La Quinta Inn & Suites' Annual Meeting
Submitted by Raymond Ramsay & Associates
At the Waikoloa Bowl in Hawaii last March, La Quinta Inn & Suites broke three Guinness World Records in 90 minutes—and achieved its teambuilding and philanthropy goals at the same time. After creating the world’s longest human towel chain (with 1,113 participants) and the largest towel mosaic (a 23,960-square-foot American flag), the towels were donated to the military. The company also constructed the longest high-five chain, with 1,110 participants, creating a record-breaking, memorable teambuilding exercise for employees.
Target's "Best.Snowday.Ever"
Submitted by Deutsch
Residents of Southern California got an unexpected sight last holiday season: snow. Target teamed up with AEG and L.A. Live to bring a free public event to downtown Los Angeles, filling L.A. Live with 180 tons of snow, carnival games, a giant sledding hill with a 30-foot snow castle, and—the main motivation for the winter wonderland—a “Giving Station.” Guests received a token for each event they participated in and later used their tokens to vote for one of four local charities at the Giving Station. Target donated money from the three-day event to all four charities; the one with the most tokens received $10,000.
Pacific Pride Foundation's Royal Ball
Submitted by Merryl Brown Events
More than 600 guests gathered at the Bacara Resort and Spa in California for Pacific Pride Foundation’s Royal Ball, a fund-raising event focused on increasing money, awareness, supporters, and presence for the L.G.B.T. community. This year’s “Gay Paris”-inspired event brought in $250,000, which was critically important after the nonprofit’s government funding was cut. Top-tier sponsors were seated in private “Royal Boxes” with custom furnishings, while others sat at private and V.I.P. tables. An adjoining terrace featured a 40-foot Eiffel Tower and allowed guests the versatility of moving between dancing and dining. Flamenco dancers, costumed stilt walkers, and other performers entertained guests throughout the night.
U.C.I. MIND's Time of Your Life 2013 Benefit
Submitted by Elite OC Productions
To raise funds and create awareness for Alzheimer’s research, Elite OC Productions utilized new technology to create an immersive experience for guests of U.C.I. MIND’s Time of Your Life 2013 Benefit. “Toast to the Holiday, Then and Now” took guests through four holidays, bringing back unforgettable memories for those who have experienced memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease. At the Hangar at the OC Fairgrounds, 180-degree projection screens creatively displayed sponsors, holiday images and videos, and pictures and messages from guests who donated to the “Tribute Wall,” which honored family members. The event featured everything from a virtual performance by the Rockettes to a New Year’s Eve Times Square ball drop.
E3
Submitted by IDG World Expo
For the Entertainment Software Association, IDG World Expo produced the can’t-miss event for gaming industry professionals, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly known as E3. Goals for this year’s event in Los Angeles were to increase engagement and attendance before, during, and after the event. In fact, in 2013, E3 saw an increase of 5 percent in attendance, to more than 48,000, and nearly 100 percent in the number of media impressions to close to a whopping 50 billion.
Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce's Experience: East Meets West Celebration
Submitted by An Catering
To celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the City of Beverly Hills—and to celebrate the Lunar New Year—the Chamber of Commerce voted on an “Experience East Meets West” theme and tasked An Catering with expressing it through food for a 600-guest event. The firm created a “food bazaar” with six stations throughout the two-story Crustacean restaurant. Each station was designed with an individual theme: a dramatic ice sculpture featured lotus flowers—representing purity in Chinese culture—and ice bowls with oyster shooters, sashimi, and specialty rolls; an edible “prosperity tree” food wall allowed guests to pluck golden beet panna cotta salads in tones of red and orange, which are the traditional Lunar New Year colors; and An Catering and Crustacean teamed up to create a new dish for the occasion called “Centennial Beef,” made of Wagyu beef, Vietnamese herbs, and golden flakes. In addition to the stations, sushi geishas walked around wearing structural “table” skirts holding “Good Luck” sticky rice hors d’oeuvres.
Absolut's Tales of the Cocktail Welcome Reception
Submitted by Legacy Marketing Partners
For its welcome reception to the annual Tales of the Cocktail festival, Absolut Vodka created 15 unique events in one at New Orleans’s Arnaud’s restaurant. The vodka brand invited leading mixologists to share how Absolut inspires them by helping them create their own fully immersive sensory experiences in the restaurant’s 14 different rooms. Each room was transformed through the decor, set designs, sound and lighting, music, costumed actors, florals, and food and beverage; for example, a “Garden of Good and Evil” room was decorated as an elegant Southern garden, with indigenous plants, native bird sounds, and three large fountains flowing with Absolut cocktails.
