The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International’s 61st annual Adrian Awards took place February 20 at the New York Marriott Marquis. The event had a superhero theme, which was integrated in the programs and stage backdrop. Sequence Events produced the event.
Bumble’s pop-up for co-working, networking, and mingling launched in a vacant space on Melrose Place in Los Angeles on February 1. The space was painted in the dating app’s signature yellow hue and includes yellow furniture, as well as light and wall fixtures inspired by honeycomb. The pop-up, which runs through March 25, was designed by experiential marketing agency Manifold.
Comcast hosted a ski mountain-theme employee-appreciation event for its Oregon and Southwest Washington area employees on February 17 at the Oregon Convention Center. The venue’s in-house catering team, Pacific Wild Catering, create on-theme treats such as Rice Krispy treats that resembled pine trees.
The Aurora Lounge was designed to feel like the “coldest” area of the event. Really Big Video used projection mapping to display the Northern Lights on the walls, and glowing LED tables and pillows added on-theme touches. Heart Beat Silent Disco supplied silent disco headphones.
During the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Olympic partner Coca-Cola activated a massive vending machine in front of Gangneung Olympic Park Hockey Center. The public activation, which featured a marquee-style hashtag sign, was the site of product sampling events and giveaways of Coca-Cola products, photo ops, and a heating square. The heating square consisted of eight outdoor patio heaters, each equipped with a 360-degree camera capable of taking photos, which people could upload through the Coke Play mobile app. Momentum Korea produced all of Coca-Cola’s experiential programs in Pyeongchang.
Visa’s Winter Olympics lounge at the Seamarq Hotel hosted client and employee events and also debuted three wearable payment devices. The lounge, which was produced by GMR Marketing, offered activities that included readings from a fortune teller.
For New Orleans’s 300th anniversary this year, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation launched a campaign called “One Time, in New Orleans.” The campaign, created by New York-based digital agency 360i, features augmented-reality-enabled storytelling booths made from repurposed shipping containers that were outfitted using found materials such as wood and steel from the city. Visitors can enter the booths and tell their stories, while images or video content that’s related to their tale are projected in the background.
BET created an interactive meme exhibit in New York February 9 and 10, ahead of the network’s inaugural BET Social Awards on February 11 in Atlanta. The pop-up gallery, which was produced and designed by Team Epiphany, featured social media-theme wall that highlighted some of the most notable hashtags—both comedic and serious—created by black social-media users in response to newsworthy events. One section explained how live streaming platforms such as Facebook Live and Periscope became important outlets for raising awareness of the issue of police brutality.
Actress, writer, director, and producer Issa Rae’s viral quote from the 2017 Emmys served as a popular photo backdrop.
Another exhibit provided information for several major social-media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Vine, and Twitter—and how they have been incorporated into black culture. Each section showcased the brand's signature color and creatively integrated decor relevant to the platform’s logo or a specific feature. For example, Twitter’s logo is a bird, and its section was decorated with birdhouses.
Guests entered the space to find a series of neon backboards that utilized 220 feet of LED lighting and 1,700 feet of wiring. Further into the experience was a 25-foot tunnel crafted from 1,100 pieces of wood from a basketball court.
To celebrate its new Post Dream Cereals flavors, the cereal brand hosted a playground in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal in New York on February 16. The activation featured a number of breakfast-theme photo stations, including a Nutter Butter photo op that had a 3-D effect. The activation was produced by Pierce.
