Central Hall Westminster has launched a series of sales and marketing initiatives aimed at attracting bookings from China. The drive to target the Chinese market comes as a result of steady growth in this sector in the last two years.
Earlier this month, Central Hall rolled out a Chinese version of its venue website, written entirely in Mandarin. This is bolstered by a portfolio of new marketing collateral, including brochures, banners and case studies specifically highlighting the public and private events held by Chinese delegations in 2012.
Paul Southern, managing director at Central Hall Westminster, said: “During 2011 we were able to generate significant interest for Central Hall Westminster as a key player for hosting conferences and events in the UK. It shows the Asian market is increasingly important in the years ahead and it is vital to take advantage of the growing opportunity.”
Longstanding employee and Chinese culture enthusiast Kevin Blackman, senior sales manager at Central Hall, has been appointed dedicated account manager for the campaign.
The new Chinese website was launched this month at China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM), with Blackman present to promote Central Hall to the 4,000 leading, outbound tour operators from all over China. He later travelled for a further 10 days, attending various business meetings with corporate clients in Beijing and other locations.
Award-winning event staff supplier, recruitment consultancy and professional training academy Off to Work is delighted to launch its Event School for 2013, with a special focus on style and design.
With names like Masterchef winner Keri Moss and former The Apprentice contestant Miriam Staley within the speaker line-up, bookings are expected to be snapped up quickly for the two-day workshop series, which will run on Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th April at the London Irish Centre, Off to Work’s dedicated Training Academy in Camden, London.
Building on the success of last year’s school, Event School 2013: Style & Design will bring together renowned professionals from successful creative businesses to deliver a practical, workshop-led programme focusing on specific areas of the event planning and delivery cycle.
From a designer ‘mocktail’ mixing masterclass with Sejuiced and a lesson in wine buying for events with Blanco & Gomez, to workshops in food styling and event storytelling through photography with Red Photographic, room theming and lighting with Wise Production, plus content marketing and event communication tips from Custard Communications, Event School 2013 is aimed at event planners, event coordinators and managers, event agencies, caterers, F&B staff, chefs, marketing staff and business development teams.
Highlights of the programme include a networking lunch and concurrent panel debate on ‘Menu design for events’, featuring Keri Moss, winner of MasterChef: The Professionals 2012, Nick Mead, director at Eden Caterers, Vicky O’Hare, managing director of Party Ingredients and Gerald Aberdeen, executive head chef for Table Talk. These expert menu developers and chefs will share tips and tricks for planning a show-stopping selection of dishes that are not diluted by challenging dietary restrictions.
The workshop style of the programme means that delegates can pick and choose which ‘modules’ best fit their job role and requirements and attend these sessions as one-off learning experiences.
Attendees working in events and hospitality will leave inspired and equipped with tangible skills to aid their career development and to maximise the impact and profitability of future events.
“We’re pleased to welcome our clients, our team and all events professionals to attend any or all of the Event School’s workshops. We’ve designed workshops to be intimate, with a cap on 20 people, to ensure you can enjoy a focused and interactive learning environment,” said Philip Atkins, managing director, Off to Work. The exceptions to this are the educational, networking lunches.
A vibrant and sociable company, Off to Work has been providing the finest, skilled staff to the events and hospitality industries throughout the UK and overseas since 2001. Throughout this time, the company has stayed true to its guiding principle ‘to help provide some of the best experiences and memories people have ever had’ – something they achieve by remaining committed to hiring only the people most passionate about hospitality.
Event School 2013: Style & Design will take place on 9th & 10th April 2013 at London Irish Centre, Camden Square, London, NW1 9XB. For the full workshop programme, to find out more information or to book, please email Lucy Katan, call 020 3155 1975, or visit the dedicated website page.
Workshops are priced at £40+VAT each and package rates are available if you’d like to attend multiple sessions.
Westminster Kingsway College invites you to get together with other professionals from the Westminster business community at a free networking evening on Tuesday 19th March, 5.30 – 7.00pm.
Hosted at The Vincent Rooms in the Victoria Centre, the evening will see the Victoria Business Improvement District (BID) present on their work and the opportunities and support they can provide for business, enterprise, the community and the development of the environment in the Victoria area of London.
