How about an airplane in flight as a venue for an event? When Entourage returned from a yearlong hiatus, HBO needed a dramatic way to launch the fifth season of its flagship comedy. A typical screening and after-party didn’t seem to fit with the show’s expensive campaign and jet-set vibe, so the marketing team came up with the idea of an on-brand airplane. HBO approached Virgin America, which fit with the show's aesthetic. The airline was about to debut a new flight service between New York and Las Vegas, so the pair agreed to a joint promotion. The result included a private Virgin-hosted party inside a JFK airport hangar, photo ops with the show’s cast and Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson, an in-flight premiere of the season opener, and an after-party at the Playboy Club in Las Vegas.
As part of the company's ongoing advertising campaign—centered on the phrase “In an Absolut World: Opportunities Always Pop Up”—Absolut Vodka commissioned artist Justin Broadbent to create an art installation in the Toronto Transit Commission's abandoned Lower Bay station in 2009. The end result was art exhibit by day and a party space by night. Kelly Kertz, senior brand manager with Absolut Canada, collaborated with a number of agencies to plan and execute the event. “The whole campaign is about the unexpected and really thinking outside the box. It's about everyone looking at the opportunities that are in front of them and also within,” Kertz said. “I don’t think anyone would ever expect that we would be able to do this in a subway station, to have an alcohol venue, but the T.T.C. has been fantastic to deal with.”
Forget abandoned subways: Bravo took over a working train station platform in 2007 to promote its Top Design show to New York commuters. Crowds of people on their way to work stopped to gawk at two living room vignettes conceptualized and furnished by designer Jonathan Adler at the 42nd Street shuttle terminal in Grand Central. The scene was up for a week, and organizers not only had to coat all items with fire-retardant spray but also secure the pieces to the floor.
When Fox premiered its new show Alcatraz in 2012, you might say there was one venue that stood out as the obvious choice: The network took its event to the San Francisco Bay, hosting a screening and party on Alcatraz Island. Fox's Karin Pofsky tapped Los Angeles-based YourBash! to head up production and design, with the goal to keep the mood as authentic as possible. Guests boarded a boat from Pier 33 in San Francisco to the island, where they were greeted by guards who treated them as prisoners; the guards wore costumes from Alcatraz's operating era and spoke to guests as if they were arriving as the prisoners did in 1963, the show's period setting. Attendees were then transported via golf cart up the hill to the main jail.
The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Florida began offering fetes in its walk-in freezer five years ago, and saw an increase in the offering's popularity during the heat of summer this year. “The freezer space allows us to execute some unique party themes like a fire-and-ice party featuring propane-fueled lanterns,” said food and beverage director Tony Porcellini. The space has also been used for Russian-theme events with vodka and caviar bars. To keep guests from getting too chilly in the freezer, which holds 60, staffers dole out parkas; they also adjust the temperature from 30 to 40 degrees and have parties spill over into adjacent spaces.
Los Angeles's Hollywood Forever Cemetery—yes, it's an actual cemetery with headstones and bodies under the ground—is an extremely conversation-starting home to many events each year. Showtime hosted a 2006 party for its TV lineup, which appropriately included Dead Like Me, in the space. Guests walked through a mausoleum into a velvet-draped grassy area behind it, where the party space was set up like a haunted garden.
Toronto architecture studio Raw Design had its annual industry party in 2011 at one of the oldest working bread factories in the city, which was soon to be demolished. Tapping into the pop-up party trend, Raw Rising took place in the parking lot, entrance, and loading dock of the Ontario Bread Company as the bakers worked to prepare the next day’s delivery orders. The historic location was an interesting choice for the design firm, as it was in then in the approval stages of planning the future site of a Raw Design 16-unit town house development. “It’s important to instill this memory in the designers, architects, and planners who are here. These are the people who are changing the face of Toronto,” said Kim Graham of Kim Graham & Associates, who produced the event. “We need to have them see and experience history before it’s gone.”
For those who work in construction, attending a party in a raw shell of a building is nothing extraordinary. (Celebratory gatherings known as topping-off parties, held when the top floor of a building is completed, are apparently quite common in the building business.) But one crowd's de rigueur is another's novelty. Such was the case at a 2007 cocktail party held on an open, upper floor of the New York condo development Riverhouse, co-hosted by Q Magazine. A mixed crowd of 400 downtown denizens and Upper East- and West-siders sipped Moët champagne and Belvedere Vodka cocktails overlooking the Hudson.
When an event takes over a piece of real estate currently listed on the market, you might say it's both a unique chance for event guests to see a space they've never seen before—as well as a chance for the property's agents to market it amid influencers. Such was the case when Variety and British Airways took over a $28.8 million mansion in September. The affair, meant to both fete the trade publication's “10 Brits to Watch” feature as well as the airline's nonstop service between Los Angeles and London Heathrow on the A380, took over the architecturally striking property in West Hollywood. Variety marketing managing director Kate Mazzuca oversaw the event, working with Joe Moller on the production.
During New York Fashion Week in 2008, Interview magazine hosted a relaunch at the Standard New York. Hundreds of guests filled the ground floor and the penthouse of the construction site—the hotel wasn't scheduled to open until the following year—for a surreal, red-dominated party.
