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MySpace Events Platform Surpasses Evite: Things aren't so hot these days for former social networking Web site of choice MySpace, but one arena the News Corp. property is succeeding in is online invitations. Traffic reports show that the MySpace events platform has beat out Evite for the first time, with a reported 700,000 invitations sent out every day compared to Evite's 600,000. That doesn't mean MySpace is No. 1, though. Facebook doesn't publish exact figures for its events feature, but it did recently say that the site houses 2.5 million new events per month. [TechCrunch]

Ben Stein Misses Meetings: The American Spectator published an op-ed by former Nixon staffer, media personality, and renaissance man Ben Stein this week, in which he chides the federal government for trying to put the kibosh on business meetings. To add weight to his argument, Stein suggests that meetings of Congress and the Supreme Court are on the same level as business meetings and that eliminating events would do nothing but prolong the recession. Choice line: "Meetings and business travel did not cause this recession." [American Spectator] MORE >>

Myspace, Evite, Facebook, Ben Stein, Procter & Gamble, Swiffer, EA, San Diego Comic-Con

Q & A 10.16.08 9:00 AM

Cathy Brown Is Planning Halloween Events in Three Cities and Bracing for the Next Administration

Cathy Brown
Photo: Courtesy of Children Affected by AIDS Foundation

Cathy Brown has spent more than 10 years as president of Children Affected by AIDS Foundation (CAAF), and for her, October always seems to be particularly busy. From her base in Los Angeles, Brown oversees the foundation's annual Dream Halloween event, a production-heavy affair that brings family activities set in a Trick or Treat village to three American cities. This year, the event comes to Chicago's Windy City Fieldhouse on October 18, New York's Roseland Ballroom the next day, and Barker Hangar in Los Angeles on October 25. The event is expected to draw 1,200, 700, and 2,200 guests, respectively.

Along with planning the three-city event, Brown spent the past year facilitating a surrounding campaign, which launched October 1. The campaign aims to raise funds and awareness for CAAF and features everything from specially designed Dream Halloween costumes to an interactive e-card available on the CAAF Web site and a promotional video starring Jamie Lee Curtis. We recently spoke with Brown about these efforts, building relationships with corporate sponsors, and working at a nonprofit in the current economy.

Give us some background on Dream Halloween.
Halloween is the second largest retail holiday, and it's a time of fun and celebration for both children and adults. Fifteen years ago, CAAF decided to capitalize on this and celebrate Halloween in a fashion that would also enable us to raise funds. This last year, we have expanded the event into a full-blown campaign that involves corporate partners, a Halloween e-card, and a text-message campaign. MORE >>

Children Affected by AIDS Foundation, Toys R Us, Mattel, American Airlines, Nickelodeon, Resnick Automotive Group, MySpace, Facebook, Disney, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Gandolfini, Melina Kanakaredes

NEWS 07.29.08 8:00 AM

With Plenty of Sponsors, Lollapalooza Set to Take Over Chicago This Weekend

FROM CHICAGO The current incarnation of Lollapalooza, the brainchild of Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, along with Austin, Texas-based promoters C3 Presents and the William Morris Agency, will once again set up shop in Chicago's Grant Park this Friday through Sunday. The fourth-annual Chicago-only festival encompasses 120 acts (including Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Kanye West) performing on eight sponsored stages, as well as various environments, lounges, and activities scattered throughout the park.

