A Night of Spanish Beef

As part of our contract with our client Opera, an agency that is representing the interprofessional organization of European and Spanish beef, ShapeWin was tasked with organizing a presentation & cooking show event to Japanese beef importers. This was a multi- staged project with several challenges along the way. Nevertheless, we were eager to take on these requests to ensure a successful event and a satisfied client. The best way to achieve this was to focus on each step at a time, and plan far in advance.

1. Securing a venue within our client’s allocated budget

Our client requested us to find a Tokyo venue equipped with a projector, sound system and microphones, with a capacity for at least 50 guests. In addition, the venue must allow a chef to perform the cooking demonstrations inside the room. The first obstacle with this, was due to the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, new prefectural restrictions demanded venues to reduce their capacity by at least 50% or less. So, a venue that could normally hold 50 people would only be able to accommodate 20~25 guests. Despite these restrictions, the price of most event rooms did not change, so we now had to find a room that would normally hold 100 or more guests.

At our client’s request, we looked at several prestigious venues, such as the Tokyo Station Hotel, but the estimate for the room was more than 5 times our client’s expected budget. This comes to the hard truth that many foreign clients have a hard time facing – Japan; especially Tokyo – is an extremely expensive place to hold events! If you hold events in SEA, expect the cost in Tokyo to be minimum 5 up to 30 times higher!

I got into contact with the Odakyu Century Hotel, which I had some past collaborative experience with. Although it is a bit lesser known hotel than the other selections, it still has a clean atmosphere and beautiful view of the entire Shinjuku skyline. After speaking to the manager and several discussions, we were able to secure their prestigious “Haruka” venue for a very special price, and was able to spaciously accommodate 50 guests even with the new virus restrictions.

2. Deciding on a chef and menu

Atsushi Ishikawa, the head chef at the Century Hotel was a very experienced culinary artist, with years of experience both abroad and in Japan. Since we had ordered their luxury venue that would bring in lots of profit to the hotel, we were able to negotiate a price that would normally be impossible for Japan. Chef Ishikawa was very eager to create a suitable menu to satisfy our client’s vision. The concept that was most agreed upon was a concept of “Japanese fusion featuring Spanish beef”, as a means to show the delicacy of the client’s product adapted to the Japanese taste preferences. An example of this is beef tongue – while not a preferred taste in Western countries, it is a prized favourite amongst the Japanese. We arranged the meat to be shipped nearly a month in advance to the hotel, allowing plenty of extra quantity to ensure the chef would have ample practice. In addition, some of the extra meat would be placed on display during the event. About two weeks before the event, we sampled the menu. Although I personally had no objections to the menu, our partner Mr. Tonegawa and some of his Japanese associates made some small suggestions to the chef to enhance what was already a delicious three course meal. Japanese certainly have different palette preferences than Westerners, as during the taste sample course about 2 weeks prior to the event, I felt the steak served was a bit too rare, but the Japanese all thought it was not rare enough.

3. Preparing the promotional materials

We received a large number of boxes of promotional material the year before. These included cow plushies, notebooks, pamphlets, etc. However, our concern for these was that the production quality appeared a bit cheaply manufactured. Japanese tend to equate promotional material quality to product quality, and we were a bit concerned this might lower the perceived value of the product. However, we decided to hand them out at the start of the event, and tried to focus on the act of “gifting” these promotional materials, so the guests would see them more as a token, and not spend too much time overanalyzing quality.

The poster quality was another problem. The adobe illustrator data we received wasn’t the highest quality DPI, didn’t meet the print company specifications, and the client’s designer had long since left the company. However, Mr. Kamimura was able to take the time from his busy schedule and make the changes himself, which saved us a ton of trouble and budget. Another change made was fixing the design font. The difference between the Japanese or Chinese style of kanji to a non-native like myself is nearly indistinguishable, but to a native Japanese businessman, this could have been a very severe mistake that could embarrass the legitimacy of the client’s brand image. By not understanding Japanese fonts, the media may interpret that the client doesn’t understand the Japanese market or consumer standards.

