B-to-B Events

Whoever said that necessity is the mother of invention must have worked in marketing.

CITGO in January launched its Marketer Round Table Meetings, an annual series of 18 daylong events held across three regions designed to pump up the local marketers and retailers that sell its refined gas and diesel products. This year the hot topic was the company’s redesigned logo, its new retail image and a portfolio of marketing programs designed to help build their businesses.

After 18 years of pitching its iconic tents at Bryant Park, New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has uprooted the stakes. This fall the show moved to Lincoln Center, a venue farther from the Garment District, yet considered a hub of refined culture and art. EM scoped out the new digs and chatted with IMG’s Christina Neault, executive producer of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week/IMG Fashion, about the move.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, the Official Candy of the Consumer Electronics Show, which was held Jan. 6 to 9 in Las Vegas, took its inspiration for the unveiling of its new Minis from a typical Silicon Valley product launch, but did so in its own sweet way. The candies, which Reese’s calls the “Next Big, Little Thing,” are about the size of a dime and come in a resealable, standup pouch.

Smart makes one of the smallest production cars in the market. But belying its stature, the brand went tall and broad with its exhibits at this month’s North American International Auto Show at the Cobo center in Detroit. The brand kept its little efficient cars in the spotlight, not taking focus away, but enhancing the fun with simple, neat coolness. The best interactive was designed to highlight the consumer’s ability to customize everything about the Smart experience by showing just one feature.