Event Marketing/Grand Opening
A consultancy group specializing in the equipment leasing and finance industry sought a PR firm to help draw attendees to an upcoming conference. The international consultants, with offices in the United States and Europe, already were working with an event production company that specialized in the broad finance and accounting field. The equipment leasing and manufacturing industries were not yet being targeted.
SCAPR was retained by the consulting firm because of our connections and ongoing presence in the client’s industry. We quickly realized that the event could attract manufacturing as well as leasing executives — an unusual combination. Although we were brought aboard a little late in the marketing and organizational process, we issued timely news releases that received widespread placement. The publicity helped the consulting group achieve the attendance it needed, the event was successful, and as a byproduct it yielded a major new manufacturing account for the client.
When contracted again to market the event — and we were able to start early by:
- Securing a low-cost membership for the client in the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
- Obtaining a high-level speaker from NAM for the 2002 event, after establishing client relations with the association.
- Placing a client story in an annually published four-color booklet about the industry.
- Creating the event’s ongoing collateral marketing materials.
- Placing publicity in more than 30 targeted manufacturing trade publications.
Meanwhile, as an added benefit, SCAPR secured an opportunity for the international consulting group to contribute a new “Finance” column to appear in The Manufacturer, a U.S.-based industry magazine reaching more than 31,000 senior manufacturing executives.
