What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 29 October 2018

Welcome to another week and we are looking forward to next weekend already and the My Sight Notts Fireworks, family fun event taking place at Nottingham Racecourse on Sunday 4 November.

November, already! Where has the year gone. We are already booking events not just for 2019 but through into 2020 and in some cases 2021.

For most #eventprofs its been a challenging year and staying on top of all of the changes within hotels and venues is not easy. 

Most of the Q hotels have been sold or are undergoing a rebrand under their new ownership and will emerge as Hilton’s or Marriott’s and Accor are increasing their portfolio with the purchase of Movenpick.

These are just two examples of the ever-changing face of the industry, and it got us thinking about what happens to all of the marketing materials and branded elements when something like this happens.

Whenever we engage with suppliers, in addition to the details about their portfolios or venues, we also usually end up with everything from branded pens to post it notes, notes books and note pads, and stress balls and screen wipes.

In all honesty, some of it is useful but the bulk of it is not, and normally ends up collecting dust in some cupboard or on an inaccessible shelf.

However, whilst we may suffer from a little clutter, what on earth do hotels do with the mountains of branded items they must have when they are no longer synonymous with their brand.

The bulk of hotels have branded menus, notepads, pens, signage an all sorts of uniforms and promotional items so its an awful lot of stuff to simply send to landfill especially when its such a hot topic and sustainability is all the rage.

When a hotel does rebrand, and before any of us have the chance to check in – and check out the refurbishments – there is an awful lot of work to be done. A hotel rebrand goes way beyond a few new dressing gowns and a fresh box of newly branded pens.

The numbers, it turns out, are quite extraordinary. Even at the Melia Desert Palm, which only has 39 rooms and has just undergone a rebrand has had to order 2,000 key cards, 2,000 luggage tags and 1,000 pens. 

While most hotels are able to stay with the same brand for the entirety of its lifetime, 43 percent of hotels change affiliations at least once, according to data collected by the STR Census Database, which tracks hotel affiliations over time. Nearly one-quarter undergo two or more brand changes.

So that’s an awful lot of unwanted post it notes, where do they all go?

Have a great week.

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 4 January 2016

Happy New Year to all and welcome to 2016. Here at Cloud 9 Towers we're back and raring to go after the festive break - and straight back into a busy time with client events and forward planning our year ahead.

The start of a new year traditionally brings the onset of resolutions, be it to lose weight, stop smoking or start training for some sporting challenge or goal and here at Cloud 9 most of the team have some sort of plan or other for change this coming year. Despite the fact that we think we are a pretty creative lot here, it seems that we could all do with an injection of imagination as some of our aims this year seem a little dull so instead, we've had a rethink and here are our resolutions for the year ahead...

First up, we are all going to try a new food each week. Forget the diets and quick fix weight loss programmes, but instead we are going to attempt to introduce or try a new food each week - something green and healthy is a bonus and instead of sticking with the same old lunches and trips to the biscuit tin when the munchies strike, we are going to try to eat better. With this in mind, if you are visiting us, please ditch the biscuits, cakes and chocolates for fruit or something exotic for us to try. Not only will it make your visit more special but also be more memorable!

Next on our list is a really big clear up and clear out. As we set the theme for many events we end up with an overflowing stock room full of everything from scientific vials to giant martini glasses to lava lamps to feathers galore. We did send a work experience student in once to try and take a stock check and we don't remember seeing them again...... But we really should sort this out as no doubt, all of the items can come in handy at some point, and we don't know just how much stuff we have.

Resolution three is simply to be a bit nicer. We think we are a pretty nice team already but we want to pay that forward a little. Each and every day we want to undertake an act of random kindness. Some of them might be grand gestures and some of them much more simple such as smiling at a stranger or paying a compliment to someone -but each and every day we are all going to remember how fortunate we all are in comparison to others and try and spread a little cheer wherever we can.

Whilst we are on the subject of being fortunate, the invitations we get to fam trips and experiences is amazing and we do consider ourselves to be incredibly lucky to be invited. We can't always spare the time or the bodies to go to everything but we are going to make sure that wherever we go, we are going to take a lot more photos to share as part of an online album. So that's our number four objective for 2016.

Five is also fairly easy. We are going to ditch the same old same old. It’s easy to get into a rut where we do the same things day in, day out, so in 2016 we plan to shake up our routines. Every week we are going to try and do one thing differently. Use a different route to the office, have a new lunch (see resolution one), wear something special, read a book we wouldn't normally consider or try a new genre of films. Instead of saving things for best or special occasions, we are going to treat every day like a special occasion - because in a way it is!

Number six is for all of us to learn a new skill of some sort. Whether is mastering another language from French to German to Klingon, whatever it is, we are all going to try and learn something new. It might be a party or magic trick, how to ice a cake like a professional, how to get 180 when playing darts (not that any of us play darts at present) or something weird and wonderful. It doesn't have to be a practical skill but something that we can say, we did that.

The next one requires some participation from the event industry as a whole and is inspired by a conversation with a fellow agent. We are going to try and encourage visitors from venues, DMC's or hotels to stop bringing us lots of expensive and unnecessary

promotional items and brochures which sit on a shelf gathering dust. Instead, we'd like to educate visitors to bring us practical items that will make better here at Cloud 9 and will make a difference to the office. No, we are not talking about large expensive items but branded loo paper, or tea bags or something that we use daily will be much better received. One of the best things we had all year in 2015 was from DeVere who bought us boxes of tissues - they sit on all of our desks and have been really appreciated! Pens are useful but we really do have enough now to open our own stationery shop and our kitchen cupboards are overflowing with mugs so please think practical rather than promotional please! We promise you, it will make you much more memorable...

