B-to-C Events

To build buzz and drive viewership for its new show, “VEEP,” which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, HBO took motorcades to three big markets in full vice-presidential style. Each motorcade consisted of two police motorcycles and a black SUV with hood flags flying acting as escort to a branded, wrapped tour bus that visited The Grove shopping mall in Los Angeles, Planet Hollywood in Times Square, NYU Student Center and Bryant Park in New York City and Georgetown in Washington D.C. on April 17.

The New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) returned to Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Convention Center April 6 to 15 with the latest cutting-edge concept cars and road-ready models for 2012. The trend the last few years has been to stand out with technology-heavy interactions, but that wasn’t the case this time around. This year, GM, Lincoln, Toyota and the rest went back to beautiful booth designs to highlight the cars, rather than deploying flashy gadgets that sometimes steal focus from the products. EM put down rubber all over Javits, so read on to find out more.

To promote its coverage of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, which kicked off on April 11, NBC Sports built a giant replica of hockey’s prestigious Stanley Cup and placed it in the middle of Times Square for three days (April 11-13) where it functioned as a working water fountain.

Glaceau’s vitaminwater brand provided a hydration lounge at this year’s annual Big South National Volleyball Qualifier March 30 to April 1 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. Big South attracted 1,164 teams, 50,000 attendees and more than 14,000 girls ages 10 to 18, who competed in the tournament.

Courvoisier is using an Augmented Reality app-based photo activation to drive viral buzz for the launch of the newest addition to its line of cognacs, C by Courvoisier, at clubs, bars and restaurants in seven markets. On-site, brand ambassadors approach consumers with iPads to demonstrate how the app works and encourage them to download it. Then they snap the consumer’s picture using the app, which adds all sorts of fun elements to the photo, such as branded hats or an image of NBA star Shaquille O’Neal who partnered with the brand for the campaign.