B-to-C Events

Chili’s is looking to connect with college football fans via a tailgate tour that will visit 18 major college football games this fall between Oct. 11-Nov. 15 including LSU at Florida Oklahoma vs. Texas and Penn State at Wisconsin.

At each game Chili’s will have teams of six-10 people looking for fans tailgating with Chili’s food or signage. One tailgater each week will receive tickets to the postseason college football game of their choice. Others will receive Chili’s gift cards coupons T-shirts and other gifts.

It’s the 21st century. Scenes of middle class Americans strolling around a massive indoor shopping complex (commonly known as a mall) in their sweatpants window shopping at The Sharper Image sipping an Orange Julius and maybe stopping off at JC Penney for a pair of khakis is one you’ll only see in old sitcoms. It’s not that malls aren’t important. It’s that they’ve evolved. Those same shoppers are probably sitting in a big recliner at the Sharp Aquos lounge watching a big-screen HDTV instead of trying out the massage chair at Brookstone.

Even in a down economy Californians still love cruisin’ in their squeaky-clean cars. So to make connections in the local market State Farm offered drivers something special for their gas-guzzling babies—spa therapy. From July 7 through Aug. 3 two Los Angeles car washes were transformed into Zen-inspired red and white pagodas where drivers received free cold drinks cool gel eye masks and massages while their car was being treated to a body scrub.

Fact: Photo activation is certainly no spring chicken in the event space.

The power of b-to-b road shows continues to grow with brands of all shapes and sizes reaping the benefits of on-demand tours that take products and services directly to customers and prospects.
Some tours are producing such stellar results that the brands behind them are actually selling sponsorships to their own programs. And why not? Bringing in non-competitive entities can add some extra energy to the tours while offsetting costs with sponsorship fees.