Eight is about education. We all have strengths and weaknesses and some of our skills are good in certain areas but not all. So whether its finding out how to code, how to tweet, how to use excel, how to programme our internal phone system or some other work related function, we are all going to identify once a month something we don't know how to do, or how to improve and work on it. It's not going to change the world but it should improve our skill set and our collective output. 

Our final resolution is simply this. To wish everyone for the entire month of January a Happy and Healthy 2016. 

We recognise that this normally stops a week or so in, but January can be a long and flat month and therefore we are going to keep the momentum going as long as we can and try and spread a bit of New Year cheer. If that means saying it as с новым годом (Russian) or gelukkig nieuwjaar (Dutch) to keep it interesting so be it!So there you have it, nine resolutions from Cloud 9, enjoy!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 1 December 2014

Welcome to another week and we hope you have all opened your advent calendars this morning! Yes, the countdown to the big day officially starts today and here at Cloud 9 Towers, in between our busy schedule, we're starting to think all things festive!

With Christmas Cards to organise for clients, parties to plan (& attend!) and the holidays looming, thank goodness for the odd mince pie and mug of mulled wine to see us through.

Which leads us nicely in our topic for this week, promotional products - and not just those for Christmas, but items that come in handy throughout the year.

As an agency we are very lucky to be bestowed with all sorts of promotional items from the many hotels and venues who visit us, or we encounter at trade shows, be in mugs, highlighters, desk pads, mouse mats, key rings, pens, calendars, memory sticks, rulers, post it notes, pads, books or even in the case of Apex Hotels, the legendary ducks!

Whilst we don't quite have a full set just yet, we are certainly on our way to claiming the elusive Wally, Earl and Bobby (Apex Hotels please take note!).

The overall Promotional Merchandise marketplace back in 2010 in the UK was estimated to be worth £722million, down from the £1billion marketplace the industry had in 2008, and whilst we haven't been able to find any more current estimates of the value from this this or even last year, we're fairly sure its probably back up and even exceeding the £1billion mark (to be honest we didn't search that hard!).

But just what makes a great promotional item and how do you do something different that will ensure the longevity of your brand in every day use? Especially if you have a set budget and want to ensure that you are investing in the right items.

Companies like Eco Incentives bring a fresh approach to promotional merchandise,

supplying promotional items and business gifts that are ecologically sound and environmentally aware. Corporate Social Responsibility is high on the agenda, with many organisations having environmental targets to meet. Eco Incentives make it a simple one-stop shop, with promotional products made from recycled, organic, sustainable or ethically sourced materials.However, not everyone will appreciate a plant you have to grow yourself, and the practicalities of some items will be lost on those who don't have a particularly green approach to promotional products.

Housed in a listed building in the centre of Leicester and a stone’s throw away from the main railway station, Extravaganza,  work with both UK and International Companies on unique promotional solutions and have something like 25,000 different items available making it almost impossible to choose! We have all seen stress balls and certainly in the last few years a variety of shapes have started to emerge, but we don't think we have ever come across the stress slice of cake. It looks uncannily like the real thing, so much so it makes us hungry. The stress slice of cake is fragranced and smells great.Mmmm!

Gordon Glenister, Director General of the BPMA, wrote an interesting insight into the UK promotional market, including buying trends, how your target audience can get an ROI on your merchandise and the future of the sector. He also delivered a valuable lesson about the best promotional item he had ever seen. "I went to Internet World over 10 years ago, and picked up what looked like a block of wood with a hole around the top. The company promoted it was Commission Junction an affiliate marketing provider. Their caption was “Sales Arriving Daily” Any clues now. Well it was a steam train whistle. Do I use it every day of course not, but Ive kept and showed it to thousands of people over the years. And that's an important point, don’t forget what I call viral merchandise – conversational products."

It seems really clear that whatever investment you do make in promotional items, you have to make sure that people keep them, talk about them and in this day and age of social media, really take your products to task.

We do wonder just who has the delightful job of organising rebrands and the recent Q Hotels acquisition of some of the DeVere Hotels must be a challenge in terms of branding.

Six of the UK’s leading golf hotels has changed hands following an agreement by Sankaty Advisors to acquire De Vere Hotels. It is believed that the American investment company has paid around £160m for the portfolio, which includes Cameron House on Lock Lomond, Slaley Hall in Northumberland, Oulton Hall, near Leeds, Belton Woods, near Grantham and Dunston Hall, near Ipswich.

QHotels, of which we are big fans here at Cloud 9, operates 21 four-star hotels across the UK, including the Midland in Manchester and Queens in Leeds, as well as a number of golf resorts such as the Forest Pines hotel and golf resort near Brigg, Lincolnshire. With the 6 additional hotels now within the portfolio, and plans for the DeVere name to be eradicated, its certainly going to be an interesting time in terms of branding, and just what will happen to all of the DeVere promotional items left over during the handover? 

Someones store cupboard will certainly be a little full - or maybe the items will become collectables and we'll be seeing them on Ebay! Either way, interesting times! 

Have a great week!