Selling Fiji

Intro

Consumer events are an excellent tool to promote your business, but also to highlight a destination like Fiji to your existing clientele and to generate new potential customers. From a small event in your own business venue all the way to a rented location – anything is possible. Once you get into the planning, you will be surprised how little return-on-investment you will need to cover the costs. Fiji bookings are often high-yield ones!

Step by step

• Figure out your goals and timeline for the event

• Establish your budget

• Find your venue

• Select your tech

• Find your partners 

• Define the main theme – FIJI 

• Planning of the event program

• Build out your marketing campaign to promote the event

• Determine the means to measure the event outcome

• Develop a follow plan to build on your new relationships with attendees

Goals & timelines

GOALS: 

• Promote Fiji as a destination to your clients
• Generate bookings to Fiji 
• Generate word of mouth to promote your own business
• Generate new potential customers
• Define your goals when planning, so you can evaluate and measure the outcome.

Smaller events

Smaller scale events can be equally effective. 

• Invite clients to themed online quiz evenings during which suppliers can present.
• Invite clients to call in at any time during a day for a consultation and opportunity to enter a competition. 
• Host a Fiji themed “pop-up”. Tourism Fiji may be able to offer promotional or cultural support.
• Run a social media competition.

Gauge interest

Before communicating and setting a date for your event:

• Check the availability of your invitees.
• Assess the areas of travel that appeal to your clients and tailor your event accordingly to respect and make the most of the precious time you and your clients have.   
• What’s the hook?  Has there been a TV program/Film/News that you could use as the introduction?  Link it to a Fijian celebration or recent positive publicity?

Establish your budget

It’s the least glamorous part of the whole planning process, but you’ve got to figure out how you’re paying for all of it – from venue, catering, technical equipment, paid advertising for the event. 

Here are a few things you should consider when planning out your event budget:

• Logistics of the event (size, venue, staff)
• Experience necessities (catering, A/V equipment, decorations)
• Possible paying partners (airlines, cruise companies, resorts). You can even think about cross-marketing partners – e.g. a travel luggage store, or a high-end jewellery shop in your town that sells J Hunter Pearls.  
• Additional expenditure (always good to have some incidentals).

Set the date

Before announcing a date:

• Are your clients or suppliers available?
• Does your event clash with other fixtures, big or small (such as World Cup)?
• Avoid Monday and Fridays.  
• Follow this up with a “save the date” and option to add to calendar. 
• Do a teaser nearer the time and then a formal invite. As a guideline 4-6 weeks beforehand, followed by a reminder.

Find your venue

• Depending on how big you plan, it can be either at your own premises or at a hired location. 
• The venue should have good access, either by central location and public transportation or ample space for car parking.
• Depending on your choice of event, the set-up or layout of the venue can be critical. The type of room set-up, seating, stage, whether they will have room for market-place booths need to be looked at. 
• Build a shortlist of locations you want to explore based on popular event venues in the area, referrals from other businesses, and local trade publications. Vet the venue and/or their holding company as much as you can on your own, and then schedule an onsite inspection of the venues that survive on your list.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself and the vendors you meet with during these site inspections:

• How many rooms (large and small) will you need?
• Accessibility?
• Provision of internet – does the venue have an existing provider or will this need to be sourced externally?
• Does the venue already have a deal with a catering company?
• What A/V equipment is included in the rental?
• Cloakroom
• Public liability insurance & certification=
• Number of staff available?
• Can furniture be moved? Can decoration be fixed on walls?
• Power sockets near where you wish to present.
• Ensure that lighting isn’t an issue (for example glass venues with no curtains could make the screen hard to see).

Who to invite and how?

• Who would you like to invite? What is your target group?
• Do you want to invite your existing clients who have booked other destinations with you before?
• Do you want to attract potentially new customers?
• How much do your clients usually spend on a booking with you?
• Do the product partners participating match your clientele?
• Think about inviting your local press.
• Invite your clients to follow your company on social media. This presents a more immediate way to promote your news and activity regularly and share pictures afterwards.

Programme & structure & technical stuff

The structure of the evening must be carefully planned. Here are some suggestions:

• Registration when clients arrive 

What manpower is needed? Are you able to run this yourself or do you have staff / partners to support you?

