| EVENT INTELLIGENCE 09.15.09 1:21 PM |
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Event Security: The Twitter Effect
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 | The Black Eyed Peas at a tweeted party
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images |
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Texting, blogging, and online social networking have already made it a breeze for guests to send out tips to their friends and readers on scoring access to private parties. Now, with the increasing popularity of Twitter, the volume of recipients is growing exponentially and the details are leaking in real time. Crashers, gawkers, and paparazzi have instant access to more information than they’ve ever had before—on an easy-to-search platform—and security professionals and planners agree that 140 characters are more than enough to cause some trouble.
Barry Meyerson, president of Manhattan-based security firm Meyerson Associates Inc., first noticed Twitter’s impact during New York Fashion Week in September 2008. As celebrities and partygoers shared details online, queues outside venues got longer, and throngs of paparazzi seemed thicker.
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RELATED TOPICS
Twitter, Security, Secuity Leaks, Black Eyed Peas, Fashion Week |
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| EVENT REPORT 09.14.09 3:12 PM |
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More Photos From Fashion's Night Out: A Dunk Tank in Williamsburg, Kenneth Cole's Concert
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 | Carnival games at Bird's Fashion's Night Out block party
Photo: John Minchillo for BizBash |
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FROM NEW YORK
As photos, tweets, blogs, and news articles have shown, Thursday's "Fashion's Night Out" initiative brought a carnival-like atmosphere to hundreds of stores throughout the city. Crowds swarmed Midtown, SoHo, the West Village, and other retail districts for live music, free food, games, and other activities, which as a new report reveals, helped boost sales numbers. On Friday afternoon, Chicago research firm ShopperTrak released data that points to a 36 percent increase in foot traffic in Manhattan shops, compared with the same day last year.
“The overwhelming turnout in Manhattan lifted sales throughout the country, providing some welcome good news for participating retailers in an otherwise difficult 2009,” said ShopperTrak co-founder Bill Martin in a statement. Retail executives also agree that the initiative had a positive impact from just getting customers into the stores. “It was worth doing,” Claudio Del Vecchio, chairman and C.E.O. of Brooks Brothers, told WWD. “We do a lot of events, and we generally don’t get a lot of business from them. It’s more to show people what we do and who we are, rather than sales that night. There is always a certain percent that comes back to shop. The best thing about Fashion’s Night Out is that a lot of people came out and are still looking at shopping in a positive way, even if they didn’t shop.”
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Vogue, Council of Fashion Designers of America, NYC & Company, Fashion Week, Bird, Vena Cava, Kenneth Cole, Ports 1961, Tory Burch, Payless, Aveda |
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| EVENT REPORT 09.11.09 5:22 PM |
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"Fashion's Night Out" Turns City into Frenzied, Celeb-Filled Carnival
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 | Sarah Jessica Parker, Barbara Walters, and Bette Midler's musical appearance for Oscar de la Renta's Fashion's Night Out festivities
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Oscar de la Renta |
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FROM NEW YORK
In what may be considered the biggest citywide event since the economic downturn, more than 800 retailers in Manhattan and the outer boroughs banded together for yesterday's "Fashion's Night Out" event. Launched by Vogue, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and NYC & Company, the attempt to boost flagging sales and build consumer confidence blossomed into one of the fashion trade's largest efforts to target the public at large.
"The participation of over 800 retailers in New York City combined with incredible buzz surrounding the evening far exceeded our wildest dreams," George Fertitta, C.E.O. of NYC & Company, said this morning. "The objectives for Fashion’s Night Out were to celebrate fashion, promote the retail apparel industry, restore consumer confidence, and get consumers excited about shopping again and paying retail prices for merchandise. We are also using Fashion’s Night Out as a way to give back to the New York City community through our charitable efforts on behalf of the September 11 Memorial & Museum and the NYC AIDS Fund."
