Sometimes the best approach is to plaster logos throughout an event space. But in other cases, a better way to communicate a brand’s message is to be more subtle, hinting at the host or sponsor by incorporating logos into the existing decor elements or by customizing food items. Here's a look at how companies like Fox and American Express added their imprint to an event in inconspicuous ways, from high-design wallpaper to flip-flops that marked the sand.
Rolling carts stacked with 1,000 white flip-flops with the blue American Express logo flanked the entry to the opening party for the Delta Air Lines Global Sales Conference at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin in 2011. As the 850 guests arrived, they swapped their shoes for the flip-flops and headed out to the party set up around the Swan’s pool and beach, where the sandals left logo impressions in the sand as guests walked.
Photo:Â Kayla Hernandez for BizBash
For Fox’s American Idol top 13 finalist event, producer YourBash gave Fig & Olive in Los Angeles a subtle decorative touch: Custom wallpaper covered the venue’s existing bookshelves and walls of olive oil.
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios
Absolut launched its latest vodka flavor with an event that put an apple orchard inside a studio-style west Chelsea venue in 2011. Absolut stickers on thousands of apples made for less-conspicuous, but still on-message, branding.
Photo: Gustavo Campos
In 2012, Internet Week title sponsor Yahoo gathered 100 business executives from various companies at a private event at a five-story loft town house in New York to mark the relaunch of Genome, a brand previously known as Interclick. The design team incorporated the brand's logo by using it as art to hang on the walls.
Photo: Sean T. Smith
Talk about a fully immersive experience: Last year's TEDActive conference took over some of the host venue's Spanish tiles for its own brand messaging. The special tiles at La Quinta in California's Palm Springs area also guided attendees along the walkways to the various event venues on the sprawling property.
Photo: Alesandra Dubin/BizBash
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation highlighted the annual Boston edition of its Hot Pink Party with a kickoff reception at the David Yurman Copley boutique in 2011. There, Max Ultimate Food offered bite-size desserts marked with the jewelry brand's initials.
Photo: Michael Blanchard Photography
The Dos Equis Masquerade in Miami in December included such out-there details as skewered chicken feet and popcorn ants on the catering menu, plus exotic wildlife and snakes on site. For more subtle cues to the host and the event's exotic theme, playing cards bore the beer purveyor’s logo.
Photo: Courtesy of Dos Equis
Grey Goose created a pop-up pastry and coffee shop last year in New York as part of its Fly Beyond brand campaign. Messages on napkins were designed to educate consumers on the vodka company's history.
Photo: Karen Fuchs
When Godiva unveiled a chocolate-covered suite inside New York's Bryant Park Hotel in 2009, the chocolatier partnered with designer Jonathan Adler. In imitation of Adler's Bargello collection, hundreds of individual chocolates formed a mosaic beneath the glass top of the dining table.
Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash
Time Warner Cable held a national press event in 2010 to introduce its all-in-one service package SignatureHome. To illustrate how the products work in various environments, the cable company created a temporary home for the launch in a three-story New York town house and styled five rooms to represent different areas of the home. The first floor of the home was set as a living room, where a painting of the brand's logo decorated one of the walls.
Photo: Michael Loccisano/WireImage
Italian spirit Campari made a play for the New York art scene in 2006 with the launch of the House of Campari pop-up gallery in SoHo. House of Campari brought the work of 25 New York-based visual artists together under one roof in an exhibition called “25 Bold Moves." For a subtle on-brand effect, John Sideris of Sideris Creative was enlisted to create tone-on-tone fabric wall coverings bearing the Campari logo.
Photo: Courtney Thompson/BizBash
In 2009, Levi's and The Fader teamed up for the Levi's/Fader Fort at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The entire perimeter of the fort was lined with sheets of old metal, plywood, and subtle (as well as not-so-subtle) messaging for Levi's.
Photo: Benjamin Sklar for BizBash