Redwood Forest Wedding
Submitted by Got Light
For a wedding at Big Sur’s Ventana Inn in California, Got Light worked with Paula LeDuc Fine Catering to execute the high-profile couple’s vision of a performance-art project set in an enchanted forest. The bride and groom were married under a glade of towering 500-year-old redwoods amid a soft, radiant glow. Later in the night, the team turned the forest into a high-energy dance party with dramatic lighting and colorful moving lights illuminating the canopy of trees, while fanciful landscape lighting immersed the surrounding hillsides. Nearly all of the lighting fixtures for the event had to be suspended in the natural forest without damaging it and without creating the risk of fire.
Staro-Bruskin Wedding
Submitted by En Masse Flowers
For a wedding at Volt Restaurant in Frederick, Maryland, En Masse Flowers was tasked with creating a “big flower statement” and a holistic feel to the overall design. The company responded by taking an architectural approach to the flowers and moving the blooms to the walls, mounted on canvas like pieces of art. En Masse also created entry sentinels of tall, leaf-covered pavé vases topped with red, black, orange, and violet-toned flowers. Tables were left open for food display. Outside in the tented courtyard, flowers hung from the ceiling, creating a manzanita branch armature of low-hanging multicolored mini amaryllis blossoms that canopied the dance area. When the bride saw the result, she moved her ceremony from the outdoor patio into the tent to take advantage of the unique decor.
ChiTown Yacht Charters' Launch Party
Submitted by Dragonfly Custom Design
Dragonfly Custom Designs knew it had to make a commanding presence when creating an invitation for a party given by a Chicago-based yacht charter company. ChiTown Yacht Charters was hosting an event to introduce itself to the area’s top concierge and destination management companies and had to make an impact. Given the event’s July 4 date, Dragonfly created an Americana-style invite with patriotic colors and nautical nods. Taking inspiration from Gilligan’s Island, the team designed a miniature wicker picnic basket that contained things the millionaire TV couple, the Howells, might have packed. Refined but lighthearted elements like custom bow ties, vintage compact binoculars, and a tin compass complemented items like champagne, caviar, crackers, and salt-water taffy, all in on-brand colors and motifs. Each basket bore a personalized nametag and was hand-delivered.
Talking Transition
Submitted by Production Glue
Designed as an open forum that would allow New York City residents to weigh in on the city’s first new mayor in 12 years, Talking Transition was a three-week pop-up that opened immediately following the November 5 election. The program was created by a coalition of nonpartisan foundations—from the New York Community Trust to the Open Society Foundations—and produced by Production Glue. Inspired by the concepts of transparency, openness, transition, and change, the design included a transparent tent, unadorned and utilitarian materials such as plastic milk crates, and activities like a “video soapbox” that invited visitors to express their opinions to a camera.
Activision & Blizzard's E3 Experience
Submitted by NCompass International
For the first time this year, video game publishers Activision and Blizzard exhibited as one entity at E3 to position themselves as the industry leader. For the exhibit, NCompass designed an experiential space that measured more than 17,000 square feet and was meant as a thrill ride. The exhibit’s footprint included an immersive 190-degree, 122- by 22-foot curved screen; 24 projectors were custom mapped to fit the wraparound screen, where uniquely choreographed shows for each of the four featured game titles played on a schedule meant to increase foot traffic. To engage crowds, the theater lit up minutes before each show, drawing passersby onto the elevated viewing platform, which had vibration motors that were programmed to be queued by on-screen content—a setup typically only found in permanent theme park installations. Wind, smoke, pyrotechnics, and four industrial robotic arms moving huge monitors rounded out the drama. The exhibit garnered closed to 100 million impressions, dominating social media.
Private Event at Umaid Bhawan Palace
Submitted by Bart Kresa Design
During a private event for 300 people in India, Bart Kresa worked with producer DNA Networks to transform Jodphur’s renowned palace, the Umaid Bhawan, into an eye-popping showcase using digital technology. The 347-room palace, architecturally inspired by the Palace of Versailles, served as a projection surface spanning 400 feet wide by 120 feet high. In just three weeks of prep time, Kresa’s team conceptualized, designed, painted, and animated enough content for a full six-hour evening. Images including waterfalls and Egyptian scenes—14 unique designs in all—were carefully layered and sequenced to create a seamless transition from one environmental animation to the next.
