theme

As part of the Smirnoff Experience series of events in 2010, Mosaic Experiential Marketing placed graphic illustrations in the windows of Toronto's Andrew Richard Designs. The illustrations depicted comic book characters arriving at a party, mimicking the arrival of guests on the red carpet.

New York's Robin Hood Foundation, which hosts one of the largest and most successful benefits in the city, tapped contacts at DC Comics to help create a superhero theme for its 2011 gala. The planning and design team created an emblem and slogan—"the forces of good are gathering"—that marked the night's invite and main cocktail area.

Staffers are a big part of setting the tone at events. For Maxim's superhero-inspired Super Bowl party at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, servers wore capes and black masks.

Columbia Pictures washed the first floor of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with green-hued lighting to give the space a glowing, moody look for the Los Angeles premiere of The Green Hornet in January 2011.

As most superheroes fight crime in big cities—Gotham, Metropolis, and the like—a city backdrop, real or computer-produced, adds something extra. For the 2007 premiere of Spider-Man 3 in New York, Columbia Pictures used backlit panels to depict the skyline.

Funky entertainment and Batman-like decor dominated the Hope and Help Center of Florida's annual Headdress Ball in 2006, where the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate served a white chocolate Catwoman with a licorice whip for dessert.

As a playful way to extend the night's motif to the bathroom, the organizers of the 2010 Smirnoff Experience in Toronto placed decals with small dots and speech balloons on mirrors to give guests' reflections a comic book effect.

Turning an event's invitation and program into a comic book is a relatively easy way to add colorful visuals. Vintage cartoons inspired MacKenzie Brown's design for the Medical Research Institute Council of the Children's Memorial Hospital's Children's Ball in Chicago in 2010.

In 2008, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute staged an exhibition timed around the release of The Dark Knight titled "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy," which served as the design springboard for its preview gala. With the help of the movie's set designer, Nathan Crowley, the planners placed 20-foot-tall statues of superheroes the museum's Great Hall.

Large-scale industrial props can help set the scene—and make guests seem small and powerless. At the Los Angeles premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man in June, Sony Pictures placed a 16- by 22-foot web-like metal structure on the red carpet and at the party.

Comic-book-style images can be turned into live installations at events. Animated graphics and videos at the 2011 Robin Hood Foundation gala, helped add energy—and eye-catching decor—to the cocktail area of the 3,000-person fund-raiser.

The 2008 Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Toronto's Big Night Out benefit reminded guests of the night's superhero theme by placing them on the tables. The design team created colorful centerpieces by placing images of original comic book characters in tall plexiglass boxes on stands.

Primary colors are a distinct part of any superhero's costume, and that visual inspired the monochromatic menu for Raw's industry party in Toronto. The architectural firm passed items such as Parisienne potatoes topped with blue-dyed whitefish mousse and blue sea salt, beef tartare with beet-dyed horseradish in heirloom tomatoes (pictured), and chicken salad with green peas and pesto in green pepper cups.

The Robin Hood Foundation created graphic, superhero versions of the presenters for its 2011 gala, including host Brian Williams.

To make the guests at the Los Angeles premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man premiere feel like superheroes, Sony Pictures erected a climbing wall inside the party.

The Price Is Right wrap party had a '70s disco theme.

Guests danced on a colorful, light-up dance floor.

Vintage-inspired furnishings decked the Hangar 8 space.

Decor pieces in squared-off shapes hung from the ceiling, all part of the vintage look.

Studio 54 imagery inspired the look for a bar front, which had a Studio 33 logo, so named for the show's studio.

Go-go dancers performed on double-decker stages.

More than 80,000 people traveled to a remote 700-acre farm in Tennessee June 7-10 for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Knowing the attendees would be outside day and night listening music on multiple stages, brands such as Garnier Fructis provided practical services such as free hair-washing and styling in a 40- by 40-foot air-conditioned tent.

The L'Oréal-owned brand also brought music props for guests to pose with after their hair service. Participants received the photos via email, allowing them to share the images on social networks.

Ford dubbed its tent "Destination Escape," playing on the name of its Escape vehicle that was displayed outside. Inside, festivalgoers could cool off in the air-conditioned space, listen to live performances, and charge their phones.

Ford handed out more than 3,000 free T-shirts, screen-printed on-site with designs inspired by mural artists working outside the tent.

