International beauty company the Body Shop and Cruelty Free International, an organization that aims to ban animal experiments, partnered to stage a dog protest in front of the United Nations in New York on January 24. The protest supported the Body Shop and Cruelty Free International’s Forever Against Animal Testing Campaign, which challenges the U.N. to end the practice of animal testing in cosmetics. The protest included eight dogs of different breeds, and was joined by pet photography Instagrammer @TheDogist and Instagram pet influencer @louboutinanyc.
Hard Rock Hotels celebrated the launch of Rock Om—the hotel company’s in-room yoga experience in partnership with yoga equipment brand Manduka and DJ Drez—with a yoga and music event January 18 at Studio 450 in New York. The event featured neon green signage of the new program against a wall of greenery. The installation was designed by Greenroom.
The North American International Auto Show kicked off January 13 and runs through Sunday at the Cobo Center in Detroit. To celebrate the global debut of its new G-Class, Mercedes-Benz created an installation that involved dipping an SUV in 44.4 tons of synthetic resin. The structure, which is displayed at the venue entrance, symbolizes the timelessness of the off-road legend and makes a conscious reference to the natural phenomenon of insects preserved in amber. Markenfilm Crossing produced the resin cube.
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas hosted its fifth annual Night at the Museum benefit November 11. The event, which was designed by Shag Carpet Prop Rentals, had an “Intrigue” theme that incorporated a series of interactive, educational food stations and activities. On-theme activities were available throughout the event. In one area, the cocktail attire-clad guests could dissect squids and sharks. Other activity highlights included a crime lab, where experts helped guests solve a crime, as well as lie detector tests, optical illusion and augmented-reality stations, and cryptozoology trivia.
On the museum's second floor, Wolfgang Puck Catering presented a series of science-based food stations. One memorable highlight was a large centrifuge: Chefs put fresh figs inside and then turned on the machine, and the force of the spinning caused the seeds and denser part of the figs to separate from the juice. The juice was then served as a carbonated “beer” with lime. Educators from the museum were on hand to explain the science behind the concept.
For a winter-inspired catering idea, McAlister’s Deli, which was more than 400 restaurants across the country, offers comfort food-focused catering options including a D.I.Y. baked potato bar that offers a variety of toppings.
For another winter-friendly catering idea, New York-based chain Mr Bing serves street crepes, a popular Northern Chinese comfort food. The crepes consist of rice, mung bean, and wheat flour batter coated scrambled egg, sesame seeds, and scallions. The crepes are then stuffed with hoisin sauce, crispy chili paste, wontons, and (optional) cilantro, and come in savory options such as the peking roast duck bing (pictured) and sweet options like Nutella. Mr Bing also has a bicycle cart available for catering events.
People magazine and the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s 22nd annual SAG Awards after-party took place January 21 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The event, which was produced and designed by Event Eleven, featured a mirrored tunnel entrance designed to emphasize the party’s “reflection” theme.
To celebrate the release of his latest album, Justin Timberlake partnered with American Express to host a nature-inspired listening party on January 16 and 17 at Skylight Clarkson Square in New York. Guests received a freshly made record of Timberlake’s first single, “Filthy,” from Mobile Vinyl Recorders, who were onsite pressing the vinyl records. Based in Seattle and Tucson, Arizona, the audio engineers can bring as many as 12 vintage record lathes to events to create records in real time for attendees.
To promote the second season of its comedy series Divorce, HBO partnered with New York lifestyle brands to host a series of activities for fans from January 8 to 12. DreamDry salon, for instance, offered guests free blowouts inspired the series's main character Frances, played by Sarah Jessica Parker. Promotional imagery for second season, which premiered January 14, was displayed in participating locations of the salon.
To celebrate the Oscars on Sunday, Swarovski hosted “Red Carpet Moments: Sparkle Like the Stars in Times Square” at its flagship store. The event featured a silver carpet entrance and a video booth that invited guests to take 15-second video clips against a crystal backdrop. The videos were live streamed on a digital billboard above the store. The jewelry brand partnered with the Gathery on the event concepts and execution.
Werther’s Original celebrated National Caramel Day April 5 by partnering with Hasbro’s classic Candy Land game to create a life-size game board at Santa Monica Pier. Guests could fish for bags of caramels at the activation, which was produced by G&C Event Productions.