Mashable House at SXSW 2014
Submitted by Mashable
At South by Southwest Interactive 2014, the Mashable event team aimed to create a buzzed-about experience that would resonate not only with the Austin, Texas-based Internet-savvy attendees, but also with the brand’s digital audience of 17 million social media followers. The result was Mashable House, a three-day activation filled with one-of-a-kind photo ops and attractions. More than 4,700 guests attended to get pictures with Internet celebrity Grumpy Cat, to recreate Miley Cyrus’s infamous “Wrecking Ball” video, and more, which were then shared extensively on social media. There was also a secret speakeasy within the house; to enter, guests were required to follow MashableEvents on Twitter and tweet using the hashtags #MashSXSW and #TheEasterEgg. Overall, there were 3,900 Twitter mentions of #MashSXSW and 99 million Twitter impressions.
Corporate Holiday Party
Submitted by Blueprint Studios
For a corporate holiday party at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Blueprint Studios blended the fairytale of Snow White with more traditional wintertime themes to create a unique, elegant experience for the client. Each room of the party worked to bring the two together, from the bars—one of which held the Evil Queen’s Magic Mirror, while the other evoked Santa’s workshop—to the two dining rooms, which incorporated scenes of snowy railroad landscapes and the Seven Dwarfs.
XPrize Visioneering 2014 conference
Submitted by Campos Creative Works
To raise awareness and funds to help solve Global Grand Challenges, Campos Creative Works took advantage of the natural elements at Terranea Resort in California to provide a creative and innovative backdrop for the multiday XPrize Visioneering 2014 Conference. The exclusive gathering of corporate leaders, philanthropists, heads of innovation, and trustees was designed to engage, motivate, and inspire visioneers to develop innovative prize concepts on topics such as aging, climate change adaptation, cybersecurity, and literacy. For the setting, the meadow provided an ideal backdrop for attendees to meet for workshops during the day. Later in the evening, the meadow was dramatically transformed with fun, elegant feasting tables that provided a space for interaction as well as a sense of community for the attendees. A winner was determined during the final night award dinner, where attendees voted with glow sticks to provide a fun and colorful atmosphere. The most recent prize concept to be fully realized was the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder XPrize.
Celebrity Series' Le Grand Continental
Submitted by Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrating the closing weekend of its 75th anniversary season, Celebrity Series of Boston brought to Copley Square Le Grand Continental by Montreal-based company Sylvain Émard Danse. Ranging in ages from 9 to 73, 110 amateur dancers from 11 Boston neighborhoods and 25 surrounding communities gathered to perform a 30-minute piece inspired by line dancing and contemporary movement. The free, outdoor public dance event broke physical and financial barriers to entry, inviting the general public to enjoy the dance, demonstrating that anyone can be an artist, regardless of experience.
85th Birthday Party
Submitted by MB Events
For a client’s 85th birthday party, MB Events looked to create an opera house feel at Le Windsor Ballroom in Montreal. At the entrance, costumed greeters reflected the elegance of old Paris, and a seating card table was topped with glass cylinders holding pillar candles and a large vase with more than 60 Lindera branches shipped in from Japan. The dinner’s centerpieces consisted of five varieties of burgundy roses and arachnid orchids that had natural tiny specks of gold. For a touch of drama and style, MB Events used black miniature calla lilies, gold trim glassware, and printed Playbills placed over crystal chargers. After waiters in white gloves and tails served various courses under silver cloches, the lights were dimmed and L'Opéra de Montréal's finest soprano, tenor, and pianist performed for 30 minutes.
PopSugar Digital NewFront
Submitted by BMF Media
For its digital NewFront, PopSugar focused on its core audience by creating an elegant, feminine event for an audience of 350 digital media influencers. BMF Media worked with Eleventh Street Workshop to turn Industria Superstudio in New York into an outdoor park, with Astroturf, eight-foot trees, and café-like seating decorated with candles, pillows, and blankets. Hand-drawn skylines decorated the walls, and digitally mapped billboards showed upcoming PopSugar programs. The stage was designed to look like a chic feminine house, and the DJ booth—the most Instagrammed moment of the NewFront season—was decorated with an oversize paper-flower backdrop.