Bonnaroo attendees could relax in hammocks and enter to win V.I.P. passes in the "Great State Lounge" hosted by State Farm. The insurance company also provided what it called "Bonnaroo Roadside Assistance"—free services such as help with lockouts, flat tires, and dead batteries.

As part of the July run of Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago’s Union Park, Web-based music store Emusic staged an activation that allegedly read spiritual vibes and frequencies. Inside a small photo booth, consumers could listen to songs from various Pitchfork acts while placing their hand on an electrical plate. The installation then printed out colorful strips that showed their different “auras” for each listening experience. New York-based agency Mother worked with Chicago's Ravenswood Events to produce the unusual experience.

Whole Foods erected an on-site farmer's market where guests could purchase everything from strawberries to sunflowers. The cute, country-style space was dressed up with gingham curtains and woven baskets.

Heineken had a dome-shaped tent meant to represent a reinvented beer cooler. After having their IDs checked, guests entered the air-conditioned space to find open bars doling out the Dutch beer on tap.

Darkened and shot through with green light—Heineken's signature hue—the tent had projection videos of real-time Pitchfork concerts playing on its ceiling. California-based Corso Communications produced the activation.

Purina gave out free "pets rock" posters, which featured colorful, arty illustrations of dogs and cats clutching musical instruments. The brand also had a video booth that let guests hop in and share their personal “ingredient for daily good,” matching the marketing focus on the pure ingredients that make up its pet food. To produce the activation, Pitchfork organizers worked with Zeus Jones, a creative agency based in Minneapolis.

C3 Presents' music festival, now in its 21st year, drew about 90,000 guests a day to Chicago's Grant Park August 3 through 5. The festival offered performances from 130 bands on stages with sponsor names, including the Red Bull Soundstage, the Sony stage, the Google Play stage, the BMI stage, and the PlayStation stage. Florence & the Machine played on the Bud Light stage on the last day of the festival.

On festival grounds, the Adidas Originals Black Top let guests watch professional skateboarders in action (and, of course, Adidas gear). The activation also let guests snap photos and enter to win giveaways.

Music fans at Lollapalooza often send beach balls bouncing through the crowds during concerts. Uber took advantage of the festival hobby by doling out balls splashed with the company logo and a special event hashtag, #Uberpalooza.

The show Pop-Up Video recently returned to VH1 and to publicize it, the music channel hosted an activation on the grounds of Lollapalooza. Using augmented reality developed for VH1 by Awestruck Marketing, the promotion let guests see themselves on a big screen in the park virtually interacting with Lollapalooza artists such as the Black Keys and Fun. Guests could instantly post photos from the activation to social media sites.

The Toyota Prius Family Playground was filled with games, including a human-powered prize wheel that had guests run to win gifts from the automaker. The most talked-about aspect of the marketing effort was the "Whac-a-Hipster" game, which let guests use a soft mallet to smack little pop-up heads with stylized mustaches and glasses.

Behind the Red Bull Soundstage, PlayStation hosted a V.I.P. area that had plush seating, games, and a Magnolia photo booth. There were also open bars.

Rolling Stone hosted the Rock Room at the Paris Club on Friday and Saturday of Lollapalooza weekend. The daytime event served brunch to a guest list that included media, band managers, label reps, and guests of the performing bands. The "Women Who Rock" showcase, linked to a competition hosted by the magazine, had performances by finalists, including Rita Ora. The winner, selected by readers' online votes, will appear on the cover of the September issue of Rolling Stone.

Gilt City hosted a party at EnV, a condo building in Chicago's River North, on Saturday afternoon of Lollapalooza weekend. The Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men, which also performed at the festival, played an intimate set at the rooftop party.

In partnership with the BMF Media Group, Soul Electronics hosted "Soul Sounds Chicago" evening at the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago in August. The kickoff event for Lollapalooza offered UV Vodka cocktails, Ashai beer, and performances from Cee Lo Green (pictured) and Miguel. Vibe magazine was the official media partner.

In what Target called a “vertical fashion show,” acrobats danced, posed, and catapulted down runways on the side of 620 Fifth Avenue, one of the buildings that flanks the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, in 2005.

A yellow zigzag path at a 2008 Kohler event in Chicago was a surprising alternative to the traditional entrance path. 

The cocktail napkins for the 2002 opening of Prada’s store in SoHo in New York were useful in two ways, with an itinerary and maps showing the locations for the night’s multiple parties.

The Baptist Health Foundation got guests interacting at its 2009 benefit in Orlando by having them prepare their own dinners while following instructions from a chef onstage. 

