We often get rung up by all kinds of promotions agencies and direct clients asking for a costing on ‘a little sales trip’ to add some sizzle to a national consumer promotion, with just a few days’ notice. How hard can it be, they say, to look up a package in a travel brochure, add ten per cent and there you go? It’s a bit like asking the EU to come up with eurozone funding…if you don’t ask the right questions, you’ll get the wrong answers.

1. The recent increase, anecdotally, in incentive travel enquiries suggest that some of us may have forgotten how to source and cost incentive travel. If you do actually know, please look away now. For those who are not sure, here’s the lowdown.
2. Travel agent packages, especially long haul, are normally seven-night rotations because they are tied into charter contracts they have signed up to for the entire season. So unless you actually want your winners to spend an entire week overseas, probably Saturday to Saturday, buying into an existing package won’t work.
3. If you decide, that’s no problem, don’t forget that the transfer to the hotel will be common to everyone on the tour package so a 30 minute transfer could be two hours or more as they drop off in every hotel they have contracted with at that resort.
4. If you still decide that’s no problem be aware that in terms of airport priority, scheduled services go first. So if there is any technical delay in flight departures, the charter planes tend to be at back of the queue.
5. If you think that’s no problem when they go on organised excursions at the destination, the same ‘dropping-off-at-every- conceivable-hotel-nonsense’ still applies.
6. If you still think that’s no problem…are you sure you actually want incentive travel?
7. When you give the brief please state how many people you wish to send. Ten winners is not the same number of seats as ten couples. And three hosts is not the same number as three hosts and their partners.
8. If you definitely want to take ten winners but don’t know who they will be yet, you cannot book the seats. Eagle-eyed business travellers will recall that whenever you book an air ticket you have to state your name otherwise you cannot book a flight.
9. If you really do not know who they will be until the end of the incentive period, can I suggest you plan for the group to travel, say, more than two months after the end of the campaign? Making the campaign end in April and then booking the event for mid-May just isn’t going to work.
10. For most marketing projects there is usually a budget. It appears   that for incentive travel there never is…or rather there is, but ‘we’re not going to tell you’. Much as we all love a challenge there is a big difference in the travel experience between a £59 a night motorway lodge and a five-star beach resort. And if you are hosting 100 people, the budget difference is enormous.
11. Make a decision about whether it is city or beach in the brief. Yes, okay, some cities are on the beach, I accept that. But it is not very efficient for us to research five city destinations only to discover in the first two minutes of the pitch that the sales director’s wife is looking forward to a lovely beach resort…again!
12. Give us a clue on the destination. Short haul, medium haul or long    haul? Medium haul means North Africa, Canaries, Russia, Middle East. If you know that the group never goes long haul, please say so and save everyone a lot of work.
13. Some destinations are not easy to fly directly to from the UK. So if changing planes is an issue, mention it at the brief stage.
14. Some country destinations work best as a twin centre visit…the contrast can be very motivational. So if this is an acceptable format it is worth stating so, rather than dismiss it because some additional time is required in packing up and getting on another plane mid-trip.
15. Sometimes clients feel they will not get their money’s worth if they are not active all the time with organised events on the ground. Others say they want it to be more like a holiday with plenty of built-in leisure time. The first one is more expensive than the second one so when you are comparing prices, look at the detail, not just the bottom line.
16. You don’t necessarily get the best value for money if you ask dozens of agencies to pitch, especially if they are briefed to propose exactly the same destination. The World is a small place and one destination is even smaller. Everyone knows who the client is and that there are at least 20 agencies pitching. What you will actually get is dozens of very similar proposals…now there’s a surprise.(The cheapest proposal will come from the agency that has forgotten to cost in one of the prescribed elements. Or offers a predatory price to try and ‘buy’ the business.)
17. When choosing which agency to work with, avoid being swayed by the pure lottery of them proposing the destination you secretly wanted. All this proves is that they are good at guessing. The important thing is are they cost-effective and are they good organisers. There is nothing wrong with saying…’you did not guess what destination we wanted but we like the way you run things, so can you now cross-quote on the destination we actually want?’
18. Don’t change the presentation deadline because one agency bleats that they have been too busy to prepare a document. Keeping to a deadline is a demonstration of how they will run your project. So if they cannot organise themselves to hit the pitch deadline, there is not much hope for your actual event.
19. Do the costings actually add up correctly? You may be surprised how many times the bottom line, per head cost bears no relation at all to the list of items included. Strange I know, but an Excel spreadsheet is a curious beast.
20. Caveat emptor. Try and take a few minutes to look up the agency’s financial returns at Companies’ House. There’s nothing more embarrassing than having to explain to your chairman that you’ve lost  your £50k deposit because the agency has gone bust.
21. Are the people who did the pitch the ones who are actually going to run the event? Just checking…

The best client approach to travel briefing came from Nissan late last year. They invited a few pre-qualified agencies to suggest ONE global incentive travel destination in not less than 10 pages…and don’t bother with any creds. It was a pleasure to work on and really focused attention on the key issue…where the hell are we going to suggest?

