Sharing PR Lessons from A Memorable Office Opening in Bangkok

Text by David Nakayama, DET Corp Comms

Photos by DET Marketing

Bangkok, Thailand, March 8, 2023-After over three decades of being known as an industrial brand, Delta now takes on the exciting new focus to make known to our stakeholders that we are transforming from an industrial brand to an industrial + commercial brand. This is largely due to Delta’s rapidly growing solution and product portfolio. As with any major organization, we are leveraging on marketing and PR opportunities to establish Delta's new brand direction.

One such opportunity is with our recent Bangkok sales office opening. Here we would like to share some successful executions with the following key points:

1. PR results from events
2. Keys to successful branding and PR events
3. Case Study: How Delta Thailand successfully hosted the Bangkok Office Grand Opening

1. PR results from events

In addition to tradeshows and direct marketing to potential customers, inviting decision-makers and media to a Delta office opening can offer benefits such as:

• Publicity: Inviting media to an office opening is a great opportunity to introduce who we are and what we do while generating free publicity for our company. The media can help to create awareness about the new office and the company's products or services, which can lead to increased brand recognition and sales.
• Credibility: Coverage by media outlets can lend credibility to a company's claims and provide third-party validation of the quality and importance of the business. Attendance with commentary by Delta leaders and local government and industry movers and shakers also validates our position in the local market.
• Wide reach: Media coverage can reach a wide audience, including potential customers, business partners, and investors, and can help to increase the company's visibility and impact on all stakeholders.
• Business-building opportunities: A well-planned and executed office opening with media coverage can provide a competitive advantage by showcasing the company's strengths and unique features. Inviting local decision-makers and media can provide an opportunity to network, which can lead to future opportunities for projects and media relations.

2. Keys to successful branding and PR events

First of all, getting your internal team (sponsors and execution team) together to establish the goals and objectives of your PR event helped us set our deliverables and KPI that will determine the success of our project. We came to a consensus on the purpose of the event, identified the target audience and defined the key messages.

Of course, the key metrics of success or ROI for an office opening can vary depending on the specific goals and objectives your team sets. However, there are some common metrics that can be used to measure your success. Just for fun, let’s look at these metrics in relation to the famous AIDA marketing model:

Image source: Hubspot

1. Attention=Attendance: Number of attendees and organization (Tier-1?) can indicate the level of target audience awareness.
2. Interest=Media coverage: Quantity and quality of media coverage generated can gauge attendee interest for reach and impact.
3. Action=Desire=Social engagement: Amount of social buzz can indicate the level of desire to know more.
4. Lead generation: Number of new leads can indicate the potential for future business growth.

Yet even when our event’s aims and KPI are clear, the project still faced hurdles to overcome. One key challenge of the Project Lead is constantly meeting stakeholders’ needs and managing expectations throughout every stage.

This takes clear, consistent and empathetic communication to understand and act on the key requirements and concerns of key stakeholders including target audience (partners and media), project sponsors (C-suite), in-house team members (Sales, Marketing, Comms), 3rd party team (PR Agency, Event Organizer) and vendors, (Venue, Event Support).

The Project Lead will need to demonstrate strategic management and leadership with emotional intelligence to blaze a path forward and guarantee team success no matter what.

2. Case Study: How Delta Thailand successfully hosted the Bangkok Office Grand Opening

On February 27, 2023, Delta Thailand held a grand opening ceremony for the Delta Bangkok City Office at 66 Tower located in Udomsuk, Bangkok. Our new office was opened to enhance the sales and marketing activities of Delta brand products and solutions in Thailand and the Southeast Asia region. Here’s a step-by-step project breakdown:

• Ideation, survey and kickoff: Since 2022, we pitched an event to C-suite and asked our media friends if they would join and what were their topics of interest. This gave us plenty of good feedback for our initial planning. At our kickoff meeting we set the event aim, target and schedule. Defining our target audience helped us set deliverables in our event Agenda such as:

1. Reception: Registration, networking (with F&B), VIP speeches and gifts
2. Office Opening and Tour: Ribbon cutting, solutions tour
3. Media Roundtable: Q&A session for media with Delta Thailand President

• Invitations and key messages: We defined the key messages of Delta being open for business in Bangkok summed up by our President Jackie Chang as:

1. To change the idea of Delta as a manufacturing company to a Thai brand
2. To make business more convenient for our customers and buyers
3. To facilitate recruitment efforts for talent in Bangkok

• Event: For the event we prepared:

1. For guests and media: Press kit and Company Brochure, Gifts, F&B
2. For project team: Invitations, speech scripts, PR briefing MC script, event briefing
3. For vendors: Press release, photographer shot list

Overall, we not only exceed expectations in terms of media and VIP guest turnout and level, but we also reached our primary objective to raise Delta brand awareness in Thailand. Thus, we could confidently say that this was a successful office opening with all deliverables and KPIs met.

Thanks to teamwork and action by everyone it was: Mission Accomplished!

Conclusion

We hope this case study from our Bangkok office gives you an idea of how important PR events are for branding. Even though we are a small team, having the right skills and mindset can turn any little event into a roaring success.

A key skill for success is communication to manage relationships, lead at scale and drive PR and business results. We can use empathy during active listening with stakeholders and emotional intelligence to know when to lead change and when to manage expectations.

A key mindset for success is commitment to your target customer which can motivate you to pitch in when needed and trust others to deliver in their expertise domain.

This combination of effective communication and professional commitment helped us foster trust which brings out the best in each of our teammates and led to our successful opening event.

About the Author (Editorial Team)

David Nakayama

If content is king, there must be a kingmaker. And the universal theme in my favorite stories is our innate human desire for freedom. I have a master’s degree in Chinese education and experience spanning industries and countries. As the Comms guy at DET, I’m obsessed with the stories behind our products and people. Share your stories with me  https://www.linkedin.com/in/yushi-david-nakayama/

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