2015 Ideas

For the Toronto launch party for Cadillac's 2014 ELC electric car, guests could sip a futuristic drink: a cocktail with the car's logo stenciled atop in silver edible dust.

At Victoria’s Secret Pink spring break event in Destin, Florida, in March 2014, the retailer placed its event logo on custom surfboards that guests could sign.

Having a pool party? Make sure inflatable pool toys reinforce the brand message. At the iHeartRadio Pool Party in June, sponsor Visit Florida had its logo on an inner tube and other inflatables used at Miami Beach's Fontainebleau hotel.

To kick off the 2013 N.F.L. season, the league hosted a free outdoor concert by Keith Urban and a V.I.P. party in Baltimore. In keeping with the music theme, producers PEDG and Production Glue placed guitars with the Baltimore Ravens logos behind the bars at the Maryland Science Center.

Comedy Central hosted a Kegs and Eggs brunch at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, in March. Kegs bearing the event logo and hashtag severed both decor and functional purposes, even serving as the base of a DJ booth.

Adding humor to the step-and-repeat at the A.S.P.C.A. Humane Awards luncheon in November was a freestanding, hand-drawn fire hydrant with the animal welfare organization's logo on it. The event, held at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York, honors animals as well as people who advocate for them.

Hard-surfaced fruit makes for a healthy snack—and an unexpected place for a brand logo. Fun to Eat Fruit creates the logos using safe-to-eat, custom images without bruising or puncturing the skin.

Facebook and BuzzFeed hosted the Bow Ties & Burgers event during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington in May. Photo booth props included oversize bow ties in Faceook's signature blue hue with the logo as the knot. Pen & Public produced the event.

At an Oktoberfest-theme event during the New York City Wine & Food Festival in October, beer brand Samuel Adams affixed its logo to traditional Bavarian hats.

The logos for the TV show Modern Family as well as the Union Square partnership were printed on pumpkins at an October event in New York's Union Square dubbed Modern Family Fall for All. Fox 5 hosted the activation to promote its syndication of the hit ABC sitcom.

At an event called Hotel Thrillist, Thrillist took over an entire San Diego hotel for a weekend in September. The rebranding included elevator wrapping with the event's logo.

For a summer event called "Best Day of Your Life" in New York, Thrillist used logos on a number of items to encourage the 800 guests to promote the event on social media. Pool balls featured the event logo as well as branding for the Showtime drama Ray Donovan.

Sponsor Acura provided vehicles to transport people between event venues at the New Yorker Festival in October. Festivalgoers and guests alike knew which vehicles to look for: the ones with the festival's logo emblazoned on the side of the car.

At the event Fun and Fit as a Family at the 2014 South Beach Wine & Food Festival, kids could stack oversize blocks that had images such as sponsor Goya's logo, a fork, and a cartoon mascot for the brand.

The nighttime party Best of the Munchies: People's Choice Food Awards at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival had a carnival theme with a ring toss, tic-tac-toe, and other games. Planners put the event logo on ping-pong balls.

At Thinkery's Imaginarium gala, held in Austin in September, staff wore necklaces with Scrabble pieces that spelled out their names. These were used in lieu of traditional name tags.

At Stella McCartney's store opening at St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort in South Florida, Scrabble sets served as name plates. The event took place in 2012.

The Pacific-12 Football Championship Game took place at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on December 5. The day-of tailgate party, organized by staffers of the Pacific-12 Conference, took place at the new Great America Pavilion adjacent to the venue. Mascots from each of the college football teams represented by the Pacific-12 Conference attended the event and played "Giant Jenga" with guests.

At a Svedka vodka promotion in Los Angeles in 2013, guests played "life-size Jenga" using huge game pieces stamped with the name of the vodka brand.

One of the largest installations at the 2013 Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science was a life-size version of the board game Mouse Trap. Maker Faire is put on by Make magazine, and it's a place to sample what the magazine calls “the Maker Movement": a tech-focused D.I.Y. community of hobbyists and students who profess to be more concerned with creating than consuming.

In 2012, the designer gathered a crowd at the New York restaurant One if by Land, Two if by Sea for a fashion presentation that included game-playing models staged in intimate vignettes.The mezzanine of the restaurant was converted into a games room for the soirée, and included a table where models clad in the pre-fall collection played Scrabble.

A modified Twister board replaced the game's classic colored circles with Havaianas flip-flops at a promotion for the brand at Miami's Shore Club in 2009.

A different type of Twister board—this one inflatable—beckoned guests at a 2009 celebration for The Simpsons 20th anniversary. The event took place at Barker Hangar in Los Angeles.

In Chicago, the Joffrey Ballet's annual Nutcracker Family Dinner in Chicago offers activities for children and adults alike. At the 2011 event, young guests played Twister on the ballroom floor at the Palmer House Hilton.

Born in Miami, Sunglass Hut returned to its roots in 2011 for the opening of its largest outpost to date, located on Lincoln Road. At the game-filled gathering, adults and celebrities played chess with life-size pieces set up in the 11 11 Lincoln Road parking structure.

