EC Group provides event support for Heineken UK’s Jacques Cider during major summer sampling campaign

Outsourced marketing support specialist EC Group provided a range of event support services for Heineken UK’s Jacques Cider with Fruit during the brand’s biggest-ever programme of summer sampling events.

The marketing programme – created by Exposure – was designed to emphasise Jacques Cider with Fruit’s ‘female appeal’. It encompassed digital and brand events and gave young women the opportunity to experience a stylish, girlie summer courtesy of Jacques.

The nationwide activity saw Benefit Cosmetics shoppers sampling Jacques at 12 stores, while Toni & Guy hair stylists offered female clients a complimentary bottle of the premium cider.

The EC Group team toured the country with Jacques, providing specialist support for sampling events at various shopping centres, including the supply of refrigerated vehicles containing ice and chilled sampling product, setting up the events , staying on-site, and then breaking down the equipment (including bespoke bars) before moving on to the next venue.

The activity culminated in July and August in the exclusive and elegant setting of The Jacques Townhouse at 33 Fitzroy Square in London. The Jacques styled house hosted Jacques drinkers who were seeking a stylish, ‘girlie haven’ for the evening.

The soirées – hosted at the Grade 1-listed Georgian townhouse by singer Sophie Ellis Bextor – were based on a quintessential English tea party, but with an added Jacques twist.

Gemma Myers, Senior Account Executive at EC Group, said: “I went along to one of the Jacques Townhouse soirées to check the build and set-up of the event. It was like stepping into a world of make-believe where every grown up woman could, for a snapshot in time, pretend to be like Alice in Wonderland – all things quirky and girly combined with all things naughty and nice; the quintessential Mad Hatter’s tea-party.

“What better way to spend a summer‘s Sunday evening – eating pretty pink cupcakes, playing dress up, being pampered by the Benefit Babes and having one‘s fortune told, all whilst sipping on a glass on Jacques cider. It was the sort of experience whereby you couldn’t help but smile from the moment the Bellboy called you in and directed you to the concierge to the sad moment the soirée came to an end.”

EC Group is one of the UK’s leading providers of outsourced marketing fulfilment, brand event support, and logistics services.

Its bespoke, cost-saving services range from handling simple one-off distributions, mailing campaigns and point-of-sale merchandising … through to total project management of design, print, storage, fulfilment and distribution contracts.

The company has over three million cubic feet of secure storage space at its warehouse complexes in Hayes, Middlesex and Grays, Essex. It also has state-of-the-art multi-channel customer contact centres in Hayes and Grays, and a full-service design facility in central London.

Heineken UK appoints outsourced marketing support specialist EC Group to play key role in World Cup period promotion

Heineken UK – the country’s biggest beer and cider producer – has appointed leading outsourced marketing services specialist EC Group to handle its ground-breaking Who Wants To Be A Football Millionaire? promotion this summer.

Created by marketing agency Steam UK – and developed in partnership with Sony Pictures Television – the Football Millionaire campaign will be Heineken UK’s biggest and widest-reaching promotion of 2010. It will run across five of Heineken’s top-selling beer and cider brands – Foster’s, John Smith’s, Kronenbourg 1664, Strongbow and Bulmers – in the run-up to, and during, the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Fronted by Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter Chris Tarrant, the campaign will feature on-pack and on-can in supermarkets and off licences and will appear in more than 13,000 bars across the UK from May onwards.

Keith Parsons, Heineken UK said: “EC Group have been excellent in their professional approach to planning this large scale activity. We need assurance that all logistics are 100% and EC Group have been able to ‘fine tune’ every detail to give us this and as always provide an enthusiastic service that makes them a pleasure to work with.“

EC Group (www.ecgroup.co.uk) will build and fulfil all promotional kits from its flagship three million cubic foot site in Hayes, Middlesex.

David Knight, Account Director at EC Group, says: “We have worked very closely with Heineken UK and their agency Steam UK to ensure perfect presentation of each promotional kit at the point of delivery. Packaging design has been key in ensuring that the various phases of the promotion are clearly and logically presented to licensees.

“This is all about driving sales and the more we can do to help maximise correct implementation, the better for our client’s bottom line.”

He adds: “EC Group’s recent investment in online systems and sophisticated processing technology will play a vital role in this huge promotion and will allow us to respond very rapidly to demand. Orders for the POS kits can come through to us at any time of the day or night – seven days a week – and it’s our job to make sure that we always have sufficient finished stock in place, to the right specification, to stay ahead of the game.”

EC Group – which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year – is recognised as the UK’s longest-established handling, fulfilment and logistics company. The firm began providing packing, warehousing and distribution services in 1810 under the name E. Christian & Company.

Today, EC Group combines its 200 years of experience with the latest 21st century technology and processes to provide bespoke outsourced services designed to meet each client’s specific requirements.

Its cost-saving marketing support services range from handling simple one-off distributions, mailing campaigns and point-of-sale merchandising … through to total project management of design, print, storage, fulfilment, digital asset management, and distribution contracts.