Case Study
The Grand Tour
Since 2017 Outbound have been supporting HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise with an incentive program delivered into one of their key partners: SCC.
The executional specifics of the program have evolved over the years however the main objective has remained the same: to drive pipeline and generate sales. Running over the course of six months, the Grand Tour program gives SCC sales teams nationwide the opportunity to go on a unique and luxurious trip to a different must-see destination each year.
Overview
As a trusted partner, having run this program for since it began in 2017, we have honed the planning process down to a fine art. Working to the brief, we are trusted to build from ground up based on our knowledge and experience to produce a world-class incentive.
From start to finish, we coordinate the various stakeholders involved to ensure a smooth process and that information is shared as needed. This involves highly organised and clear communications between the vendor account managers, partner marketing managers, third party agencies, and even the incentive winners themselves.
Planning
It all starts with a theme… Each year we theme the entire program with a unique creative treatment that relates to the trip. The high-class, luxury experience coats every piece of communication and collateral providing a unified experience that is fully branded.
With the theme defined, we then progress to the production of all the various touchpoints throughout the incentive.
Execution
The Website
Acting as a hub for the incentive, each year we create and host a themed microsite for the SCC sales teams to use in order to access everything related to the incentive.
On this microsite users are able to learn about the program through expositional content like the PDF playbook, as well as engage with a range of enablement materials such as sales assets and quizzes. It is also here that they register and manage their opportunities for this incentive.
Each week, Outbound provides reporting back to the relevant stakeholders on how the incentive is progressing through supplying PDF reports as well as hosting a weekly status call. This ensures key people are kept aware of the status and, as a team, we are able to react to any unexpected results. The reports track pipeline and sales as well as engagement with enablement materials, and general interaction with the incentive.
Claims & Compliance
One of Outbound’s key roles in this incentive is in ensuring everything is compliant. This includes the broad issues like legal, tax, and data protection as well as the vendor-specific compliance priorities. We manage the MDF (market development funds) for this program from both vendors and ensure that the incentive remains compliant within the vendor activity frameworks.
Maintaining Momentum
Any long-running program is at risk of becoming a bit stale. So, in recent years, we’ve introduced a Deal of the Month segment to the incentive, an ad hoc reward to a sales person who has had the greatest impact that month. This creates the opportunity to reward sales people more often throughout the campaign maintaining interest and keeping momentum high.
Marketing Assets
We design and supply a suite of marketing assets for use by SCC marketing to support the incentive internally, including visuals and branding assets as well as HTML email templates. This ensures that there is a uniform expression of the visual identity for the incentive while providing SCC with the flexibility they need to promote the program in their own way.
The Trip
Working closely with our agency partner, we plan truly memorable experiences for the incentive winners, including during COVID-19 when the travel industry was severely impacted. Each trip we have delivered is designed to provide a premium, luxurious experience packed with unique activities, unforgettable dining, and 5* accommodation.
Results
The results for this program speak for themselves as we have consistently delivered a very healthy Return on Investment for each year we have run this incentive.
Last year alone the GT22 incentive delivered:
£40.5m+
Won Deals
£140m
Pipeline
This year we’re already on track to beat this record so watch this space…
The trips have also always gone down a storm…summed up neatly by this quote from one previous attendee:
“A great day, thanks to all who organised. At least 75% of the day will live long in my memory, the rest is blur…..”
As such a successful program, GT demonstrates the value of a well-established and repeatable incentive program. Each year it consistently delivers positive results for all stakeholders and has become a main-stay of the SCC sales calendar.
With each iteration of the incentive we look to build on the experience to keep it fresh and exciting for the users as well as add value to our vendor clients.
Summary
“We trust Outbound to deliver a smoothly-run, incredible experience which is why we come back to them each year. GT is such a multi-faceted incentive with many moving parts, I know I can rely on Outbound to keep us honest”
“I love working on this project every year! The collaboration across the teams is phenomenal, and the close sense of partnership that builds, makes this project really special.”