getting in just before or at the start of the New Year can be far more manageable.
“ We typically hold a Melbourne Cup lunch each year for our clients,” says Amanda Moritz, executive assistant at Matchstix, a boutique Melbourne-based creative agency.“ It’ s a great time of year to say thank you and treat our clients to lunch and a bit of afternoon fun just before it gets crazy when the holidays kick in. They look forward to the invite every year and it’ s something that’ s become a bit of tradition,” she adds.
HAVE A CLEAR OBJECTIVE
Appreciating your key clients is worth the investment to retain them. So when planning, keep in mind the value is often the money you’ ll save keeping those clients, verses the expense of a marketing campaign acquiring new ones.
“ It’ s important to us that our best clients know we appreciate their business and we invest in looking after them,” says Moritz,“ If they don’ t feel like their business matters to us, they have plenty of other options out there.”
Having a clear idea about your event’ s purpose will also help you steer the planning in the right direction. Are you planning a great night out to relax or is the purpose for marketing and building stronger business relationships? This can make a big difference on the type of event you choose. Trying to have a networking style event with genuine conversations can be tricky when the excitement of a sporting match is taking place. These types of hospitality events are better executed with exclusive dinners or the like.
It’ s also important to consider if the event you’ re organising matches your brands image. If you’ re using a venue, does it match your audience or demographic? Does the activity your group is enjoying reflective of the image you’ d like associated with your company?
DO YOUR RESEARCH
If you’ re considering a hospitality package at a major international sporting or cultural event, it’ s essential to thoroughly research suppliers and when possible, buy directly from the official event. Buying from‘ scalpers’ who claim to be selling boxes seats at major worldwide sporting or cultural events is a very dangerous game and if it looks too good to be true, chances are, it is.
Particularly with sporting events, you’ ll often find multiple suppliers selling hospitality packages to rugby internationals, the Grand Prix or the
“ It’ s important to us that our best clients know we appreciate their business and we invest in looking after them. If they don’ t feel like their business matters to us, they have plenty of other options out there.”
Australian Open at a range of prices. Researching these suppliers could save you a lot of trouble down the road.
While you’ re researching, it’ s a good time to ask about bringing your own branding or signage to the event to make it more personalised. Most corporate hospitality packages will allow for corporate branding, so make the most of it.
MAKE IT MEMORABLE
While tickets to these major events can cost a bit of cash, if your budget isn’ t quite so big, there’ s no need to scrap the idea altogether.
“ Each year we invite our top five clients and their partners to a thankyou dinner,” says Alex Peck, marketing manager at Camberwell Styling.“ We choose a new restaurant each year, usually somewhere that’ s on trend or a bit exclusive at the moment. It allows us to sit down with them, talk about their business year and the projects we’ ve worked together on. It also allows our sales director and general manager the opportunity to find out how we can better serve their needs moving forward.”
While Peck says the budget for these events can’ t be disclosed,“ It’ s definitely a great return for us to talk with our key clients over a great meal, let them know their feedback is appreciated and hear what’ s important to them. From there we can make that happen for them moving forward, for us and the type of clients we work with, it’ s a better solution than spending our budget on a boozy corporate box somewhere that we might not walk away with any of that valuable information,” he adds.
While organising a corporate hospitality event does involve financial commitment, doing it right and creating the right atmosphere and experience for your clients can pay off monumentally. Organising a great experience simply isn’ t enough if you don’ t have a purpose and plan; even worse if the night is, for the most part, forgettable later on. Many corporate hospitality packages have extra add-ons such as backstage tours or a‘ meet and great’. If you have the budget, these added extras can make a night unforgettable.
KEEP IT PROFESSIONAL
When organising your food and beverage options, it’ s important to remember that guests should be indulged in moderation, Keep the drink pouring sensible and the food substantial enough to match the drinks. It’ s also a nice touch to organise transport home for guests at the end of the evening.
Remember these attendees are your clients so it’ s important to relax, but don’ t cut too loose. Always keep the bigger picture in mind; these events are about showing your appreciation, not about getting messy.
EVALUATE THE RETURN
Yep, it’ s that pesky ROI question. Do these events get you a good return on your investment? After your event, it helps to sit back and evaluate. Get feedback from your team and ask if they found the experience valuable from a business perspective. Do they feel it provides return business or gives them insight into what their client’ s needs are?
It’ s also important, if you can, to ask your invited guests for feedback too. Knowing what they loved and what they could’ ve done without will only help plan a better event next year. E
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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2016 | WWW. EXECUTIVEPA. COM. AU