Hotcow’s Operations Director John Durcan tells us about the importance of in-house logistics when managing successful experiential activities.
Most people don’t realise, but there are lots of little particulars that should go into planning an experiential activity. Having an in-house logistics team on hand is a great asset in order to guarantee a successful and engaging brand experience for your consumers. The accounts team will always ensure that every little detail has been taken care of, however, it is the operations team who will be responsible for managing and leading the event logistics to great success.
When coordinating an experiential campaign, accurate planning, systems and processes are paramount. Everything should be organised according to your planning in order to guarantee the campaign activity runs smoothly and you get the right message across to your target audience, at the right time. Event Managers will ensure that you deliver the best experiences to your consumers, and well-trained staff will engage your target consumers in two-way conversations about your brand offers.
At Hotcow, we plan every element of an experiential campaign. According to John Durcan, “good logistics comes down to a few simple rules: through materials and timing plans, a visionary view of the campaign and a can-do attitude to get the job done well with the intended result in mind”. He also stresses that by having our own in-house logistics and warehouse support, we can use past experiences and insights to provide cost saving solutions, whilst managing and controlling the entire process, ensuring that the deliverables we receive from logistics matches our own high expectations.
From experiential sampling campaigns to live marketing events and road shows, Hotcow’s in-house logistics and operations teams will supply specialist transportation and provide expert advice and guidance with tackling any logistical issues to deliver precision at the right time. Durcan has successfully managed Hotcow’s award winning experiential campaigns for iconic brands such as Honey Monster Foods, which involved detailed strategic planning with a live brand experience and a high level of sampling in concentrated zones, and Powwownow, which achieved a world record for the longest ever three-way conference call.
Powwownow achieved a huge amount of publicity and talkability, with a full 24 hours of non-stop talking by three celebrities in three bed booths at three major London train stations. Although the event was a great success in term of deliverables and measurement, from an inside perspective, “the logistics for Powwownow involved a big learning curve for our logistics team”, admits Durcan.
To setup a fully fledged 3-way video conference between three separate train stations, the logistics team had to become experts in specialised equipment. As Durcan points out, “we had to learn an entire programming language for a video conferencing box to deliver the features we needed and setup a media backbone bridge for reliable media communication over the internet. On the day of the activity things didn’t run as smoothly as we had hoped though. One of our key internet lines wasn’t installed in time at one location. We were at failing point with a big launch and PR setup for 9am. Working through the night we were pulling our hair out, then with barely a minute to spare a resident shop allowed us to take over their phone line for 24 hours enabling us to connect to our net. The phone engineers had to essentially steal a phone line, but the resulting hard work was a success”.
Ultimately, bringing your creative concept to life requires skill and inside experience to get it right. Furthermore, knowing how to overcome such challenges within the required time frame is key to ensure your campaign objectives are met and you are delivering a great brand experience to your consumers.
Hotcow is a multi-award winning brand engagement agency specialising in experiential marketing. We provide logistic solutions where others can’t. For more information or a free consultation contact us.