We used an online print service for the four posters. This company produces very high-quality print materials, but the process takes a long time for the first print, and they are very meticulous about the design. Overall, the print process took almost three weeks, but in the end, it was worth it to get such good quality materials, which we will also be able to reuse for future events. We used the same print shop for another related event in June, and it only took one week since they already had our client’s details on file.

4. Hiring an MC & translator

This part went fairly quick and smooth. The client provided a Japanese translator who was fluent in Spanish. However, we felt the event also needed a strong presenter. In my previous company, we had tried to fill that role internally as well as use the translator in both roles, but we felt this might be too much multitasking and could lead to unforeseen problems. Thankfully, Mr. Tonegawa was able to secure an excellent MC for the event, which I think was the best choice.

5. Filling up the guest list – Pitching the event to Japanese importers

The final preparation challenge was to pitch the event to various Japanese importers, media, and other important players in the industry. For this, we relied on our partner Mr. Tonegawa of Global Media Corporation as an intermediary, a specialist in business event organization, networking, and media exposure. ShapeWin worked with his organization and our client to create an appealing pitch to these potential, valuable guests.

The event was titled “An evening with European/Spanish Beef”, and was pitched to create a sense of exclusivity and prestige. The invitation letter highlighted that “EU beef exported to Japan through the Wonderful Beef Campaign is managed under a strict European production model that guarantees food safety through animal health and feeding regulations, animal welfare, sustainability and environmental considerations, and traceability.” These points are very important to both the client and the importers,
and could let the potential guests understand this event would be informative as well as entertaining. Finally, we pitched the event as an “opportunity to taste and appreciate the appeal of Spanish beef”. Within a week, we had filled the guest list with several major importers, some wholesalers, media persons, as well as received attendance requests from the Spanish Embassy of Japan.

6. Setting up the venue

I had dropped off most of the promotional materials to the hotel a couple days before the event, but still stopped by the office to bring the posters and computers. One of our staff, Mrs. Sugimoto took the day to help out with all the various setup tasks for the event. My biggest concern was the projector audio system, but thankfully all the equipment connected properly. We did a test zoom call to Spain a few hours before the actual event, which was still very early in the morning in Madrid, but thankfully they
were able to get up early enough to verify the connection. Just as the guests were arriving, we were suddenly informed that the client wanted to show an additional video just moments before the event began. Normally this would have been too late, but luckily I was able to download it in the background with a second laptop. As I ensured the technical systems were functioning, Mrs Sugimoto, Mr. Tonegawa and his team were busy handing out the promotional material and greeting the guests.

The stage was set. The seats filled. It was time for the show to begin.

7. Showtime!

The event opened with a speech from a representative from the embassy of Spain, followed by the two videos, and lastly the zoom call with the client. These main tasks moved forward smoothly without any incident. Afterwards, Chef Ishikawa took the stage, and my main role was completed. From this point onwards, it was our goal to take as many photos and videos of the event as possible for future promotion. I brought my own DSLR camera and zoom lens as well as some smaller action videos cameras with a super wide angle lens to capture the entirety of the venue. By the end of the dinner, most of the guests seemed relaxed and impressed by the quality of the Spanish beef.

8. Feedback

Immediately following the event, we received many requests from the guests to send the promotional videos and further follow up information. Mr. Tonegawa delivered a handful of comments from the guests, all of which were very positive. Several days later, one of the guests published an article in a major Japanese media “Daily Meat & Livestock”. Further photos and videos of the event will be used in the upcoming year for future social media content. Overall, the event and feedback was very successful in boosting the overall brand image of European and Spanish Beef products.

9. Future

Three months later, we were asked by our client to help organize the guest list for two similar events regarding Beef & Lamb from Spain. Although we didn’t have to set up everything start to finish, our team ensured a minimum of 50 guests attending each event. We hope for continued work and higher success in future events.