Bumble & Bumble doesn’t advertise its hair products. The company’s approach to marketing is literally hands-on—execs have been clinking glasses and shaking hands with operators of salons in its network at events around the country for the past four years.
This year’s meet-and-greets were modeled after a rock tour. “The B&B Summer Tour” pulled into Los Angeles on the third leg of a seven-city circuit that will continue on to Toronto (July 8), Seattle (July 22 and 23), Chicago (August 5), and London (October 14 and 15).
Bumble creative vice president Howard McLaren worked with Bethany Papenbrock of the Seattle-based event planning and marketing firm Neverstop to transform the fashion industry's 11th floor Cooper Design Space in downtown Los Angeles into a fun environment where 400 hair professionals could learn the latest techniques from Bumble's stylists. Event designers kept and enhanced the raw, industrial feel of the warehouselike space with furniture created from bare plywood, touched with triangles of black paint and topped with uncovered gray foam, as well as plywood bars placed on metal drums and exposed scaffolding for lighting.
Beams of light splashed color against the ceiling and the temporary white walls, which were covered with black photo collages, logos, and scribbles. The movable walls carved the space into several seating and exhibition areas. A crop of videos showing experts cutting and coloring hair shone on walls throughout the space while Bumble & Bumble’s top stylists demonstrated how to achieve edgy new looks on curtained-off stages dubbed “back of the house” and “the studio.” Organizers controlled traffic flow by giving guests colored wristbands that placed them in a group that was assigned entry to a certain stage at a certain time, indicated on flat screens over the bar. Fun touches included a Redcheese.com photo booth, which alerted aspiring models that their mugs could show up on the Web site.
Because the event was primarily educational, beverages were limited to soft drinks and specialty coffees until 6 p.m., when the demonstrations ended. Then the bartenders broke out the hard stuff while waitstaff, who’d been circulating with hors d’oeuvres, offered trays of brownies, mini fruit tarts, and jelly cookies.
