Mastercard Promo Takes Flight
In mid-July, morning passersby were probably startled to see a miniature blue plane parked on a corner at the north end of Union Square. The vehicle, covered with sky-blue decals, was part of MasterCard’s mobile marketing campaign to promote its “Win 500 Flights” sweepstakes—a national competition that ran July through August and awarded a cardholder 500 round-trip airline tickets. Public relations firm Alan Taylor Communications worked with the brand’s director of worldwide communications, Jon Schwartz, and event production company the Zalbens to bring in former Lois & Clark star Dean Cain to host the New York event. It kicked off a five-city trip that included stops in Chicago and Philadelphia. —Anna Sekula
Brides Stampede Through Times Square
It was almost like Pamplona in Midtown when WE: Women’s Entertainment staged the “Running of the Brides,” a stunt to promote the third season of the cable network’s show Bridezillas. Twenty brides-to-be clad in wedding dresses, running shoes, elbow pads, and hard hats with blue bullhorns attached raced down an Astroturf-covered track and over a climbing wall for a chance to win $25,000 towards their weddings. WE vice president of public relations Theano Apostolou worked with guerilla and street marketing company the Michael Alan Group to produce the event, which garnered local and national print and TV coverage. —Stacy Barron
Snapple Hosts Teatime in Bryant Park
Lunchtime visitors to Bryant Park couldn’t eat on the lawn on June 29, but they could ride up into the sky in hot air balloons. Snapple used the greensward to kick off a nine-city tour, called the “High Tea Tour,” to promote the new white tea beverage the company dubbed the “lightest tea on Earth.” Jessica Schoen, Cadbury Schweppes’ associate PR manager, worked with Ruder Finn and Eventage to produce the stunt. Staffers from Los Angeles-based One Giant Leap were on hand to man their balloons, which suspended guests in harnesses 100 feet above the park. The tour headed to Hartford, Connecticut; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Chicago; Los Angeles; Oakland, California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle in the following weeks. —Mark Mavrigian
Posted 09.11.06
MasterCard parked a miniature blue plane on a corner at the north end of Union Square.
To promote Bridezillas brides-to-be raced for a chance to win $25,000 towards their weddings.
Snapple gave hot air balloons to the lunch crowd in Bryant Park.
