
This year's edition of C.E.S. covered 1.86 million square feet of exhibit space spread throughout three venues: the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Venetian, and the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton).
Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

DJ Redfoo of LMFAO performed at the Panasonic and MySpace C.E.S. kickoff party on Monday night.
Photo: Gary He/Insider Images

As a riff on the tradition of getting hitched in Las Vegas, Sony promoted the marriage of its Sony Electronics Home Division and Sony Entertainment Network by staging a wedding between TV and the Internet on Wednesday night. Guests were invited through a microsite created on wedsite.com, where they could sign the guest book and read about the wedding party ("Remote" was the maid of honor, and "Tables S" was the best man).
Photo: Courtesy of Johnny Pham/Sony Electronics

With a tagline of "See the bigger picture," Sharp launched an 80-inch LED television.
Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

Eventage produced Sharp's Monday press conference, where its 80-inch TV was unveiled atop a Smart Car to show just how large it was. During the week, the car was driven around Las Vegas with a prop TV on top; anyone who tweeted a picture of it was entered to win the new television.
Photo: Courtesy Sharpusanews.com

Technology insiders flooded the show on Monday to discover the latest electronics from more than 3,100 exhibitors.
Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

Samsung made a splash with a booth that gizmodo.com called the best of C.E.S. It felt "like you were in a Disney Tomorrowland funhouse stuffed with the toys of the future that you can play with today," wrote editor Roberto Baldwin.
Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

CBS Early Show tech expert Katie Linendoll hosted a press event on Monday at the Venetian Hotel and Casino to showcase OnStar and Cadillac's newest in-vehicle technologies. The event was planned and executed by inVNT.
Photo: Courtesy of inVNT

For the OnStar/Cadillac event, inVNT designed a modern, relaxing lounge space with curved scenic walls and interactive displays to remove attendees from the traditional ballroom experience.
Photo: Courtesy of inVNT

Verizon's booth demonstrated the capabilities of its 4G LTE wireless network through its own products and services, as well as products developed by outside companies through its Innovation Program. The company also sponsored the C.E.S. press room and digital media lounge.
Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

Cnet.com broadcast live throughout the show from its booth-turned-recording studio and lounge. They also hosted the Best of C.E.S. awards and a Women in Technology panel with Marissa Mayer, first female engineer at Google; Flickr and Hunch co-founder Catarina Fake; and Cisco chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior.
Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

Former NBA star John Salley made an appearance and signed autographs at Haier's booth to help launch the appliance company's new kitchen products.
Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

Visitors to Nikon's booth could test its newest cameras by taking shots of showgirls and models.
Photo: Jacob Kepler for BizBash

Gloved hands poked through a rose-covered wall to offer shots and desserts at the Zing vodka launch.
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios

The entryway for the New York event was a tunnel filled with smoke, projections, and audio. The sounds and images playing were of frustrated smartphone users, designed to contrast the setting inside.
Photo: Line 8 Photography

As a way to demonstrate the phone's "burst shot," a feature that takes three images a second, guests could throw a basketball while a staffer took photos. The photos were then printed out as a take-home item.
Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Samsung

At its Coachella party, Lacoste set up a nail art station, where guests could stop by for colorful, branded looks applied in a breezy white cabana.
Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Lacoste

Orlando's Impact Entertainment Services is now offering 3-D chalk art. Artist Jennifer Chaparro can create designs based on a theme or draw corporate logos on surfaces such as canvas and cement.
Photo: Courtesy of Jennifer Chaparro

UtherConvention attendees could peruse three tables of virtual gift bags.
Photo: Courtesy of Utherverse World Development

In an effort to promote its news site Patch.com, Ad Week sponsor AOL installed lockers inside New York's TimesCenter in October last year. The station—dubbed the "charging post"—allowed executives to drop off their gadgets for recharging and claim them later.
Photo: Brian Virgo/AOL

Toyota’s exhibit area at the Chicago Auto Show included Apple desktop computers that functioned as charging stations and displayed Toyota commercials to keep visitors entertained.
Photo: Jenny Berg/BizBash

Photo: Courtesy of TicketLeap

To celebrate summer solstice this year, Sunglass Hut hosted a block party on Perry Street in downtown New York. As a fun way to promote sunglasses, the brand brought out performance artist Joey Arias who sported a skirt-like shelving structure to display the products.
Photo: Sara Jaye Weiss

