B-to-C Events

In the ramp up to Election Day, there’s nothing more American than stepping on a soapbox, saying what’s on your mind—and eating apple pie.

When social media first came on the scene, many event marketers jumped in with both feet to leverage its ability to make connections and keep in touch with consumers and clients they only saw a few times a year at events. Since then, social media websites like Facebook and Twitter have evolved from basic community-building platforms into powerful measurement tools that not only generate customer data, but track more qualitative variables like consumer sentiment and interest.

To get the word out about its nonprofit organization, the Get Schooled Foundation (co-founded by Viacom and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) took its 2010 Get Schooled National Challenge & Tour to 11 at-risk high schools from Sept. 15 to Nov. 21 with additional support from partners like AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable. The tour teamed up with schools in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Memphis, New York, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Seattle and Washington D.C., to inspire students to do better in high school and prepare for college.

During the month of December, the Big Apple’s Department of Transportation is unleashing brand ambassadors all over the city to hand out free rides in city cabs, buses and on the subway to fight drunk driving. The anti-DUI program is part of the ongoing “You the Man” initiative, which seeks to establish the coolness of being the designated driver. The street campaign launched on Dec.

SWRV in December hit the road in a Nissan Cube to promote the SWRV interactive music video network in which viewers, not vee-jays, call the shots. Called the SWRV Space Mobile Tour, the effort gives consumers the chance to see what it’s like to introduce a music video, create and star in a video dedication and advocate to play their favorite music videos.