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Client: The Lion Company.
Objective: Internal rebranding of Lion Nathan as Lion Co.  
Attendees: More than three hundred leaders of Lion Nathan and National Foods companies in Australia and New Zealand.  
Venues: Port Douglas Mirage and Flames Of The Forest Restaurant.

Background:
In June 2011,  Lion Nathan National Foods, an amalgamation of National Foods and Lion Nathan, formally adopted a new shared purpose and identity and rechristened itself simply  as Lion. This meant a change in the name of the parent company for many Australian and New Zealand brand leaders from Coon Cheese, Big M, Berri and Vitasoy to Tooheys, Hahn and Steinlager.

Lion’s Strategy and Insights Director Alicia Purtell and her team had selected the Port Douglas Mirage as an ideal location for the 2011 Lion Leader’s Conference which would introduce 350 executives across all Lion divisions to the corporate theme: “Acting in alignment helps us achieve together”.

Alicia, who had worked with Drum Beats before on several individual product  events, knew Drum Beats  could be relied  on to create a drumming opener for Day 2 of the event that would both support the corporate theme and leave this audience enthused, excited and receptive to the new branding.

Creative Development:
The communications objective of the day was to demonstrate to delegates that by acting in alignment under the united Lion banner, all the diverse Lion brands could achieve more, so Angela developed and produced a one-off musical programme of three “lessons” to prove to the 350 participants that this was indeed the case.

Lesson One  - After a short opening drumming session designed to break down inhibitions and raise the emotional temperature, Angela and the Rhythm Doctors (also known as drummers) got to work to prove that diversity could produce harmony. This was done by showing four different sections of the audience how to play four different rhythms simultaneously to unite into an impressivepiece of music.

Lesson Two  - Even the smallest division, the product and the people who produced it payed a vital part in the whole. Audience members were given a cheese wrapper and were asked to make music with it – no luck – but when a team of people crumpled their wrappers in time, and were supported by other instruments; they could and did make a positive contribution to the music.

Lesson Three - The climax! – the debut of the Lion Packaging Orchestra, as members of the different product groups played their packaging – there were beer cans and milk cartons used as clap sticks, ice cream cartons full of beer tops used as shakers and many other strange and wonderful sounds that all magically aligned into a stirring and harmonious Lion Symphony. An important outcome of this exercise worth mentioning was that it introduced everybody in the room to the full suite of products, including the New Zealand market brand leaders in a memorable way.

“Bearing in mind that it was an 8.30am start, people really loved it! It created a great sense of unity and energy to kick off the second day of our conference. We really appreciated how proactive Angela was in suggesting using our products as percussion instruments, which helped to connect our people to the activity” said Lion Co’s Alicia Purtell.  

Grand Finale
Drum Beats also contributed to ending this two day Lion event on a high note by staging their new Gaia Rhythm Show - world music spectacular as the after dinner entertainment at the conference Gala Dinner, hosted at the award winning Flames of the Forest rainforest venue just outside Port Douglas.  Drum Beats drummers and stilt walkers in rain forest costumes were on hand to meet and greet the guests as they arrived at the restaurant and ten solo performers provided the memorable after dinner entertainment, which included a Mongolian throat singer and fire dancing acrobats.

“The Gaia performance”, said Alicia “was spectacular, really interactive, fun and moving. Our thanks to Angela and her team for creating a program and performance unique to Lion and partnering with us in such a constructive way.”

  More Team Building Photos

  More Grand Finale Photos

Drum Beats rolls out Grundfos global values in six capital cities

Client: Grundfos Pumps Australia & New Zealand.
Objective: Regional launch of new Grundfos global theme “What Unites Us”.
Attendees: Internal business leaders from Adelaide, Auckland. Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Venues: Bio SA Conference Centre, Adelaide and Grundfos offices in all other capital cities.

Check out the photos of the day

Auckland     |    Sydney     |    Brisbane    |    Adelaide AM     |    Adelaide PM     |   Melbourne     |   Perth

When  Grundfos Australia and New Zealand launched a new Grundfos  global corporate theme in 2011, they announced it  with a drum roll in every one of their offices – coordinating eight opening events  in six offices and two countries through Drum Beats

It all began in Denmark earlier this year, when Grundfos called an international manager’s meeting to announce their new global corporate theme, “What Unites Us”, and opened the event with a drumming session - the perfect way to unite any corporate group with a rhythmic shared experience.

Anna Tyssen, Assistant Marketing Manager of Grundfos Australia, suggested recreating the Danish drumming experience to announce the theme to a group of 30 Australian senior executives and business leaders. “We wanted something that was physical and involving and united everyone in the audience in a positive way”, recalls Anna, “and drumming met that need perfectly“. In fact, this event was so successful, it was then staged in every Grundfos office in Australia and New Zealand on June 20th, when the new values rolled out globally.

Grundfos National HR Manager Claire Lindley took responsibility for managing the national launch and worked closely with Drum Beats Production Director Rob Wines to make sure the event was simultaneous and seamless, quite a challenge as the audience sizes ranged from 120 people in Adelaide to six people in Perth, with 20 – 50 per office in the other capital cities – Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. “Being a national company”, says Claire, “the fact that we were able to organise the whole event through one central contact, Rob Wines, was invaluable. I attended the Adelaide shows, which were fantastic, and I had equally positive feedback from all the other state Managers”.  

Drum Beats say that no event is too complex and no audience too small for a great drumming event whether you have an audience of six or 600. “It always happens the same way” explains Rob, “five minutes while the extroverts get into it and the introverts hold back, and then all inhibitions go out of the window as everyone joins in and enjoys the adrenalin rush.  National launches are no problem either as Drum Beats has hand-picked teams of drummers and dancers on call in every capital city – each performer auditioned and approved and each performance scripted by Angela.”