Channel Marketing Programme with Trip to Japan.

Our client, Trend Micro, an IT Security Solutions company, asked us to partner their Channel team to assist with the arrangements for a year-long Channel Marketing programme to increase sales from their channel partners.

As a Japanese company, they wanted to arrange a dual destination travel incentive programme to Japan for the top 15 Channel partners. Furthermore, to increase the motivation, they also asked us to arrange a Japanese themed achiever’s party for 150 guests in London to celebrate the qualifiers and announce the winners of the 15 places on the 5 day dual destination trip to Japan. We hired “Aqua Kyoto”, a Japanese restaurant in central London and the party was themed to show the diversity of Japan with Geisha girls, Taiko drummers, a Japanese calligrapher, Manga caricaturist, Japanese food, lanterns and bandanas with themed branding throughout the venue. There was an also an hour set from world renowned DJ, Jaguar Skills.

We arranged group flights for the lucky winners and guests had the luxury of staying at the Ritz Carlton Kyoto where  room gifts of caricatures of themselves. They spent two nights in Kyoto absorbing the culture including visiting the Red Shrine, Sake Brewery and Kiyomizudera Temple. The next day guests enjoyed private transfers to Arashiyama to experience a private Zen meditation morning at Tenryuuii Temple, one of the most sacred temples in Japan. This was followed by a visit to the magical Bamboo Forest and rickshaw rides before returning to Kyoto by tram. They were then treated to a private Sumurai experience with traditional dress.

The transfer from Kyoto was by the famous Bullet train, taking in the breath-taking views of Mount Fuji en-route to the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo. Guests stayed on the 28^th floor of the Shangri-La for two nights, the visited the Tokyo Temple – the highest observation tower in the world, before visiting the world famous Gonpachi Restaurant for dinner as well as many other experiences during the trip.

Overall, the incentive generated a spike on the ROI with projected sales of around £1.5m.In fact, the incentive increased sales in excess of £4.6m. The programme itself, which was devised by the client, was shortlisted for the highly prestigious CRN Sales and Marketing award for best marketing campaign.