Sales Award Gala ID

The brief: Introduce the company’s post-acquisition rebrand to the entire company, with a special preview at the annual sales meeting.

The rebranding process required six months prior to deal-close and another six months after the contracts were signed. The opportunity to rebrand the company was also a chance to level set corporate culture; a top to bottom media survey of the asset libraries at both companies informed the thinking behind the final identity produced.

It’s only a few seconds on screen, which makes this portfolio piece a microcosm of the portfolio process; hundreds, likely thousands of hours across the organization were required to not only bring all of the parties to the table to approve the meeting theme, but to also then execute the global meeting.

Meeting Kickoff

The brief: Kick off the annual sales meeting with an inspirational opening video. In the example here the leadership team’s inspirational messages have been removed for client confidentiality.

Virtual Trade Show

The brief: Support a virtual trade event online with a one-minute ‘talking’ trade show loop.

The concept was that a virtual industry event for new biotechnology – could be available 24/7 online and promoted through, in this case, a GPO.

It’s a challenge to compress a product’s positioning into 60 seconds, but it’s a worthwhile exercise and helps the product marketing team drill down to the essential messaging

Meeting Identity

The brief: Develop and execute a theme for the annual sales meeting.

Using a mashup of a well-known TV shows is a popular way to theme a sales meeting. There are plenty of choices: shows that pit contestants against one another, shows that put contestants in stressful situations, shows that force contestants to form groups to succeed. All can be a great way to reinforce the winning nature of your sales team.

The identity developed was threaded through all of the event collateral including email campaigns, the event app, on-site signage, in the various PowerPoint templates used for presentations, even the keynote speaker! I wish I could show the NSF version of the “Glengarry Glen Ross” theme we produced for one meeting…

Trade Show Loop

The brief: The business unit needs a new trade show loop for the upcoming year.

The annual trade show calendar consumes a seemingly outsize percentage of the Marketing’s time and resources. The preparation is thankless, visibility is low because such a small percentage of the company attends even one trade event each year, and the materials produced often don’t ‘translate’ well to leveraged use elsewhere.

I considered the annual loop a great way to showcase the prior year’s creative output; leverage the content, wrapped in event specific cladding in the loop.

Virtual Sales Meeting

The brief: Create and execute a virtual annual sales meeting ‘In A Box’; eschewing the typical annual sales event that accommodates only a portion of the total sales organization, use live streaming technology and duplex video feeds to connect the worldwide sales teams.

The program included live broadcasts originating from the corporate headquarters supporting individual global regional meetings where custom content was delivered by sales leadership. The corporate broadcasts were timed to enable each region to interact with the hosts and be acknowledged for their contributions. Each region could also ‘add’ content to the global broadcast, instilling a friendly competition between regions to highlight their successes.

The virtual ‘Sales Meeting In A Box’ program engaged a broader portion of the sales team than traditional annual location based events and was very well received by regional sales management.

Annual Sales Meeting

The brief: It’s that time of year! Another annual sales meeting needs a theme, visual identity and a ton of work to promote, produce and stage. The video on display here has been heavily edited – eliminating most of the company personnel from the piece – it’s only fair, nobody is that excited, ever about another sales meeting, and certainly not on camera!

No wonder marketing teams groan under the strain – these meetings are a ton of work. 500 to 5000 attendees in a new (and always logistically challenging!) location every year, huge expectations for culture building (maybe there’s been M&A recently, or a big win/loss) and the sales engine needs revving. I look at the last 90 seconds of the video and see dozens of projects produced throughout the year that instill the org with a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Marketing teams should try to embrace these events. They are an extraordinary once-a-year opportunity to survey the company from top to bottom, looking for the hidden success stories. I look at the annual sales meeting as a chance to showcase the great work of teams – from every department. What salesperson isn’t pumped up by an entire company demonstrating their resolve to make the sales process successful?

American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons

The brief: Build a broadcast package for the company’s participation in the annual scientific convention, integrate a theater in the floor plan and execute multiple live broadcasts to internal and external audiences.

The internal broadcast ran much like a TV magazine show, with a host and prerecorded segments. The broadcasts were staggered through the day and customized for broad time zones: U.S., Europe, Asia, Middle East.

The broadcasts were very popular with the sales organization because virtual attendance filled a need. Of the 2000 sellers on the global team only a handful would ever have a chance to attend the conference in person.

American Telemedicine Association

The brief: Create a unique positioning at the trade show with a ’30 Day Guarantee’ offer on all collateral to launch the company’s newest product offering.

The campaign was developed and executed for the annual trade event, one of the largest in the industry. The 3-minute silent movie (sound-track added here solely to entertain) was an opportunity to level set for the entire organization by bringing the ‘strategy decks’ to life – in motion graphics and copy for everyone to rally behind.

The campaign ‘won’ the trade event and was the talk of the industry that year; it was a great win for the creative teams and showcased the best the department had to offer.