• Welcome drinks to cover time until the official start

Opportunity for your guests and partners to mix and mingle

• Official start of program

Aim should be to start 30 min after the official invitation time. Otherwise waiting time gets too long for those who have arrived at the venue in time. But it obviously depends on how many guests would still be missing.

Some ideas how a program could look like: 

OPTION 1 – seated dinner with front presentations. Depending on the type of food you decided for you can split the presentations up:

Welcome – starter

Presentation – main

Presentation – dessert 

Farewell

• Welcome (including a few words why you run this event, introduce partners, why did you choose Fiji as the topic of this consumer event). 
• Presentation about Fiji
• Presentation of partner product

OPTION 2: 

Depending on number of partners you could also investigate creating a type of “marketplace” where clients can walk from booth to booth and individually talk to the partners. You can have presentations in a separate room at scheduled times. 

But even at a marketplace, make sure you welcome your guests (including a few words why you run this event, introduce partners, why did you choose Fiji as topic of the consumer event).  For this kind of format, a buffet or flying buffet or food stalls could work out well. 

General things to consider:

• How about some live music? 
• Maybe include a kava ceremony and cultural entertainment.
• Do you want to hand out brochures or giveaways? 

Either pre-pack bags, put them on the chairs if seated format, or hand them out when guests leave. Maybe have the information available at partner booths

These are just some ideas. There is no limit to your creativity. If weather permits, you might want to opt for an outside event. Or a combination. If you plan to be outdoors always plan for a wet-weather option as Plan B.

Scared of presenting yourself?

Not everyone enjoys standing in front of people presenting / talking to them. Ideally you as the face behind your company should at least personally welcome the guests and say a few words at the beginning about the event. If that is all you can imagine yourself doing, help is not far:

• Invite partners and ask them to do a presentation. Tourism Fiji is happy to support you and to present the destination at your consumer events
• Potential product partners will always be happy to present their product, too. 
• If you aim to run regular consumer events and would like to get more confident in presenting, book a presentation -training and practice. That will help and boost your presentation confidence!

Don’t let any stage-fright you might have when it comes to presenting stop you from organising a consumer event.  There are so many options. Clients who come to have an enjoyable evening and learn about Fiji appreciate the effort and your presence.

Peer-tips:

Dreamtime Travel, Switzerland – Dominic Eckert, MD:

• Set and communicate the date early to get good visitor numbers.   
• The client needs to be in the centre of all ideas and planning. Put yourself in the role of the consumers and ask yourself what would inspire them. If you have an event with different co-exhibitors and partners, there are different needs and demands, but the client needs to be in the one that you need to deliver to.
• Make a proper assessment and analysis after the event. Reach out for internal and external feedback and save the improvement ideas to be incorporated into the next event. 

New Zealand

• People love to see beautiful imagery & not words. If you are doing a presentation, keep the words on screen to a minimum. Throwing in some of your own holiday's pictures can really help set the scene for your clients as well.  
• To help bring the presentation and destination to life try and keep any catering themed to event. For Fiji this might mean serving a Rum Cocktail or Fiji Bitter for your guests on arrival.

Australia

• Interactive and fun works best.  As New Zealand, imagery, real life and with soul.
• Fijian Warriors work well and are available in most states.  Also, some sort of giveaway will always encourage guests to come and stay until the end.   Giveaway or prize can be determined based on knowledge of your special for night or something that highlights your business. 

UK

• Remember that statistically an audience may only remember three key things a day after the event. Make it fun and top-line. You can always follow through by email with the finer details.

How can Tourism Fiji help?

• If you are a GOLD Matai Specialist, you can apply for a capped marketing fund, that could be used for a consumer event.
• Ask your local Tourism Fiji representative if they are available to present Fiji as a destination.
• Check out our Image library for images and video material
• Brochures & maps
• Suggestion and offer of support for a ‘Fiji Day’ within their own premises so that clients can call in at their leisure and theming can be done. If they have a shop front this is also a free billboard advertisement for the destination and can be extended in the build up with messaging, maybe offer cultural entertainment, an evening presentation with wine and themed food.