TMNG Global Creates And Promotes A New Awards Program For A Client's Annual Conference

Challenge

The client had sponsored an annual conference for a number of years. In the previous year, an event planner had taken 10 months and a budget of $1 million to orchestrate the conference. This year, the client cut the budget to $600,000 and the planning time to an in-house effort of five weeks. The client asked TMNG Global to plan a new award ceremony for outstanding marketing campaigns, giving awards in three categories—best online, best email, and best multi-channel—and to attract sponsors to offset the costs of the conference.

TMNG Global Solution

Exercising strict adherence to program management principles, our team was able to meet stringent time frames. Personnel management was critical to establishing relationships with internal and external sources to manage potential sponsorship negotiations. Therefore, we modified the existing sponsorship package content and presentation to highlight the benefits to the sponsors and followed-up potential opportunities to acquire sponsors.

With regards to the award program itself, results were received only two weeks in advance of the conference, leaving a limited window for full orchestration of submissions, judging, and logistics. Our team acquired a list of clients and contacts who could be approached to act in the role of judges. We packaged the award and presentation to potential judges so that they would commit their time for judging responsibilities. Using its marketing expertise, the TMNG Global team evaluated all campaigns for technical completeness and verification of network links, thoroughness of content, and proper category classification. TMNG Global’s subject matter experts set up all campaigns for online viewing, hosted two days of judging, tallied scores, and prepared the documentation of awards.

Benefits to the Client

Although the client did not anticipate any sponsorship participation, nearly $10,000.00 in sponsorship money was secured, with the promise of an additional $10,000.00.

client initially believed that the number of award submissions would range between 30 and 50. As a result of our team’s efforts in promoting the award, total submissions exceeded 100. Similarly, the client hoped for about 12 judges and we were able to secure 20 judges; all of whom were amenable to judging again the following year. The client now has the basis and documentation for a well-received and industry-recognized award program, including recommendations for process improvements for the ensuing years’ conferences.