LONDON: The events industry is operating at the sharp end of the recession. In an environment in which so many brands have made substantial redundancies, the need tobe seen as sensitive is vital. Corporate hospitality and event launches are therefore under unprecedented scrutiny.
Where companies might once have wined and dined associates in luxury hotels, or flown journalists to the south of France to launch a brand, there is now a widespread reluctance to visibly flash the cash.
Brands are not simply ditching events en masse, but as a consequence of the recession, and with a nod to reducing their carbon footprints, a growing number are staging events closer to home. As a result of this, venues and brands are having to work harder to provide customers with a memorable experience without a significant spend. One example of this
is the use of more unusual spaces - from disused Tube stations to the area surrounding Wembley Stadium, which is used for activities such as bungee jumping.
Shaz Smilansky, marketing director at Blazinstar Experiential, says the choice of venue is 'crucial' if the aim is to get people to talk about an event afterwards. 'If it's bland, we won't talk about it,' she says. 'It's about creating longer recall for the brand message. Just plastering logos everywhere won't cut it.'
Marketing agencies are in agreement that the fall in event budgets - said by some to be as much as 25% - is a blessing in disguise.
Cameron Day, global business development director at Iris Experience, claims the industry was due a shake-up. 'The way [B2B] events work hadn't moved on for quite a while and a lot can be done better and cleverer,' he says. 'This will not be by reinventing the wheel, but by being better planned and cleverer about delivering key messages and communication.'
Day cites his company's work with Sony Ericsson, which has previously launched handsets by staging concerts featuring big-name acts, to demonstrate the brand's long-running association with music. Journalists would be invited to a concert, with a phone demo thrown in, and 'go home suitably impressed'.
For its W350i handset launch, how-ever, circumstances dictated a change. A Â roadshow toured on a country-by-country basis, inviting the press to a 'sound-snacking' event at which experiments in bespoke laboratories tested their endorphin levels while listening to different types of music, demonstrating its effect on mood.
A four-week build-up and a follow-up email push, which included the results of each attendee's test, drove engagement and, according to Day, earned Sony Ericsson that elusive 'talkability' factor. Staying at home does not have to mean less sparkle, but it is still crucial that the event reflects the brand. Choosing a venue is key, no matter how simple the product, as it will 'tease out' invitees who are intrigued by the location.
Duncan Beale, managing director at event production company Line Up, stresses that it is vital to stay on-brand. 'We did a roadshow for an Indesit washing machine launch recently,' he says. 'As it's a young and fresh brand, we didn't want to fight against the venue and have it somewhere like the V&A.'
With a wealth of state-of-the-art locations to choose from, the recession is acting as a catalyst for brands to make the most of what is on the doorstep. Karen Evans, business director at experiential agency BEcause, says it is the teams behind the venues that are key to their success as an event space.
'The Westfield team is really proactive, forward-thinking and open to ideas,' she says, by way of example. 'It's important to focus on venues that give you the best return, and while Westfield is not the cheapest shopping centre venue to go to, in terms of cut-through and return, you get a great event when you're there. They're willing to be a bit more flexible, and you can get a lot more PR out of it by doing something on a bigger scale.'
Evans believes venues are now facing stiffer competition and have to move with the times. One benefit of the recession is the willingness of UK sites to offer cut-price deals and packages.
Jim Quintrall, operations director at events organiser and corporate meeting management outfit GrassRoots HBI, reports a sharp rise in the number of training courses switching from Europe to the UK, as well as a move away from the use of hotels to residential training centres.
'Not only do you not see the same programmes set up in Europe, but places in the UK are charging low prices, so clients are taking advantage,' he says. 'Added to that, events that would have taken place in five-star hotels are now taking place in training centres, because they are perceived as a purely business environment.'
Foreign trips are still being undertaken, albeit under the radar, but clients are so concerned not to be seen splashing out inappropriately, that even reduced prices cannot convince them to book lavish locations.
Quintrall notes that some five-star hotels are even voluntarily downgrading to four-star in the hope it will boost business. 'The price differential between five-star hotels which are discounting heavily, and normal four-star prices aren't huge, but the five-star places can't get past the problem of perception, however much they lower their prices,' he says.
Keeping it local is easy enough when all the event's guests are based in the UK, but the issue of keeping costs down when brands need to gather people from several countries remains. While some are hosting events in a range of countries, others are choosing to be more strategic about their content and the number of people invited, cutting back both on this and an event's duration.
Some argue that staying at home is not always the cheaper option. 'You can always have a good event here, but the UK is still expensive compared with Turkey or Portugal,' says Beale. 'Flights cost money, but everything on the ground is cheaper, and if it's a sunny day, you don't pay to entertain your guests. If you have a day in Birmingham, you have to factor in the cost of supplying entertainment.'
Opinion is split across the industry on whether the convenience and cost of hospitality in the UK is better or whether, once the recession is over, brands will once again be clocking up the air miles on behalf of their media friends. Nonetheless, there is one thing on which everyone is agreed - this enforced grounding has opened the industry's eyes to the opportunities to be had at home. Moreover, these can be enhanced with a little imagination and clever thinking.
It seems the key message is a twist on the age-old adage: it's not how much money you have, but what you do with it that counts.
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