Anna Huddleston

This month, at-home soda maker brand SodaStream is circling New York City with a 12-foot by six-foot cage atop a trailer filled with empty soda cans and water bottles equaling the average five-year waste of a family of four. The vehicle is part of SodaStream’s integrated sampling and social media campaign to get consumers excited about its soda maker as a gift for the holidays. The brand sets up a tent where it demonstrates how to use the machine and then has consumers taste the final product with the waste-filled cage in the backdrop.

Banking on the same success its Comic-Con activation had last year when AMC launched its zombie series “The Walking Dead,” the network returned this July with a replica set from season one as it gears up for the return of the series in October. The set depicted the Merle Dixon character chained to the Atlanta department store rooftop moments before he cuts off his own hand, while the zombies attempt to push through the door. Attendees were given the chance to be in Merle’s shoes by putting on a set of handcuffs and pretending to cut off their own hand for a photo-op.

 TBS leveraged its relationship with late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien and his active fan base by creating a pop-up experience during Comic-Con that featured artwork created by O’Brien’s fans. Housed in an art gallery from July 21-24 near the San Diego Convention Center, the pop-up was a physical extension of the fan-driven website Coco MoCa: The Museum of Conan Art. The collection featured 60 pieces created by Conan fans, including illustrations, oil paintings, pencil drawings and more.

Today, New Balance opens its first North American Experience store in the Flatiron district of New York City and to get the buzz building and peeps through the doors, for the next four weeks the brand is challenging runners throughout the five boroughs to race for the chance to win free shoes, gift cards and, for the grand prize winner, a solid gold New Balance Baton worth $20,000.