The Modern Honolulu Hotel's Holiday Campaign
Submitted by Curate Decor & Design
Curate Decor & Design was tasked by the Modern Honolulu Hotel to interpret the holidays in a fresh and modern perspective that was reflective of the hotel's brand. The result was “The Modern Gift”—a story told with decor, using elements of physical gifts deconstructed to create impactful installations. Complementing the hotel’s brand, bold black, white, and gold accents were key elements of the design. Installations included a window display consisting of 240 oversize gold gift tags that welcomed guests as they arrived to the property; an eight-foot Christmas tree made with a 936 hand-rolled papers (representing the tissue paper in a gift box); two large walls mounted with 923 high-gloss, black pillow gift boxes in a herringbone and vertical pattern; and custom-built oversize wooden cubes painted in a crisp white hue and wrapped in gold ribbon to complete the holiday spirit of giving.
Entrepreneurs' Organization University 2013
Submitted by Inspiria Global Events
In 2013, Inspiria Global Events worked with the Entrepreneurs’ Organization to bring 450 entrepreneurs to the town of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The goal was to identify and embrace the cultural, historical, and culinary aspects of the city; to be motivated by the Argentine history of resilience and ingenuity; and to apply these insights into business activities. This was achieved by utilizing the theme of the tango, Argentina’s national dance that has retained its distinctive identity while evolving with the times. Guests also heard how chefs responded to the national economic crisis of 2000 by turning their own homes into pop-up restaurants, as well as learned about inspirational local heroes like Evita Perón. As a result of the event’s success and positive feedback, a local Entrepreneurs’ Organization chapter was formed in Buenos Aires.
Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly identified the submitted company.
2014 PTTOW! Summit
Submitted by JOWY Productions
The sixth annual PTTOW! Summit brought together leaders from the world’s most innovative companies, along with cultural icons, to collaborate around this year's theme of “Achieving the Impossible” at Southern California’s Terranea Resort. Longtime collaborator JOWY Productions once again created a dynamic, buzzy production by focusing on creative networking opportunities throughout the event. That included creating a “face wall,” which showcased each employee and the brand he or she represented and was displayed on both sides of the event space foyer; 28 Think Tank sessions; the first-ever Spark Sessions, which consisted of hundreds of curated eight-minute sit-downs between members designed to inspire unexpected business relationships; and breakout activities such as Navy Seal training, an Iron Chef-style competition, and cigarette boat racing.
Puppy Bowl X Experience
Submitted by Discovery Communications
This year, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of its Puppy Bowl—the programming that premieres before the Super Bowl—Animal Planet hosted a free public activation in New York’s Times Square, just one block from Super Bowl XLVIII’s fan fest. The network teamed up with Discovery Communications' global events and brand activation team to create a replica of the Puppy Bowl field with stadium seating, a Jumbotron, a locker room, a tailgating area with games, and a Hall of Fame. A two-story interactive social media wall aggregated live updates, and the A.S.P.C.A. was on hand to facilitate adoptions. The five-day activation generated 15,000 visitors, and the buzz helped contribute to the most-watched Puppy Bowl broadcast ever.
Call of Duty: Ghosts Multiplayer Reveal
Submitted by NCompass International
For Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer reveal, NCompass executed a launch that featured never-before-seen updates and game content, as well as the premiere of a single by Eminem. The entire program was designed to give attending media and community influencers opportunities to generate as much content as possible, and attendees had access to members of the game’s development teams, the global broadcast, a press junket, and hands-on game play with Xbox One versions of the new game months before release of the game or console. The content served to garner millions of live and post-event views, as well as extend conversations on and offline.
Winter Wonderland Wedding
Submitted by A Legendary Event
Some 8,000 hand-tied crystals suspended from a ceiling, 500 white snowflakes hand-tied to crystals, six 12-foot white crape myrtle trees, four eight-foot manzanita trees, 4,500 white orchids, and 10,000 hand-reflexed white roses were only some of the design elements used by A Legendary Event to turn the St. Regis Hotel into a winter wonderland for a wedding in December last year. The Georgia-based bride, Dahlia Ghais, and Abu Dhabi-based groom, Makram Ashcar, had a vision for a dramatic all-white wedding for 280 guests, and the event design brought their vision to life. From the indulgent cocktail hour and decadent dinner to dancing under a canopy of crystals and snowflakes, dramatic elements including mirrored tabletops and white sequined linens combined glamour and elegance at the affair.
