B-to-C Events

Going on the festival circuit or heading out to malls or NASCAR races will certainly get your brand a lot of touches. But in today’s cluttered marketing landscape numbers aren’t the only consideration. To make a lasting impression your brand must make friends with consumers by becoming a name that they recognize and more importantly trust. More and more brands are doing that by tapping into neighborhoods.

Sugar Bowl title sponsor Allstate kicked off the New Year with the 2009 Allstate Sugar Bowl Fan Fest held in New Orleans Dec. 31-Jan. 1. The Fan Fest offered interactive football-themed games and exhibits live broadcasts of games Allstate Sugar Bowl official pep rallies with cheerleaders and bands from the University of Alabama and the University of Utah and a New Year’s Day concert with headliner Blues Traveler.

How to incorporate scent into your experiential marketing initiatives

Crest used citrus cinnamon peppermint and vanilla mint. New Balance went for fresh-cut grass. The Westin opted for white tea. They’re just some of the brands using scents to leave lasting impressions with consumers and they’re leading the way in leveraging perhaps the least-used of the five senses in event marketing.

DaimlerChrysler invited 120 consumers to the State Fair of Texas in Dallas to wade through 14 000 gallons of mud for the chance to win a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. “It was big fun and a little bit messy ” Carrie McElwee the brand’s senior manager-marketing p.r. told Buzz. “We thought it was the perfect venue to bring consumers to… [and] to prove how muddy they were willing to get to win.” More than 2 500 consumers signed up to participate on a microsite created for the Sept. 29 challenge.
 

It has three million members its own self-sustaining economy and a world of untapped marketing opportunities. It’s the hottest thing many marketers aren’t talking about primarily because so many of them are scrambling to get a piece of it.
If Second Life sounds more like fantasy than reality that’s because it is.