A very mad, Mad Hatter

Hello, my fellow beautiful and talented PR professionals!

After a day-off on Christmas Day, we were immediately back on our feet, finalising plans required for the themed events held at Souled Out, WIP, Tujo and an exclusive bus tour for journalists. I was assigned to run Tujo’s Mad Hatter theme on the eve of New Year’s.

The Mad Hatter New Year’s Eve concept is a continuation of the colourful A Christmas Playground event. The additional element to the A Christmas Playground concept is the outrageous hats for Tujo’s décor and wait staff. The Mad Hatter theme reinforces Tujo’s concept as being the location to Eat, Play & Live, as it will create brand perception to customers that Tujo is a trendy venue to wine and dine at, regardless of the festive seasons celebrated in Malaysia.

The Mad Hatter decorations consisted of deck of cards hung up vertically with strings, vines accompanied by colourful lanterns, Cheshire cat drawn up on the chalkboards at the venue, lollipop centerpieces and This Way, That Way signs.

Several discussions were held among the SOUL Society Group to finalize the New Year’s Eve menu and entertainment, whilst we update the outstanding tasks on the checklist and event order.

The food menu proposed by the SOUL Society kitchen was a buffet dinner consisting of creative spins on the festive food, such as, red seafood spaghetti, colourful coleslaw, chocolate mushrooms, purple burgers and multi-coloured desserts. While the drinks to be featured at the event comprised of unique cocktails using tea as base ingredient and other fruity cocktails with champagne. The entertainment for the Mad Hatter event include fringe performers dressed in the Alice in the Wonderland inspired costumes to meet-and-greet guests and a special DJ set by Cassie D.

In terms of publicizing the event, the SOUL Society Group distributed E-flyers to our in-house and sponsors database, SMS blast to SOUL Society database, Facebook feeds and invites, venue posters, plasma screen digital promo, pre- and post-coverage from the media.

The sponsorship and branding was executed via cash sponsorship, special event trade orders and brands support, in return for SOUL Society Group publicity towards the event by incorporating sponsor’s brand logo in its marketing and PR collaterals.

Similar to the A Christmas Playground, I was assigned to oversee the overall proceedings of the Mad Hatter event including, the décor, operations, buffet lines, reservation lists and cover after 10pm.

The concept for the night purports to entice the above 18 year old age groups, as SOUL Society Group closed the kitchen and put emphasis on the beverage menu. Moreover, the entertainment for the night only featured two DJ sets, intended to attract a night club audience.

The turnout was more than satisfactory, as the performance measures, including sales analysis, far exceeded SOUL Society Group’s forecast.

The night was filled with friends and families reminiscing and creating wonderful memories for the final few hours of 2013, accompanied by great food, drinks and music.

Hence, I would love to do the honors and say;

Cheerio 2013, and Hello 2014!
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL J

Best Wishes,
Diane