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.

Outsourced business support specialist EC Group praised for effectiveness of ISO9001 quality management system

With users of outsourced business support services increasingly expecting their suppliers to provide the highest possible levels of quality and value, EC Group’s ISO9001 Quality Management System has been praised as “very effective” by an independent team of external inspectors.

EC Group’s dynamic quality system is applied across all areas of the company’s extensive service offering – including customer contact centres, response handling, fulfilment, warehousing, distribution, mailings, database management, marketing communications, and e-commerce solutions.

The independent audit of EC Group’s ISO9001 Quality Management System found that the system is “well controlled” and demonstrates “a high level of commitment to the requirements of ISO9001-2008 and to continuous improvement”.

The inspectors also praised EC Group’s “very effective system” for planning and managing maintenance and calibration activities.

Chris Long, EC Group’s managing director, says: “This recent re-affirmation of our ISO9001 accreditation demonstrates our ongoing commitment to a quality system which underpins everything we do. More than that, it is independent validation of our commitment to continuous improvement which delivers tangible benefits to all of our clients.”

He adds: “Our quality system is dynamic and we are continuing to invest in technology and methodologies to develop our service offer, streamline our operation, and deliver the best possible value to all our clients.”

EC Group is one of the UK’s leading providers of outsourced marketing fulfilment 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.

Outsourced marketing support specialist EC Group expands contact centre services by adding e-commerce solutions and digital print-on-demand

EC Group is continuing to enhance its range of contact centre services by extending its e-mail and e-commerce solutions, and also expanding its print-on-demand service for online requests for brochures and leaflets.

The company has state-of-the-art customer contact centres in Hayes, Middlesex and Grays, Essex. Both centres offer multi-channel contact facilities, including live call handling, IVR, fax, e-mail and e-commerce solutions.

EC Group also has over three million cubic feet of secure storage space at its warehouse complexes in Hayes and Grays.

Chris Tillin, EC Group’s marketing manager, says: “The expansion of our e-commerce and digital print services is a recognition that more consumers and B2B customers are moving their purchasing or information request behaviour online.

“More of them are choosing to download information instead of talking directly to a real person.”

Tillin says these additional services reflect client companies’ growing requirements for a total contact centre package that includes more than just traditional call centre services.

“Clients are no longer just looking for stand-alone inbound or outbound support,” he says. “They want a call centre to be able to provide a full range of integrated direct marketing services instead of spreading these functions across different providers.”

Tillin also points to a shift towards multi-channel contact centre services – including live call handling, IVR, fax, e-mail and e-commerce solutions – as part of an integrated service proposition.

“In effect, we are now a one-stop shop acting as the customer facing side of a client’s business,” he says.

“This involves managing enquiries, providing information, and processing orders through to the back end of a client’s operations – such as warehousing, response handling, fulfilment and other outsourced direct marketing support services.”

He says EC Group can either provide outsourced support for just one or two elements of a direct marketing campaign, or handle the complete project management and delivery of the whole campaign.

“What we offer are the elements of direct marketing that are often too costly to manage in-house,” says Tillin. “Outsourcing them allows a client to focus their attention on what they do best.”