Spot On launches Real Seminars

Real Seminars launch Western Mail 07/19/09

Originally uploaded by semplevictoria

We have been busy working on a new business seminar programme with support from the University of Glamorgan Centre for Enterprise, Real Seminars.

The programme involves real businesses sharing real information about real issues they have faced in business with a very real business audience. The programme of 4 events kicks off on 10th November at the Atrium in Cardiff with Tom Ware of Rondo Media talking about collaboration projects with his competitors to be in a marketable position in the lucrative North American broadcasting market.

We’ll post more information about the programme in the coming weeks, but for more info and to sign up to attend the event go to www.realseminars.co.uk

What would make you volunteer for a good cause?

So we are all touched by events that cause others suffering in one way or another, be that illness, natural disasters or poverty. Only a small percentage of people will actively go out of their way to make a difference, where as the majority will donate a little money and the rest just block it out of their head.

So the question is what moves you to make a difference?

Oxfam last TV ad campaign (2008) started to look differently on how we respond to calls for help from charities. They moved away from the images of depression, disease and famine that the general public are just over exposed too. The campaign success was a matter of opinion for many (personally just didn’t like the advert) But it leads me to think, what makes me want to give…

Usually its what is in it for me? Will I feel good for getting involved? Is there a commercial opportunity through PR etc & how easy is it to give (giving is time as well as money).

Do I need shocking? Do the images charities and organisation usually use actually shock me into acting – No. As said before we are over exposed to these images and our brains can easily be distracted by something more positive rather than dwelling on the negative.

Do I need inspiring? Yes, something is needed to capture my imagination. When we took part in a Barnardo’s corporate fundrasing gig, it was because the activity appealed to me. It was an Apprentice style challenge or making money on one day with a business idea – well sign me up was my reaction as soon as I had the email.

Basically this is my ramblings of  trying to get down into the cracks of human nature, what makes us tick in order to give something for a ‘good cause’. It would be great to get some responses on what makes you take that decision to help an organisation, so feel free to comment.

To conclude – my ramblings – I personally feel that appealing to the individual makes you take action. What ever motivates me in live will motivate me to give up my time for a good cause.

Blown the aftermath

Well well, blown magazine is officially launched and in style too!

The launch happened on Monday, where we had 150 guest experience highly visual performances from Jaakko, Tim Bromage, Paul+a and Victorian English Gentleman’s Club.

We all had so much fun, especially at the after party in Buffalo, where Ed Pereira and Eddie Chave treated us to some mashups on the decks and Geraint P and We Know Mason wowed us with live music. I met up with the Art Director of the mag today at another business event and we compared tiredness notes (after party rocked on till the early hours).

Check out my rather rushed pics from the night and rock on London’s 1st blown party.

Blown is available from next week at Borders stores across the UK and specialist outlets – go on grab a copy and treat yourself to some ‘cultural intellegence’.

Meet the Blown team

The amazing Jaakko

End of the beautiful Tim Bromage piece

Just a little shot of the guys up for a party on a Monday night

Blown launch

We are running the blown magazine launch event next Monday and I can actually say I haven’t been this excited in a long time. One of those events that made me smile from the moment I had the brief - has the usual event management trials and logistical tribulations that comes with the territory, but nothing that doesn’t take the smile off my face, not one second of it, its been a joy to work on.

So we have a formal launch, with live performances, speeches, plenty of wow factors and importantly the right people coming. Then we have the After Party, which is all about letting your hair down and whats fantastic is that everyone, yes even you, are invited to come along. Buffalo in Cardiff from 8.30pm. Only restriction is on how much fun you want to have on a Monday night!

So blownis a brand new biannual high brow arts magazine, covering performance art, fashion, music, art, design, photography, art festivals and exhibitions. Its beautifully designed and its essence is ‘cultural intellegence’ – giving first person reactions and commentary on every article, it is a great read as well as looking amazing on your coffee table.

