Other Graphic Design, Communication Creative, Excellence Winner
EDS Byron Nelson Championship—Invitations for Client Events
Lynne Hogan
EDS Creative Services
Plano, Texas, USA
Contents:
An in-house EDS team designed and wrote printed invitations for two client events held in conjunction with the 2006 EDS Byron Nelson Championship (EDSBNC), which is a golf tournament and PGA Tour stop sponsored by EDS, the world’s second-largest IT services company. These “let your hair down” parties took place the evenings of Tuesday, 9 May and Friday, 12 May.
Top
EDS wanted to give its tournament guests an enjoyable hospitality experience that would complement ongoing business-related activities such as thought leadership sessions. The EDS creative services team knew the invitations to the two featured hospitality events would support important corporate goals for the EDSBNC: to increase client satisfaction and drive additional sales.
Top
Tuesday night: EDS’ events team booked “Cirque Productions,” a “Cirque du Soleil” type of troupe, as this
night’s main attraction. Later, the team learned there would also be an opener: a tuxedoed, “nerdy” mathematician who performs rapid-fire calculations. Big questions immediately came to mind: Exactly what do these two acts have in common, and how can we deliver an effective, themed invitation to cover both?
Friday night: The team was told only that this event would feature “1970s headline entertainment” (which turned out to be Donna Summer). EDS’ events team wanted to keep this high-profile act secret in order to create buzz and drive attendance. This left the team scratching their heads and thinking on their feet about possible creative solutions.
Top
The primary audience included EDS clients and prospective clients. The secondary audience included clients’ spouses and hosts from EDS.
To learn more, the team interviewed EDS’ events team and examined the invitee lists. The primary group consisted of mid-level and senior executives from companies and governmental organizations, primarily in the U.S. These business leaders receive many invitations to exclusive events every year, so the pieces had to set
the stage for a one-of-a-kind experience.
Top
The overall communication objective was to create fun, eye-catching work that captures the attention of a tough, “seen it all before” audience—and gets bodies in the door. Benchmarking provided by EDS’ events team revealed that corporation-sponsored client hospitality events generally have response and attendance rates of about 33 percent. Taking that information into account, the team aimed for 40 percent response and attendance. They knew that might be tough to achieve, given that invitees could easily choose to stay in their hotel rooms—or go to Fort Worth to ride the mechanical bull at Gilley’s. Plus, the Friday night invitation had to steer EDSBNC attendees to the party and away from several high-profile events hosted at the same time by other companies.
Top
Tuesday night: This invitation lets people know that the “Cirque” troupe and the math whiz are performing together, on the same stage, for one night only. The central idea is “amazing people doing amazing things.”
Friday night: The exclusivity of the venue is played up. The invitation tells invitees that they're part of the “in crowd”—and are invited to join EDS at their groovy disco, “Club Vibe.” (Notice the resemblance to Studio 54, the famous New York City hangout from the 1970s).
Top
Tuesday night: What better way to encapsulate both acts than with a theatre-style poster—like one you’d see in a glass case next to the box office?
- In line with the garish style of “Cirque Productions,” the team decided on a slightly over-the-top look. Bold fields of red and yellow complement photographs of these entertainers. As the more sedate warmup act, the math whiz appears in a small field of black that’s framed by the theatrical design elements.
- To play up the feel of a theatre poster even more, the team included the phrase “One Night Only” and glowing quotations from actual reviews in newspapers.
- The 10-inch by 15-inch poster was placed on the bed in each invitee’s hotel room. The large size and three-dimensionality make this piece stand out.
Friday night: A glittering night deserves a flashy invitation—one with the shape and feel of a disco ball.
- The cover shimmers with reflective silver paper. (The team had never seen printing done on reflective paper before. Actually, their printer hadn’t either. They didn’t know if it would work, but it was a risk the team was willing to take.)
- Mailing the invitation to invitees before they arrived at the EDSBNC was a great way to maximize interest. The invitation arrived in a silver translucent envelope. Recipients got an enticing “see-through” peek at the cover, and the piece begged to be opened.
- On the reverse, red text in carefully chosen “retro” fonts on a jet-black background conveys the breathless verve of a hot nightspot.
- Through the innovative design, the team effectively captured the fun mood and built excitement without having to reveal the signature act.
Top
EDS exceeded their project objective, seeing a 50 percent response/attendance rate for both parties:
- The team gave out 250 invitations for Tuesday night, and 125 guests were on hand.
- Friday night saw 230 attendees out of 450 invited. That result was surprising, given the diverse entertainment options available that evening.
Driving high attendance didn't take a lot of resources or time, though:
- The creative staff consisted of a writer, designer and production manager. Creative costs were zero.
- The Friday night invitation took just two weeks from concept to delivery. The process took three weeks for Tuesday night’s poster, allowing extra time for required approvals from the performers.
- To economize, the team had the printer run the Tuesday night poster in four colors on a digital press. The team also designed the piece so it could be trimmed from an 11-inch by 17-inch sheet, the largest size this press allows. The printing cost was only US$238, and the room-dropping costs were US$2.50 per item, or a total of US$500.
- Because of the unusual reflective paper, Friday night’s disco ball invitation had to run on a small, fourcolor offset press. The paper and printing process weren’t cheap, but they enabled the team to achieve an innovative, effective product. To save money, the team kept the piece to a fairly small size. Printing, paper and envelopes cost US$3,800, and the cost for first-class mailing was US$0.39 each, or a total of US$179.50.
Top
|
