Challenge
Post-COVID, a global pharmaceutical company faced an unexpected surge of requests for in-person meetings. The company was challenged by the sudden escalating demand for meetings and events services on their staff and contracted agencies. These demands led to a lack of compliance from the Meeting Owners and placed high demand on the Meeting Planners to meet the requests. The team needed to communicate the current state of the industry with Leadership, Meeting Owners, and Meeting Planners and provide a checklist of items to address concerns as they pertained to their roles.
APPROACH
The client and Advito worked together, coming from a place of genuine concern, to create a safe and effective return to meetings and events. As post-COVID health restrictions lifted around the world, the client wanted to spotlight and support those who were on the front lines managing the sudden increase in demand for meetings and events. Advito was challenged with the difficult task of creating and executing an effective communications strategy within the span of six short months – in multiple languages and tailored to various audiences with differing needs – while utilizing the input from not only the client but also the clients’ outside contracted agencies. The campaign sought to drive awareness of service challenges across the business, giving a voice to Meeting Planners and other key stakeholders that were under significant pressure, as well as reduce the confusion around the post-COVID return to meetings and events.
Since the client had three separate audiences to communicate to across five global regions, Advito implemented a multi-communication, digital marketing strategy utilizing the client’s branding, which included an email drip campaign, a video, a survey, and an intranet article highlighting all of these efforts and helping the different stakeholders navigate a difficult phase of post-COVID recovery. The content was developed utilizing input from the travel team and the client’s two Meeting Planning Agencies to ensure the messaging was in line with what they were experiencing on the front lines. All pieces communicated to the Meeting Planning Agencies were also translated into six languages: English, Japanese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, and French. Regional Leads, Meeting Owners, as well as the Meeting Planning Agencies, received tailored communications that pertained to their unique functions and needs while maintaining the overarching goal of making meetings and events go smoothly for all parties involved.
Results
The Regional Leads received an all-encompassing PowerPoint deck that provided an overview of the current state of the industry to drive awareness of the industry-wide challenges, level-set their expectations and equip them with the information they needed to mitigate the challenges.
They also received a customizable email template with talking points addressing the service industry issues and actionable items. They were able to modify this to fit their needs and communicate with their relevant audiences.
Meeting Owners within the client’s organization received an email campaign consisting of three key messaging pillars:
- Email 1: Planning a meeting? Things have changed…
- Email 2: Planning a meeting? Plan with confidence
- Email 3: Planning a meeting? We’re here for you!
Each email contained unique information that was visually appealing and easily digestible while providing a clear perspective of the challenges at hand and how best to deal with them.
This email campaign was supplemented by an intranet article summarizing the details and providing an additional channel for audiences to find relevant information.
Meeting Planning Agencies were asked to complete a survey to provide advice they would like to share with the Meeting Owners. They were asked about the challenges they were facing, and the measures needed to alleviate the obstacles. The survey was emailed twice and translated into French, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. With an excellent response rate of 52%, Advito received feedback from 232 Meeting Planning Agents. Advito analyze the results and communicated the recommended actions and strategies to all relevant stakeholders.
To thank the Meeting Planning Agents for their hard work and dedication during this period and to keep spirits and motivation levels up, an email was sent thanking them for their service, which included a personalized video from a leadership team member. Advito developed the piece with a custom script and a final edited video. The email and the embedded video were also translated into French, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. The emails were sent to 449 Meeting Planning Agents and the video alone garnered 439 clicks and a 160% response rate with multiple views.
The full campaign overall was a great success, with messages of appreciation from the Meeting Planning Agents.
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