Media Profile's holiday party—which adopted a film noir theme this year—drew a crowd of more than 600 guests to the Brant House Wednesday. "It's all of the clients and all of the media that we deal with, and some influencers as well," company president Alison King said of the guest list, noting that people were clamouring to get invites to the event. "It's sort of weird. It's taken on a life of it's own...it's just a very relaxed atmosphere where people can be themselves with no agenda."
The holiday party has grown substantially in the 20 years that King has worked with the communications and marketing company. "It started in our office and we'd get 50 or 60 people," she said. "They've always been an opportunity for media and clients to get together in an informal way."
This year, the company took a cue from some of its clients and adopted a film noir theme. "We work with four Hollywood film studios—Fox, Warner Brothers, MGM, and Sony Pictures—doing all of their DVD releases," King said. "We thought the theme would give a nice feel to the event." Bartenders donned black fedoras, and video footage from old films like The Asphalt Jungle, Road House, and The Garment Jungle played on large screens around the room.
The party moved to the Brant House after five years at the Great Hall on Queen Street West. "We decided we wanted to do something a little bit differently. And it's nice to be downtown. The Brant House is more of a turnkey for us," King said, noting that there was no need to bring in a catering firm. "We're still trying to run a business and plan a party at the same time."
King added, "We start planning our party almost as soon as the other one is over...it really is our signature client event. It would take some drastic times for us to cancel, and I don't know that we ever would." The company did scale back slightly, choosing to offer only beer and wine rather than a full bar.
