Fully Integrated Marketing Campaign

East Midlands Conference Centre

Brief

Set in 330 acres of landscaped parkland, the University of Nottingham is one of the most beautiful campuses in Europe, close to Nottingham city centre and all major road, rail and air links.

The University of Nottingham Conference Centres (UNCC) are designed to give it’s clientele the ultimate in choice and versatility. Global meetings, exhibitions, conferences, banquets, small seminars, private dinners…the different sizes and combinations of the events they can host are almost limitless.

The University commissioned Distinction to produce an A4 3-fold Leaflet to promote the flexible year-round conference facilities.

Solution

Rather than produce a leaflet with the sole purpose of relaying information, we decided to bring a concept to the excecution, making the leaflet an advertisement as well.

With a contemporary and colourful art direction, the concept was targeted at pushing the ‘flexibility’ message with an eye-catching and intriguing cover direction.

The leaflet was an overwhelming success, resulting in the largest response rate of any previous promotional activity. We are now undertaking similar work using the same successfull theme.

The campaign included the following aspects of promotional material;

Creation of 'flexibility' concept;
Initial slinky image to co-inside with the 'flexibility' concept;
6pp leaflet covering the 'Anytime / Vacation time' concept;
A4 and A5 adverts for International Confex Magazine;
A6 double sided flyer for International Confex Event;
T-shirt graphic design for International Confex Event;
B5 advert for Lakeside Magazine;
Advert for Nottingham Evening Post;
Billboard Advert;
A6 flyer for visitors to the EMCC;
2 x 2 metre banner stands bearing the 'flexibility' theme;
3 x email campaigns before and after International Confex featuring animation;
Web banner animation to feature on a series of websites;
International Confex exhibition stand backwall artwork;
We even did the PowerPoint presentation that helped promote the concept at the MIMA's.

The flexibility campaign

Result

In addition to achieving record sales for the EMCC venue, the campaign also won industry recognition by winning two MIMA gold awards for the Best Integrated Marketing Campaign and Best Use of Budget at the national Meetings Industry Marketing Awards (MIMA).

What they had to say...

I was absolutely delighted to win the two gold awards, especially in the light of the competition and the judging panel. In both categories, praise was given to the coordination of the campaign in its entirety, and especially the careful monitoring of return on investment - all in all, the campaign has achieved a ROI of 7.5 to 1.

For best use of budget, we were up against The University of Leicester and Worldevents, for Best Integrated Marketing campaign, CMP Information Limited and Sodexho for Blenheim Palace Hospitality.

The judging panel was drawn from the industry and high profile private sector organisations included representatives from Xerox, Ogilvy & Mather and Virgin.

Kirstie Danzey - Marketing Manager