Victoria BID provides a collective voice for business, driving forward a powerful agenda to develop an identity for Victoria as a vibrant and cultural destination, with strong historic background and flourishing future for all who work, visit and live in the area.
The BID will also highlight its Victoria BID Privilege Card scheme for those who live, work or do business in Victoria. It provides a great range of unique and exciting offers on eating, drinking, leisure, shopping and health opportunities within the locality of Victoria, London.
This ‘Westminster Kingsway Business Club’ event is a great opportunity for local businesses, organisations and employers to get together, and explore what’s happening in Victoria and Westminster and to find out about the latest in skills and career development activities.
The Business Club will also introduce Professional Development opportunities offered in conjunction with the Westminster Kingsway Business and Enterprise Professional Team. Wine and tapas will be served throughout the event.
To book your free place now, email [email protected] or call 020 7802 8364.
A video delivering the inside scoop on Google Analytics and Adwords and their impacts on website performance over time is now available to view online for free, thanks to the team at One Wimpole Street.
Featuring the last session in the venue’s popular 2012 technology masterclass series, speakers David Miles, director of online marketing training consultancy Divadani, and Jeremy Nelson-Smith, director and internet marketing consultant at The Internet Specialist, come together in the video masterclass to provide free and valuable tips for maximising the use of Google AdWords as an advertising tool and for optimising website performance by accurately analysing data available via Google Analytics.
The masterclass video is available on demand now, free of charge to event planners, event buyers and event marketing professionals. Viewers are able to choose between watching the whole masterclass sequence, or viewing the two speaker sessions individually.
Miles champions the idea that Google AdWords is an extremely powerful advertising tool, delivering rapid results and a great return on marketing investment. He also explains how Google AdWords works and what benefits it has over other methods of driving traffic to your website. Crucially, he highlights the things you need to be aware of in order to avoid wasting money on AdWords.
Nelson-Smith unravels web analytics to demonstrate the need to use Google Analytics to increase websiteperformance and make better business decisions. He explains how to measure and understand which marketing channels are most effectively delivering quality visitors to your web pages, whether yourcontent is doing its job in engaging your visitors and how to use this vitalknowledge to increase your sales.
One Wimpole Street will be launching a new masterclass series in 2013. To be the first to find out more, register your interest by clicking here. To watch the free video of the Google Analytics and AdWords masterclass on demand, click here.
By Wendy Greenhalgh, Board Director, The Westminster Collection
The stage has been set and Westminster is alive and kicking like never before thanks to 2012 and all the domestic and global profile this year’s events have attracted. So far there’s little evidence of a shadow being cast over post-Olympics London when you hear that 45% of the capital’s venues have already forecast revenue increases of up to 30% from now through to December.
The outlook was upbeat for conference and event venues, tourist attractions and hotels when we released our 2012 London Venues Business (LVB) Report. 30 member venues of The Westminster Collection confirmed that a collective £11.75m of bookings had already been contracted or forecasted to take place in Westminster over the Olympic Games period as of May 2012, when the original meetings and events survey was completed.
With National Hospitality Houses of Italy, Qatar, Georgia, Japan and Slovakia and the London Media Centre amongst the role played by Westminster’s prestigious community of venues, there’s little doubt this figure can be inflated now. Three months before the Olympic Games officially began, more than half of all 100 London venues surveyed were already reporting direct commercial gains.
Now’s the time to capitalise on that optimistic outlook and absorb the lessons we’ve learnt about world-class execution of events for global audiences. We were a culturally diverse city well able to service the needs of visitors from different countries long before the Games came to town. But now we’re even more aware of our responsibility to promote the unique quirks of Westminster as a destination for all sorts of events. It’s a place where decisions and policies are made, on the doorstep of exciting entertainment and iconic attractions.
The LVB report shows that London venues have been quick to respond to buyer behaviour and demand for exceptional value for money, with offers of flexible pricing and free service add-ons creating healthy competition in the events market. As a borough, Westminster boasts a high concentration of unusual and unique meeting venues to offer choice and flexibility to the event buyer. Some are ornate buildings of historical significance and some set trends with their ultra-modern design.
