For Day of the Dead parties, Brooklyn-based caterer Naturally Delicious prepares tequila-based cocktails. Drinks may include watermelon margaritas and mango margaritas made with Domaine de Canton and a chili-salt rim.
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In addition to cocktails, Naturally Delicious serves shots of Mexican-inspired items such as chilled gazpacho.
To evoke an otherworldly dimension, Naturally Delicious uses tarot cards at place settings for Day of the Dead dinners.
In Chicago, D'Noche serves Cuban, Mexican, and South American fare. At its Day of the Dead party this year, the restaurant will provide guests with papier-mâché skulls to paint.
In 2014, BMF Media hosted a Day of the Dead party at New York's Renaissance Hotel. Servers with traditional Day of the Dead face paint ladled an ancho-watermelon punch from a silver bowl.
Target staged Skeletown Square, a bicultural Dia de los Muertos and Halloween celebration, in Los Angeles last year. The event featured a miniature replica of a graveyard strewn with bright marigold decorations.
Boston's Emerald Lounge at the Revere Hotel hosted a zombie-theme fashion show in October 2012. Spooky swag included skull-shaped shot glasses from Crystal Head vodka.
Billed as a "skeletal spectacle," Redmoon Theater's 2012 Halloween party in Chicago featured dozens of the bony Halloween icons. At a s'mores station, two performers dressed in lingerie and face makeup prepared the snacks in a bathroom vignette. They warmed the chocolates over candles in the bathtub and used blowtorches to melt the marshmallows.
In 2013, Chicago firm A Perfect Event created a tabletop with Mexican-inspired decor for a private event. Tabletop tropes included images of cacti displayed in miniature cake stands.
Chicago’s Field Museum is hosting the exhibition "The Greeks, From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great" through April 17. To promote the exhibit in December, the museum enlisted Illumivation Studios to cover a Chicago train station with a giant Trojan horse. Visitors at the activation were encouraged to Tweet a photo using the hashtag #TheGreeks.Â
As an unusual way to get the attention of busy New Yorkers—and camera-happy tourists—FX put a cozy sweater on wheels in the streets of Manhattan to promote the network premiere of its original series Fargo in 2014. More than a week before Fargo's premiere, FX's sweater-clad double-decker bus toured New York City.
As part of an 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 an art exhibit by day and a party space by night, with themed subway cars. The "Love" subway car, filled with gerbera daisies and oversize paper flowers, included a love-letter vending machine.
In 2007, bleary-eyed New York commuters got an early morning wake-up call thanks to Bravo's then-new series, Top Design. Instead of entering the usual 42nd Street shuttle terminal in Grand Central, New Yorkers found themselves in a chic living room complete with glowing lamps, flowers, and plush modern furniture. The event, which was created by Jason Klarman, senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy for Bravo, and Jim Anstey and Gabe Banner of Lime Public Relations and Promotion, was intended for members of the press, but given its very public location, crowds of people on their way to work stopped to gawk at the contestants and the living room displays, which were conceptualized and furnished by designer Jonathan Adler.
In 2007, Harry Potter hype came to a boiling point when the seventh and final installment of the book series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, became available. In preparation, Scholastic heightened anticipation across the country with a bus tour celebrating all things Potter. Traveling to 37 libraries in 15 cities, the tour allowed fans to board what author J.K. Rowling described as the “violently purple” Knight Bus (identical to the enchanted one that debuted in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and record a video detailing their devotion to the ever-popular teenage sorcerer.
Uniqlo, the Japanese clothing brand, opened its first Chicago store on Michigan Avenue in October. To promote the opening, the brand hosted a series of “train takeovers” that began in late September and continued through the store's opening day. During the promotion, the exterior of the train was wrapped in the brand's logo, a sign that read "From Tokyo to Chicago," and information about the store opening.
In 2012, eyewear brand Warby Parker staged the “Class Trip.” The traveling marketing campaign involved an old yellow school bus retrofitted to look like a professor’s library. “It’s important to us that Warby Parker has high national visibility, which can be a challenging goal for an online business,” said co-founder Neil Blumenthal of the promotion. “Traveling across the country on wheels seemed like a fun and out-of-the-box approach to retail.”
In 2013, Target built a two-story 1,520-square-foot dollhouse furnished with more than 3,000 products from its Threshold collection in New York’s Grand Central Terminal.
French winemaker Georges Duboeuf celebrated the official uncorking of its 2009 Beaujolais Nouveau red wine harvest a hippie-theme luncheon at Au Pied de Cochon in Miami in 2009. A Volkswagen bus decorated with peace sign and flower stickers lead a procession of motorcycles down Washington Avenue to promote the wine's arrival at the restaurant.