At the July 2014 music festival in Chicago, V.I.P. guests could play checkers at staggered tables or rest on colorful hammocks.

Starbucks hosted its first Lollapalooza activation in 2013 at the It's so Miami Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago. The suite offered oversize chess and Connect Four games, plus small café tables stocked with buckets of bottled iced coffee.

In October, New Yorkers gathered in Times Square to play a life-size version of Monopoly to celebrate the launch of Monopoly Millionaires' Club, a multi-state lottery game and TV show. The gathering featured appearances from actor Billy Gardell, New York Lottery personality Yolanda Vega, and a costumed "Rich Uncle Moneybags" character.

The top-hat-wearing character also made an appearance at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show, where Toyota Hybrid teamed up with Hasbro to create a 30,160-square-foot "Monopoly Ride Experience." The closed course let guests test out the Prius, Pruis V, Camry Hybrid, and Highlander Hybrid. Attended by costumed staffers, the course was inspired by the popular board game and had S-curves, tight roundabouts, a bridge, and train tracks based on Reading Railroad.

To mark the launch of a collaboration between Mindy Weiss and Wedding Paper Divas on a new collection, the well-known social event planner and the social stationer hosted an intimate, feminine luncheon at Los Angeles's new Lombardi House on February 25. Guests created their own terrariums using succulents, moss, and twigs for a D.I.Y. take on the trend of incorporating living elements into wedding decor.

In another activity area, guests painted cookies with watercolor paints. Cookies came from Joanie and Leigh's Cakes.

Guests could also create their own bags of custom potpourri.

Shutterfly—which creates personalized gifts, cards, and decor—hosted a D.I.Y.- theme holiday event in November at Sopra in New York. The event offered crafty projects including a design-your-own pillow station.

Guests could also create personalized holiday canvas prints at the festive event.

At TEDActive in Palm Springs in 2013, the so-called Sovereign Nation of You station encouraged attendees to make representational flags for creative expression using felt and other materials.

At the 2014 event in Toronto, guests were invited to participate in a doughnut-decorating challenge that let them customize their own treats with toppings such as chocolate and sprinkles.

HBO’s SXSWesteros house promoted the cable network's hit series Game of Thrones and featured an interactive sword-playing game where attendees used Bluetooth-enabled swords to hit targets on a screen. Before the activity, participants posed for photos that were then incorporated into the game.

Samsung housed the “Insurgent Shatter Reality” virtual reality experience. Using Samsung VR technology, guests could visit the realm from the Divergent film series.

A large interactive table at the center FX’s Fearless Factory showcased the television channel's mobile app. Smaller tablets were built within side tables, too.

At the premiere party for the CW’s iZombie hosted by BuzzFeed, Emotiv headsets were provided to guests who were able to see their brain activities in response to eating different types of 3-D-printed candy made on the premises. Guests were allowed to email themselves a copy of their scans.

At the fifth annual Fast Company Grill, sponsor Toyota unveiled an Oculus Rift distracted driving simulator. Participants donned the device and sat in the driver’s seat of a Toyota and replicated a drive through an active and noisy street.

Users entered the Bose Southbooth, covered in mirrors and disco balls, and chose a single song to add to the official Spotify SXSW playlist.

Boffin’s Lab featured a demonstration of Leap Motion headset technology, where guests were taken on a virtual reality through a forest.

The department store featured a Twitter mirror in the artist area at its Make Some Noise house. Users were able to take photos of themselves, add additional content like text and drawings, and then tweet out the image through the brand’s Twitter account.

At General Electric's BBQ Research Center, participants put on color-coded brainwave scanners to see how their brains reacted while eating different barbecue cuts and sides.

Yahoo showcased the brand’s digital magazine content through projections on a cube set up near the entrance of the venue during the daytime. For evening events like the Community and Sin City Saints parties, images from the shows were shown.

Mophie helped rescue attendees with dying phone batteries by sending out St. Bernards with a Mophie power reserve unit within a barrel attached to the dog’s collar. Those seeking help had to take a screenshot of their dying battery screen as well as their location, and tweet at the brand. The St. Bernards were housed at the MophieRescue Lodge, where the products were showcased. The organization also worked with the St. Bernard Rescue Foundation to raise awareness of adoptable St. Bernards across the country.

Extending its Made by You initiative, Converse photographed professional portaits of attendees’ sneakers in the style of the ad campaign. The images were then displayed on screens in the space. For those who weren’t wearing the brand, lucky guests were given free shoes at random.

The premiere party for Unfriended, which was screened at SXSW, featured live streams of the current event throughout the space, alongside a Twitter feed of the party’s hashtag, mimicking the film’s plot centered on live video chats.

HBO’s Silicon Valley returned to the Mashable House with several activations, including Scheimpflüg’s Time Slice 360-degree photo booth, the images from which guests could email to themselves.

The logos that served as the step-and-repeat wall on opening night were removed for other events, creating a chalkboard for guests' personal expressions. Chef Sang Yoon (of Father's Office and Lukshon) paused for a shot in front of what would become the erasable chalkboard where attendees could write their names or share their favorite Taste memory throughout the festival.