Gifts are the Icing on the Wedding Cake

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Engaging Concepts, strategic consultants to the wedding industry, gather the top tastemakers in wedding planning twice a year at the Engage! luxury wedding business summits. The events are famous for beautifully wrapped gift bags and branded merchandise, which incorporate function, fashion and fun. Attendees receive gifts before and during the three-day affair, including pre-arrival gifts that build buzz.

Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce are the masterminds behind Engaging Concepts. "There are lots of wedding and event conferences, but most are targeted to specific groups like caterers, photographers or florists," says Grinnals, company founder and president. "At Engage! we bring together everyone who touches the luxury wedding market."

Wedding and event planners mingle and network with high-end wedding personalities, including party planner Colin Cowie, bridal fashion designer Monique Lhuillier and cake maker Sylvia Weinstock. Gift planning begins five to six months out, since many products are custom designed. "We are willing to invest in our gift bags to keep the brand, event and story consistent," says Grinnals.

Alison Howard, a San Diego-based wedding planner, was so impressed by the gift bags that she devoted a 10-minute videoblog to the bag she received at Engage! Las Vegas last summer. "This was the first time I'd done a swag bag blog," she says. It was one of her most popular posts.

Each Engage! event has its own color story and logo, coordinated with the location. Engage!12 Palm Beach took place in December at The Breakers hotel. Its signature colors were "Tangerine Tango," silver and white. Two months before the event, Engaging Concepts sent out "countdown cubes" (photo cubes) to generate enthusiasm and mark the days until the conference. Three weeks before, guests received shoe bags and packing tags with suggested items to pack.

The "bling ball," a signature giveaway at Engage! events, is a name tag bearing a silver chain with Swarovski crystal balls that indicate how many of the Engage! events you've attended. Orange Lucite clipboards, pens and notepads were given out at the opening session. Male and female guests received separate gift totes with gender-specific items. For example, men received shaving items, while women got makeup, nail polish, accessories and orange pashminas. Everyone's bag contained other items too, including a Tango Trio cocktail kit in a branded suitcase, snack tins and an assortment of cleverly labeled products such as a clear vinyl luggage tag with shoe shine wipes for men, makeup remover for women, sunscreen and stain-remover wipes.

On day two, guests got a "Vitamin E!12" meeting kit in a customized orange juice box, with a custom USB drive, logo journal, eboost packet, logo microfiber screen cloth, and lip balm and striped pencil as a straw for the carton and more.

The events generate lots of social media feedback, as guests blog, tweet and post photos that may be relevant and useful to their clients. Grinnals notes a boost in attendees' use of Instagram, with over 700 Instagram photos transmitted from the Las Vegas Engage!.

Promotional Items Help Drive Multicultural Growth

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NASCAR is expanding its outreach by building the star power of individual drivers, attracting a multicultural fan base, executing more social-media strategies and improving the racetrack experience for fans. Its new Diversity Program is going strong and is set to continue this mission with Hispanic-themed events and advertising campaigns this year.

Alejandra Diaz-Labrecque, manager of NASCAR Multicultural Development, is a driving force behind the initiative, and she believes that education and awareness are equally important in the quest to gain more Hispanic fans and drivers. “There are two main components of the Hispanic push,” Diaz-Labrecque says. “The first is raising awareness and the second is making the race experience welcoming to fans.”

The diversity program, Bienvenidos a NASCAR, formed partnerships with tracks and race series across the country to promote the movement. The program offered bilingual ambassadors, a bilingual broadcast, Spanish-language signage, concerts including Los Lobos in Phoenix and Chino and Nacho in Miami, branded merchandise, discounted tickets and more.

“In conjunction with each track, we set up branded tents and booths and handed out T-shirts, cups, keychains, lanyards, all with the Bienvenidos a NASCAR logo on them,” Diaz-Labrecque says. “We had sweepstakes going on in each of the markets, in which the track donated items with its logo, and we offered VIP tickets as well as ran TV and radio ads.”

Bienvenidos a NASCAR also developed a Spanish-language landing page for its site and a Spanish call center for ticket purchases. Hispanic fans were offered ticket packages that included bilingual brochures, track maps and advice for race day. “If you’ve never been to a race before, it can be very overwhelming,” says Diaz-Labrecque. “We wanted every attendee to feel comfortable and welcome, so the literature included tips such as where and when to see fireworks, flyovers and driver introductions.”

Handbooks featuring QR codes linked to NASCAR garage videos were distributed, so fans could learn what goes on under the hood of a racecar and familiarize themselves even more with the sport. Headsets were also included in the ticket package, which allowed onlookers to hear the drivers and crews, and listen to broadcasts in Spanish.

Helping to promote the ongoing cause are a handful of well-known Hispanic drivers, including Juan Pablo Montoya of Columbia, Aric Almirola from Cuba, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Miguel Paludo of Brazil, Victor Gonzalez of Puerto Rico and Jorge Arteaga of Mexico.

Bienvenidos a NASCAR has continued to grow and become involved with more events and races such as NASCAR Championship Drive in South Beach, Miami. “We know it’s going to be an investment before we see huge results,” says Diaz-Labrecque, “but it’s all about raising awareness and educating Hispanics on the sport.”

With momentum gaining from its efforts toward the Hispanic community, NASCAR is excited for 2013, when the NASCAR Toyota Series will compete for the first time ever in the U.S. in Phoenix on March 1. “We will be there in full force,” says Diaz-Labrecque. “It will be an over-the-top, blowout event.”

Fighting Hunger with the Help of Promo Products

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Bentall Kennedy, one of North America’s largest real estate investment providers, was determined to make a difference in the communities in which its employees live and work. In Canada, food bank usage is on the rise, so leaders of Bentall Kennedy made it their mission to raise awareness about hunger in their communities and across the country.

In February 2012, they launched the Fare Fight for Food Challenge, a national initiative that partnered their 19 shopping centers across Canada with local food banks. Bentall Kennedy created the slogan, and their distributor partner sourced useful products to showcase the campaign message in a highly visible way while aiding the teams with their mission. The initial goal was to raise a total of $75,000 and collect 20,000 pounds of food.

From February until October, shopping center teams hosted special events and promotions. Teams competed to raise the most money, pounds of food and online supporters. The target audience consisted of all of the shopping center customers, Bentall Kennedy employees, suppliers and the general public.

To launch the campaign, six fundraising street teams – including the entire Bentall Kennedy retail division – invaded downtown Toronto for an afternoon. Teams were given a survival kit that included donation cans, aprons, candy and a bottle of water. One team’s adventure generated $30,000. To enhance the competition, the top five teams overall received an additional $10,000 grant from Bentall Kennedy’s head office for their food bank.

Promotional products printed with the Fare Fight for Food logo were created as practical tools to reinforce and support the campaign. Bags were given out at the store level and delivered door to door. Donation cans were used for the original launch and then reordered for individual stores, entrance tagging and 50/50 ticket sales. Aprons were worn by the Bentall Kennedy teams, retail partners, dignitaries and even the prime minister. Cookies were distributed to thank customers and to extend awareness of the campaign.

Bentall Kennedy exceeded its original objectives halfway through the campaign. By the end of the campaign, teams raised $155,000 in funds and 150,000 pounds of food donations – more than double the amount of money and 7.5 times the amount of food projected. More than 19 food banks across the country are the beneficiaries of this campaign.

If you’d like to get involved with a community outreach program or some other charitable cause, contact your ad specialty distributor for advice and products for your campaign.