A-LIST ATTENDEES AT INAUGURAL AWARDS
The Brief
Skillsoft wanted more opportunity to develop excellent customer relationships and as much awareness of the company and its product portfolio as possible. It needed to be something universally engaging that would enhance an existing programme of marketing and PR already in place.
The Response
We gave them the Skillsoft Inspire Awards: a celebration of all the good work done by L&D professionals across EMEA. Establishing credibility in the inaugural year of an awards ceremony is notoriously tough, so we launched the Inspire Awards with much fuss and fanfare. A bold cinematic theme delivered striking visuals that were emblazoned in offices up and down the country. A personalised letter from the general manager accompanied the awards pack, which took the customer through every step of the process and offered great advice on improving elearning, regardless of the customer’s actual participation in the awards. A microsite managed submissions, contained tips and tools and a whole host of free ‘Inspire’ collateral such as posters, balloons, bunting and pens. The guests and nominees received a film tin invite to the glittering awards ceremony, which was highlighted by the keynote speech from Sir Ken Robinson: the internationally renowned educationalist and author.
Skillsoft provides cloud-based learning solutions for clients worldwide, ranging from global enterprises to government and educational institutions.
The Results
Skillsoft received 22 award submissions, the same average number achieved by the US team who have been running an awards programme for 9 years. These submissions led to five stellar case studies from the winners, which became integral pieces of content supporting their new business efforts. Such was the success of the programme that ex Dragon’s Den star James Caan headlined the following years ceremony. The movie theme developed to include a cinema ticket style invitation within a clapperboard envelope, and a competition to win backstage passes to ‘lunch with the stars’- an intimate VIP meeting. Social media engagements maintained a consistent momentum, and submission numbers doubled from the first year. That’s the kind of growth and expansion we like to see.
Sarah Jones, Marketing Manager EMEA, Skillsoft
“Thanks to Gasp our very first Skillsoft Inspire Awards programme really hit the ground running. Having never run an awards programme before we wondered how much uptake it would get, but it was an initiative we wanted to try in order to gather customer success stories, create new case studies and provide our PR team with fresh news. Thanks to their creative genius it not only captured our audiences’ attention but the Skillsoft representatives required to drive the programme to success. The results were rewarding; we received more submissions than anticipated, our winners were over the moon and were forthcoming in celebrating their successes with us.”
