Kenneth Briodagh

For many college kids, this time of year means only one thing: Spring Break. For many, it's the first time they'll go away without mom or dad to chaperone. For all, it's a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime chance to live like a superstar: hanging on the beach, pounding some beers and rocking the clubs with their best friends. This year, BIC got down and dirty to get them clean shaven at spring break destinations South Padre Island, Texas, and Panama City Beach, FL. 

To drive viewership for its broadcast of the tournament-style mixed martial arts competition Bellator MMA, Spike TV on Feb. 13 challenged attendees at the Bellator Mixed Martial Arts Tournament at New York’s Barclay’s Center to test their skills at a punch meter game that measured the force of the punches and put the top fists up on a leader board. Top punchers competed for the title of grand champion. The network was the first home of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which moved to FOX in 2011.

It’s springtime in Austin and that means the South by Southwest Interactive, Film and Music Festival is playing host to the hip, high-tech and influential. Your friends at EM are on the scene, and we’re going to bring you the intel on all the new interactive offerings you’ve got to know about this year (look for it in our April issue). But first, a little taste of some of the brand activations we loved.

One of the biggest issues impacting the operational cost structure of the event marketing industry has nothing to do with marketing budgets. Nope. It’s not the fast-paced worlds of social media or technology, either. It’s not even the changing cost of gasoline or the high price of travel.

The biggest threat to your event marketing portfolio’s bottom line may just be a quiet storm brewing around your people—the hired event staffers and helping hands you contract for days and sometimes weeks to be the faces of your brands in the field.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this year, the LA Auto Show before it and the Chicago Auto Show last week, Subaru set out to help its famously die-hard fans live out their road trip fantasies and give unconvinced consumers a moment to imagine what bringing the brand’s vehicles into their lives could do for them.