Business tourism is a dynamic sector that’s critical to the UK’s economy. Successful business is impossible without contacts, exchange of technologies and information, exhibitions and business trips so let’s keep the noise loud and retain the incredible momentum achieved in recent months.
To purchase a copy of the full 2012 London Venues Business Report, priced £95, please call 01483 740747.
The Westminster Collection, Unique Venues of London and The Conference Bench unveiled the key findings of the 2012 London Venue Report today, culminating in what is believed to be the largest entirely London-centric meetings survey in circulation to date.
If you weren’t one of the participating venues, do you share similar optimism about the impact the London 2012 Olympic Games have and will have on the London meetings and events market? Or are you an event booker with a great story to tell about your experiences with London venues this year? We’d love to hear from you. Email [email protected].
The key findings from the 2012 London Venues Business Report include:
87% of venues feel positive about the long-term impact the Olympic Games will have on the conference and meetings market in 2013 and beyond.
51% of venues believe that the Olympic Games will improve their 2012 full-year forecast, with nearly half of these venues anticipating revenue increases of up to 30%.
Pre- and post-Olympic Games business is showing positive gains. 31 venues report increased revenue between May – July 2012 compared with the same period in 2011. 48 venues have reported increases in trade for September – December 2012.
The average day delegate rate (DDR) achieved by London venues in 2011 was £52.31, with 67% of venues reporting their individual highest achieved DDRs were £80 or more.
41% of venues report large events are being booked on average three months or less in advance of the event date. The overall survey average revealed a lead time of five months
Core revenue streams saw significant growth in 2011, with half of all venues reporting increases of up to and beyond 40%. 55% of venues saw their room hire revenue increase in 2011, compared with the previous year – a trend that continued into the first quarter of 2012, with 58% of venues reporting room hire revenue growth of up to 40% compared with the same period last year
93% of venues successfully used ‘value add’ as a business conversion technique in 2011.
The full 2012 London Venues Business Report is available for purchase, priced £95. Please contact [email protected] to order your copy.
Set on hosting an event in London in 2012? Forget the hype and bluster surrounding venue unavailability before, during and after the Olympic Games. Some of the capital’s top venues remain up for grabs right on the doorstep of world famous landmark eye-candy – and it’s first come, first served.
“The early bird catches the worm,” says Tim Barrett-Jolley, Sales & Marketing Manager at RSA House, a refashioned Georgian property nestled just off the bustling Strand between Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross. The perception that prime locations are all locked up by LOCOG, have sold out or are priced beyond reach is a bubble that needs to be burst.
“Companies looking to hold one-off events or a series of events are still just at the enquiry stage,” so until confirmations come through, some of the very best venues in the heart of London remain ready for the taking, he says. “If you want to secure your preferred venue of choice, I would suggest you book early.”
A majority of clients are looking for long-term hire with flexibility to entertain, do business, hold press conferences and generally make a statement during London 2012, says Clare Jones, Senior Marketing Executive at 116 Pall Mall, the headquarters of the Institute of Directors. Shorter-term event leads are still being pursued with similar vigour though, she says. “We certainly would not turn any business away to hold out for the ‘million pound deal’ that everyone seems to be waiting for. We are looking for both. As with everything during the Olympics, we say the key word is ‘flexibility’. If you are not flexible you will not appeal.”
Like moths to an Olympic flame
Venue operators in Westminster have admitted they are bemused by talk that the London Olympics are spurring central city boycotting. “We are seeing some with this mindset, but not the majority,” says Craig Wallace, Conference and Events Manager at One Wimpole Street, a high-spec technology-focused venue that houses over 10 charismatic meeting spaces and two luxury auditoriums. “Many organisations feel they need to be represented by hosting an event during the Games. Demand trends indicate brand hospitality is a favourite purpose for venue sourcing, as is having a central London base for entertaining clients.”
For sponsors of the Games, the branding opportunities are unprecedented, particularly for those who have recognised the benefits of aligning with a venue that mirrors their brand personality and values, has a premium location on the doorstep of sporting and official Olympic events, other community based events and famed tourist attractions.
