Trade Elite

Client: PPG

Victoria Falls, Zambia

Trade Elite is PPG’s flagship global incentive programme, designed to reward and retain its highest-value trade customers. In 2025, XSEM delivered a Victoria Falls experience that had to motivate a highly selective audience while evolving the programme with a more meaningful sense of purpose. With 88 customers on the programme overall and only 55 qualifiers earning a place, the year-long sales incentive worked as both a powerful reward and an aspirational driver for the wider customer base.

The programme brought together 125 attendees, including qualifiers, guests and PPG staff, for a carefully curated journey through Victoria Falls by air, land and water. Qualification was based on uniquely generated uplift targets, with qualifiers achieving an average uplift of 32.4% against target. Throughout the 12-month campaign, monthly communications and pre-departure touchpoints maintained momentum, delivering a strong average email open rate of 63%.

What set this programme apart was the depth of its CSR legacy. Through XSEM’s partnership with event industry charity Meeting Needs, PPG supported the Jafuta Foundation, which works across Zimbabwe’s Hwange District on education, women’s empowerment, livelihood and community resilience programmes reaching more than 1,000 homesteads each year. A $10,000 donation funded solar panels for a community education and workshop facility, creating a reliable hub for learning, vocational training and income-generating activity in an area where electricity is often limited or unavailable. Delegates also contributed practical donations through Packing for Purpose, while an impromptu gala auction raised a further $2,500.

Post-event feedback confirmed the strength of the programme, with 91% of respondents rating their overall experience as Excellent and the remaining respondents rating it Very good. Guests described the trip as “fantastic”, “unforgettable” and “amazingly organised”, underlining its success as an incentive that delivered commercial motivation, emotional impact and a distinctive long-term legacy.