EventMarketer Sizzle: Your Biweekly Feed of All Things Experiential
08.01.25
Jeans have been in hot water this week with the release of American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign, which caused outrage among social media users who accused the ads of regressive messaging. While the brand has scaled back the controversial campaign, competitor Abercrombie was quick to promote its denim line with social content featuring diverse models and fitting events coming this month.
📷 Photo of the Week
 
 
Disney’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” came to life at San Diego Comic-Con with an immersive diner activation. The Gray Sisters made a splash by taking fans’ drachmas in exchange for a gift from the gods… Read more.
🗨️ Insight of the Week
 
“We had people lining up at 7:30 a.m., and we opened at 11. We sold advanced tickets for a $2 charity donation to the San Diego Rescue Mission and sold out in five minutes. So the demand for this from our players, and from the wider Comic-Con community, is that they want to try new things. They want to see these game worlds come to life.”
–Ashley Jex Wagner, Head of Live Experiences, Supercell
Field Report
Brawl Stars Brings Chaos to Comic-Con with a Wild Ride into Starr Park
Supercell’s Brawl Stars mobile game made its way to San Diego Comic-Con for the first time as part of a test-and-learn strategy to connect with U.S. players and fans… Read more.
World-building
SDCC 2025: ‘Percy Jackson’ Fans are ‘Claimed’ by the Gods at a Themed Diner
Disneys ocean-themed activation brought to life the second book in the series, “The Sea of Monsters,” and included a full-blown narrative brought to life by a cast of actors… Read more.
Video Tour
Go Inside SDCC Activations from Paramount+, FX, Adult Swim and More
Let your geek flag fly as you join a video tour of a few top brand activations from Comic-Con that took place outside the convention center and across the Gaslamp District… Read more.
Marketing News
The Brief: Mattel's UNO Social Club and Starry's '100 Degrees, 100% Off' Deal
This week’s hot topics in experiential cover eos’ “full sensory escape” with frozen lotion, Jameson’s soccer jugglers and Liquid Death’s chainsaw-sliced sandwiches… Read more.
Spotlight
B-to-B Dream Team 2025: Meet Rachel Langley of Visa
As vp-events at Visa, Rachel Langley directs more than 75 annual events to grow Visa’s brand and client relationships, including Visa Payments Forum, set to expand globally… Read more.
💡 ICYMI Last Week
 
📌 EM Updates
 
EDAs Call for Entries Now Open: The Experience Design Awards recognize outstanding event design, innovation and environmental creativity across a wide variety of consumer activations, b-to-b events and trade show exhibits. A dozen brand-side judges will award winning teams a gold, silver, bronze or “shortlist” award based on overall creative strategy, originality and execution. Show us what you’ve got.
 
The Experiential Marketing Month Schedule is Out: This October, get ready for 31 days of live and digital experiences designed to help optimize your events. The newly released schedule includes full-day “Trendwatch” seminars in four cities; casual meetups in eight cities; and 12 digital learning modules, panels and conversations streamed online at eventmarketer.com and on LinkedIn. Registration is now open for the “Trendwatch” seminars. Learn more.
✉️ Contact Us
 
The Sizzle is produced by Event Marketer, the industry’s largest information resource on experiential marketing. Learn more.
 
Send story ideas and news to: Juanita Chavarro Arias | jchavarro@accessintel.com
For ad and lead-gen opportunities: Alex Chung | achung@accessintel.com
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