Anna Huddleston

To connect with an African American demo Nestle Coffee-mate is hitting the road to bring its café experience to events in four markets. It kicked off its tour last month at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans followed by a stop at the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. Next it hits the African Festival of the Arts in Chicago and concludes at the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington D.C. On site Nestle Coffee-mate sets up a café shop filled with tasting stations serving hot and iced coffee flavored with Coffee-mate flavors.

Lexus has extended its agreement with the United States Tennis Association and the U.S. Open through next year; as part of the deal the brand is introducing new activations this year including an event this month that gave USTA members in New York New Jersey and Connecticut the chance to interact with notable tennis players including Billie Jean King Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova.

To create press buzz for the unveiling of its limited edition diamond-encrusted SD1100 Digital ELPH camera Canon turned to tennis pro Maria Sharapova a long-time ambassador for the brand.

The camera containing 88 white diamonds totaling 2.22 carats was unveiled last month at the Canon Center Court a 50-foot dome resembling a tennis ball at South Street Seaport to tie in with Canon’s longstanding sponsorship of the US Open which wrapped up this month in Lake Success NY. At the event Canon showed for the first time its newest commercial featuring Sharapova titled “Fans.”

The concert sponsorship activation model has become for the most part a rather formulaic platform. Hit folks in the parking lots set up near concession stands before the first set and serve up some branded love after the encore wraps up. Nuff said papi.

It says something about the power of event marketing that big-time TV networks are no longer relying only on their own form of media to get the word out about their programming. More and more big and small networks basic cable stations and premium pay stations alike are all turning to experiential to promote shows. To create buzz for mid-season replacements reality shows election coverage—you name it—networks are taking it to the streets to hook in viewers and entice media buyers.