Kenneth Briodagh

The only game in Major League Baseball that doesn’t really count is always the second biggest event in the sport. That makes All-Star week one of the best opportunities for MLB sponsors to connect with fans from all over the country. At this year’s All-Star Game held in St. Louis July 10-14 MLB and its brand partners teamed up to show fans a good time but help them out in hard times too. Here’s how three of the best gave back.

SITTING IN ON A BRAINSTORMING SESSION with Autodesk’s event marketing group must feel a bit like a meeting with Al Gore. The company has become an innovator in designing exhibits and events that leave little environmental footprint but still pack an awe-inspiring punch. Just one look at the brand’s eco-friendly plywood trade show booth and it’s pretty clear—at Autodesk going green doesn’t mean sacrificing exhibit substance or style.

LIKE THE PERFECT STORM positive word of mouth starts small and then builds momentum until it eventually takes on a life of its own. But how do you catch the wave harness its energy and use it to keep the flow of positive buzz moving in the right direction? Donna Meier senior partner at St. Louis MO-based Javelin has been helping Bacardi do just that. She co-presents with Bacardi at the Event Marketing Summit in Chicago this month and she’s passed some tips along to EM as a preview.

Keen Footwear is a small company on a big mission. The popular shoe and outdoor gear brand hopes to expand consumer perceptions about the great outdoors (and the versatility of its shoes) through a call to action it dubs living the HybridLife—mixing outdoor play whether it’s gardening a tiny plot in the urban jungle or trekking remote hiking trails with giving back to the community and the environment. How to spark an ambitious perception shift among target consumers—and get them to buy your shoes in the process—without breaking a shoestring budget?

Some companies only pay lip service to event marketing seeing it more as an add-on than a key part of the marketing strategy. Others see it as a tool to be used sparingly because they don’t know how to measure the ROI. Then there’s Bliss. The spa brand (owned by the Starwood Hotels chain which also owns the W Hotels brand) dedicates about 25 percent of its entire marketing budget (including sampling) to you guessed it experiential marketing.