CAAM

Before 17,500 enthusiastic fans made their way to Madison Square Garden for Z100's annual Jingle Ball concert, thousands swarmed the Hammerstein Ballroom for the All Access Lounge. Originally located inside the Hotel Pennsylvania, the pre-event festival has evolved into a six-hour fan fest with a bevy of participating brands and live performances.

Coca-Cola, which is an existing partner with Z100, was the presenting sponsor of the All Access lounge and had a large, eye-catching booth on the main floor. In addition to white- and red-branded backdrop, the beverage brand also decorated its space with a Christmas tree, a white sleigh filled with free goodies, and coolers of bottled soda.

Rather than just give away branded teddy bears, bags, and T-shirts, Coca-Cola used location-based app Scvngr to create a game for attendees. Visitors could check in, tweet, post photos to Facebook, and vote in a survey to collect points to trade for prizes.

To highlight a special-edition Coke can for the holidays, Coca-Cola also took its polar bear mascot to its booth for guests to pose with.

As a subtle way to add more branding to the Hammerstein Ballroom, presenting sponsor Coca-Cola fashioned a chandelier from its aluminum bottles.

Another big sponsor at the All Access Lounge was Xbox, which had its Kinect video game system and new title Dance Central 2 in a branded lounge area for guests. The Microsoft brand also had a lounge backstage at Madison Square Garden for the performers to play the game.

AT&T transported its wares to the lounge and created a photo op area with props and a free station for visitors to charge their electronics.

Inside its booth, AT&T also showcased the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, allowing attendees to try out the tablet computer by playing games.

Reebok, which was the headlining partner for the artist gift lounge at Madison Square Garden, was also present at the daytime event and had over-size versions of its Classics line of footwear as props for a photo booth from Polite in Public.

Stride, which refers to itself as the "ridiculously long-lasting gum," challenged visitors with a snowboarding video game, offering tickets to the concert for the person who could stay on the board the longest.

Vitamin Water, a brand owned by a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company, handed out free bottles of its flavored water throughout the six-hour event.

State Farm, which offered prizes through a spinning wheel at its All Access Lounge booth, also sponsored Z100's "Hometown Hero" initiative, a national search for the next big musical act.

H&R Block engaged consumers with a music trivia game.

Sweethearts jewelry, trinkets based on the popular heart-shaped candies, promoted its wares with a karaoke station and hourly giveaways at its booth.

As part of the pre-show, acts like Mindless Behavior performed on the stage set up at the Hammerstein Ballroom, playing to a throng of screaming fans.

As the presenting sponsor of the backstage lounge for the artists, Reebok got prime placement with a branded lounge area that Z100 used to broadcast from during the Jingle Ball.

Reebok also showcased its Classics line of sneakers, allowing visitors to the gift area to try on and take a pair home.

According to Shari Sterenbuch, Z100's director of promotions, the format of the Artists Gift Lounge was tweaked this year, giving brands a branded light box rather than a simple cocktail table.

Perhaps the largest gift given at the backstage lounge was a custom snowboard from Stride. The gum brand also gave out bags of its Whitemint flavor.

Adorama, which offered a photo booth at the All Access lounge earlier in the day, gave performers like Demi Lovato, Gym Class Heroes, L.M.F.A.O., and Hot Chelle Rae Canon powershot cameras.

Hashtags that encourage interaction on site through gamification or another kind of activity are sure to facilitate broad interaction online as well. At Target's Feed U.S.A. event, menus encouraged guests to interact and mingle with tablemates through social media prompts on menus.