Best Multi-Venue Event (B-to-B)

Program Name: Jazz Festival Series
Client: CareFusion
Agency: The Exordium Group

Medical technology company CareFusion and jazz are making beautiful music together. As sponsor of the CareFusion Jazz Festival Series, the company last summer struck a chord with the health care executives it needed to reach to publicize its new brand name as it spun off from parent company Cardinal Health. Research has shown their interest in the arts, specifically music and jazz, which is used in medical schools to teach listening skills and as a metaphor for the clinical environment used to teach coordination and cooperation.

The six-festival series, which continues this summer, consists of the world-famous Newport Jazz Festival and music fests in Chicago, Monterey, CA, New York City, Paris and Sydney. By taking the title or presenting sponsorship at each festival, CareFusion used jazz to shine a light on patient safety and those working to improve healthcare. It also made a significant contribution to the lifeblood of jazz, including the resurrection of a 34-year-old tradition by reviving the New York Jazz Festival.

By integrating p.r., advertising, promotion, trade shows, a traveling semi-truck, on-site VIP hospitality, interactive marketing and a TV broadcast from each festival direct to acute-care hospitals, CareFusion drove awareness of its new brand, generated millions in new revenue and leads and created ongoing partnerships with key opinion leaders. That partnership, Rhythm of Care, raises funds and drives awareness of health-care safety improvements through all of CareFusion’s experiential marketing efforts.

The carefusionjazz.com website, live festival broadcasts, direct sales, in-hospital signage and media coverage brought the excitement of the festivals to acute-care hospital executives but the ultimate engagement was the VIP experience they received as guests on-site where bright, colorful CareFusion branding integrated with classic black and white images of famous jazz artists. Guests could engage in interactive learning at kiosks, bid on a saxophone signed by a jazz artist, learn about ways to improve health-care safety and listen to amazing music, all from the comfort of the VIP tent. The sweet sounds continued outside of the festivals as CareFusion added a jazz lounge to its booth and jazz content to an 18-wheeler tour.

By leveraging the jazz festival experience, CareFusion achieved an ROI in excess of 10:1. The brand reached 415,000 people in combined festival attendance, and the festivals delivered more than two billion impressions in measured media worldwide. CareFusion reached more than 15,000 health care executives with clear, branded communication. Live TV broadcasts also touched more than 1,500 hospitals and 1,200 veterans hospitals and facilities.

Program Name: Pepsi Bottler North America Meeting
Client: Pepsi-Cola Co.
Agency: inVNT

It was more than just business as usual at PepsiCo’s 2008 National Bottler Meeting. In addition to communicating the year’s biggest business initiatives, the brand introduced redesigned logos and labels for Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Diet Pepsi Max, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist, Tropicana and Gatorade.

PepsiCo wanted to ensure the bottlers understood the impetus for the changes and excite them about the redesign, which was introduced via a video shown at events in three locations: PepsiCo’s headquarters in Purchase, NY; the State University of New York at the Purchase campus and at a nearby movie theater that was transformed into fully Pepsi-branded environments with banners and signage.

In addition, PepsiCo executives gave presentations on how the new look and feel of the brands would be merchandised with the help of 18 actors role-playing as consumers. The program also included a retail environment called the Learning Lab where bottlers could visualize how the new products would look on store shelves.

The meeting also recognized the Bottler of the Year during a presentation that included video clips of each nominee and their work. During one of PepsiCo’s most ambitious marketing campaigns, the event helped the company communicate its vision to its bottlers.

Program Name: Shell LubeVideoCheck
Client: Shell Oil
Agency: The Kerry Group

To get its target (trucking, construction and mining equipment industries) to switch from their existing engine protection to Shell Lubricants, the company devised the Shell LubeVideoCheck on-site demonstration program. The centerpiece of the events was a state-of-the-art technology developed for the aircraft industry and modified for heavy machinery that gave management and operators an opportunity to examine their equipment via a video screen. The technology identified potential problems and then recapped with photos and a report provided within a week of the appointment. This was an upgrade from more conventional optical device technologies used in the past.

This new program was complemented by a dedicated website that the sales force could turn to for a detailed sales video designed to make the program more accessible to first-time users. It also armed the sales force with more than a standard sales pitch by providing visual demonstrations that differentiated Shell Lubricants from its competitors.

Since implementing this new program the company has seen a double-digit increase in annual presentations to more than 250 per year.