B-to-C Events

The BET Awards Viewers Choice Mobile Tour hit the road last month to encourage viewers to vote for their favorite music artist, visit BET.com and watch this year’s awards show held June 27. The tour kicked off on June 17 in New York City and wrapped at the awards show in Los Angeles. In between, it made stops in high-trafficked areas, including festivals, concerts and retailers where they handed out tickets to the show.

New spirits brand Familia Camarena Tequila this summer is spicing up the streets of Los Angeles with free tequila-infused tacos to enable consumers to sample the tequila’s flavor without sampling the spirit, which is against the law.
The tacos, created by local chef Sevan Azarian, are infused with Familia Camarena Tequila. The 120-stop tour began on June 1 outside of Azarian's latest restaurant, Recess Eatery. The taco truck will appear at the hottest L.A. events and venues this summer, including events and nightclubs from the Santa Monica Pier to the Sunset Strip.



In our new Then and Now series, EM revisits old event marketing trends to find out where they’ve gone since we first reported on them. Are they old hats and has-beens? Or is that past up-and-comer a future best practice that’s now an industry standard? In this installment, we re-examine location-based social media, which we first reported on in September 2004.

Restaurant chain Qdoba is serving mini beef and pork tacos out of a vehicle inspired by traditional Mexican taco trucks at various stops in Seattle where street food served from mobile trucks has gained popularity in the last year. Since Cinco de Mayo through mid-July (a fall round is in the works), the truck has stopped at high-traffic areas, including last month’s Seattle Pride Parade. Locations are announced via Facebook and Twitter.

It was the event of the summer, and many of us are still trying to get over the unmistakable whirring of the vuvuzela stadium horns that filled the airwaves as the 2010 World Cup took over every bar and living room from Johannesburg to Jersey City.