Blog – Page 2 – Stephen Pedroff

Meeting Identity

The brief: Develop and execute a theme for the annual sales meeting.

Using a mashup of a well-known TV shows is a popular way to theme a sales meeting. There are plenty of choices: shows that pit contestants against one another, shows that put contestants in stressful situations, shows that force contestants to form groups to succeed. All can be a great way to reinforce the winning nature of your sales team.

The identity developed was threaded through all of the event collateral including email campaigns, the event app, on-site signage, in the various PowerPoint templates used for presentations, even the keynote speaker! I wish I could show the NSF version of the “Glengarry Glen Ross” theme we produced for one meeting…

Meetings & Conferences

Trade Show Loop

Music credit: royalty free production track

The brief: The business unit needs a new trade show loop for the upcoming year.

The annual trade show calendar consumes a seemingly outsize percentage of the Marketing’s time and resources. The preparation is thankless, visibility is low because such a small percentage of the company attends even one trade event each year, and the materials produced often don’t ‘translate’ well to leveraged use elsewhere.

I considered the annual loop a great way to showcase the prior year’s creative output; leverage the content, wrapped in event specific cladding in the loop.

Meetings & Conferences

Virtual Sales Meeting

Sales Meeting “In A Box” Opening

The brief: Create and execute a virtual annual sales meeting ‘In A Box’; eschewing the typical annual sales event that accommodates only a portion of the total sales organization, use live streaming technology and duplex video feeds to connect the worldwide sales teams.

The program included live broadcasts originating from the corporate headquarters supporting individual global regional meetings where custom content was delivered by sales leadership. The corporate broadcasts were timed to enable each region to interact with the hosts and be acknowledged for their contributions. Each region could also ‘add’ content to the global broadcast, instilling a friendly competition between regions to highlight their successes.

The virtual ‘Sales Meeting In A Box’ program engaged a broader portion of the sales team than traditional annual location based events and was very well received by regional sales management.

Meetings & Conferences

Annual Sales Meeting

The brief: It’s that time of year! Another annual sales meeting needs a theme, visual identity and a ton of work to promote, produce and stage. The video on display here has been heavily edited – eliminating most of the company personnel from the piece – it’s only fair, nobody is that excited, ever about another sales meeting, and certainly not on camera!

No wonder marketing teams groan under the strain – these meetings are a ton of work. 500 to 5000 attendees in a new (and always logistically challenging!) location every year, huge expectations for culture building (maybe there’s been M&A recently, or a big win/loss) and the sales engine needs revving. I look at the last 90 seconds of the video and see dozens of projects produced throughout the year that instill the org with a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Marketing teams should try to embrace these events. They are an extraordinary once-a-year opportunity to survey the company from top to bottom, looking for the hidden success stories. I look at the annual sales meeting as a chance to showcase the great work of teams – from every department. What salesperson isn’t pumped up by an entire company demonstrating their resolve to make the sales process successful?

Meetings & Conferences

Corporate Giving Recognition

The brief: Create a video roll-in for the company’s regularly scheduled Town Hall global live broadcast featuring the company’s sponsorship of the Retired NFL Players Association annual fundraising events.

Provisioned a video crew to attend the fund raising event and collected more than a dozen interviews with retired players whose lives have been impacted positively by orthopedic surgery.

Produced roll-in packages for the live stream of the company meeting – a great way to give the on-stage talent a few minutes break during the event and a ‘familiar’ TV magazine show cadence for the audience which keeps engagement high.

Meetings & Conferences

American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons

The brief: Build a broadcast package for the company’s participation in the annual scientific convention, integrate a theater in the floor plan and execute multiple live broadcasts to internal and external audiences.

The internal broadcast ran much like a TV magazine show, with a host and prerecorded segments. The broadcasts were staggered through the day and customized for broad time zones: U.S., Europe, Asia, Middle East.

The broadcasts were very popular with the sales organization because virtual attendance filled a need. Of the 2000 sellers on the global team only a handful would ever have a chance to attend the conference in person.

Meetings & Conferences

American Telemedicine Association

The brief: Create a unique positioning at the trade show with a ’30 Day Guarantee’ offer on all collateral to launch the company’s newest product offering.

The campaign was developed and executed for the annual trade event, one of the largest in the industry. The 3-minute silent movie (sound-track added here solely to entertain) was an opportunity to level set for the entire organization by bringing the ‘strategy decks’ to life – in motion graphics and copy for everyone to rally behind.

The campaign ‘won’ the trade event and was the talk of the industry that year; it was a great win for the creative teams and showcased the best the department had to offer.

Scientific Animation

Media Tour Support

Note: silent movie

The brief: Support a clinical site’s satellite press tour announcing the favorable results of a clinical study potentially benefiting tens of thousands of pancreatic cancer patients.

The media tour included in the press kit the animation clip – all I managed to save of the campaign is this small preview file with time code.

The market impact was profound; patients for whom previously there was little hope found the clinical trials around the world working on treating cancer’s in one of its deadliest forms. Media coverage was extensive and the campaign delivered broad awareness of the study results.

Scientific Animation

Data Visualization

Note: silent movie

The brief: Visualize fluid dynamics data to support a clinical claim and product positioning for the launch campaign.

Showing a clinical benefit in real time is often difficult and sometimes impossible. Modeling can highlight a material, a property, or in the case of this example the trajectory of a fluid in motion.

The product went on to become a category leader in the segment.

Scientific Animation

Clinical Training

The brief: Deliver a low-cost 3D animation describing a new treatment for COPD being developed by a small medical device startup company.

The majority of the budget was used to model the product, including texture and shade designed to match the less-extensive 2D fixed-perspective anatomy modeling. The saved the client significant production cost, and sped the delivery schedule.

If the product had reached commercialization maturity the 2D look of the anatomy could have been easily upgraded to a fully textured landscape with six- degrees of freedom camera movement