H&M opened a pop-up shop in New York to preview its The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo collection. Daddy-O Productions created industrial building facades, as well as a corrugated-metal coffee bar and faux lumber stacks.
Photo: Jika González/BizBash

To announce that Target would be selling produce, David Stark designed trucks that looked like huge shopping bags to distribute groceries to pedestrians in Chicago and Washington. Atomic Design created the carved foam vegetables and bag topper.
Photo: Courtesy of Atomic Design

CBS Design and Fabrication Services worked with Target 10 to create a bathroom display that toured gay pride festivals in 2011 to promote Rogaine and Neutrogena Men. The setup included two working sinks; workers handed out products from inside medicine cabinets.
Photo: Courtesy of Target

Product launches and press previews for beauty products have historically been dominated by clean, all-white decor, allowing colorful product packaging to take center stage. At a February 21 brunch for L'Oréal, designer and producer Joe Moller added subtle branding to the setup on the Viceroy Miami's outdoor terrace, adding L'Oréal lettering to the backs of chairs and using shallow gold vases filled with products as tabletop centerpieces.
Photo: Joe Moller

As a twist on the white-on-white look, Calvin Klein launched Euphoria in 2005 with an artsy installation that put the fragrance's tropical derivatives in display cases atop pedestals and on the floor. Videos of tropical landscapes could be viewed through metal portholes in the walls of the TriBeCa venue.
Photo: Courtesy of Unilever Cosmetics International

Schwarzkopf Professional chose a different route for a January event in Los Angeles, bringing bright hues to Exchange LA with a color-blocked runway and fringe chandelier. To add branding into the decor, organizers surrounded the catwalk with Ghost chairs marked with the signature silhouette logo.
Photo: Brian Leahy Photography

Lacoste introduced its first men's scent collection in 2011 with an installation in New York's Grand Central Terminal. For the opening event, the sporty fashion brand used the colorful packaging of the Lacoste Eau de Lacoste L.12.12 fragrances to decorate the façade of the bar.
Photo: Keith Sirchio for BizBash

Avon wanted a sophisticated look for the 2007 launch of Rouge, a fragrance created in partnership with Christian Lacroix. Held in New York, the red-and-black event included a chandelier with vials of the fragrance instead of lightbulbs.
Photo: Andre Maier Photography

Red was also the dominant hue at the launch of Beyoncé Heat in 2010, noticeable from the lights that emanated from the New York venue. Coty's marketing team decided to create a public spectacle out of the intimate press conference and after-party—held at 15 Union Square—by making no secret about what was going on inside.
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com

To put editors in the right frame of mind, Avon introduced the 2005 fall collection of Mark—the brand's younger, hipper cosmetics line—by hosting an autumnal-themed event in the summer. Orange and red foliage littered the New York affair, where wrought-iron gates, warm yellow lighting, and a small faux maple tree hung with votive candles set a park-like scene for the hair, fragrance, skin, and makeup products.
Photo: Jamie Watts

For the 2008 launch of its revamped Tea Tree line of shampoos and conditioners, Paul Mitchell built cabanas on a rooftop garden in New York. Drinks and displays highlighted the ingredients of each product, with fresh sage lemonade served in the area for the Lemon Sage line.
Photo: Jessica Torossian/BizBash

Bulgari focused the visuals of a 2007 launch on natural ingredients by filling the New York event with fragrant greenery and pretty blossoms. The luncheon for the Omnia Amethyste fragrance saw garden roses in hanging birdcages, a Lucite tasting bar filled with wood chips and balsa wood, and a wall of pink damask roses that gave off a subtle aroma.
Photo: Francine Daveta

In 2010, Victoria's Secret turned one of its New York stores into a makeshift flower shop and put Alessandra Ambrosio, Candice Swanepoel, and Miranda Kerr in aprons to help promote the launch of the Heavenly Flowers perfume. Standing amidst buckets of artificial flowers, cases of new product, and watering cans, the models autographed glossy photos of themselves for customers who spent $35 or more.
Photo: Marion Curtis/StarTraks

Lacoste was ahead of the game when it chose to integrate digital art from social media fans into a sculptural installation for the launch of its Eau de Lacoste L.12.12 fragrance. The 2011 promotion at New York's Grand Central Terminal projected animated videos generated by fans online across the surface of the piece, which loosely resembled the brand's iconic crocodile logo.
Photo: Keith Sirchio for BizBash