At the 2008 Robin Hood Foundation gala, XO laptops on each dinner table displayed menus, statistics about the organization’s work, and images of flowers, and then were donated to city schoolchildren after the event.

R Cano Events used retro lazy Susans to help guests share family-style food presentations at a 2004 Safe Horizon luncheon in New York.

For Domino magazine’s first anniversary in New York in 2006 (which doubled as a fund-raiser for the Woodycrest House project), Aparat dressed up a silent-auction table with long scrolls of paper. In addition to functioning as the bidding list, the scrolls provided a simple yet striking look.

To handle large crowds waiting for a single elevator at a 2004 Dom Perignon event, Susan Magrino Agency hired the Harlem Gospel Choir to entertain guests as they waited in line.

Bathroom lines can be notoriously long, so at Redmoon’s Spectacle Lunatique benefit in Chicago, a guitarist entertained guests as they waited.

For a Tiger Beer party in 2007, producers Joao and Readymade Projects worked with artist James Clar to dress up an elevator with a 3-D LED installation, which surely made the ride up to the event more interesting.

To celebrate the renovation of Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 2007, Roy Braeger designed a vertical stage that tied into the event’s construction-themed decor and gave guests an unobstructed view of the musicians.

The Broad Contemporary Art Museum’s 2008 opening party in Los Angeles, produced by Ben Bourgeois, had a floating stage that descended from the ceiling for an attention-getting dinner show.

At the 2004 International Contemporary Furniture Fair, Norwegian architecture firm MMW designed a large tube that connected the Javits Center’s main space with its north pavilion, a stylish way to join two large spaces.

The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art’s 2009 ArtEdge benefit had a lighthearted feel, with childhood games and activities including a large swing set.

Here’s how to create drama overhead (or hide a less-than-desirable ceiling): Van Wyck & Van Wyck wove bands of fabric together above the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2008 Art Party.

For a private dinner in 2006, JMVisuals created an unexpected overhead lighting trick: rows of frosted votives suspended from the ceiling on square Lucite tiles. 

In a playful take on the normally static step-and-repeat, artist Andrey Bartenev had costumed performers interact with guests at the Watermill Center’s gala in 2007.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Johnson & Johnson displayed photographs on a wall that curved upward.

Amfar got a free invitation design for a 2006 benefit by holding a contest among art students.

For a 2006 Motorola event, KSE Productions suspended a metal platform from the ceiling as an unconventional lectern and used stretch-fabric video screens as a backdrop.

At the 2006 Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles, Stanlee Gatti created lavish displays of upside-down calla lilies, dramatic decorations that also hid poles.

At a 2006 dinner held by investment bank Rodman & Renshaw, Event Design Inc. made sure all the attendees had a clear view of the evening’s entertainment by creating seven levels of seating with rows of individual lounges on each level.

At the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s awards in 2005, an oversize mirror encrusted with Swarovski crystals displayed a live telecast of the arrivals during the cocktail hour. 

LDJ Productions and Brenton Catering served champagne cocktails in test tubes at hair-care brand Joico’s chemistry-lab-inspired 30th anniversary party in New York in 2005.

Occasions Caterers created a conveyor-belt buffet station for a 2009 screening of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in Washington. 

Instead of the typical white tent, Van Wyck & Van Wyck used an eye-catching striped version at House & Garden’s 2006 New Tastemakers issue party. 

Years before the locavore movement became popular, Mark Fahrer Caterers set up a nature-inspired buffet that had guests foraging for food at a 2002 party for outgoing New York City Parks & Recreation Commissioner Henry Stern.

At the 2006 opening of Parasuco’s flagship store, six dancers surprised guests by emerging from within a 14-foot-tall skirt for a live performance.

The American Heart Association’s 2006 Rhapsody in Red event had a dramatic event entryway designed by Matthew David Events: a model wore a silk organza dress with a 30-foot-long skirt that draped over the New York Public Library’s entrance.

At arts organization Performa’s 2006 benefit, a team of tailors sewed white clothes on the spot for guests. The performance piece provided entertainment and a take-home gift, and helped create a backdrop for the evening’s cool lighting projections.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America’s 2003 awards featured dramatic projections by Scharff Weisberg on a white, minimalist set, a clean yet impactful look the show updated with digital mapping projections in its 2011 iteration. 

Snapple’s 2006 “High Tea Tour” combined large-scale product placement and entertainment with free hot-air balloon rides in public spaces in nine cities.

