Top 50 Innovative Event Pros 2013: Billy Jurewicz

After working in several ad agencies, self-professed tech geek Billy Jurewicz, 43, started out on his own, founding space150 in 2000. The digital marketing shop, headquartered in Minneapolis, redesigns its logo and Web site every 150 days and is making a name for itself by creating unusual and immersive experiences that use new technologies and social media.

It was Jurewicz’s company that produced Forever 21’s 2010 promotion in Times Square that involved giant models on a digital billboard interacting with the crowd below. The augmented reality experience made it look like the models were picking people up with their fingers, taking Polaroid photos, or turning passersby into frogs by kissing them. Space150 also worked with the clothing retailer to produce a runway show with holograms instead of models, an initiative that made waves in the event and advertising community. Starting in 2011, the seven-minute 3-D fashion presentation was timed to the opening of store locations across the world and traveled through Europe, the U.S., and Asia before finishing in Mexico City at the end of 2012.

Just as unique was space150’s work for Target’s fall campaign, a shoppable online film that teased and was integrated into a physical event that took place in New York in October. It gave the retailer branded content that could be used to sell products with items used in the sets and clothes worn by stars all available on Target.com.

“It plays into our mission of destroying convention to create demand,” Jurewicz says. “And we always want the second one paired with the first because you don’t break things just to break them, you do that to do something.”