Back in March 2020, PSAV announced that it would be rebranding, along with its family of companies, as Encore – the name of the business it acquired in early 2019. By January 2021, the majority of the PSAV family had done exactly that, with the likes of Hawthorn, AVC Live, KFP and PSAV itself uniting under the Encore brand. However, for fellow PSAV company, eclipse, the quirks of the UAE’s legal and regulatory system meant that the company has continued to operate under its original name… until now. “We are delighted to announce that from 6 June, eclipse has rebranded to Encore,” confirmed Simon Ransom, Group Director Middle East, Encore.
The rebranding of eclipse means that the entire global network is now unified under the Encore brand. “We were always part of one large family, but the fact that we are now all united under the same brand means that the messaging can be consistent across the board,” Ransom told TPMEA. “We wanted to help our customer understand that wherever they are in the world, with Encore, they can get that same level of service, professionalism and expertise that they have become accustomed to.”
“We have created a brand that delivers on our mission to become an invaluable partner on our customers’ journey to success, and we’re thrilled that eclipse is now able to join us under the Encore identity,” added Nik Rudge, Managing Director – EMEA, Encore. “I am excited about what this means for us here at Encore, and more importantly our customers, as we continue to focus on delivering events that transform in locations throughout the Gulf region. We have an obligation to help our clients and partners reach their goals and objectives, and today we will do that both across the EMEA region and globally under a unified brand that reflects that commitment.”
While the rebrand won’t have any material effect on the way that the company operates, Ransom believes that the new name and company positioning is a much stronger representation of what the global business now provides. “PSAV was known primarily as a venues business and that is simply not the case anymore,” he commented. “The expansion plans of PSAV were always to expand internationally and grow the live events and production business, and with the acquisitions of Encore Event Technologies and eclipse in 2019, the company added a much broader scope. So, the rebranding decision was made with aim of homogenising that picture across the world and is expressed by the new tagline: Encore. Events that Transform.”
The COVID-19 pandemic remains a constant challenge to the entire industry. However, Ransom is confident that the work done, and significant investment made over the past year-and-a-half stands the company in good stead, whatever happens with the pandemic. “We have the capability and creativity to help customers who need to take their events from the live space and put them into the virtual or hybrid space,” he highlighted. “The benefit of the virtual and hybrid environment is that you don’t all need to be in the same room any more to hold a successful event, which makes our global network more useful than ever.”
While COVID-19 has, of course, been a blow to business, the company has worked on several socially distant live events throughout the pandemic and, according to Ransom, bookings for Q3 and Q4 are already starting to come in. “We’re seeing a lot of clients from all over the world looking to work in the Middle East and having maintained a significant level of our staffing in the UAE, we’re well placed to cater to their needs.”
Looking ahead, Ransom is positive about the future of the company under the Encore brand. “The aims remain the same as when we joined what was then PSAV and is now Encore,” he stated. “We want to continue to grow the business, consolidate our position in the UAE, expand our operation in Saudi Arabia and potentially look to other markets, too.
“When the industry comes back, it’s going to come back fast,” he concluded. “We plan on being agile enough to be able to employ the right people at the right time so the company can grow quickly with the demand.”
