B-to-C Events

Surprise stunts and guerrilla marketing campaigns can spark a media firestorm, but sometimes it can also get you burned. In 2006, when the Cartoon Network set out to promote “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” with a 10-market ambush marketing effort, the company never could have imagined the publicity the stunt would generate. It also couldn’t have imagined the $2 million penalty it ended up paying to Boston-area authorities after placing black boards with blinking lights depicting the show’s “Mooninites” characters in high-trafficked areas.

Kenmore is revamping its image with a new logo, product line and website to connect with today’s consumer. As part of an integrated marketing campaign, the 90-year-old brand is stepping out of Sears stores and into a former art gallery it has transformed into the Kenmore Live Studio, where it showcases new products and delivers top-notch experiences that are streamed live on facebook.com/kenmore.

Most event marketers are trying to find the best way to maximize the power of social media at their events. But that can be hard to do if Facebook and Twitter are the only tools in their bag of tricks. With new and more targeted platforms popping up daily, it can be just as challenging to keep up with which ones are relevant and useful for the event industry. EM narrowed the field to eight of the most interesting social media tools, sites and platforms fit for events.

Mountain Dew’s DEWmocracy 2 Tour, a seven-stage, 12 month consumer-driven campaign that launched in July 2009, culminated on Memorial Day weekend in Indianapolis where three flavor teams encouraged 700,000 Indy 500 parade spectators and race day attendees to sample and vote for one of three new consumer-created DEW beverages.

When it comes to taking a new brand to market, sometimes it pays to be mysterious, like Verizon did for its launch of the Droid mobile phone in its shipping container showroom. Other times, a brand’s vehicle needs to show the epitome of brand identity, like Tillamook’s Loaf Love buses that resemble, you guessed it, a loaf of cheese. And sometimes, it’s all about the buzz, like the smart car-turned-piranha-mobiles used for Animal Planet’s “River Monsters” season premiere.