U.S. Travel Association's IPW (International Pow Wow) Closing-Night Party
Submitted by Kehoe Designs
Kehoe Designs transformed Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry into an experience that shared aspects of Chicago designed to go beyond the tourist experience and generate a new perception of the Windy City. Guests were taken through areas of Chicago, from Magnificent Mile, represented by luxury and high-energy, to Devon Avenue, a microcosm of Indian culture. Hosting the event within Chicago’s interactive museum brought challenges and opportunities for the design team. Massive decor elements were used to find the balance between exhibits, such as a 747 airplane and the U-505 German submarine, as well as other aspects such as an immovable 80-foot public ticket area, which had to be hidden.
Christie Digital at the Palm Expo 2014
Submitted by Bart Kresa Design
At the Palm Expo, India’s largest trade show for audiovisual and live entertainment, Bart Kresa Design teamed up with Christie Digital for its exhibit. The team generated big buzz by creating an immersive environment using 3-D, stereoscopic, and traditional digital video art. The result was a seven-minute live performance that was shown every half hour for three days during the expo. To view the show, which was projected within a domed, custom-built stage, attendees donned 3-D glasses and entered a virtual word inhabited by a lone dancer who became enveloped within different fantasy environments. Within these, another layer of visual elements—swaying lanterns, moving particles—created a 3-D effect against the 2-D background.
2014 AMC Upfront
Submitted by Empire Entertainment
For its 2014 upfront, AMC aimed to live up to its mantra of “Something More” by going above and beyond the typical presentation. The network worked with Empire Entertainment to bring an audience of 600 to an interactive dinner theater event at Pier 36 Basketball City in New York. Throughout the night, a cast of 80 actors worked alongside 360-degree screen content, displayed on a 250-foot custom-crafted screen with 24 projectors. Video segments were reconstructed from AMC’s original program files and reformatted to fit the large resolution. The segment for AMC’s newest series, Turn, featured a panoramic animation sequence that slowly drifted from present-day Manhattan into 1776, the show’s setting. As gunfire broke out on the screen, actors dressed as soldiers ran through the dining room holding muskets.
2014 AMC Upfront
Submitted by Empire Entertainment
For its 2014 upfront, AMC aimed to live up to its mantra of “Something More” by going above and beyond the typical presentation. The network worked with Empire Entertainment to bring an audience of 600 to an interactive dinner theater event at Pier 36 Basketball City in New York. Throughout the night, a cast of 80 actors worked with 360-degree screen content and sound effects to immerse the audience in sequences and highlights from AMC’s programming. Dinner concluded when an invasion of Walking Dead zombies pushed guests into the after-party. The video captured the complex, immersive event for the client with time-lapse techniques, hand-held cameras, and GoPro cameras.
Waldorf-Astoria Wedding
Submitted by Pegasus Productions
Realizing that vendors don’t often have time to capture their work for the portfolio before guests enter an event, Pegasus Productions aimed to capture the guest-free reception space of an elegant wedding at the Waldorf-Astoria. The photograph overcame the challenges of the darkened, candlelit venue and captured the detail that each vendor put into the reception. Pegasus Productions also planned to use the photo to demonstrate the value of event lighting to future clients.
SwarmGaming
Submitted by SwarmWorks
SwarmGaming is a unique, interactive technology for events meant to rethink the way groups experience entertainment. Via optical signals, the system allows hundreds or thousands of people to jointly play computer games as part of a live experience. Participants receive reflector devices with which they send signals, so a group can combine to control a sailing ship or an aircraft together, or split in half to play a game such as football-pong competitively. It works to energize a meeting group, wake up a crowd after a break, and generate team spirit.
SuperWall
Submitted by Atomic
At the Songwriters Hall of Fame gala in June, Atomic launched its latest answer to the challenges of modular scenery: the SuperWall. It’s a freestanding, ground-supported backdrop system built to work like Lego building blocks. The 22.5- by 22.5-inch SuperLevel panels require no tools or additional hardware; they can be mixed and matched to create multiple heights and dimensions across a stage, set, or exhibit area. Since the backdrop doesn’t use truss, pipe and base, or rigging, it is attractive from all sides.
Herscher Hall and Guerin Pavilion
Perched in California’s Santa Monica Mountains, the Skirball Cultural Center opened Herscher Hall and Guerin Pavilion in October 2013, adding 17,500 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space to the 15-acre campus. The centerpiece is Guerin Pavilion, a 9,000-square-foot ballroom capped with dramatic arches and featuring 100 custom-designed skylights that allow natural light into the room. The facility also includes a high-end kitchen, a massive courtyard garden, easy load-in/load-out access for vendors and exhibitors, and complimentary parking.
Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto
Opened in January 2012, Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto offers more than 12,000 square feet of modern conference and event space, including two ballrooms, a restaurant, and five specialty meeting rooms overlooking downtown. Suitable for business luncheons, seminars, media junkets, product launches, and other affairs, the hotel’s facilities are outfitted with luxury amenities and offer flexibility. Oliver & Bonacini provides food and beverage catering.
Touché Rooftop Lounge & Restaurant
Located in downtown Miami, Touché Rooftop Lounge & Restaurant offers 7,100 square feet of space and 360-degree views of the skyline. The venue includes a 48-seat indoor dining room, which serves an array of classic Italian dishes, and an open-air lounge with a retractable roof, fire pits, and a 16- by 10-foot LED screen. Open seven days a week, the site is available for private gatherings and holds as many as 250 people.
Tiato Kitchen Bar Garden & Venue
Built with flexibility in mind, Tiato is a clean, modern space in Santa Monica, California, with indoor and outdoor areas. It’s an eco-conscious venue, featuring a sustainable architectural design, furniture and decor accents bought secondhand or made of upcycled materials, biodegradable utensils and plates, and an on-site garden that supplies herbs used in the restaurant’s dishes and cocktails. For events, Tiato offers three large entry points for more efficient load in, an arch-like pergola for easy tenting and draping, and furnishings on wheels for mobility.
Deborah Lau-Yu
Palettera Custom Correspondences
In less than five years, Deborah Lau-Yu has built one of the most innovative stationery and invitation design companies in Canada. Based in Markham, Ontario, she is the owner of Palettera, a luxury design firm specializing in custom wedding invitations, corporate event stationery, branding and identity design, and letterpress design. Looking to create meaningful pieces for corporate and nonprofit organizations, Lau-Yu and her team have built strong relationships with clients, becoming the lead design firm for event stationery and branding design for the Sick Kids Foundation's Oceana Ball for the Herbie Fund, the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards, the Toronto Fashion Incubator, Canadian Fabric, and the David Foster Foundation Miracle Concerts.
Heineken Champions Express
Submitted by Coterie Spark
Heineken aimed to create a unique viewing experience for 1,200 Mexican millennial soccer fans in the Houston area. The beer brand worked with Latino marketing agency Remezcla on the event concept, design, and activation plan. Remezcla in turn collaborated with event management firm Coterie Spark to create a high-definition, custom-animated train for the viewing of the final match of the UEFA Champions league. The train “transported” guests from the check-in area to the viewing area (mimicking an authentic European rail experience and evoking the soccer team’s journey to the final), which had 400-foot screens, stadium-style seating, and, of course, plenty of Heineken products at the bar.
Target's Snack Shack Tour
Submitted by David Stark Design & Production
Looking to foster an authentic and emotional connection among its grocery brands, consumers, and the local community, Target tapped David Stark Design & Production to craft a series of consumer-facing experiences in three key markets. The team produced an eye-catching installation, dubbed the Snack Shack, which popped up in summer recreation spots and invited visitors to interact with a variety of branded activities. That included posing alongside oversize grocery props such as a giant sandwich and jug of milk in a photo op area, playing a life-size game of tick-tac-toe with grocery products as game pieces, or sitting at picnic tables equipped with grocery-theme playing cards. Families could also grab prepackaged meal kits in reusable containers that also included trackable coupons to drive traffic back to the stores. Through the Snack Shack, Target distributed 18,000 meal kits with coupons, more than 50,000 product samples, and 300 gift cards. Coupons redeemed from 1 to 2 percent higher than similar coupon distribution and grocery spend; grocery spend was 5 percent higher with event gift cards compared to all gift card transactions; and the photo op’s email capture rates on emailed photo shares ranged from 75 to 111 percent.
The ninth annual Outside Lands music festival took place August 5 to 7 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The Heineken House activation, created by Heineken and the Corso Agency, offered a digital graffiti wall with shareable photo experiences for consumers. Guests posed for a picture and then "tagged" the image with logos and stencils. Pictures could be sent via email, printed, or shared over social channels.
Google Chromecast's Castland, created in a partnership with Grow Marketing, offered a living-room environment where a Chromecast Audio demo was integrated into the GIF experience, which includes audio-reactive lighting and music by festival artists.
Canadian Tire's "Red Door to Rio" activation enables real-time communications between Canada's Olympic athletes in Rio and their fans in the Toronto area. The activation, which debuted at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre on August 8, was produced by WonderMakr and features two doors made of Canadian pine.
