B-to-C Events

Duracell partnered with sister Procter & Gamble brand Charmin at its popular restrooms pop-up in Times Square now on its third run to expand the brand experience for New Yorkers and tourists alike during the holiday season. Like Charmin which bases its program on meeting a consumer need (clean public bathrooms that are normally a rarity in NYC) Duracell provides a respite from the busy streets where people can recharge their cell phones and other electronics and reboot to get back on their feet.

Eco-friendly home and personal care product maker Method like most eco-friendly brands views itself as an agent of change and strives to achieve a triple bottom line (economic environmental and social) when doing business. To bring its mission and vision to life Method took over raw retail spaces in three trendy cities for its Detox Your Home campaign—Detox Boston in April; Detox New York in June; and Detox Chicago in September—and turned them into Method pop-up shops.

As bloggers become more respected thought leaders brand influencers and essential allies in the pursuit of word-of-mouth marketing they also grow savvier in their ability to block brand marketers that push too hard to get in their good graces. In July more than 1 100 women bloggers came together in San Francisco to attend the fourth annual BlogHer Conference.

Event marketing done right always creates buzz but brands looking to extend that word of mouth are introducing programs to the public earlier and in unique ways. Pre-event stunts get companies more time with the press and the public. In some cases they create buzz on the streets two or three days before a press conference or event taking advantage of traditional press time as well as the online conversations spurred by citizen journalism and word-of-mouth marketing.

Digital signage—you know those high-def plasma screens electronic billboards and scrolling messages you see in your favorite restaurants stores and outdoor spaces—are more than glorified TVs. Passersby in Toronto earlier this year were stopped in their tracks on the city streets by digital images and special effects animating the windows of Hudson Bay Company’s flagship store. A Venus Breeze razor promotion last summer captured women’s real-time images as they walked past and magically projected them onto a dynamic interactive display.