B-to-C Events

Madria Sangria, an E&J Gallo Wines brand, has been hitting non-traditional venues to showcase its fruit flavors with its Fruit Stand sampling experience. The brand hit the Houston Tamale Festival, Oktoberfest and Step Up Women’s Network Members Celebration in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Ski and Wine Expo, Taste of Orlando in Florida and The Wedding Salon Bridal Expo in New York City. The stand was a basic sampling program, but Madria says it finds that its fruit flavors draw in people (mostly women) who are looking for a more refreshing beverage at the events.

To promote in-state vacations, the New Mexico Tourism Department this summer had residents downloading a GPS-based app and searching the state for the legendary Billy the Kid (he was played by an actor) for a shot at $10,000. Dodge challenged consumers to use clues found on YouTube to hit the road and find “the first search engine for the real world”—a.k.a. the Dodge Journey—in a month-long national campaign to increase awareness of the crossover vehicle. What made these digitally enhanced and geographically challenging scavenger hunt programs a hit?

 Art and fashion magazine BULLETT on Dec. 8 celebrated its one-year anniversary by turning its winter issue "The Secret" theme into a live secret garden party at the gothic revival synagogue Angel Orensanz Foundation on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The secret garden theme started with an invitation to guests announcing the magazine’s anniversary party at an undisclosed location, which was revealed near the date. The package included a skull amulet giving guests access to the party.

In our Then and Now series, EM revisits old event marketing trends to find out where they’ve gone since we first reported on them. Are they old hats and has-beens? Or is that past up-and-comer a future best practice that’s now an industry standard? In this rolling installment, we re-examine some of 2007’s most popular rigs, which we covered in our February issue.

Korean automaker Kia Motors has unleashed an augmented reality activation at the North American International Auto Show, which began in Detroit on Tuesday, that ties into its popular “Party Rock Anthem” commercial. The technology, which is the centerpiece of the brand’s new exhibit for this year’s auto show circuit, is called “Close Encounters” and features the brand’s now-infamous dancing hamster spokes-rodents, known as the Hamstars.