Fun Time

How come a particular client will go to corporate hospitality events of another agency but we can’t manage it?

Yes, this is nightmare territory – the potential for stronger relationships and the equal likelihood of squandered money. The simple answer, to quote a movie line, is that you just ain’t doing it right. The more complicated one takes a bit longer to explain. Actually the fact that the other agency has succeeded shows that the client is on for such entertainment in the first place. You just have to work out how you can make it work for your agency.

First of all, you have to decide what you are trying to get out of your corporate hospitality. Is it stronger day-to-day team relationships, connection with a new senior decision maker or change in agency perceptions? For example, if it is a stronger client-agency team you may want to consider something interactive. This can range from activities like outsourced management survival courses to a few beers and ten-pin bowling. If it is change in agency perceptions, it may be more work-based and be a breakfast or evening seminar for a number of clients where the content is geared around something which the clients will be interested in and a revered outside speaker takes the lead. Getting Rory Sutherland to be his entertaining self may be easier if you are part of WPP or arranging for Robert Peston to speak about the economy may pay off with senior clients you are wishing to impress.

You also need to get the tone and timing right. In my experience, getting clients to come to events has seemed harder over the last few years and with the current “post crunch” pressures in every client organisation, it is becoming even more problematic. So making sure you are designing the right type of event is even more essential. Clients will only come if they really want to come. Therefore see it from your clients’ perspective. Are we talking about a breakfast session of intellectual discussion or a drunken evening culminating with your MD showing off his exclusive party trick of setting fire to his Sambucca-drenched testicles? (I kid you not. I could not make this type of story up!). What would work for your clients? Is the most senior client going to accept/like it? What signals about the agency does it give out to the other clients?

A good friend feels that alcohol is an essential ingredient for corporate entertainment and I tend to agree with him but he goes further by explaining it is a lubricant that enables clients subsequently to award projects to assuage their embarrassing behaviour. Then again he told me the Sambucca story so he moves in slightly different circles. However I do feel you need somebody in your team who is the catalyst for things to happen. They may not always be the most senior but it helps. It may be you....they are the ones without any prompting who get the party started and lead the initially reluctant clients to the dancefloor and get them to enjoy themselves.

Summer entertaining around sports or Christmas parties are laden with timing problems. There are invariably expensive but if you book Goodwood when the Wimbledon semi-finals are on or you schedule your Christmas bash on the night of the main industry awards you may have wasted your money. Time things carefully and consider teaming up with other agencies or suppliers to host a client event (your clients will thank you around Christmas time). Also think about not doing a broadcast event but use the money to do exclusive, discreet things which will have a greater effect. The Claridges Chef’s Table may create a stronger experience with a select client list than the agency team trooping down to Basingstoke to take out the whole marketing department out to the local Café Pasta.

Hope this helps. In the meantime, don’t forget Christmas is around the corner. (and thanks to Holly O’Neil for the photo above).