Vitamins aren't the most glamorous product to launch, so Olay lured beauty and health editors to the press preview of its new Olay Vitamins line with luxe gifts and personalized services. A car service shuttled guests to and from the event, where they nibbled on a lunch customized for their nutritional needs and received a sterling silver Tiffany bracelet. (Beauty editors really do get their share of perks.)
To create a more intimate setting for the 55 editors who came to the event—because there was a whole lot of information to learn about the vitamins—the event was divided into small sessions over two days at the Bathhouse Studio, explained event planner Traci Gavzer, president of CarryOn Communication, the firm that planned the event.
DSA Productions created a black and white set where four women in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s spoke about their nutrition, skin care and vitamin-taking regimens (actress Jane Seymour was a surprise celebrity spokesperson for the last group). Large black rings hung behind the speakers, and each woman's age group was projected in white above her.
After the presentations, Fancy Girl Catering served a sit-down lunch—a menu customized for each guest from a nutritional needs survey they filled out before the event. Place cards listed the guest's menu and the nutritional benefits of what they were eating, and a dose of vitamins in a martini glass completed each place setting. The guest speakers sat with the editors for one-on-one Q&As.
Lunch was served at curved tables, and Starbright Floral Design's centerpieces featured arrangements of white and pink calla lilies in cube-shaped vases woven together with flowers from other vases. The idea: The flowers were linked to tie into the vitamin line's marketing campaign, which says the vitamins are the "missing link between inner health and outer beauty," Gavzer said.
Instead of standard paper bags, Gavzer gave guests wicker magazine baskets—magazine baskets for magazine editors—from Crate & Barrel to carry off their vitamin samples.
—Jill Musguire
To create a more intimate setting for the 55 editors who came to the event—because there was a whole lot of information to learn about the vitamins—the event was divided into small sessions over two days at the Bathhouse Studio, explained event planner Traci Gavzer, president of CarryOn Communication, the firm that planned the event.
DSA Productions created a black and white set where four women in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s spoke about their nutrition, skin care and vitamin-taking regimens (actress Jane Seymour was a surprise celebrity spokesperson for the last group). Large black rings hung behind the speakers, and each woman's age group was projected in white above her.
After the presentations, Fancy Girl Catering served a sit-down lunch—a menu customized for each guest from a nutritional needs survey they filled out before the event. Place cards listed the guest's menu and the nutritional benefits of what they were eating, and a dose of vitamins in a martini glass completed each place setting. The guest speakers sat with the editors for one-on-one Q&As.
Lunch was served at curved tables, and Starbright Floral Design's centerpieces featured arrangements of white and pink calla lilies in cube-shaped vases woven together with flowers from other vases. The idea: The flowers were linked to tie into the vitamin line's marketing campaign, which says the vitamins are the "missing link between inner health and outer beauty," Gavzer said.
Instead of standard paper bags, Gavzer gave guests wicker magazine baskets—magazine baskets for magazine editors—from Crate & Barrel to carry off their vitamin samples.
—Jill Musguire