Paxina: 002
Strategy Doc - In Pursuit of the Business Concept - Planning Contact and Acquisition: Procurement of materiel, copy, images and general informational content required for the production and publication of a “Name With-held” Website Procedure for Event Organizer / Event Manager Targeting and Contact Identify the Opportunity: At this step, we are only to consider the Targets: • Value • Net worth • Future Possibilities Value means – what can ...  realistically gain from the association in terms of: pre and post event  Product Sell-On… ie. Hotel Reservations plus Car Rental, Safari, Bush & Beach or Guided Tours. Net Worth means – what is the actual value of the Company or Organization that is hosting the Event. Ie how big is the operation, reputation, experience, years in business OR what is the Size / Visibility of the Company BEING HOSTED ie Shell, Volvo, Vodacom, Pick ‘n Pay... What favorable results will this produce at this time [Remember: we are not going after Every event sponsor / organizeron the continent. Just certain Types. What these are we need to determine. Here are some examples: Blue Chip Companies American Express level Delegates Platinum Class Gold Card / Diners Card Holders High Profile Items Wide Media Coverage Items Environmental Items Government and NGO’s Popular Music Sport Future Possibilities means – identifying, seeking or manufacturing further commercial spin-offs that can result from Our Event Website Representation. Event Opportunity Identification:: In the interest of simplifying our task we will first have to determine what constitutes an “event” as we currently display it on our websites, and what should be done to separate "events" from conventions and conferences. This document will also set out the difference between public entertainment, (Led Zeppelin) public interest, (G5 Summit) and private conference (Corporate) Events such as public spectacles, are not the same as specific conventions, trade shows expos and institutional conferences. Type I Event Corporate Sponsored. Open to public participation. Publication: by arrangement. Limited input required. Easy to produce Delivery: Via internet. For Free and Gratis on our HotelGuides with the hope that we will get accomm bookings. Approach: As is currently. 1 page. General public Announcement. Commercial Value: Low. Needs public to require accommodation at/near venue. Hotels. Type II Event Institution or Govt Sponsored. Limited public participation. Publication: by arrangement. Limited input required. Easy to produce Delivery: For Free and Gratis on our HotelGuides Plus direct access to the Delegate / Attendee List, so as to offer pre-booking etc Approach: As current.1 page. General public Announcement. Plus direct mail shot and more Commercial Value: Moderate to high. Direct selling of accomm at venue, post event offers Type III Event Private. Aimed at specific industry. Inter-Professional , Governmental Publication: by negotiation. Concerted effort required. More time required to assemble Delivery: For Free and Gratis linked off client site. Approach: MSI web site. 1 website as Attachment site. Direct mail-shots. Plus direct access to the Delegate / Attendee List, so as to offer pre-booking etc Commercial Value: Better than III. Direct selling of accomm at venue, post event offers. Presents an avenue for further corporate spin-offs Type IV Event   Private. Corporate internal. No public participation. Publication: by negotiation. Concentrated effort and strategy required. More time required to negotiate, assemble Delivery: Via corporate intranet. Mail targeting. Direct mail. Knock ‘n Drop Approach: Directly. In person and negotiated. Relation-ship building. Commercial Value: High With reference to Type IV Events: much of the approach and ground work will be developed from contacts made, and information obtained during the pursuit and establishment of the other 3 event types. For the purpose of this document – Type IV events will be ignored, since the reasons, methods, needs and delivery are of a different order of magnitude. The Different Components of an Event • Sponsor – The Money. Institutional organizations, governmental bodies, Companies. • Organizer – The company/s in charge of the logistics of the event • Marketing Team – The company/s tasked with the advertising and securing of tenants • Host – The owners of the Venue where the event is held – where applicable Who is the Target? This is determined by our goals. To obtain from the: • Sponsor – the Attending Delegates List. By offering choices of product and booking service • Organizer – Placement of their event on our network. Link Exchange. the Attending Exhibitors List. • Marketing Team (organizer’s) – Incentivised to direct signed up members to our product line • Host – We have many of them – we need to develop a strategy for this sector. This needs to be dealt with as a separate issue. Their involvement is at a different level Determine and Acquire the Target   • By PHONE: Find out who the person is that you need to speak with – in order to present our services/credentials/trade agreements. • Speak to them. Introduce yourself and Introduce ... , who is your client. • Tell them your intent. • Raise their interest – because what you are in essence offering is A Free Service and An Unexpected Marketing Opportunity • Follow up your telecon immediately with our standard proforma Introduction e-mail. In less than one minute. Be specific about this. Inform the Contactee that this is being done now "as you speak…" so that they will be expecting the mail and will therefore be looking out for it. Or, they will see the mail arrive and be reminded of the earlier conversation. Note: Cold Call E-Mails rarely work. The person that you are targeting considers cold call e-mails as junk mail-shots and will very likely, disregard your first e-mail. First Contact The first contact must be concise – which is not the same as brief. “Brief” is too brief, for a first time pitch. You cannot over-sell by presenting the cold facts of a great opportunity. We have the evidence and we can reinforce our claims by mailing the relevant web page from one of out HotelGuide sites, as a persuasion tool. For Level II Events there is bound to be more than one contactee, ie the Event Marketing manager, the Resources Procurement manager, the Event Co-ordinator. And also the Sponsoring Brand Manager/s. Target all of them – they can get to talk amongst themselves. Leave to Simmer Allow the contactee time for thought and internal discussion with colleagues… 4 days Preparation for Deployment We must have in position, from the outset: • List of Contactees referenced against Region and Type of Conference • First Contact Presentation Pitch • Intro Promo Ad - mail shot • Follow Up e-mail • A “what-to-do-if-they-say-they-have-already-got” ie: Plan “B” Launch Our Offensive The first NewsLetter – in the appropriate format (see News Letter Formats), with relevant content needs to be fired off This should be followed up in 2 days with a short ProForma e-mail (see e-mail templates) enquiring feed-back on the News Letter If after 2 days there is no e-mail response. PHONE and learn why. It important to learn why. Some contactees may have mis-interpreted out intent, while others may have mis-understood our reasons. In this day of growing web-based marketing, internet, news letters, spam, fly-by night operators etc – many people are still uncomfortable with the perceived “new technology”. And neither the new technology, nor our innovative marketing concepts are going to keep us from having to go one-on-one with each new Client – if we want their business The Objective:: To increase traffic, and generate sales, on our Hotel websites – selling accommodation and car rentals To increase traffic to various sites based on region – selling safaris, luxury lodge accomm and tours. we are using the event clients traffic to view and buy our products - The Strategy:: Thru What we Offer Enticement: Free, web-based representation of client event on our “All Africa Event” website. How do we explain this? We wish to draw traffic through the site, to our own regionalized hotel accommodation sites as well as to our great safari break-a-ways for the purpose of pre and post-event activities for visitors to Africa.   Related Links: "Why War? Why Not Big Projects?"  Pre and Post-Event Destinations Portfolio Hot Pursuit Planning Marketing Program Pre-Project Overview