Central Hall Westminster’s iconic dome presents a one-in-a-million opportunity for marketers to thrust their brand onto a global stage, with Maria Schuett, Marketing Manager at the 30-room venue, revealing that the exterior dome and roof space is still available as a branding platform for one lucky organisation, as is hire of the Great Hall, with its magnificent 4,731-pipe organ, which is housed beneath the dome.
Central Hall Westminster offers premium exposure to the swathes of tourists, Brits and broadcast journalists who will flood the streets around Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, as does its close neighbour The UK Supreme Court, a majestic and Gothic style Grade II listed building available for corporate event hire.
In-between the two is the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, which will reinvent itself as ‘Casa Italia’, home to the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) and its public exhibition of Italian companies, for the duration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Even companies not directly involved with the Games can hop on the back of the buzz that will bring London and the UK alive during July and August of 2012. “It’s a great time to showcase your business and your capital city,” says 116 Pall Mall’s Clare Jones, whose venue sits three minutes’ walk away from the Trafalgar Square ‘Live Site’ – one of 22 big TV screens and event spaces in urban centres around the UK offering live information, video, news and community events – and near the volleyball events on Horse Guards Parade.
“In central London the streets will be themed, so they will look spectacular. Pall Mall will be transformed during the Games, so we are hoping that people will take advantage of this and choose to host events during this time, rather than shy away from London, ” says Jones.
“We have one National Olympic Committee who will be using two of the 12 event spaces available in 116 for the entirety of the Olympics and they will be hosting VIPs, athletes and sponsors during this time. We still have a good selection of different event spaces available and we are now seeing more interest in one-off events such as large banquets and drinks and canapés,” says Jones. “We also have a 30-room media centre which we are hoping that a company wishing to relocate staff for the Olympics would be interested in taking.”
Work and play combined
Cultural Olympiad director Ruth Mackenzie has announced that there will be more than 10 million chances to see free London 2012 Festival events throughout the UK, with the Mayor’s Office planning to create “unforgettable experiences” for attendees with a series of events in all 33 London boroughs.
A “huge event for our vibrant, buzzing city”, delegates are in for a treat with their pick of “some of the world’s best venues, hotels, eateries, attractions and theatres,” says Jonathan Morris, Commercial Director of No.11 Cavendish Square, a Grade II listed townhouse minutes from Oxford Circus and renowned for its stunning Orangery and secluded Courtyard Garden.
“Clients need to know that not all event spaces and equipment have been allocated to the Games. Enquiries have come in from clients of competitor venues disgruntled that those venues will not be able to accommodate them during the 2012 Games. At No.11 Cavendish Square we are taking a ‘business as usual’ approach and will not be bought out by one Olympic federation,” says Morris.
Waiting for last-minute discounts is foolish
Feedback from members of The Westminster Collection has indicated that lead times have shortened noticeably, suggesting that a culture of last-minute bargain hunters is changing the venue sales cycle significantly.
Much like you’re unlikely to see discounted bedrooms released en masse in central London – owing to demand being higher than the capital’s 123,000-strong room supply – conference, meetings and events venues in premium locations like Westminster have stressed that the focus is firmly on ‘value-add’ rather than price slashing.
“Discounting is not something the client always wants in our experience,” says IET London: Savoy Place’s Sales and Development Manager, Sarah McQueen. “We signed up to London & Partners’ Fair Price Charter as soon as it was announced. We have not planned to increase our rates during this time, but to offer rates that have always been competitively priced within the London market.”
“‘Value-add’ is a far more rewarding proposition than discounting,” says Chief Executive of The Westminster Collection, René Dee. “Event bookers need to know that it’s OK to book in advance and we actively encourage it to ensure there is sufficient time to plan polished, well thought out occasions with good lead times for clients to market their events, whether that’s fashion shows, product launches, press conferences, discrete meetings, corporate hospitality or complete venue exclusivity. Most of the activity in 2012 is targeted at corporate hospitality and brand communication.”
Church House Conference Centre’s Robin Parker remains hopeful of securing a booking for the whole period, but “as every day goes by” he asks himself the question, ‘Do we stick or twist?’ In other words, “do we start taking enquiries for individual dates as opposed to that elusive long-term hire deal?”