Lollapalooza 2008 incorporates several new elements this year, including Perry's, named for Farrell, an open-air electronica stage featuring live DJ sets each day at 2 p.m., and Lederhosen's Biergarten, a beer hall situated near Buckingham Fountain. Both Green Street (a destination space educating festival-goers about Lolla's eco-friendly initiatives) and Kidzapalooza (featuring a stage, "School of Rock" Jam Tent, a recording studio, and special performances) are returning this year. MORE >>

AT&T, Bud Light, PlayStation, MySpace, Citi, BMI, Blackstone Winery, F.Y.E., Vitaminwater, NowWhat.com, Small Paul, Sweet Leaf Tea, Whole Foods, Lifeway Kefir, Southern Comfort, Metromix.com, Belvedere Vodka, Hard Rock Hotel, Motorola, Bacardi, 42 Below, Cazadores Tequila

Q & A 06.05.08 1:50 PM

Pride Organizer Bringing In Olivia Newton-John, Promoting on YouTube and MySpace

Christopher Street West's Rodney Scott
Photo: Courtesy of Christopher Street West

Rodney Scott is the president of the board of directors of Christopher Street West, the organization behind the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender festival L.A. Pride, which draws around 400,000 people. Scott oversees the event, working closely with the city, vendors, and CSW staff to ensure events within the festival run smoothly. This year's program begins on Friday and runs through the weekend. Festivities include a 5K run on Santa Monica Boulevard, a march to support issues around lesbian health care and advocacy, a festival with entertainment, dancing, and education, and a Joss Stone performance.

What’s new this year?
We are doing a "silent celebration.” We are asking all of our participants in the festival, and those watching, to take a moment of silence at noon on Sunday to remember all those people who are no longer with us due to violence, the war, issues around H.I.V./AIDS, cancer, or whatever the reason. Try getting three people to be quiet—now imagine 400,000.

The mayors of Los Angeles and West Hollywood will be marching with us [in the parade on Sunday]. And we have Olivia Newton-John. This will be the first time she’s ever performed at a U.S.-based gay pride celebration. MORE >>

Christopher Street West, L.A. Pride, MySpace, YouTube

EVENT INTELLIGENCE 06.05.08 9:30 AM

How to Fix MTV's VMAs

Britney Spears at the 2007 VMAs
Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

Since the MTV Video Music Awards debuted in 1984—with Madonna writhing in a wedding dress—they have become a highlight of the network’s programming, providing some iconic performances and an end-of-summer gauge of the pop-culture barometer. The VMAs attracted as many as 12 million viewers as recently as 2002, its largest audience ever.

But ratings have mostly fallen each year since, down to a low of fewer than six million viewers in 2006, despite efforts to juice the excitement level by moving the proceedings from their traditional home in New York to Miami in 2004 and 2005. (The show has also made eight stops in Los Angeles over the years.) Last year’s stint in Las Vegas, with its highly buzzed-about performance by a dazed-looking Britney Spears, brought ratings up slightly, to seven million, but news coverage and online commentary focused on production misfires, awkward pacing, and underwhelming performances.

So how can the VMAs redeem themselves? We asked a group of busy planners and industry insiders (some of whom have worked with the network in the past) for their suggestions. MORE >>

MTV, MTV Video Music Awards, MySpace, Facebook, Oscars, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Saturday Night Live, Britney Spears

NEWS 05.09.07 12:00 AM

MySpace Meets Beverly Wilshire’s Space

Fox Interactive Media director of trade marketing Maura Curtin worked with designer Billy Butchkavitz to create a fresh, young look and feel for a MySpace client summit on April 23 at the Beverly Wilshire hotel ballroom. The event, nicknamed “Never-ending Friending,” was intended as a combination business meeting and interactive social function—perhaps like the intended function of the site itself.

For the design, Butchkavitz took inspiration from the invitation and the ballroom. “The invitation was clean, sleek, and modern, totally covered with bold text and a pattern of circles—a nod to the heads in the MySpace logo,” Butchkavitz said. “And the ballroom has a very European Old World design, the look you would find in a French or Italian hotel built in the early 1900s.” So he chose a contemporary design with decorative accents that complemented the venue’s formality. Decor elements included couches upholstered in gold and ecru jacquard and gold-leafed Louis XV-inspired armchairs with marble-top cocktail tables placed between. MySpace also provided Butchkavitz with collages created by its users; he printed them on canvas, surrounded them with faux gold frames, and used them as perimeter art in the ballroom foyer.
Posted 05.09.07

MySpace

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