California Science Center’s 20th annual Discovery Ball took place March 23. The event, which was inspired by the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, had a cocktail reception set in the year 1921, when archaeologist Howard Carter and his British sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, were searching for the tomb. Actors in vignettes represented Carter’s crew, searching for the grave in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Dusty scaffolding and canvas field tents added to the ambiance.
To promote the second season of its anthology series Genius: Picasso, National Geographic partnered with RadicalMedia to create an immersive experience inspired by the famous abstract artist. The event, which was open to the public April 19 to 22 in a raw space in New York, featured an installation with “live-action filters” that represented Picasso’s blue and rose periods. The “filters” were created through the use of lighting, color, and textures, which made photos look like a painting. Visitors could dress up in painted clothing items and pose behind screens.
The Absolut Open House—which was produced by MKG—featured a colorful LED dance floor, a rainbow photo op, and a branded bar. The vibrant space was themed "Naturally Proud," which was meant to evoke both the Absolut Lime brand messaging as well as the brand's acceptance of all cultures, races, and sexualities.
USA worked with Campfire at the Mill on “Purge City,” a darkly comedic pop-up that promoted the upcoming TV series based on the Purge movie franchise, where all crime is legal for 12 hours once per year. Inspired by a Party City store, the shop displayed everything from emergency candles and masks to energy drinks and stain removers, plus interactive components and tongue-in-cheek demos.
The store’s on-theme items included greeting cards, bumper stickers, and T-shirts with phrases such as “Thinking of you this purge” and “If you are close enough to read this, you better hope it’s not purge night.”
Taco Bell, which is becoming known for its creative events, drew attention in San Diego this year with a Demolition Man-inspired pop-up restaurant produced by Cyrano Rox Experience Design. According to the 1993 movie, Taco Bell is the sole survivor of franchise wars—so the chain tried to imagine what the Taco Bell of the future might look like. The upscale space featured a piano player playing classical music, a gift shop, and a fancy four-course meal of Taco Bell cuisine.
To promote the new horror series Castle Rock, a Stephen King-inspired TV show about a cursed town in Maine, Hulu worked with Creative Riff to create a fully immersive—and fully creepy—experience. Guests could explore an on-theme bed and breakfast, which was designed to make them “question what is real, wonder who they are within this world, and begin to understand just why Castle Rock is called the unluckiest town on earth,” according to organizers. Creepy details included a tub full of mannequin limbs.
Across the street from the bed and breakfast was the Castle Rock Forest, which had additional scary details, including missing-person posters, a car that had crashed in a lake, and a faceless, hooded figure standing in the water. A branded campsite area gave attendees a place to relax and get a sneak peek at the show.
AMC brought back its large-scale Walking Dead-inspired activation this year, which featured a variety of show-inspired photo ops and activities such as Negan Batting Cages. A 22-foot zombie slide was inspired by one seen in Fear the Walking Dead.
Fox installed artwork promoting its X-Men-related show The Gifted throughout the city’s Gaslamp Quarter. Street teams were on hand to give passersby a blue/red gel viewer card, which caused the artwork to become three-dimensional.
Amazon Fire worked with NVE Experience Agency on an experience designed to depict the future of television, while also promoting various Fire TV products such as the new Fire TV Cube. The event brought attendees on a journey through the history of TV, showcasing how Fire TV makes it easy to watch shows, control smart home devices, listen to music, and more. On-site mini activations for Westworld, Jack Ryan, and The Good Place gave fans a fun place for a photo op.
Another fun photo op came in the form of a swing; guests posed in front of a wall of wires and the sign “Cord Cutters Only.”
To promote its dark comedy The Good Place, NBC worked with OA Experiential to recreate the show’s neighborhood in one of the network's biggest Comic-Con activations ever. The bright, colorful space evoked the show with pun-filled restaurant names, a giant shrimp carousel, and fun photo ops. NBC partnered with No Kid Hungry to donate 50 percent of sales of specific menu items.
Legendary Digital Networks built a larger-than-life version of Dell’s G5 15 Gaming Laptop outside the convention center. Guests could literally step onto the laptop’s keyboard and play the mobile game “Crypt of the NecroDancer.” Participating guests were entered to win a regular-size version of the laptop. The Visionary Group managed the activation on-site.
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.
Syfy also worked with Mirrored Media on a merchandise giveaway. The network tapped three famous comic artists—Babs Tarr, Kim Jung Gi, and Jock—and two streetwear brands, who worked together to created limited-edition merchandise. Fans could stop by the New Children’s Museum every morning to grab the items, which sold out in minutes every day.