If a client wants a particular venue or area for a significant hire period, there’s no merit in waiting, as the number of premium Westminster venues available for the whole Olympic period will soon reduce dramatically.
“Most of the enquiries we have received so far have been for Olympic Houses. We would love to secure a National Olympic Committee who would take over Church House for the duration of the Games. Our central location and 24/7 access makes us ideal for such a client,” says Parker of his elegant 19-room facility which combines traditional design and architecture with advanced audio-visual facilities including CAT 6 cabling and Wi-Fi access.
Be proactive – book a site visit
“Get your foot in the door and be proactive with making site visits to get a real feel for the venue’s character, the staff and the proximity to the action,” says IET London: Savoy Place’s McQueen. “The initial contact to the time of the site visits has been the longest part of the process. Once the client has viewed the venue, then the next stages progress much quicker.”
The availability of complete venue customisation is the stand-out USP at 76 Portland Place, a 13-room conferencing facility located just a stone’s throw from London’s Regent’s Park. It’s in this well-loved green space that a temporary 3000-seat facility will be built for viewing the conclusion of the Road Cycling event.
Hopeful of securing an exclusive hire contract, venue manager Jenny Hullock says, “We’ll work with you to create a unique, creative backdrop for your event. Come and see us. Whether you are looking to host press briefings, office space, meetings or corporate hospitality during the 2012 Olympic Games, the events team will tailor your Olympic experience to meet your requirements.”
Quintessentially British hotel The Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel is taking a similar approach to customisation to convey the flexibility of its rooms for hire. With bedrooms at the hotel largely booked up already, Matthew Tolchard, Director of Sales, is keen to promote corporate entertaining and other unique uses of rooms well suited for events. “We have been getting to know our residents as well as we can and have suggested our event spaces be used as lounges or offices, amongst other things, particularly because many of our guests will be staying in a hotel room for one month or more.”
With 55 very unique venues to choose from, The Westminster Collection is a logical destination for anyone wishing to enjoy premium customer service, high quality, technology-forward venues with Westminster locations that simply can’t be rivalled by other boroughs in London. “Enquire early, don’t delay. There are some incredible opportunities to seize your London hotspot now, not later,” says Dee. “We’re a tried-and-tested borough when it comes to event management – just think about The Royal Wedding – and on a global stage, that’s experience you can trust.”
By Melissa Morris, sales and marketing manager, One Wimpole Street
The colourful mix of channels available to marketers and event organisers has created explosive potential for concocting immersive campaigns that successfully push customers’ buttons. Email marketing is one of the most logical, cost-effective and high impact ways to get this started, allowing you to communicate a message to your valuable database of contacts with relative ease. Maximising your event’s immediate and long-term impact requires planning, publicity, slick execution and a well-oiled feedback strategy.
Results measuring is a high value aspect of an email marketing campaign. Measure open rates, undeliverables and click-throughs; view results for a campaign as a whole; view the actions of a specific recipient to understand what makes that person tick. Capturing this sort of information can prove a valuable lesson for improving future targeted campaigns, making your messages more reflective of that person’s behaviour, preferences and location.
When creating an email marketing campaign, what should you do and what should you avoid?
Plan, publicise, promote
You hold events to raise funds, close deals, nurture relationships and educate colleagues and prospects. First up, you need to let people know what you’ve planned, whether its a trade show, a launch party or a business workshop. If you’ve not yet got a list of invitees, get to work on creating a page on your company website that details your event. Invite interested parties to sign up with their email address to receive more information. You could even offer email subscribers a free entry voucher, or other promotional incentive, like a glass of wine on arrival. Allow plenty of time to execute this initial data grab.
If you’ve a ready-made list of dedicated clients, you’ve a captive audience primed to receive offers. Don’t get sucked into thinking you have to have thousands of people on your list — focus on quality rather than quantity. Then plan, plan, plan.
