RAISING THE STANDARD

OBEX wanted to reach the Managing Directors and senior decision-makers at their existing customers, mostly small and medium-sized, privately owned construction firms building multi-unit housing and smaller commercial buildings. Any one of those firms switching to RapidTray across its future projects could be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds. The original brief, though, was short: a London launch at the Shard with drinks and canapés. Nothing in it gave a busy MD a reason to give up an evening, or turned a good turnout into sales conversations.

Our first job, then, was to make the brief make sense. Before designing anything we asked what this audience actually wanted from an event, talking to our own network, PR contacts and people close to the construction industry. The answers were consistent. They wanted to be treated as individuals and to spend real time with senior people at OBEX, and they wanted to feel listened to, even part of the solution. They were also keen on useful content, particularly the building regulation changes affecting their businesses. If the event could offer that, they had a reason to come, and it was up to us to make every part of the evening count.

Getting the right people in the room was the biggest risk. Managing directors of construction firms rarely go to events, and their diaries are full. A half-empty room would have meant OBEX launching a product years in the making to the customers who matter most to them, and watching it fall flat.

On top of that, OBEX had never run an event like this, so there was no internal process or attendance history to build on, and no events team either. We set everything up from scratch, from the wording of the invitations to how the OBEX team would host their own customers on the night. Just as important was making sure they felt confident in front of the people they sell to every day.

Then there was the clock. We had 45 minutes to turn the space around, so the staging, branding, exhibition stands, gift bags and a life-size cutaway building model were all planned to the minute with the Horizon 22 team and our suppliers.

Of the 280 people invited, 150 accepted and 110 came: a 73% turnout against acceptances, well above the industry average of around 50%, from an audience that rarely goes to events at all. The January date, a quieter month in construction, and a straight-after-work start for London-based guests were both deliberate choices that helped.

On the night, the OBEX team’s hosting was exceptional, and guests felt welcomed as individuals from the moment they arrived. Standing at the back of the room during the presentations, we couldn’t see a single guest on their phone, and when the technical Q&A opened up, the questions came so thick and fast that it overran. Afterwards, the evening became a party with the London skyline as the backdrop: guests who had come for the content could leave when it finished, and those who stayed had great food, drinks, entertainment and an evening of industry networking 58 floors up.

That’s what a family business running its first event needed: OBEX spent the evening talking to their customers, which is what they do best, while we looked after everything else. With QR codes at every touchpoint, each of those conversations ended with a clear next step.