B-to-C Events

It’s the 21st century. Scenes of middle class Americans strolling around a massive indoor shopping complex (commonly known as a mall) in their sweatpants window shopping at The Sharper Image sipping an Orange Julius and maybe stopping off at JC Penney for a pair of khakis is one you’ll only see in old sitcoms. It’s not that malls aren’t important. It’s that they’ve evolved. Those same shoppers are probably sitting in a big recliner at the Sharp Aquos lounge watching a big-screen HDTV instead of trying out the massage chair at Brookstone.

Even in a down economy Californians still love cruisin’ in their squeaky-clean cars. So to make connections in the local market State Farm offered drivers something special for their gas-guzzling babies—spa therapy. From July 7 through Aug. 3 two Los Angeles car washes were transformed into Zen-inspired red and white pagodas where drivers received free cold drinks cool gel eye masks and massages while their car was being treated to a body scrub.

Fact: Photo activation is certainly no spring chicken in the event space.

The power of b-to-b road shows continues to grow with brands of all shapes and sizes reaping the benefits of on-demand tours that take products and services directly to customers and prospects.
Some tours are producing such stellar results that the brands behind them are actually selling sponsorships to their own programs. And why not? Bringing in non-competitive entities can add some extra energy to the tours while offsetting costs with sponsorship fees.

Event Tours: History-NASCAR Partnership Promotes ‘Ice Road Truckers’

To drive tune-in to this season’s June 8 premiere of “Ice Road Truckers ” cable net History teamed up with NASCAR in a partnership that brought an Ice Road Trucker-themed experience to four track events this season. History also created a series of mini-documentaries that will air during episodes of the series.