The Omega European Masters – Corporate Sponsorship Lessons from The Green
Last week we were in the privileged position to visit the stunning sights of Montreux, Switzerland, our home for the week as our client PPG took to the mountains for their sponsorship of the Omega European Masters golf tournament.
We’ve been working on the internal communications for EMEA with PPG for the past two years and were invited into the eye-opening world of Professional Golf as we were tasked with the inspiration behind an event to complement their corporate sponsorship.
PPG Paints have signed a three-year deal to sponsor the Omega European Masters, last week being the second innings.
As part of the sponsorship, PPG were allotted spaces for their guests throughout the week. We couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to not only share PPG’s latest insights across various industries but gain feedback from customers on what issues they were facing and how PPG can help.
Enter Innovation
The Innovation Summit was the culmination of brainstorming, planning and consideration as to the best platform to truly engage with the customers attending the event.
We split the event space into four sections to highlight some of PPG’s most prestigious and ground-breaking innovations in paints and coatings.
The stunning aesthetic was designed and built by Leeds-based events experts XSEM, whose dedicated and exceptionally hard-working team also ran the full logistics of the event.
We sourced experts from R&D facilities across the world, bringing together a team of global scientific talent to best describe the coatings innovations to the customers.
On the Course
At the Masters’ event itself, nestled away in Crans Montana in the Swiss Alps, thousands of golf fans amassed and we were also assigned to the live social feeds for PPG’s global corporate accounts.
The remarkable landscape gave an impressive backdrop to all the photography taken live throughout the four-day event (and the weather helped a lot too!)
It was essential to capture the spirit of the event, live across various social platforms as well as all the hard work that had gone into not only the standout on-course branding but also the experience that PPG had created for their customers.
A 360° camera gave life to PPG’s experiential presence in the spectator village and was a big driver of interaction with the brand for both customers and the general public, as expert golf coach Damien Taylor was on hand to analyse swings and advise on the #PerfectFinish.
The main lessons learnt from our experience in the sponsorship include:
- It takes a hell of a lot of work to organise a corporate event of this magnitude, again, hats off to the team at XSEM for their unyielding commitment
- You can walk up to 19,000 steps if you’re wandering around a golf course all-day
- The opportunities to really engage with clients and customers and get to know them on a personal level is unparalleled
- Creating a live demo environment makes for the perfect platform to really get your message out there, to ensure your guests gain an insight into the breadth of your offering and source invaluable feedback about what’s happening in their worlds
- Golf is actually quite fun when you’re on the course in person! (especially if you have a guide to show you the ropes)