Across many brands, events and experiential ran with no shared standards, duplicated suppliers and a rising, unmeasured carbon footprint just as ESG became a board commitment. The group paid many times for the same capability and could report neither cost nor carbon at portfolio level.
VA built an events centre of excellence — one preferred-supplier network, harmonised fees, reusable modular formats and a climate-aware production workflow with carbon measurement in every brief — governing cost and carbon together at portfolio level.
CMO, Head of Brand, Head of Indirect Procurement
The strategic problem
Across many brands, events and experiential ran with no shared standards, duplicated suppliers and a rising, unmeasured carbon footprint just as ESG became a board commitment. The group paid many times for the same capability and could report neither cost nor carbon at portfolio level.
Diagnose & Design
VA ran a marketing & production ecosystem audit and spend mapping & cost baseline analysis across every brand’s events and experiential spend, mapping supplier fragmentation, format duplication and the untracked carbon embedded in production choices — travel, build, energy and disposal; market benchmarking established what event costs look like in a governed, centre-of-excellence model at comparable portfolio scale. A gap & maturity assessment measured the distance from a shared-standard operating model, and governance design (RACI, KPI framework, scorecards) defined the architecture for a combined cost-and-carbon reporting structure, with scenario modelling & forecast simulation projecting the saving and emission-reduction potential of consolidation.
Ecosystem & Remuneration
VA designed the events and experiential centre of excellence through roster rationalisation & consolidation, replacing duplicated, brand-by-brand supplier relationships with one preferred-supplier network spanning production, venues, technology and sustainability specialists, selected through a governed pitch covering every business unit. Remuneration model design harmonised fee structures across the portfolio; fee benchmarking & validation confirmed consolidated rates delivered material savings versus individually negotiated terms. Scoping & SOW design embedded reusable modular formats, a climate-aware production workflow — low-carbon build, remote and virtual options — and carbon-measurement requirements into every brief, and vendor scouting & shortlisting from the VA 5,000+ supplier database identified suppliers able to meet both cost and ESG criteria.
Rollout & relationship management
Contracting & onboarding formalised the preferred-supplier network with harmonised agreements covering rates, modular format licensing, sustainability-compliance obligations and carbon-reporting requirements; handover, rollout & commitment tracking governed brand-by-brand adoption of the centre-of-excellence standards, ensuring no brand continued with legacy suppliers outside the governed panel. AURA/Planner back-planned the rollout to two dates — centre of excellence launch and full cross-brand adoption — while relationship management sustained alignment between brand, procurement and sustainability stakeholders throughout the structural transition.
Execution Oversight
VA applied production cost validation & budget control to every event brief, tracking actual spend against modular format baselines and flagging any bespoke production that should have used a standard format. Sustainable production & ESG/DE&I checks were embedded at brief, supplier-selection and wrap stages, with carbon measured against the group’s board-level ESG commitments at each step. Wrap & final reconciliation closed each event with a cost-and-carbon report, giving the board its audit trail and feeding the continuous-improvement cycle for format and supplier standards.
Performance Measurement
Cost and carbon were governed and reported together. KPIs and scorecards from governance design — cost per event, carbon intensity per event, supplier consolidation rate, modular format reuse rate — tracked via partner performance evaluation on a 90/180/360 appraisal cadence; cost saving and cost avoidance reported separately. Outcomes: 18% reduction in events cost, 13% cost avoidance from shared formats and competitive sourcing, 40% reduction in production emissions (today closure reports; full performance measurement on the roadmap).
Why VA
Across a portfolio, events value is lost between brands. VA builds a centre of excellence with a climate-aware workflow that governs cost and carbon together, so the group captures scale and meets its ESG commitments.
Common questions
What is an events and experiential centre of excellence?
One preferred-supplier network spanning production, venues, technology and sustainability specialists, with harmonised fees and reusable modular formats — replacing duplicated, brand-by-brand supplier relationships with no shared standard.
How do you govern cost and carbon together?
A climate-aware production workflow — low-carbon build, remote and virtual options — with carbon-measurement requirements in every brief, so cost per event and carbon intensity are reported side by side at portfolio level on a 90/180/360 cadence.
How is portfolio scale captured across many brands?
A governed pitch across every business unit and harmonised rate cards mean the group buys once with scale leverage, and modular-format reuse compounds — so events value is captured between brands, not lost.