New this year was the Experience, a space from Grandesign in collaboration with the San Diego Padres that aimed to bring fans closer to the action. A three-acre space at the Lexus Premier Lot (formerly known as Petco Park) was transformed with food trucks, a beer garden, and evening entertainment such as Spider-Man: Homecoming and Cloak & Dagger screenings, music performances, and Fortnite tournaments. While the experience was open to the general public, Comic-Con badge-holders received V.I.P. perks.
Brands such as Samsung, NBC, and Freeform hosted activations at the Experience, including one for Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger also spearheaded by Grandesign. Participants recreated the scene where the main characters discover their powers for the first time, using bungee harnesses to create a shareable video.
To promote its upcoming drama Project Blue Book, which investigates the presence of U.F.O.s, History created an activation at the Experience where fans could study real-life U.F.O. cases in an immersive environment.
Inside the activation, which was produced by Civic Entertainment Group, attendees could send messages into space in an attempt to see if there is life beyond earth.
To promote the upcoming Facebook Watch series, in which a teenager escapes a dangerous cult, Fandom worked with the Visionary Group to create an Oculus Go VR experience and an escape room. The room brought fans into protagonist Minnow Bly’s world, where they had to solve puzzles, dive into the cult’s dogma, and complete a confirmation ritual.
Fox teamed up with Shake Shack for an exclusive fan event promoting Bob’s Burgers. Fans were picked up from downtown San Diego in a branded bus and brought to Shake Shack, which was decked out in artwork and props inspired by the show.
Located behind the San Diego Convention Center was a skate park from Adult Swim, created by Grandesign. The public fan event featured interactive games like mini golf, plus food and merchandise for sale.
Warner Bros. Television hosted its annual Comic-Con Media Mixer at Float at the Hard Rock Hotel. Life-size Lego versions of the characters from The Big Bang Theory decorated the pool area. Other fun details included signature cocktails with names such as the Super Hero Sweet Tooth and the Comi-Chameleon, plus old-school arcade games and a wall for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies that attendees could color with giant crayons.
On the ground, a photo-op-friendly optical illusion depicted Warner Bros. Studios.
FX took over the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Lawn with an interactive space called FXibition, designed to promote the channel's biggest shows. Produced by Creative Riff, activations included an immersive audiovisual experience for Legion and a deconstructed motorcycle park for Mayans MC. Other highlights included Archer sound boxes, where fans could get a photo of themselves inside a box covered in character art. Each box featured classic sound bites from the series.
The area also included the “Eccentricities Gallery” inspired by American Horror Story, where fans could explore odd and usual pieces of art relating to the show’s lore. Augmented reality was used to enhance the experience.
To promote the 13th season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, tongue-in-cheek props and photo ops depicted the comedy series as a horror movie.
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.
The area also promoted upcoming series The Passage, which depicts a post-apocalyptic world overrun by a highly contagious virus. Fans could interact with one of the “viral” patients from the show’s secretive medical lab.
The weekend’s Ready Player One activation, held at the Gallery at the Omni Hotel, was an '80s-inspired space full of nostalgic gaming stations and authentic film props and costumes. Guests could pose for futuristic photo ops and test their knowledge of 1980s trivia.
In keeping with the 1980s theme, an infinity room evoked a Rubik’s Cube. 15/40 Productions created the space.
IMDb returned this year with the IMDboat, produced by NVE Experience Agency. Located directly behind the convention center, host Kevin Smith conducted interviews onboard, which fans could watch from the public boardwalk. Branded pillows and decor used IMDb’s colors, and the hashtag IMDboat was displayed prominently.
In a fun blast from the past, 20th Century Fox Consumer Products invited Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans to participate in a scavenger hunt throughout the city. At each location, fans were rewarded with prizes, including Buffy Funko Pops, posters, stickers, T-shirts, comics, and more.
The annual After-Con Party, produced by NVE Experience Agency, took place at Omnia and featured a DJ set from Game of Thrones’ Kristian Nairn. Comic book-style signage decorated the walls.
Headline acts this year included The Weeknd (pictured), along with Bruno Mars, Jack White, and Arctic Monkeys.
Juice and food brand Odwalla kicked off a nationwide VW van tour August 16 at the Park eatery and lounge in New York. The van, which was designed by IMG Live, pays homage to the brand’s origins of three musicians selling juices and smoothies from a VW van in Santa Cruz, California, in 1980. The brand partnered with numerous health and wellness, food, art, and style experts for the promotional tour, which will take place through October. Future tour stops include Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