So i’ll update you after the launch, put some pics up and let you know how it goes. blown gets is Spot On that’s for sure

Look up if your in Bala this week

The Blimp ready for lift off

Originally uploaded by wilstephens

Check out this blimp baby! Hoping for a dry low wind day today to launch it ready for the Dewin launch event at this years Eisteddfod.

Spot On did the Health & Safety reports (lots of them) & organisation of the clients’ team to put this blimp up. It took alot of work but it will be worth it. Well dont Cube for the design & all things Dewin!

If your in Bala this week take a look at the sky line you will not miss it!

The Big Bang, product launch theory

When launching a new product or service you want everyone to know about it, right?! There are so many messages, new products all pitching for exposure it may be hard to be heard out there.

To create a ’bang’ is just that - touching the people who will buy the product or service. Launch events, well any event really, are a gathering of people who are already interested in what they are attending - which makes them a captive audience! Use this wisely, you wouldn’t attend an event you had no interest in, so they are likely to buy your product/service, they might be looking for more information, or indeed a reason not to buy.

So, create consistent messages that all employee’s & marketing material give out, you are the face(s) of the product/service become the product/brand/service at the event. If its a youthful product, then be youthful – no stuffed shirts & aged board members, if its a professional service, then be professional, get the suits out, if its a electrical product, then make sure there are enough sample areas and talk gadets with people, see where I am going with this…

Give demonstrations, have your audience interacting with the product, sample it. The more a person can find out information and experience something for them selves the more they will convince themselves of its necessity in their lives. And also talk about it after the event to other potential customers…

So you can create a literal ‘big bang’ at the launch by spending lots of money on special effects, high profile venues and free drink, but really what you need is to spend the money on getting the right people to your event! After all you have probably invested time, money and resource in getting your product ready for market, don’t waste it on irrelevant people/ hangers on!

Where is your audience going to be found? B2B launches oftern take place at exhibitions and conferences – go a little further than just booking a stand, could you run a seminar to put your self as a figure of authority? Host a special event there, which is promoted through the exhibition organisers “12pm dancing cars to launch robotic systems new…” – its a one off show that gets people to your stand and to understand your product and they will talk about it well after the exhibition doors are closed. Create a BUZZ!

Also remember where they are, if your golden invite list are in Leicester, don’t launch in London because it seems ‘cooler’ – they wont travel just for you, unfortunately.

Make your audience feel if they are not at your launch then they are really missing out! What are the real benefits of them coming.

Use PR, but spend the time priming the media about your product – talk to them don’t just send a press release out under embargo, do you know how many they receive daily! Get them to buy into your product, give them a sample, if its the right media they will take your product directly to your audience.

Budgets -  Think about how much a new client is worth in your business lifetime? How much money would you pay to get that new client? 20% of their lifetime spend with you? 50% maybe. Well at your launch you are doing just that.

The Big Bang product launch theory is all about getting the right audience to your event, do that and your produce/service will certainly start life with a bang!

What are your unanswered business quesitons?

We are planning real business seminars for the autumn. So want to know what your unanswered questions in business are? What knowledge do you think you are lacking in at present? Drop some comments here. We are designing this programme to be user lead, South Wales SME’s will dictate the event topics (its going to be very exciting!) More to come, but for now please do engage, lets us know what knowledge you are thirsty for right now!

Power of an Invitation

So everyone likes to be popular. Everyone likes to be considered important. An invitation is a powerful tool to start a conversation.

We do dabble in a bit of media lovieness every now and again, and I would not profess to be entering into the PR market, but our latest event proves that events are a powerful.

Trying to get time to talk to journalists is hard work, getting the right connections, having a good story or hook is difficult to pin down at the best of times. Space Studios, a professional recording studio based in Cardiff have had a bit of success getting PR coverage – Jess is a regular commenter on music news, talent shows etc in the local press. But getting the studio coverage is hard. So we put together a Media Day to promote the parties they host (AMAZING parties at that – you get to record your own song and have it on your own CD!) 