Avoid email overload and create a schedule. Map what you’ll communicate when, then if and how you’ll segregate your data into groups, e.g. event organisers versus booking agencies. Plan to send a ‘save the date’ announcement, then a detailed invitation, then a reminder. You need to tell guests what they will learn, who they will meet and if there are any free resources or prizes. They’ll want the date, the location, the cost and the link to register.
We buddied up with myvenues.co.uk to share news of our Confex trade show promotions with its 70,000 subscribers. Our eDM to them featured an interactive iPhone-style fascia with graphic buttons representing click-through links to various pages of One Wimpole Street’s website, including HD virtual tours, facilities, location and late availability. Hits towww.onewimpolestreet.co.uk leapt to 531 on that day, accounting for the busiest in our company’s website history.
Consider sending a morning digest containing updates on presentation times, speakers and locations if the event spans more than one day. Finish up with a post-event email to thank your contacts for attending, whether that’s done hand-in-hand with a feedback survey, an event re-cap with a link to download presentations, or an invitation to connect on Facebook or LinkedIn — or a combination of all those things.
Customise, integrate, schedule
Email marketing tools can be integrated with databases or CRM systems allowing event managers to easily customise emails with details such as name, job title and address. Perceived lack of technical skill is no longer a hurdle to engaging with email marketing. Content management systems (CMS) require no knowledge of HTML — they mask all that jargon behind easy-to-use templates that can be customised to mirror your company branding. You can even automate email scheduling and send test emails before they go live to your database.
Content should be viral and sharable — increase the reach of your campaign by allowing recipients to ‘Forward to a Friend’. Tweet about the event and include a link to the sign-up page. This is something you can continue to do throughout the campaign. Create a hashtag too, or link to one that’s relevant. We took advantage of the #confex hashtag to market ‘a chance to win money every 30 minutes’ live from our Confex trade show stand. This put us in front of new Twitter followers and increased foot traffic to our stand by those keen to get in on the lottery ticket promotion we’d devised especially for the show.
If appropriate, bolster your efforts by creating a Facebook page. Mirror marketing messages, link to your website and consider creating interactive content like YouTube videos, podcasts and opinion polls. As consumers, we have control over who we ‘like’ on Facebook. By expressing affiliation with a brand, we are inviting and giving permission to that company to engage with us. It’s often worth our while, as we become part of a community that is given exclusive access to promotions, information and product previews we might not have otherwise been privvy to. Use that logic in your own campaign and reward your loyal Facebook fans with unique content. It’s a lot easier to sell to an existing customer than to sell to a new one.
Email often seems a less intrusive way to be contacted, but respect your customers and be explicit with permissions — ensure people are very clear about what they’re signing up for and what they can expect to receive from you. A user’s ability to control the lifespan of that relationship is theoretically just a click of an ‘unsubscribe’ link away. Be aware that it’s a legal requirement that all commercial emails offer readers a simple one- or two-click mechanism to opt-out.
There’s no cookie-cutter solution to event email marketing technique. Learn tactics from other businesses, but through testing and results monitoring, find what works best for your customers. Never be afraid to ask questions.
Advertising in general is used as a method of informing customers of your company or product and attracting new customers. This is achieved through the medium of eye-catching colour schemes, animation, pictures and informative text. Two of the most used forms of advertising are online and printed documents such as leaflets and flyers. Both have their strengths and weaknesses which are explored below.
With increasing numbers of people now using the internet every day, online advertising has increased dramatically within the last few years, and most notably between the years of 2007 and 2008, where online advertisement suppliers recognised an increase of 10.6% across the industry. In the same year, online advertising increased 4.7% in the market share, even when advertising on the whole was decreasing. It is now clear to see that online and digital advertising is an integral part of the advertising world. This can be due to a number of different factors:
Firstly, it is convenient and is very likely to make an impression on consumers as they have selected a time and place to browse the internet therefore allowing themselves to be susceptible to advertisement campaigns.
There is also a great variety of options when it comes to online advertising which cannot be achieved with printed advertising. Animation can be used, with links to other sites and changing images, this can result in a greater message being put across in a smaller space, whereas printed advertising only offers options in size, colour, shape and text.
