B-to-C Events

Most event marketers are trying to find the best way to maximize the power of social media at their events. But that can be hard to do if Facebook and Twitter are the only tools in their bag of tricks. With new and more targeted platforms popping up daily, it can be just as challenging to keep up with which ones are relevant and useful for the event industry. EM narrowed the field to eight of the most interesting social media tools, sites and platforms fit for events.

Mountain Dew’s DEWmocracy 2 Tour, a seven-stage, 12 month consumer-driven campaign that launched in July 2009, culminated on Memorial Day weekend in Indianapolis where three flavor teams encouraged 700,000 Indy 500 parade spectators and race day attendees to sample and vote for one of three new consumer-created DEW beverages.

When it comes to taking a new brand to market, sometimes it pays to be mysterious, like Verizon did for its launch of the Droid mobile phone in its shipping container showroom. Other times, a brand’s vehicle needs to show the epitome of brand identity, like Tillamook’s Loaf Love buses that resemble, you guessed it, a loaf of cheese. And sometimes, it’s all about the buzz, like the smart car-turned-piranha-mobiles used for Animal Planet’s “River Monsters” season premiere.

 As part of its summer tune-in strategy, TLC targeted New Yorkers on May 25 with a live stunt that featured a glass box truck filled with 7,200 gallons of water parked on a busy block of Sixth Avenue. 

When it comes to generating social media activity through events, the sweet spot lies in convincing attendees that your brand’s content and assets are witty, informative or just plain weird enough to merit a comment, tweet or wall post. That’s why smart marketers are integrating social media kiosks and “post it” incentives right into their activations and events as a matter of course. Yahoo! did it with its partner Flickr at the Olympics in January. ESPN made it extra-fun with the Snowcam promo for the Winter X Games.