Challenge

“To communicate LV=’s brand values and strategy to over 3,500 staff across 14 office locations, whilst ensuring that the day-to-day’s business was not affected by the employees being out of the
office.”
David Ball, Events Director

Outcome

• A two-hour ‘roadshow’, complete with on-brand graphics, scripting and staging for eight shows in three separate city locations over a ten-day period
• Video stings and vox pops of employee and partner debates on the financial services market
• Attended by 250-650 delegates per show
• Live Q&A session with the Executive Team using interactive audience keypads
• High profile professional compere to help facilitate the running order
• Fun audience quiz energiser
• Charitable, fun eco-friendly fundraiser, recycling unwanted CDs and DVDs
• Motivational speaker

Impact

Key messages and company updates were conveyed to all employees, with minimal impact on the day-to-day running of the business and within strict financial parameters.

Challenge

“To roll out an interactive roadshow programme to retail staff throughout the country with a specific emphasis on the new MOVE product and 3D gaming.”
David Ball, Events Director

Outcome

• Website recruitment campaign and delegate registration and management
• Logistical programme taking in 32 locations
• In excess of 1,800 attendees
• A 40ft trailer divided into 4 interactive zones
• Fully dressed interior and exterior
• Multi day residencies at Edinburgh Digital Festival & GamesFest at Excel
• The demo areas incorporated 4 x 40” BRAVIA screens
• All screens 3D equipped
• The vehicle was fitted with WiFi for online gaming
• Whilst on the road, the trailer carried Facebook and Twitter graphics to attract a following

Impact

A high impact programme that was well received by the audience.

Challenge

“We have worked with Sony Ericsson over the past four years, helping their team to establish and maintain close business relationships with their customer base. On average we have delivered approximately 200 events a year, ranging from a private dinner for four members of the senior management teams, through to an incentive to fly fighter aircraft in a dogfight over the Pacific.”
Chris Taylor, Director

Outcome

• Design and planning of brand engagement programmes both internally and externally, helping to maintain brand loyalty and motivation across all sectors.
• An integrated approach to communications across multiple disciplines and channels.
• Implementation and logistics of more than 200 events per year, from low tier conferences to high level experiences for top achievers and everything in-between:
  • Corporate hospitality, international travel, team building events, internal training and communications, business conferences and seminars, client and customer management meetings, customer events and activities: CPW, P4U, VF, O2, 3, Tesco’s etc, kick-off and end-of-year (Christmas) celebrations, USAF ‘Top Gun’ experience
• Dedicated FMI account team and event manager

Impact

Sony Ericsson is widely acknowledged to be the best business in the industry at relationship management. FMI has worked with the team for more than four years and has consistently delivered to their exacting standards.

Challenge

“Through our longstanding relationship, LG MC’s European headquarters asked FMI to become a retained creative and strategic resource, primarily as an extension to their internal team. As a result we have since become the hub of all product knowledge for the European marketing team.”
Lisa Dimbleby, Account Manager

Outcome

• Strategic consultation on product positioning, design identity and user segmentation
• Creation of LG MC external strategy communications (Mobile World Congress)
• Creation of high level sell-in PowerPoint decks for every product within the European roadmap
• Conception of sell-out marketing promotions and production of creative assets for European operator use
• Design, build and file management of ‘Tribeinside’; a bespoke file sharing portal with high security levels and user management system
• Implementation of weekly Tribeinside e-newsletters communicating product specific updates and general marketing news
• Creative direction from a dedicated senior team
• Full-time FMI account manager

Impact

Improved communications within the European product marketing teams since the launch of the dynamic Tribeinside portal. The production of professional sell-through material provides a consistent and coherent message to all marketing teams. Exceptionally strong relationship within LG MC, FMI are perceived as an extension to their team.

Challenge

“To produce a European-wide, compelling website, through which to inform and educate field sales managers on the latest LG mobile handsets.”
Miranda Glover, Account Director

Outcome

• The design of a 360-degree communication tool online, branded as a Social Learning Platform, called LG Tribe
• Design and implementation of the LG Tribe brand identity, Tribe graphics and corporate guidelines
• Build and development of online social learning platform including:
• Handsets and technology: quizzes, resources, news and highlights, newsfeed, user walls, private messages, groups, polls, email, twitter and blog
• UK, France and Netherland pilots with two customer channels in each market
• 360-degree communication flow with all participating users, one to one, as groups or whole Tribes, 24/7
• Points based hierarchical Tribe structure: Cub, Scout, Brave, Elder and Chief, incentivised with professional rewards and merits
• Localisation of central content and design updates
• Ongoing monthly hosting and maintenance, technical support and weekly data reports
• Dedicated FMI European project coordinator

Impact

Tribe is a revolutionary learning tool which encourages peer-to-peer knowledge-share and enables professional, social networking. Status reports prove that it increases product knowledge and encourages brand engagement and loyalty. It also provides a direct, 24/7 communication between the central LG sales team and the staff and customers out in the field, making the company more pro-active and efficient in its sales field relations.