Art installations were part of Diesel's launch for the Only the Brave fragrance in 2009. The event, held in Miami's Moore Building, displayed commissioned works from 30 artists who were told to explore the idea of bravery. Three oversize machine gun-shaped pieces by Canadian artist Bob Parrington, ranging in size from four to eight feet, hung from the ceiling in the atrium.
Photo: BizBash

To create a setting that would work for a breakfast presentation as well as a luncheon, Shiseido Cosmetics America mixed classic and modern furnishings for the launch of its spring 2007 collection in a turn-of-the-century townhouse in New York. A color palette of white kept the look clean, while lighting took on hues matched to the shades of Shiseido’s packaging and makeup.
Photo: Jeff Thomas/ImageCapture

As a way to integrate Rimmel London's identity and heritage into a 2007 product launch, Coty Canada dressed a Toronto event space with British decor. Tabletop decorations included custom acrylic purple, white, and gold Union Jack placemats and miniature gold-colored double-decker buses.
Photo: BizBash

A club-like vibe pervaded the launch of Salvatore Ferragamo's Attimo fragrance in 2010, the first official event at the Standard New York's bar, Le Bain. To avoid a branding-heavy look, Ferragamo put a neon sign and decor beneath a dance floor that was built over the drained pool; elsewhere the design was a subtle play on the perfume's packaging and ingredients.
Photo: Billy Farrell/PatrickMcMullan.com

To prevent a 2011 launch from looking too clinical, Canadian skin-care brand Dermaglow used a 10-foot-tall floral arrangement, bright uniforms for the waitstaff, and macarons to add color to the space. Each hue corresponded to a different product line.
Photo: Ryan Emberly

Joico opted to emphasize its scientific approach to hair-care products by styling a 2005 event as a laboratory. That included serving champagne cocktails in test tubes.
Photo: Alesandra Dubin/BizBash

In 2007, Bourjois Paris spread the word about its new Docteur Glamour line by creating a beauty ambulance of sorts. A vehicle with glass sides served as the setting for prearranged appointments with beauty editors outside the offices of several large magazine publishing companies.
Photo: Elizabeth Lippman

Betsey Johnson didn't look far for inspiration for her perfume's launch in 2006, bringing 55 beauty editors and fragrance execs to her Greenwich Village apartment for a party. Johnson's own family photos and bric-a-brac gave the affair a personal touch, while balloons, streamers, and rose petals played up the designer's fun-loving personality.
Photo: Daniel D’Errico/Courtesy of Alison Brod Public Relations

When Victoria's Secret launched the Pink fragrance collection in 2009, the brand relied on models, rather than brand representatives, to articulate and embody the concept behind the three scents. Thoroughly briefed and scripted on their distinct characters, the models became living, talking props and guided editors through the apartment-like vignettes that represented the lifestyle of their specific consumer profile.
Photo: Justin Jay/Courtesy of Victoria's Secret Beauty

Dove drove home the idea of the key consumer for its Men+Care line by hosting the 2010 launch event at Toronto's Hockey Hall of Fame. Inside the space, the logo for the new products decorated jerseys in the locker room, while displays were set against trophies and hockey pucks.
Photo: BizBash

For a 2005 cosmetics launch, Bourjois Paris invited beauty editors to a model apartment at an unfinished apartment building in New York. Part of the unusual setting included a Bourjois product developer preparing pink eye shadow in the kitchen with the aid of a pink KitchenAid blender.
Photo: Alesandra Dubin/BizBash

L.V.M.H.-owned beauty purveyor Fresh created a gifting bar at an event last year that allowed guests to pick the products they wanted to take home. Packages were sent via messenger to attendees the following day.
Photo: Jim Shi

For the launch of the Secret Obsession fragrance in Toronto, Calvin Klein sent private cars to chauffeur guests to an undisclosed location. The 2008 event blindfolded attendees and led them through a sensory experience set up inside a bank vault.
Photo: Courtesy of Overcat Communications

As a creative way to leave a lasting impression with busy editors and remind them of its key scent for the season, Victoria's Secret gave out individual cakes at an event in 2010. The edible souvenir was handed out as guests left, presented in a simple white box wrapped in pink ribbon.
Photo: Jessica Torossian/BizBash