This week's roundup includes a Lego velociraptor sculpture at a Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom fan experience in Los Angeles; Taco Bell's hair-dye salon in Toronto for the launch of Baja Blast beverages in Canada; Tinder and Cardi B's concert for the dating app's Swipe Off campaign in Amherst, Massachusetts; and a picnic-theme photo booth at American Express's Simplify Your Summer event in New York.
To celebrate the premiere of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Universal Pictures hosted a family-friendly fan experience on June 13 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The event, which was produced by 15/40 Productions, featured a massive sculpture of a raptor atop an overturned Jurassic Park vehicle created with Legos.
Tinder partnered with rapper Cardi B for Swipe Off, the dating app’s first competition in which American universities participated in a bracket-style competition of who could achieve the most right swipes. University of Massachusetts at Amherst beat 63 colleges to win, and the prize was a free Cardi B concert at the university’s Mullins Center in April. Cardi B performed at a branded stage in front of nearly 6,500 students. Experiential marketing agency Pen&Public produced the campaign.
Taco Bell celebrated the Canada debut of its signature Baja Blast drink with a pop-up hair dye salon June 14 to 15 in Toronto and June 16 to 17 in Hamilton. The salon, housed in a tricked out Airstream trailer, offered passersby free dye jobs using Baja Blast-colored Manic Panic hair dye. The activation was produced by Edelman.
American Express hosted a summer-theme event to launch its new Cash Magnet card on June 14 at Milk Studios. The event featured interactive stations curated by Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown, including skin care facials, summer recipe hacks, and D.I.Y. sangria. The event had a photo booth inspired by a summer picnic, complete with a checkered blanket, picnic baskets, a bike holding baguettes. ExtraExtra produced the event.
For the first time in its 37-year history, the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards gala took place outside of Manhattan, at the Brooklyn Museum on June 5. A event featured a life-size version of Trova, the C.F.D.A. statue, on display during cocktails while giant colorful murals designed by Stefan Beckman and his team, in a nod to pop art, brought a jolt of vibrancy and energy into what are normally the coat check and visitor's desk areas.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film Big, e-commerce furniture company Zinus recreated the loft from the film for a consumer pop-up on May 31 at a vacant space in New York. The pop-up, which was produced by Jack Morton Worldwide, had a Zoltar fortune teller machine, which turns the film’s main character into an adult overnight. Guest who interacted with the machine had a chance to win a free mattress.
Luxury fashion brand Coach held its first external brand activation for consumers June 12 to 17 at a vacant space in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The experience, which featured a Coney Island-inspired fairground, incorporated Coach's signature "C" into the decor in subtle ways, including at a blue DJ booth, which also featured an illustration of the brand's familiar handbag clasp. An illuminated sign displayed the year the brand was founded against red curtains, and other props included a carousel horse.
One of the rooms in the experience was “Logo Mania,” all-white room inspired by a New York subway platform. Guests could use custom coins to get a bucket of paint with paint markers, stickers, and stencils to create their own art.
The E3 expo took place June 12 to 14 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. In Facebook’s activation area, the company used mirrors for a photo op inspired by the new Spider-Man game. Fans could lay on a mural depicting the side of a building, and a large mirror above them created the appearance that they were hanging onto the building to escape the monster below. Additional promotions for the new Spider-Man game were scattered throughout the convention center, such as newspaper boxes with free copies of the fictional Daily Bugle paper.
Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s 36th annual Rammy Awards Gala took place June 17 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. In a "Wines of Chile" lounge from platinum sponsor ProChile and the Embassy of Chile, guests could take an interactive quiz on iPads to find the perfect Chilean wine for them. Food from the embassy in its pavilion included hot smoked Chilean salmon, stuffed salmon with asparagus, macarons with wine-soaked Chilean berries, baked Chilean mussels gratin, and pisco cocktails.