So rather than bombarding magazines, newspapers, radio etc with press releases they don’t read – get them there to experience it. Simple!

One well deisgned eye catching invitation later, to targeted media contacts with a simple message of how good a feature article will be = national magazines, specialist media and regional press wanting to cover the parties. Result.

This is the POWER of an INVITATION! Its an opening, its a conversation starter, it makes them feel important and special, they start caring about the product, they feel involved.

This works with all target audiences, whether its B2B, B2C, friends and associates. Create an event, invite people to come you get an instant route through to the people you want to talk to about your business.

The process is simple, send the invitation to the event – then follow up with a phone call (this increases your success rate on event attendance 10 fold and so important) – this call is to simply as if they have received the invite, are they thinking of attending. Usual response is “oh I don’t think I have seen it” Bingo, licence to talk about your event and YOUR BUSINESS! Getting them interested in what you are about. Could you get that response from a DM, or a cold call? Plus its a great way to get through the gatekeeper, because you have invited them and looking for a response – you are not badgering for a sale, you are warm to the recipient.

Plus you get to host a party, event, launch – which is always fabulous

For the media day, we’ll post the coverage clipping when they start coming in, its very exciting…

No one cares until you make them care

Its an age old sales rule, but it is true, why else is marketing such a strategic part of business; No one cares about your business!

So no one cares about how long you have been established; no one cares what qualifications you toiled long an hard to get; no one really cares how pretty your last campaign was; no one cares until you can solve their problem or make their lives easier and better.

This is true of events, thinking you have a great seminar topic is not enough to fill a room, unless you target those who need your insightful knowledge. No one really wants to attend a launch event just because they want free food & drink, they genuinely want to see, hear, touch the product or service you are launching.

This is probably why some events cant be attribuated to a return, as the worng people are attending, or there is not enough strategic targetting of the prospective audience.

“Guilt is a powerful thing” The great part of understanding that no one cares is that you will be surprised by who actually does. Guilt is a great way of getting new business or reviving old clients. A friend of mine recently held a 10th Birthday celebration of her excellent catering company. Fantastic turn out on the night and a pleasant evening (of course the food was amazing!) however, she asked me about making a return off the night (after the event). Therer where many reasons why she couldn’t track orders, as it was just a drinks reception there was no compelling offers or call to action on the evening, so could only encourage new business in good follow up. BUT… guilt struck those who couldn’t attend – resulting in new orders being placed up to 6 weeks after the event. The invite was an instant reminder and because of her excellent personal customer service non attending customers became, well… customers again!

So no one cares about your business until you make them care, and events are possibly the very best way of achieving this! A much better response to a personal invitation to something that the target is interested in, has an experience of, and could solve their problems.

If you want to know more about creating events that make people care about you talk so someone who really cares about your business first get their insight into what makes you different, makes them come back to you. Oh and you could give us a call at Spot On events & communications too…

Apprentice the independent consultants view

Everyone loves the drama and entertainment of the Apprentice. You only have to look at Twitter trends on Wednesday to see get a feel of viewing figures. And everyone has an opinion on what went wrong, who should go and the over whelming thought of ‘are these really the best in Britain?’ Of course its all about good TV entertainment and the producers have chosen characters that will make compelling viewing.

Well a team of Cardiff based entrepreneurs, including Spot On events & communications director Vicky Semple, working at the business coalface, pulling apart the weekly debacles in and around Sugar Towers. You’ve heard the corporate view in the boardoom…you’ve heard the celebs’ take on You’re Fired…now hear the consultants: every week from now till Sir Alan finally yells “You’re hired!”

To listen to our podcasts go to our Apprentice Space http://www.spacestudios.co.uk/apprentice_space.htm

Panel includes

James Daniel, Earth Monkey Creative www.earthmoneky.co.uk

Jessica Morgan, Space Studios www.spacestudios.co.uk

George Sava, George Savva Training

Vicky Semple, Spot On events & communications www.spotonec.com