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Vogue, Council of Fashion Designers of America, NYC & Company, Fashion Week |
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| NEWS 09.09.09 12:23 PM |
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In the News: Virtual Trade Shows Thrive, Industry Still Prefers Face-to-Face
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Rise in Virtual Trade Shows Predicted: A lengthy feature in the October issue of Wired highlights the many ways people and businesses are using technology to get satisfactory results with minimal budgets. One trend on the rise is virtual trade shows, where vendors send avatars into cyberspace to meet with potential clients and customers. It's not a new concept, but analysts expect 5,000 online expos in 2010, a 500 percent increase from 2009. [Wired]
Planners Still Favor Person-to-Person: Virtual trade shows, meetings, and conferences may be on the rise, but they are facing a bit of resistance from industry professionals. At the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International's recent Affordable Meetings National and Event Technology Expo, attendees in a poll said they used technology for marketing efforts and presentations but still avoided virtual meetings. Among the key conference elements they thought got lost in translation were spontaneous networking, identifying attendees, and a free and open dialogue between all parties. Many also noted that the available technologies still weren't up to snuff to hold a seamless virtual event. [Reuters]
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Virtual Meetings, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Fashion Week, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, MTV Video Music Awards |
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| NEWS 09.08.09 12:24 PM |
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Fall Preview: New Season Brings Busier Event Schedule, More Last-Minute Business
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Planners, producers, and vendors seem to agree with recent declarations that the worst of the recession is behind us, as fall calendars are crowded with events and business appears to be picking up for many. This resurgence in activity marks a return to business as usual for some, while for others the season could be even busier, thanks to short-notice commissions from clients and sponsors just deciding to get back in the event game.
New Jersey-based producer Michael Cerbelli, president of special events at Total Entertainment, said business never got particularly slow, thanks in part to late bookings from clients. “What's making us even busier is that everything is last minute," he said. "Two to six weeks out, and we're get calls for lighting, staging, and, production. We're working 10 times harder because we have less lead time, but looking to the fourth quarter, 9 out of 10 of our past holiday party clients are already back on the books for this year."
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Fashion Week, MTV Video Music Awards, Toronto International Film Festival, Fall Preview 2009 |
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| Q & A 06.04.09 12:10 PM |
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McDonald's Sofia Therios on the National Launch of McCafé Coffee Drinks
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 | The McDonald's McCafé lounge at New York Fashion Week
Photo: AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams |
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FROM CHICAGO
In May, McDonald's embarked on the nationwide launch of a coffee-centered brand extension called McCafé. With a marketing program rumored to cost about $100 million, the company is promoting its new line of espresso-based drinks through "advertising, promotion, electronic and digital efforts, merchandising in our restaurants, and events," said to Sofia Therios, director of marketing for McDonald's USA. Amid speculation that the economic climate—in which even Starbucks is losing its footing—makes for risky timing for the McCafé launch, we spoke to Therios about how she is using events and other experiential components to promote new products, how the company is adapting its marketing to different regions, and how successful the launch has been thus far.
Why is now the right time for the McCafé launch?
It always starts with the consumer. If you start with the consumer, and focus on what consumers are looking for, the answer is right there. We have a wonderful business research [and] consumer insight team and we talk to our customers regularly. We also have the benefit of our restaurants, which let us communicate with consumers and understand what they're looking for at the restaurant level on a day to day basis. These are products that our customers want [right now].
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McDonald's, Fashion Week |
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| EVENT REPORT 03.11.09 4:07 PM |
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For Barbie's 50th Anniversary, Mattel Makes Life-Size Malibu Dream House
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FROM LOS ANGELES
You might say that Mattel had an insta-theme for its Los Angeles bash for about 200 celebrating the iconic Barbie doll's 50th anniversary. Playing off the Malibu Dream House toy—a coveted accessory for the doll—organizers picked a real life beach house on Pacific Coast Highway and went wild with full-size incarnations of the doll's tiny treasures and pleasures. The date of the party, March 9, was the doll's actual birth—er—launch day at New York's Toy Fair 50 years ago.