To spruce up portable bathrooms at Travel & Leisure’s 2004 World’s Best Awards party at Lincoln Center, planner Laura Aviva worked with sponsors Kohler and L’Occitane to bring in a row of stylish sinks and tubes of lotion, respectively.

Breaking away from the step-and-repeat to interact with the crowd, actors including Uma Thurman served as waiters at a 2007 Sundance event. They wore T-shirts listing their first jobs on the front and their breakthrough films on the back.

As a quirky way to greet guests, the Sculpture Center’s 2006 winter gala in New York had flag greeters signal the semaphore code for “Welcome to the Sculpture Center.”

Travel & Leisure used oversize balloons as a cheap and effective way to mark a pathway for its 35th birthday celebration, held in Los Angeles in 2006.

For Warner Music Group’s 2006 Grammy party in Los Angeles, Graphology made invitations in the form of a wooden box with a foam cutout in the shape of a Grammy, to serve as a packing case for the award. The invite read, “B.Y.O.G.”

There was no head table at TD Bank’s 2009 employee awards dinner in New York. All attendees sat at a single, amoeba-shaped table.

Marriott’s “Association Masters” dinner in 2005 used glowing triangular tables from now-defunct Lounge 22.

For a GQ sales meeting dinner in 2004, one giant X-shaped table seated all 90 attendees. 

The Dia Art Foundation’s gala in 2006 had glowing circular tables.

For the 120th anniversaries of Moët & Chandon’s White Star label and the Statue of Liberty, Publicis Events used 3-D projections to create a four-minute light show on the monument in 2006.

Guests helped themselves to water-cooler cocktails at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s 2009 ArtEdge benefit.

At design firm Trollbäck & Company’s fifth anniversary party in 2004, everything was white, even the clothes of Latin jazz band Jose Conde y Ola Fresca, to serve as a blank canvas for constantly changing projections.

JKLD lit a 2002 Bulgari watch launch at Studio 545 in New York from the outside in, thanks to a giant light board suspended by a 133-foot crane.

For the opening of the Hearst Tower in 2006, Van Wyck & Van Wyck brought in aerialists to perform 100 feet above the crowd, a dramatic twist on the traditional ribbon cutting. 

At a 2006 Swarovski shoe launch in New York, designer Todd Shearer put shoes on mannequins as well as live models whose sudden movements surprised guests.

At a 2006 roast of Mario Batali benefiting the Food Bank of New York City, Okamoto Studio encased the chef’s trademark orange clogs in giant blocks of ice. 

At the opening party for the Felissimo Design House in New York in 2001, guests never had to wait for a waiter to come by with food. They could pick hors d’oeuvres right from the wall of an installation by French artist Dorothee Selz.

A fun alternative to the usual palm readings, Allure magazine brought in lip-reader Sasha Nanus to analyze guests’ lipstick prints at the 2006 launch of Patrick McMullan’s book Kiss Kiss.

Digital photo booth projections, like this one from Mark van S. at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2006 benefit, have become an event staple for mixing interactive entertainment and decor.

David Beahm suspended an upside-down bed of tulips, with roots and all, above a table at the Horticultural Society of New York’s 2002 Flowers and Design gala.

Microsoft worked with Maloney & Fox, BongarBiz, and Grounded Aerial Dance Theater to create a memorable live performance on a New York billboard to launch Windows Vista in 2007. Aerialists rappelled down the side of a building to create a 3-D representation of the logo.

For the reopening of New York’s Le Cirque in 2006, the Susan Magrino Agency had the restaurant’s owner, Sirio Maccioni, record the R.S.V.P. voice-mail greeting, a surprising and personal touch that can be replicated for film premieres, incentive events, or almost any gathering.

For the Whitney Museum’s 2006 Art Party in New York, planners considered what guests saw underfoot and covered a black carpet with silver sequins.

To create a modern, all-white look for a 2006 dinner at Manhattan’s Pier 60, Empire Force Events hid the venue’s colorful, patterned carpet with a layer of large, white confetti. 

Waiters didn’t have to remember what they were serving (and guests didn’t have to ask) when now-defunct Match Catering printed T-shirts with food descriptions for a 2004 BizBash event.

For the 2004 launch of Inside CNN in New York’s Time Warner Center, Brand Marketers integrated outfitted staffers in T-shirts into a presentation with flat-screen panels broadcasting a live feed of the network. 

XA, the Experiential Agency, used long grosgrain ribbons to simply and effectively divide a large space at a 2006 Tag Heuer event.