Andela: Where spontaneous events became a systematic game plan.

Client: Andela
Industry: Talent, reskilling, and staff augmentation
ICP Fit: Enterprise and mid-market accounts they wanted to grow and win
Challenge: Andela was already spending serious money on in-person pop-up events (think lots of Nike shoe giveaways). The problem was that the results were hit-or-miss. Outreach felt more spontaneous than strategic, and the team needed a better way to get the right accounts in the room.
Solution: Scrappy ABM didn’t tell them to burn it all down and start over (we’re scrappy, not chaotic). Instead, we optimized what was already working using our 4D Framework + Account Progression approach.
Impact:

• 74 non-Andela attendees at a featured activation event
• 35 customers
• 39 prospects
• Six-figure event spend (≈$180K across multiple pop-ups) transformed from ad hoc to targeted activation
• Stronger ICP alignment and in-person engagement across priority accounts
• Clear shift from random events to a repeatable, account-based field motion

The Challenge:

Big Event Spend, But Hit-or-Miss Impact

Andela wasn’t sitting around doing nothing.

They were already going big on in-person pop-ups, including eye-catching Nike shoe giveaways, to get in front of prospects. We’re talking 6+ events a year and a healthy six-figure budget behind them.

So activity and effort? Awesome.

But consistent impact with the right accounts? Not quite.

The issue wasn’t that the events weren’t cool (they were). It was that the motion behind them wasn’t fully buttoned up.

Here’s where things started to wobble a bit:

• Great events, fuzzy targeting: The experiences were strong, but invites and follow-up weren’t tightly aligned to the target account list (TAL).
• Spontaneous vs. systematic execution: Events kept happening, but there wasn’t a repeatable playbook to reliably drive the right meetings.
• Late to the party problem: Andela showed up late in deal cycles because key buyers didn’t know them early enough.
• Big spend, mixed signal: Nearly $180K in annual event investment was creating activity, just not always the kind Leadership wanted to see.
• Distribution needed structure: The team had great ideas, but needed help tightening invites, sequencing, and account prioritization.
• Lean team reality: With limited bandwidth, building a fully orchestrated ABM field motion internally was tough.

Andela didn’t need more events. They needed a way to turn a high-effort, high-spend program into a repeatable engine that consistently put the right buyers in the room.

The Solution

Make What’s Working Work 10x Better

First things first: we didn’t tell Andela to scrap their events.

The pop-ups were good, and the spend was already happening.

They needed the same engine, just tuned so it stopped sputtering.

So we applied a core Scrappy principle:

Before you build something new, make your existing motion pull its weight.

Using our 4D Framework (Data, Distribution, Destination, Direction) and Account Progression approach, we helped Andela turn a spontaneous event motion into something far more systematic (and far less “hope this works 🤞”).

Here’s what changed.

Data:

We started with the guest list, because a full room ≠ the right room.

This work focused on:

• Aligning invites to their priority TAL
• Classifying accounts by firmographic fit
• Balancing customers vs. prospects intentionally
• Prioritizing ICP quality over pure headcount

Result: Events built around the accounts that mattered.

Distribution:

Next, we built the structured invite and follow-up engine that had been missing. This included:

• Pre-event invite sequences
• Sales-aligned outreach
• Messaging designed to drive in-person meetings
• Post-event follow-up plays

Instead of a one-off promotion, Andela now had a repeatable in-person activation playbook.

Destination:

We also repositioned the pop-ups themselves.

Rather than isolated moments, the Nike activations became intentional account plays:

• A door-opener for enterprise conversations
• A way to multi-thread into target accounts
• A coordinated touchpoint inside the broader account journey

Same events, much sharper purpose.

Direction:

Finally, we helped Andela track the signals that count.

They gained visibility into:

• Which target accounts were showing up
• Which segments were responding
• How in-person activity mapped to account progression

Beyond Events: The Scrappy Principle in Action

The biggest win wasn’t launching more programs.

It was proving Andela could repurpose what they had for much greater impact.

Instead of $20-30K pop-ups running in isolation, they now had:

• A structured event playbook
• Tight alignment to the TAL
• Stronger Sales + Marketing coordination
• A repeatable field activation motion

The result = a smarter, more disciplined way to build awareness and engagement inside the enterprise accounts that move revenue.

(And yes, still with cool shoes.)

The Lasting Impact:

Event Experiments → a Repeatable Motion

Today, Andela’s field strategy looks different. What used to feel like a series of one-off pop-ups has become a much more intentional, account-focused motion.

Before Scrappy ABM:

• Frequent pop-up events, mostly run ad hoc
• Significant event spend without consistent ICP targeting
• Strong creative ideas, but limited distribution structure
• Sales and Marketing not fully aligned on who should attend
• Priority accounts often discovered Andela too late
• Lean team bandwidth made repeatability tough

After Scrappy ABM:

• A structured event activation playbook the team can reuse
• TAL tightly aligned to event strategy
• Sequenced invites and follow-up supporting real meetings
• Stronger Sales and Marketing coordination around field efforts
• Clearer visibility into which right-fit accounts are engaging
• Existing event spend working smarter

Just as important, Andela saw the value of the Scrappy approach in action: optimizing what already exists before adding net-new programs.

Now, instead of treating events like isolated moments, the team has a repeatable foundation for using in-person experiences to open doors with the accounts that matter.