Challenge

“To communicate with an audience of 500+ ‘hand-picked’ Ambassadors, increase the level of product knowledge and gain market insights in order to establish Sony Ericsson as the brand of choice at retail level and to ensure the effective use of the seeded handsets.”
Chris Taylor, Director

Outcome

• Build and management of Smartphone App with dashboard and full reporting suite:
• Broadcast of daily Message to all Ambassadors
• Weekly product / industry questions
• Daily Status Updates from the Ambassador audience
• Private Message function within App
• Engage the audience in a dialogue
• Provide training videos and content to the handset for in-store use
• UK Roadshow
• Quarterly face-to-face training and networking events across 14 locations
• Travel
• Year-end incentive / training for a select group to CES, Las Vegas

Impact

The programme has led the market and has driven other manufacturers to initiate their own programmes to compete. The programme receives active content from the audience on a daily basis and has proven to be a massively valuable tool for the client.

Challenge

“We were briefed to create a global, visual identity and European-wide marketing campaign for LG Mobile’s latest family of high-end mobile phones; including product creative, all POS, photography and movies. This was a huge task in a very short timeframe, with the additional challenge of working direct with Korea from the UK.”
Miranda Glover, Account Director

Outcome

• Animated product movies in multi-languages, from storyboard to script to film shoot, animation production and bespoke music composition
• Bespoke font alphabet for global usage
• Design and launch of 3 product logos reflecting the user profile and operating systems; Android and Windows Phone 7
• Quality and creative product and accessory photography
• Fully-scalable multi-language Graphic User Interface designs for use on handsets and across all BTL material
• Copyrighting, design and artwork of in-store operator product leaflets, communicating handset features, consumer benefits and technical specifications
• Key visual and ambient photography compositions to convey consumer profile and handset benefits
• The dissemination of assets to a global audience through the management of a centralised file sharing portal

Impact

Not only did the campaign make a massive impact in Europe, some of the product movies became TVCs in other territories. The Optimus One movie was used as the LG global viral campaign. More work was commissioned as a result, including a range of European-wide localised Microsites.

Challenge

“Following a successful sales incentive scheme to Marrakech, we were briefed to create a wider incentive programme for 800 sales executives and field sales managers. This was launched at the annual sales conference and ran for the first six months of the following year.”
Gerry York, Director

Outcome

• Rio De Janeiro was chosen as this year’s exciting and colourful incentive destination for 30 qualifiers and their partners
• Launched at Cadbury’s annual sales conference with a teaser video and Samba dance troupe
• Supporting collateral included a secure website with flash graphics and an online league table for individual positions, a printed brochure and DVD
• Post programme communications were predominately online, sharing up to date winning qualifiers’ information quickly and accurately
• FMI designed and produced all creative collateral and managed and planned the event and travel logistics

Impact

Incentive programmes only work if they involve everybody with a chance of achieving something – not just the top sales people. This programme achieved this and the incremental sales gained justified the programme.

Challenge

“Wickes approached FMI to produce and deliver a successful management incentive programme. They wanted to improve upon the previous year’s activities which had had not delivered the desired results and feedback anticipated. This was partly due to poor communication and partly to the difficulty in measuring the diverse nature of the stores during a time of expansion.”
Jackie Bass, Programmes Director

Outcome

• The top divisional store manager, deputy managers and their partners will join the winners from the other two divisions and the top national regional controller on a hosted VIP trip to Miami in June 2012
• This LEAD THE WAY management incentive was communicated to stores via a dedicated website that contained all information related to the sales targets and performance, along with further information about the terrific prizes up for grabs. A printed brochure was also produced
• For the second-placed store management teams the prize was their choice of a VIP European holiday and third place prize was their choice of a VIP UK holiday or a UK experience
• During each incentive period stores could also win money for the store social fund and participate in tactical activities such as a Murder Mystery evening for the top performing ‘lead takers’ on kitchens and bathrooms
• Once in Miami, the managers’ club 4-day itinerary included cocktails at Hotel Victor, a trip to the Everglades for an airboat ride and the chance to see a Florida alligator, dinner downtown at the famous Red Steakhouse, shopping at Sawgrass Mills, Florida’s biggest shopping mall and much more…

Impact

Feedback from stores is that the incentive has been very well executed and articulated. They are all clear and aware of exactly what they have to do to win their place on the travel reward to Miami, and can track each week how close they are to the top of the leader-board for achieving their targets.