palladium had it been available. Now confident that the seats would be filled, the company turned its attention to rehearsals, set design and construction, and getting “Dreams 2” ready for the big night.
IT'S SHOW TIME
When members of the general public arrived at the Madrid Sports Palladium, they passed through the venue’s main entrance, tickets in hand. But Global Events’ VIP attendees were instructed to come to a private entrance away from the general admission entry at a specified time. Upon checking in, clients’ names were confirmed, and they received a ticket at the private entrance. The gathering times were staggered to avoid a rush at the door, and a pre-show cocktail reception was planned for the VIPs, who were invited to check in first.
As the VIP cocktail reception wrapped up and audience members took their seats the evening of each performance, the journey began. Soft music, diffused blue lighting, and the sound of flowing water filled the space, as the audience focused its attention on the center of the stage. Even before the show technically started, Global Events was demonstrating its suite of lighting effects. In addition to the blue lighting, which created a misting effect that set the scene, shapes, silhouettes, and video images were projected onto four large, triangular pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling. Then everything went black.
What followed was a series of 18 acts that told the story of a young, crippled boy who falls asleep only to wake up in the fantastical “Land of Dreams,” an alternate reality in which he is no longer crippled. But the Land of Dreams wasn’t all fantasy. It simply served as a narrative device to demonstrate Global Events’ very real production talents. At the production’s core was an impressive 30,000-cubic-foot lagoon that served as the backdrop for the “Dreams 2” story. Other set components included water screens, pyrotechnics, water cannons, lasers, and mobile stage structures, all of which Global Events hoped would entice and inspire clients and prospects.
In addition to the set and lighting elements on display, the Land of Dreams also showcased the talents of 350 Global Events’ performers, including aerial dancers, parkour experts (or freerunners), classic ballet dancers, circus acrobats, and wake-box surfers (think small-scale, indoor wake boarding).
Each of the 18 acts in the production were designed to combine the audiovisual and lighting techniques with dream-like performances that entertained the general pubic, while simultaneously serving as a technical capabilities presentation and experiential sales pitch for the Global Events’ clients and VIPs in the audience. During the first act, for example, fog machines created smoke and mist that covered the entire stage. In addition to being an intriguing theatrical element, the mist created a backdrop for lighting effects, as it was lit by green and violet lights, a trick that could easily be used to swath an event space in a company’s corporate colors.
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NONTRADITIONAL
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Company: Global Events ID Corp. S.L.
Event: Dreams 2
Objective: Thank clients, demonstrate technical capabilities, and generate new business.
Strategy: Demonstrate the company’s range of technical and creative talents by staging a multi-act theatrical
performance.
Tactics: Use in-house talent and resources, enlist corporate sponsors, and make tickets available to the public to defray the productions costs of the performance.
Results: Global Events sold out both performances, gained 10 new
projects, and signed lucrative, multi-year contracts with two major clients.
Creative/Production Agency:
Global Events ID Corp. S.L.,
www.global-events.com
Production Agency: Global Dreams, www.dreams-show.com
Budget: $1.2 million
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Another technique, featured during act four of the production, consisted of a projection screen created by sheets of falling water droplets. Dramatic images of war, thirst, and hunger, which emphasized the protagonist’s struggle with desperation and destruction, were projected directly onto the water screen. A similar screen effect could be used in lieu of a plain white pull-down projection screen during press conferences, product launches, keynote presentations, and a range of other corporate events.
Once the dramatic performance-slash-experiential-sales-pitch concluded and the house lights flipped on, VIP clients were invited to a second private cocktail reception held at the Palladium. Amid light food and drink, Global Events staff, including the CEO who acted as director for “Dreams 2,” discussed the production, thanked clients and prospects for attending, and explained how the various acts and elements could be applied to their next corporate events.
SWEET DREAMS
When all was said and done and the final curtain dropped on the “Dreams 2” theatrical production, the multi-act, multi-evening experiential-capabilities showcase generated more than just a little goodwill toward Global Events; it wowed this year’s Corporate EVENT Awards judges as well. “How do you demonstrate something as intangible and ephemeral as creativity?” asked one judge. “This production absolutely delivered, showcasing the company’s capabilities in a way you could never do with a traditional portfolio or PowerPoint presentation in a conference room somewhere. I can’t imagine a more memorable sales pitch.”
Even more impressive is that Global Events essentially produced “Dreams 2” for free, recouping nearly every single penny of its roughly $1.2 million production and venue costs by capitalizing on its internal talent, creating sponsorship opportunities for its suppliers, and selling a total of 11,000 tickets to the general public.
“Dreams 2” also generated real business from among the 5,000 international clients invited to attend for free. As a direct result of the showcase, Global Events was awarded 10 new projects, and signed two lucrative, multi-year contracts with French car manufacturer Renault S.A. and GAM, a Spanish commercial-vehicle manufacturer. “Dreams 2” has been such a success, in fact, that it has since been performed in Barcelona, Spain, and clients in Italy, Greece, and Qatar have requested private performances. The company also has plans to roll out the show for public performances in New York in 2010, and Las Vegas in 2011, with hopes the production will increase brand awareness in the states and — ideally — add a few new U.S. clients to Global Events’ ever-growing roster.
So what started out as a simple capabilities demo more than 10 years ago slowly but surely evolved into a million-dollar fantasy showcase that cost Global Events close to nothing to produce, generated new business, and developed a life of its own that’s taking it across the pond. Now that’s the stuff event-marketing dreams are made of. E
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