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As Taylor Swift touches down in Indianapolis this evening to kick off the final leg of her U.S. Eras Tour, Nov. 1-3, at Lucas Oil Stadium, e.l.f. Cosmetics will be there to help welcome the pop star and her fans to “The Racing Capital of the World” through a cross-collaboration with Purdue University, merging academia, beauty and motorsports. The brand will activate with the university’s Purdue Brand Studio agency at Circle Centre Mall, Saturday and Sunday (a 10-minute walk from Lucas Oil Stadium),...

Topgolf doesn’t usually launch products, so when The Sure Thing club came about, the entertainment brand needed to take a big swing. Known for its tech-driven golf driving range game at more than 100 venues around the world, along with yummy bar food offerings and party packages, the brand stepped outside its comfort zone to host a buzzy launch experience with a cast of sponsors at its El Segundo, CA, location on July 31—creating a nightclub to launch the golf club. At the entrance of “The Sure Thing...

Night markets originated in China over 1,000 years ago, but they’re far from ancient history. The open-air evening bazaars have been cropping up across the U.S. for more than a decade, and in the last year have officially been woven into the zeitgeist—and the experiential marketing industry. From partnering with major properties like 626 Night Market in Arcadia, CA, to hosting their own events, the most successful brands are crafting experiences that both pay homage to Asian culture, and support...

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK This week’s hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover boozy “sailgates,” Golden Porta Potties and a “Bridgerton” bust.   FYRE FEST MEETS WONKA? THIS ‘BRIDGERTON’ EVENT WAS A SPECTACULAR FAILURE Come to the ball, they said. It’ll be glamorous, they said. Let’s just say the only fancy thing about the “Bridgerton”-themed ball in Detroit was the majority of superfans who arrived dressed to the nines in their “Regency era” finest. The Sept. 22 event, which was...

The third annual Agency Forum convenes at Dream Downtown in New York City on Nov. 13, where experiential agency leaders will hear about agency growth strategies and blueprints, trends, client retention, and driving innovation. But this year, we’re reimagining the format. Leading Agency Forum 2024 are the experts from Projectory.live, who will incorporate playful, collaborative content experiences throughout the day that will have leaders thinking differently about not only their roles, businesses...

Gabriela Neves, Partner, Factory360 Data from Event Marketer’s annual Event Agency Business Forecast indicated that 2024 would be a year of growth, as agency leaders reported business development, hiring and marketing among their top three investments. Early findings from our 2025 forecast (out this November) show “people” continue to be a key investment for agency leaders, remaining second in line in their top investments heading into next year. “What I’m seeing is more people in our industry,”...

LEO Events has formed a strategic partnership with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, launching a new corporate event strategy, promotion and production minor offered jointly through the College of Communication and Information (CCI) and the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. Beginning this fall, students will learn b-to-b event marketing, production and event management through classroom, instructional and hands-on training for the 15-hour minor, as well as have the opportunity...

Little Cinema, which burst onto the experiential marketing agency scene in 2016, has helped clients, ranging from Amazon Prime Video to the Kansas City Chiefs to Disney, reimagine their creative possibilities through technology integration and content. It’s been a busy season since the group picked up the 2024 Grand Ex award for Taco Bell’s Live Más LIVE last April, an industry-first product showcase experience held leading up to the Super Bowl. We dig into lessons from that project with the Little...

Lighting effects can greatly impact your mood and, thus, the moods of your event attendees. It may affect how they take in information, their energy levels and their overall happiness. But beyond mood lighting (which, side note, MGM Resorts International studied extensively as it developed its Stay Well Meetings program), a/v elements within experiences create feasts for the eyes, generate fodder for social posts and have the potential to increase brand loyalty (check out this compilation of insights...

School buses are among the experiential marketing industry’s earliest rides. In fact, a quick flip back in our archives to 2002 will reveal a Peeps tour housed in a school bus, one of many longer haul programs to emerge in that era as event budgets increased and the concept of the event campaign grew along with them (read: tours). Flash forward to last month, as Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour blew up on TikTok with a purple star-covered school bus as the hub, and it’s clear the charm and convenience...