TRO wins over 30 awards in the past 3 years

Our awards include:
>> Most effective use of budget
>> Best ROI
>> Best new product launch
>> Best one day event
>> Best business / industrial event
>> Best use of venue’s facilities
>> Best practice
>> Best use of logistics
>> Event management company of the year

Corporate Events will weather the economic storm: Conference Report

The corporate events industry is surviving the economic downturn with more resilience than many other sectors in the marketing mix. So said Eventia Board Director and Treasurer Rob Allen at the Eventia summer conference held on 6-7 July.

Summing-up a day and a half’s conference sessions, Allen, who is Chief Executive of experiential agency TRO, warned delegates to expect more bad news from the market place over the coming 12-18 months, but to work on their own ‘super-proposition’ - that could embrace virtual events, social media and demonstrating added value to procurement purchasers - to help weather the turbulent times ahead.

He reminded the audience of 215 events industry professionals that corporate clients were having as tough a time as agencies and suppliers, and stressed that other areas of marketing were suffering to an even greater degree.

“The events industry is not getting the kicking that advertising is” he said. “Projects are being thrown back: rather than going to Dubai, events are taking place in Dublin. But this gives us an opportunity to have discussions at a much more senior level within our client companies.”

Allen added that it wasn’t the case that only the large agencies would win pitches for conferences, product launches and internal communications events in the current climate. He said that discussions with corporate buyers from a wide range of industry sectors had revealed that many were keeping 25% of their business opportunities open to agile, nimble and innovative agencies, regardless of their size.

The Summer Eventia conference was held in Brighton and attracted a line-up of speakers that included independent behavioural economist Roger Martin-Fagg; brand protector Rob Shimmin and futurist speaker Rohit Talwar – as well as business leaders from the events industry itself. The fully interactive event was facilitated by Neil Jones, Director, Crystal Interactive.

Experiential Agency TRO changes the rules for launch of Chevrolet's new Cruze

The retail launch of the new Chevrolet Cruze took place at Millbrook Proving Ground on 7 July.

The event, designed by experiential agency TRO, combined business and marketing updates training sessions with ride and drive activity for two consecutive audiences: 130 retailers and 40 Chevrolet head office staff.

TRO applied one of the car’s key marketing messages – that of changing the rules – to the planning of the day’s programme. The rules were changed from the start at Millbrook, with delegates being put directly into the Cruzes on arrival, where they drove down to the venue whilst listening to the event’s opening address via an in-car CD - rather than the standard business meeting address in plenary.

Les Turton, Chevrolet’s Marketing Director said: “TRO have really embraced the Chevrolet Cruze ‘changing the rules’ theme and applied it creatively throughout the event concept. All delegates had an experience to remember.”

During the event’s business meeting, attendees got to select and vote on the presentations they wanted to hear from a range of offered options.

Lunch began by celebrating the Great British staples of Fish and Chips, All Day Breakfast and Toad-in-the-Hole, but went on to break all sensory rules with a dessert that appeared to be Prawn Cocktail, but was in fact lychees and raspberry sauce.

TRO was responsible for all design, creative and production work for the launch. In 2008 General Motors consolidated all of their experiential and live event activity with TRO, and the agency is currently working on a number of other initiatives including the launch of the next generation Astra later in the year

TRO wins TV Licensing experiential campaign pitch

Direct and digital agency Proximity London, on behalf of TV Licensing, has appointed experiential agency TRO to produce a face-to-face marketing campaign visiting approximately 50 universities nationwide.

After winning a four-way competitive pitch, TRO has been briefed to raise awareness amongst students of the legal requirement for individual ownership of a television licence in halls of residence.

Said Proximity’s Planner Hazel Reed, “TRO has already devised and managed a number of university-based experiential campaigns, and it was the agency’s successful track record in engaging with students that strongly influenced our decision.”

The agency will be recruiting a squad of students to spread the word amongst their peers during the September-October freshers period, with the ultimate objective of encouraging licence sales, both amongst students in halls and also those in private housing.

One of the campaign’s key objectives will be to explain the legal position for students wishing to watch programmes either on a TV set or streamed through a laptop.

Experiential Agency TRO delivers Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition Campaign

In April 2009 to support the launch of Samsung’s new mobile phone, the Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition, experiential agency TRO produced a 16-day nationwide roadshow visiting key train stations and boutique shopping centres. The brief was to take top-line messaging about the new phone to 20-35 year-old urbanites, professionals and office workers, and encourage trial and interaction with the product. Many of these targets are cynical purchasers in a saturated mobile phone market.
The activity took place at eight key locations nationwide during periods of high footfall, targeting people living in or around the location, who were more likely to stop and engage with the product, and also passers-by, who, given their timing constraints, were more likely to respond subsequently to information printed on flyers.
The promotion incorporated an attractive centre-piece, from which an interactive hologram of the handset was spinning and bursting with brilliant light projections. Consumers approached the installation and ‘touched’ the hovering hologram, which then automatically transformed into a ‘Text-to-win’ message. The installation brought to life the campaign’s above-the-line messaging ‘A Touch of Brilliance’ – raising awareness of the phone’s ultra-bright AMOLED screen.
A modular design allowed for the varying stand space. Six phone plinths were placed strategically around the installation to encourage handset trials. A team of brand ambassadors distributed flyers to drive consumers to a custom-designed website, which carried further phone information and offered the chance to win a Tocco Ultra Edition handset.
Both elements incorporated a compelling gift-with-purchase mechanic offering sunglasses vouchers and enhancing the drive to purchase.
Results

Research concluded that the campaign reached over 800,000 consumers (using the Opportunity to See (OTS) metric, as applied to above-the-line campaigns).

The number of consumers actively visiting and remaining within the promotional area totalled 60,000.

Engagement with100,000 consumers was achieved via distribution of marketing collateral.

The competition received over 3,000 entries

Sales in stores local to the activity totalled 100. In addition over 80 sales were gift-with-purchase redemption requests, resulting directly from the experiential activity.
Georgina Grantham, Channel Marketing Manager, Samsung Mobile said: “The experiential activity taking place at key train stations and boutique shopping centres enabled us to reach and engage with the urban professionals and office workers that constitute our prime target market, and perfectly complemented our above-the-line campaign.”
Chris Wareham, TRO Group Account Director said: “The roadshow provided a fully integrated approach - by the drive to online through premium literature handed out to commuter traffic; more immersive engagement through the stand experience; technically trained staff to answer product queries and a gift-with-purchase mechanic to drive sales in partner stores. “