Epson, a world leader in digital imaging and printing solutions,has won two awards at the prestigious Marketing Excellence Award 2016. A Bronze award for Excellence in B2B Marketing in Singapore was garnered for Epson’s ENGAGE2WIN Regional Dealers Programme, and Epson’s initiative to sponsor youth footballers from the National Football Academy on holistic overseas training stints won the Bronze award for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility.
The Marketing Excellence Awards organized by Marketing Magazine, is Singapore’s main event recognizing excellence across the marketing communications services industry.
Excellence in B2B Marketing – ENGAGE2WIN
The B2B Marketing category at the award recognizes the best organization that effectively reaches its B2B audience through creative marketing efforts which encompass advertising, branding, marketing and communications work for B2B brands.
The ENGAGE2WIN dealer programme is a point-based reward programme for Epson’s dealers for its large format printers across 5 countries, enabling dealers to redeem rewards through an online catalogue. Dealers from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines are awarded points based on the sales of large format printers they make.
Communication channels and collaterals were designed with a consistent look and feel for branding and top of mind recall. Communication channels include a programme website, welcome kit for new registrations and monthly emailers of promotions, as well as customized calls to drive call-to-action. Objectives of communications are to establish and nurture relationships as well as to manage and track dealer performance.
The programme has helped to improve dealer relationship management and increased loyalty towards Epson products. In the first quarter of 2016 of the programme launch, dealers from 3 out of the 5 countries had more than 90% registration rate, with an average participation rate of 79% for all countries. 100% of the rewards budget had been fully expended by the second quarter of 2016, and points issued to dealers increased by 34% compared to the first quarter.
The ENGAGE2WIN programme has also recently won Silver for Best Regional Loyalty Marketing Campaign at The Loyalty & Engagement Awards 2016 organized by Marketing Magazine. The award recognized companies’ regional marketing campaigns that have successfully increased customer proposition and buying behavior based on the value customers’ received from the campaign’s marketing strategy.
Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility – Epson’s Sponsorship of Youth Footballers
The Corporate Social Responsibility category recognizes the best marketing campaign, initiative or programme by an organization for a charity or cause the organization had a partnership or association with, resulting in positive effects and outcomes for society or the cause.
As part of a 3-year sponsorship to the Football Association of Singapore, Epson embarked on a campaign to raise awareness of the local football scene in Singapore and to support local football talent.
Leveraging on its strategic relationships with world class sporting giants, Epson provided a series of training stints to Singapore’s young footballers, with one of Japan’s J2 League teams, Matsumoto Yamaga FC in June 2015. In December 2015, Epson Singapore offered Singapore national goal keeper Izwan Mahbud the opportunity to train and be “talent-scouted” by the region’s best football managers at Yamaga FC.
In June 2016, Epson offered six U-14 and U-15 youth players a training and cultural exchange experience where they trained with top J-League players and were exposed to new training techniques.
The campaign rallied Singaporeans behind our local footballers, as people of all walks of life cheered our young players on, with local and overseas media keenly followed the developments. The CSR campaign also ignited goodwill among Epson fans on its youth development efforts, and reinforced the brand’s credibility as a preferred news maker and champion of the local football scene.
“Both the awards are recognition of our strength and success of our regional marketing efforts and local CSR outreach. We would like to highlight that collaboration with the local football community and youth development is one of the ways we give back to the community and is integrated with our marketing efforts. We look to continue building the Epson brand in Singapore and the region, and to seek to support and inspire our youths to pursue their passions,” said Toshimitsu Tanaka, Managing Director (Southeast Asia), Epson Singapore.