The inaugural Red Bull Sound Select's 3 Days in Miami festival took place September 1 to 3 at the Hangar in Miami. Artist Brian Butler handed out limited-edition posters he drew onsite each night, along with custom-made artist portrait pins.
Fans of USA Network's Mr. Robot experienced a virtual-reality prequel written and directed by the show's creator, Sam Esmail, at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July. The 12-minute scripted piece, created with Chris Milk’s virtual-reality production company Here Be Dragons in partnership with Universal Cable Productions, provided viewers with one of the first extended narrative pieces of television content in the VR medium.
Intelligent Medical Objects used a 25-foot chalkboard to display the history of clinical coding. Throughout the conference, an artist added to the design, and attendees also were invited to post sticky notes with their thoughts on future trends in that industry.
Attendees who played Plinko at the NextGen Healthcare booth walked away with a prize, ranging from car chargers and Amazon gift cards to virtual-reality headsets and an Amazon Echo.
Polaroid cameras were on hand, along with quirky props, for impromptu photo shoots.
At the McKesson booth, a graphic artist from Ink Factory created a new piece of art each day around a specific health care topic based on Twitter and in-person comments. The company recorded a time-lapse video of the artist at work, which it then shared on its social networks.
As the official beer sponsor of SXSW, Bud Light was everywhere during the festival. Live Nation produced the jam session party held with The Roots and special guest singers. The space at 800 Congress was designed to feel like a rec room with wood paneling covered in old license plates, beads, trophies, and more. The beer company also created commemorative SXSW edition cans and bottles designed by local artist Nate Duval.
The cycling studio SoulCycle previewed its offerings at an outdoor pop-up at 1 Hotel South Beach, where it plans to open a studio in January. While riders sweated through a workout, artist Gregory Siff created a custom installation on site using acrylic paint and paint pens on wood panels. The pop-up, which ran December 1 to 4, also featured live DJ sets.
Guests lined up to read the "missed connections" notices, which posted a branded wall.
Three of the festival's largest events were held on the top level of an open-air parking structure at Pier 92, adjacent to the West Side Highway, including the signature Burger Bash on Friday night. As part of its Community Created Art program, Burger Bash title sponsor Blue Moon had a professional artist on hand to help guests paint a pre-outlined mural of a giant beer bottle nestled among the New York City skyline.
As part of Glad's Save It Sunday campaign promotion—which encourages people to avoid food waste by properly storing produce—guests helped color in a giant mural of an apple.
Comedy series Broad City made its first appearance at Comic-Con with a life-size coloring book activation. Illustrations designed by Broad City artist Mike Perry covered the walls and furniture, and attendees used paint to add color. The activation—which took place at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center—also offered Broad City-inspired manicures and temporary tattoos.
Guests also posed for snaps in front of the food chain's giant hashtag, which spelled out #LifeIsBurritoful.
Some brands incorporated old-school games into their activations. Godiva, for instance, had a giant Plinko-style drop board. Depending on where their game chips landed, guests could win prizes such as tote bags, keychains, or free ice-cream treats.
Toyota had two tents on festival grounds. In one area, known as "Cosmic Paradise Presented by Toyota," guests could pick up a Lite-Brite peg and embed it on a board on the side of a Toyota vehicle. Guests won different prizes depending on which color their pegs lit up in.
Twix set up a backstage activation open to musicians and other V.I.P. guests. Built out to look like a record store, the activation offered sweet snacks, drinks, and a virtual-reality experience.
During Art Basel, which took place December 7 to 10 in Miami Beach, Toyota and its agency, Burrell, worked with Lightwave to create an emotion-technology experience to promote the new C-HR subcompact SUV. Before sitting in the car, guests were fitted with wristband heart monitors that tracked their emotional response as they were immersed in an audiovisual experience that included projection mapping on the vehicle’s windows. After they stepped out of the car, a line graph of their heart rate data was projected onto an eight-foot circular canvas, and painters from Lightwave Studio added brushstrokes to turn it into a custom piece of art.
Throughout the four-day convention, Syfy hosted 10 panels, two fan parties, karaoke buses and bingo trollies, and pop-up fan awards hosted by Orlando Jones. The network also hosted a human claw machine, where fans could grab boxes with mystery merchandise.
On the ground, a photo-op-friendly optical illusion depicted Warner Bros. Studios.
Elsewhere on the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Lawn was a series of activations from Fox, also produced by Creative Riff, including an immersive dome video experience for the show Cosmos. Dubbed the “Ship of the Imagination,” the collaboration between Fox and National Geographic made guests feel like they were traveling through the universe with narration by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Fans also received a photo of themselves sitting in the captain’s chair.