The click through element to online advertising is especially advantageous. Not only for directing people to another site, possibly with more information, but also, for recording how many people have paid attention to the advertisement. By using aids such as Google Analytics it is possible to see who and how many people have arrived at your site by clicking through the advertisement.
Online advertising can also have its draw backs. It is all very well to have an excellent idea and promotion, however, it is possible that if a consumer sees an attractive promotion online, they may forget about it by the time they have finished browsing the internet. Even if the consumer does go to the effort of printing the advert out, this is time consuming and defeats the object of online advertising being more environmentally friendly. It is important for a company to know their target market, especially regarding the older generation, who on the whole are not as susceptible to online advertising. It is a generalisation to say that this generation is more likely to take ideas from newspapers and leaflets; this is a practice that has been established for over 150 years, where as online advertising has only become predominant within the last decade.
With the younger generation now becoming an electronic generation, it is sometimes not appreciated when a promotional leaflet is thrust into your hand whilst walking down the street. It is safe to say that many pedestrians find this annoying and flyers and leaflets can become an encumbrance. Furthermore, many people are likely to either throw the flyer in the bin, where it is not guaranteed to be recycled, or create litter on the floor. Due to this; many people are now more opposed to a printed advertisement as it is less environmentally friendly.
Nonetheless, printed advertisements do have their advantages. It can be done fairly cheaply. This is especially good for companies with a limited budget or for small organisations. It is also a tangible aid, people can come back to something they picked up earlier and it is less likely to be forgotten about. Printed advertising can also be noticed in more than one place, where as online advertising is confined to the computer. It is possible to be drawn in to adverts and promotions wherever you go, whether it be on public transport, billboards, building sides or printed publications, therefore printed adverts have an advantage over online advertising in this respect.
Concluding, it would not be possible to advertise using just one medium, this would greatly lessen a company’s range of consumers, therefore reducing the cost benefit of advertising. However, when different types of advertising are combined using cross media, it is likely that the company would gain the greatest benefit, not only by appealing to a larger audience but by playing to the strengths of different forms of advertising.
It is without doubt that good photography is key when promoting your event or organisation through on and offline media. Whether a photo is being sent accompanying a piece of editorial to promote your event, to be included in an advert or as part of a competition, the power of good photography should never be underestimated.
When supplying editorial, it is imperative that good photography relates to the copy supplied. Without an image or with a photo that is either too low in resolution or simply badly taken, the chance of achieving any press coverage drops significantly as it is widely known that images are the first thing to either entice or turn away a reader.
Not only does the quality and type of image affect how powerful your message is and how many people will be enticed to go on and read the article but it also has an effect on how readers view the publication in which it appears – this again stresses the importance of high quality photography as picture editors make clear the difference the right image makes is key to all editorial decisions.
So what are picture editors looking for and how can you ensure that you are spending your budget wisely ensuring the photography you commission is right?
Originality is incredibly important for both successful campaigns, competitions and to achieve acceptance for editorial. When readers are confronted with images in magazines, papers and online, it is the images which capture attention that entices readership. Over-branded photos are definitely something to steer clear from – as tempting as it is to sell your brand or product; it is far less likely the image will be used. Try to sell the product or brand on the strength of the photo rather than emblazing your logo wherever possible.
Ensure your photos don’t fall into the ‘too busy’ category. Good photos concentrate on one central subject which correlates to the supporting editorial, if there are too many distractions; the photo will not draw in readers and will lack affectivity.
Make sure your photo speaks a thousand words. Photo captions are a must when supplying imagery to photo editors, however, the image must also be able to tell the story on its own as it will most likely appear in the media without a supporting caption.
Finally, when commissioning a photographer, make sure you request that all photos are shot both portrait and landscape. Some images may work better one way but depending on space in the relevant publication or website, offering images in both layouts could guarantee you coverage due to offering flexibility.
Venue Collection
Hire prestigious, unique and unusual London venues and facilities with Westminster Venue Collection.
The Westminster Venue Collection’s venues range from fashionable townhouses and private members’ clubs, to luxury hotels, celebrated attractions, historic institutes and societies.
As the world sharpens its focus on climate change and what we can do to slow it down, the event industry – along with a whole host of other businesses – is raising its game….
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
