Kenneth Briodagh

Launching a new product or program requires a big splash, immediate engagement—and ultimately sales. Marketers have to create buzz, trial, influencer recommendation and combine them to drive sales. For the newest Windows Phone, social media and influencer events helped Microsoft’s launch campaign fire on all cylinders, creating reach, frequency and recommendation.

Men love beer more than women love chocolate, Lesya Lysyj, cmo at Heineken and closing keynoter at the Event Marketing Summit on May 2, told the nearly 500 marketers in the room as she opened her discussion of the Heineken brand’s attack on the sinking beer category in 2011. The brand saw that, although the category in general was flat or declining, the specialty and craft beer markets represented all the growth. The brand set out to position itself as part of that growing demo and “challenge the norms” of the big beer brewers, Lysyj said.

Danish shoe brand Ecco hosted a special event for fashion bloggers on April 18 at the Scandinavia House on New York City’s Park Avenue to promote the brand’s couture chops in addition to its legendary comfort. Ecco took over the upper level and outdoor balcony at the venue where it displayed its new collections and walked attendees through its men’s and women’s offerings.

In this regular series, EM brings you tips and tricks from pros and experts who’ve been eating social media marketing for breakfast. So eat up, and check us out on Twitter @eventmarketer and Facebook.com/eventmarketer for more.

The New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) returned to Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Convention Center April 6 to 15 with the latest cutting-edge concept cars and road-ready models for 2012. The trend the last few years has been to stand out with technology-heavy interactions, but that wasn’t the case this time around. This year, GM, Lincoln, Toyota and the rest went back to beautiful booth designs to highlight the cars, rather than deploying flashy gadgets that sometimes steal focus from the products. EM put down rubber all over Javits, so read on to find out more.