B-to-C Events

Cheerwine, a bubbly, wild cherry-flavored soft drink brand sold primarily in the South, and southern-based indie-rockers The Avett Brothers on Oct. 19 joined forces in a Legendary Giveback concert at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion in Charlottesville, VA. Net proceeds from the concert benefitted three organizations—Big Brothers Big Sisters, Operation Homefront and the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital. The event live streamed nationally to anyone who pledged to volunteer in their community as well as to military bases across the U.S. and abroad.

Looking to inject "positivity and fun" into the election season, Sanrio on Oct. 8 launched Hello Kitty For President, a campaign designed to celebrate the iconic cat through social media, and guerrilla-style and on-site activities in Washington, D.C.

Ten years ago, a small subsection of corporate marketing departments began to fall in love with a fairly new and extremely unproven discipline called event marketing. From auto and financial-services to beverage, commercial aviation, retail and technology, it started to grow like religion.

The year is 2002. “American Idol’s” debut fever is spreading across TV sets all across America. The second installments of the “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of The Rings” trilogies are duking it out at the box office (as nerds everywhere rejoice—in Elvish). And somewhere in Berlin, Michael Jackson is dangling his son Prince Michael II off a hotel balcony with a blanket over his head.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Goosebumps, the children’s mystery series by R.L. Stine, Scholastic Entertainment on Oct. 25 held an event in New York City that had a local third grade class solving challenges as they traveled through a 2,100-square-foot maze made of corn stalks. The event, dubbed Trick or Read!, capitalized on Halloween to promote the importance of reading.