More than 1,000 Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) employees visited a touring ‘personal shopper’ experience created by Event Marketing Solutions (EMS) to showcase the bank’s new corporate wear.
 
The nine-week roadshow enabled branch employees – for the first time – to see, touch and try on the newly designed corporate wear before choosing and ordering their clothing.
 
The roadshow, which finished in early June, was introduced in direct response to requests for this type of service.
 
The centrepiece of the roadshow was a giant 17 x 6 metre touring unit customised by EMS to create a welcoming, relaxed personal shopping experience – complete with a red carpet, star-branded changing rooms and a tailor to advise on sizing and styles.

Uniform approach: HBOS employees choose their look 

 
The unit carried around 600 items of clothing from the new range – including suiting, shirts, knitwear and accessories – enabling men and women of all sizes to try on and select the right uniform for them.
 
A giant video projector showing catwalk footage of the launch of the new range brought a touch of extra glamour to the occasion.
 
Operating under the strapline of The Essential Collection, the roadshow visited 32 venues across the UK. Carefully chosen to be accessible to as many HBOS branches as possible, these included football stadia, motorway service stations and major retail centres.
 
“The Essential Collection roadshow was a major internal communication exercise delivering real, practical benefits to branch colleagues,” said Holly Watson-Oates, event management consultant from HBOS. “Instead of just choosing their new uniform from a brochure, they had the opportunity to try it on first and to receive professional advice on the best styles for them. Feedback from visitors was consistently positive – people really appreciated the service.
 
“We have been delighted with the quality of the unit EMS produced. It perfectly captures the Essential Collection concept and has delivered an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for our colleagues. EMS also worked hard to research the right venues for us, to maximise attendance.”
 
Commenting on the touring experience ,Keith Austin, managing director of EMS, said: “This is an innovative project that perfectly demonstrates how mobile marketing solutions can deliver effective communication within a large organisation.
 
“It is far more time efficient to take your message to where your employees are, rather than asking them to take a day out to travel to a single venue.”
 
The HBOS project is the latest in a growing number of internal communications roadshows undertaken by EMS. Previous projects include a training roadshow introducing Marks & Spencer’s new store concept to staff and a tour raising internal awareness of Barclays’ sports sponsorship activities.
 
Austin added: “We are seeing increasing demand for mobile marketing within internal communications, as more and more companies realise the very real benefits it can deliver.”