In 2010, the PatrĂłn Tequila Express, a refurbished antique railcar, went on a five-city Epicurean Express tour. At its Washington stop, the tequila brand served cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in a narrow loading area between tracks 29 and 30 at Union Station.
Ted Baker, a British brand known for its irreverent style, opened a Midwest flagship store in Chicago in 2012. After the in-store launch event, guests were whisked to the after-party via a quintessentially English mode of transportation: a branded double-decker bus, which served as a roving advertisement for the brand.
In 2007, the Toronto Transit Commission’s Lower Bay subway station—closed since 1966 but still used for film shoots—served as a backdrop for the Italian Trade Commission’s annual Toronto International Film Festival party. Kim Graham & Associates chose to decorate the station, which is somewhat of an urban legend for many Torontonians, in a surreal, retro glam theme; Terroni served Italian red wine and prosecco from one of the subway cars.
Spa music spilled out of speakers in New York's Grand Central Station and Chicago's Union Station one morning in 2010, providing an unusually ethereal soundtrack for both cities' morning rush hours. To coincide with the launch of its new financial management tool, Zendough.com, consumer reporting agency TransUnion staged two so-called “Yoga Takeover” events that brought large-scale mat classes—and dreamy accompaniment—to both venues.
To celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino's floral and horticulture department teamed up with artisans to produce a "Year of the Monkey" art installation, which will be on display through February 29. Located inside the Las Vegas resort's waterfall atrium and gardens, the installation features 78 handcrafted monkeys, a handcrafted 5-foot, 300-pound "Monkey King," eight giant hand-painted peaches covered in Swarovski crystals, 88 gold and red six-foot lanterns, and a 38-foot-tall "wishing" tree with golden foliage.
Skylands Stadiums in Augusta, New Jersey, is hosting its first ice sculpture extravaganza Frozen in Ice throughout the month of February. The event features more than 100 tons ice sculpted into displays, which include an ice cabin that comes furnished with a bed.
Beauty brand Dove invited media to the Unilever R&D headquarters in Trumbull, Connecticut, on February 2 for an event focused on the making of the brand's Beauty Bar soap. As part of the experience, Dove partnered with dessert layer jar company Jars by Dani to serve guests custom designed, layered Mason jars that evoked the brand's colors. The jars contained white chocolate "soap" bars, French vanilla cake, white chocolate chips, sprinkles, and whipped cream.
Returning Super Bowl party host ESPN held its party on February 6 at Fort Mason in San Francisco. The event was produced and designed by Event Eleven, and decor included a giant cleat placed atop the network's logo.
Oreo brought its Wonder Vault campaign to life with an activation that introduced its new, limited-edition "filled cupcake" flavor to consumers on February 2 in New York's Chelsea neighborhood. People who walked by the "vault" were invited to open the custom garage door and pull a lever, which enabled a brown paper box containing a mini sleeve of the new Oreo flavor to arrive via conveyor belt.
For a stress-relieving idea at long events and meetings, Scarborough & Tweed offers coloring books for adults as a creative alternative to traditional event swag and corporate gifts. Coloring pencils are included with the books.
Looking for ideas on how to generate buzz at an event press conference? A press conference on January 21 for the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts—which takes place in April at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts—showcased culinary installations to communicate the festival's artistry. To highlight the festival's underwater concert, the conference featured an ice sculpture with musical instruments. It was paired with sushi for a taste of the sea. Garces Events produced the culinary installations.
Brands including Bud Light took over San Francisco to host events leading up to Super Bowl 50 on February 7. The beer brand took over Union Square to create a 30,000-square-foot "fan haven" that was open to the public aged 21 and over. The activation featured a beer garden serving Bud Light in commemorative cans and bottles and proceeds from Bud Light sales benefited the United Way of the Bay Area's poverty-fighting programs. There were also interactive football-theme activities, including virtual opportunities to catch a football, block opponents, and do a touchdown dance. Mosaic produced the brand's Super Bowl activations.
DirecTV partnered with Pepsi for the first time to host a series of music, tech, and art events surrounding the Super Bowl at Pier 70 starting February 4. Projection-mapped images appeared on the venue's exterior. The DirecTV and Pepsi logos also appeared in lights on the building's façade.
In honor of Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl, which aired February 7, the network hosted the Puppy Bowl Cafe in the Ferry Building from February 4 to 7. For the first time this year, guests could use virtual reality devices to feel as though they were watching puppies "scrimmage" from the center of the field.
