B-to-C Events

It’s been five years since Time magazine named “You” its person of the year. And since then, the spirit of consumer empowerment has shown no signs of slowing down. While many marketers have preached the benefits of “turning the brand over to consumers,” one brand has been rather busy turning its entire marketing mix over to them. For Mountain Dew, consumers aren’t just a target audience—they’re the brand’s chief marketing officers.

After its success in Los Angeles and Nevada last summer, the Familia Camarena tequila brand launched its Camarena Taco Truck in New York City on May 25 and is in market through June. Two additional trucks will be making stops in Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco. The brand has partnered with Chef Jesse Vega of Sueños restaurant in Manhattan to create tequila-infused tacos, which allows it to sample the spirit without actually serving it to consumers in a shot glass on the street.

The numbers are in for the LG Experience at the NCAA Final Four Bracket Town fan experience this March, and LG says it was a winner. A barcoded, scannable Fan Pass allowed LG to track attendee activity, time spent in the exhibit and areas of interest, and post event data showed that there were more than 34,000 swipes of the pass inside the electronics brand’s 5,000-square-foot space, which spotlighted LG’s new line of 3D televisions, mobile phones and home appliances.

Honda from April 21 to May 12 hit six of the PAC10 schools during final exams to help students take a much-needed study break while learning about the new Civic. At each stop, Honda provided lunch while students took part in an SMS scavenger hunt designed to teach them about the cars in the Civic lineup and sign them up for a sweepstakes to win a 2012 Civic Si Coupe.

Char-Broil, the outdoor cooking company, in April launched the 10th edition of its annual mobile grilling tour. The campaign this year has been expanded to 30 weeks and will travel to 27 states as part of an integrated campaign that also is measuring the effectiveness of its marketing strategies.

“In the past, when we did experiential marketing, we would send the tour off on its way,” Michelle Zeller, vp-marketing at Char-Broil, told Buzz. “This year we are trying to knit and weave it all together.”