Mattel's Lauren Dougherty—along with two other co-chairs of the marketing campaign, Liz Grampp and Brad Armistead—tapped Colin Cowie to plan the party and conjure the food and beverage ideas and Jonathan Adler to decorate the interior of the home. "Barbie is a reflection of fashion, pop culture, and aspiration, and that's really how we celebrated her for her 50th birthday," Dougherty said. "In many ways, the Malibu Dream House [party] was the quintessential moment [in the campaign] because she is a California girl—this was our big marquee moment."
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RELATED TOPICS
Barbie, Mattel, Jonathan Adler, Volkswagen, Fashion Week |
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| NEWS 02.12.09 1:16 PM |
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In The News: T-Mobile Gets Free Guerrilla Marketing, Vanity Fair Stages Oscar Return
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Here's a quick look at some of the bigger stories grabbing our attention this week:
T-Mobile Inspires Public Disco: A recent British commercial for cellular provider T-Mobile that featured 400 actors dancing in London's Liverpool Street station inspired more than 13,000 fans of the ad to do the same thing. They planned the event, dubbed Liverpool Street Station Silent Dance, on Facebook for last Friday and stormed the station at 7 p.m. Police had to close that station for more than 90 minutes, but there were few arrests for what a police spokesperson called "a peaceful and fun event." Organizers are already discussing another outing. [Telegraph]
Vanity Fair Returns to Oscars: One year away from the Academy Awards was enough for Vanity Fair. The magazine will return to Los Angeles for a week of pre-Oscar events and its hot-ticket post-awards party this month. Among the events on tap are an opening party for the BMW Art Car installation and a silent auction sponsored by Christian Dior. As for the big party, it’s moving to the much smaller Sunset Tower hotel, making invites that much harder to come by. [WWD]
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T-Mobile, Vanity Fair, Oscars, Academy Awards, BMW, Christian Dior, Desirée Rogers, Fashion Week, Halston, Live Nation, Ticketmaster |
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| NEWS 02.09.09 2:39 PM |
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McDonald's to Hit Fashion Week, National Blitz Planned for May
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On Friday, editors, retailers, and other attendees might be surprised by an unlikely sponsor inside the New York Fashion Week tents. Joining companies such as Mercedes-Benz and M.A.C. Cosmetics will be fast food chain McDonald's, which plans to preview its new selection of specialty coffees with a café-inspired lounge in the lobby of the Bryant Park structure. Moreover, McDonald's is also sponsoring the Duckie Brown show, which is scheduled for this Friday at 1 p.m.
But that's not the end for McDonald's upcoming marketing efforts. In May, the corporation will kick off a national ad campaign for McCafé, the fancy new array of coffee drinks. According to Crain's, the bold blitz represents a $1 billion investment and the chain's most significant menu expansion in 30 years. Although business analysts are apprehensive about launching pricey products in this economic climate, the promotion could lead to an additional $1 billion in sales revenue. —Jenny Berg & Anna Sekula
RELATED TOPICS
McDonald's, Fashion Week, Mercedes-Benz, Duckie Brown |
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| NEWS 11.24.08 12:49 PM |
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Will the Economic Slump Alter February Fashion Week?
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 | A runway presentation at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in September
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
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FROM NEW YORK
As retail sales continue to decline, speculation comes that the traditional runway shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in February may be nixed in favor of cheaper, smaller-scale presentations. IMG Fashion, the organizer of the shows that take place in the tents at Bryant Park, only recently started taking bookings for February, but is prepping for this different style of show.
“We are fully prepared to work with any designers who want to do a presentation versus a runway show,” IMG Fashion senior vice president Fern Mallis told WWD.
Although it’s still too early to know for sure, Mallis expects fewer lavish after-parties and Fashion Week-related events. “Editors and guests that need to go to shows often have to go to store openings and other parties,” said Mallis. “This year, we are anticipating we might see less of that happening.” If this is true, Fashion Week could go the way of this year's holiday parties, with smaller guest lists and less over-the-top production. —Anna Sekula
RELATED TOPICS
Fashion Week, IMG Fashion |
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