Desafio Global sets up a colossal back-to-back event for Toyota
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Objective: confidence, energy, and product knowledge
Joana Prata, project manager of this Toyota event, tells us that the main objective was to excite and generate confidence throughout the European sales network. Sales are increasing, the range is very strong, including new launches, and the reality of the brand is superior to the perception. The objective was therefore to raise awareness of this strength of the brand, to give confidence, to generate enthusiasm (as well as to present the brand’s novelties).
A back-to-back event over nine days
The programme of the Toyota event for each group included a morning presentation session (plenary), an afternoon (more interactive and market-specific) session, a bit of free time to get changed and possibly visit a bit of Lisbon, and the dinner and party. Why? The sessions in the morning were plenary, combining several markets, since the products presentations were global, not very specific to each country. The afternoon was country-specific, in a breakout format: since different countries have different market situations, it was necessary to debrief the morning messages and see how will they be applied to their own market. So it was around 400 people per day, for 9 days, so that the experience could be more personalised, from messages to F&B.
Everything in one venue
The whole Toyota event took place at FIL – Feira Internacional de Lisboa, with the aim of creating a journey of excellence in Customer Experience. From the arrival in Portugal to the final day, a true Toyota “city” was created, with the construction of five auditoriums, big lounge and exhibition areas, three entrance porticos, a dining area and the unique Lisbon Café, which featured a “pasteis de nata” (custard) factory and coffees from around the world.
With 10,000 m² of transformation, the operation involved a team of 836 accredited professionals (AV, catering, architecture, decoration, security, hostesses, entertainment), with an innovative programming that allowed for longer times for each interaction and a greater impact on guests, including the adaptation and translation of menus into 34 languages.
Everything in one venue? Yes, but with a twist: a key challenge was that people don’t feel that they were in the same space the whole day. So they came back at night for the dinner and entered through another entrance of the FIL venue, which was not visible during the day and was decorated differently. So they felt in an altogether different place.
A setup combining impact and sustainability
Toyota is big on sustainability, so this was part of the RFP. The walls built to create various areas were made of polycarbonate, and are reusable: big structures, 6-meter high and 80 or 85-cm wide, and completely reusable. They are also semi-transparent and can be lit up very elegantly allowing to change environment really easily. The carpeting was also reused for the nine different groups / events, as was the whole decoration, and some carpeting from the quiet areas of the event can also be reused. And logistics included hydrogen buses.
The second part of the setup briefing was to have a lot of attention to details and to the quality of materials: the carpets, the furniture, the decorations had to be very fine: the idea was that it should not feel like a temporary setup, but carefully made for Toyota guests, says Joana.
Logistical challenge
This Toyota event also had the support of Leading, which managed the logistics for the guests in a complex operation that involved 5,500 hotel stays; the transport of guests by hydrogen buses; a guest accreditation and reception system developed specifically for the event and support for around 10 delegations in their social programmes, such as private dinners and guided tours.
A briefing process marked by confidentiality
The confidentiality of the Toyota event posed another challenge: even in the briefing the content was so confidential that the briefing was very general: “we could not know exactly how many cars would be presented or what novelties be communicated until very close to the event” says Joana, which made the proposal more difficult to develop (how big should the stage be if we don’t know how many cars there will be and what is to be presented?).
In the first briefing, there was no ideas for a creative concept, so the agency focused first on creating a nice multi-venue, using the only dimension of the event which was clear: the city which hosts it. The first concept was Lisbon Odyssey and venue set up and decoration followed the concept of the sea, with wavy shapes closely linked to Lisbon Odydsseys. It was also created the Lisbon café, which proved to be an iconic element of the event. In the end the tagline for the event was “Charged to lead”, to show the strength of the brand, but also a reference to the automotive industry becoming more electrified and everything was combined perfectly.
A total of 44 events
A challenge of this event was the sheer multiplicity of activities: there were about 26 national meetings (spread over nine days), plus the plenary sessions in the morning days, and the social programme at night. This generated different requests every day, a different number of people, different menus, different translations… “It was not a European event where we received people from a lot of countries for one event: it was primarily an event with multiple events, country-by-country, day and night”, says Joana. And every single country and national meeting was carefully taken care, as the main TME general event.
No phones, for confidentiality (thereby improving ‘focus’…)
For confidentiality, people could not use their mobile phones (to avoid photos being taken, leak of information). How to ensure this? Desafio Global found in the US a provider of pouches for guests to put their phone which they can save but not access, and which could be sealed magnetically. This avoided the installation of lockers, with the queues and complexity this would have required. For those who wanted to take notes, sustainable notebooks (recycled and made with cork, locally), were provided. It is interesting to see the impact of this “no-phones” solution: according to Joana, people understood very well (this is common in car launches) and were happy to keep their phones besides not access them. Additionally, some countries, in the afternoon, also requested to take phones off, because they observed people are more focused if they don’t have the distraction of having their phone. Even during coffee break people were more available and willing to talk and interact with each other and with the exhibition areas.
The challenge of a 9-day event
What was harder? According to Joana, the complexity of the setup and the request for impeccable attention to details was definitely (and logically) challenging. Also contents and all the stage dynamics, very confidential and also very important for the client was one of the areas that were more challenging.
But she points to a specific challenge: the duration of the event. “One of the biggest challenges was to understand how the setup and selected materials will behave for such a long time of event, as well as the teams involved. It was a twenty days event from assembly to disassembly.”, says Joana. When you organise a one-day event, you setup everything perfect and there is little worry of the behaviour of the materials used or change over during the event. Over nine days of live event, you don’t know how things will behave. The cars weighed like 2 tonnes, how will the stage resist over nine days? Would all technical elements or equipment work all this time? And in common areas, how carpet will beheave after so many days? And what about teams? Would they maintain the same level of quality of service? Would they maintain the same level of focus or motivation? The weekend days were not event days but were for finetunings and new rehearsals, there was little time to rest. Also over so many days, people can start to be more relaxed and less focused. Keeping people focused and motivated was key. For them to feel crucial on is task every single day is true and fundamental. There was even a morning routine with the favourite songs chosen by the staff, to ensure lots of positive energy over the days… But if a long Toyota event is challenging there is a benefit: as commented with Joana, everything improved over the first few days, as people got more practice and learned… so the challenge is to maintain the energy and quality. Verdict: the 3rd or 4th day are probably the best.
