“The biggest trend right now is that ability to sort of change and flex and try and experiment and not be like, ‘Here’s what you’re going to do, and this is your journey.'” –Lindsay Leaf, EVP-Experiential, BDG Media For BDG Media, and the array of publications under its umbrella, aligning with event tentpoles has become essential to positioning the company as the pinnacle of culture and nightlife. Look no further than this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where BDG’s annual ZOEasis event and NYLON House platform, which hit Coachella and Art Basel in 2023, returned to the even ..read more

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK This week’s hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover vampire ballerinas, rent-free micro-apartments and Airbnb Icons.   YOU CAN RENT THIS RAINBOW-SOAKED NYC APARTMENT FOR FREE If you’ve ever looked up New York City rent prices (and lived to tell the tale), you know that with those kinds of price tags, every square inch of apartment space counts. It’s a fact not lost on Skittles, which is luring Gen Z and promoting the launch of its Skittle Littles product with a contest that yields the winner a vibrant, rent-free micro-apartment for a full year ..read more

Welcome to this month’s event marketing industry news digest, featuring updates on new hires, promotions, acquisitions, and launches. Submit your news here. Rebrands Exhibit Partners has announced that, after 20 years, it will now be doing business as Storylink Creative, adding brand development, competitive analysis, data, and video and digital production to its existing exhibit and event services.  Promotions and Hires Kim Kopetz has been named president and CEO of The Opus Group. Kopetz will lead all of The Opus Group’s brands—Opus Agency, MAS, TENCUE, and Verve. She succeeds Mitch Bar ..read more

Events are impactful. Events are revenue-generating. Events are memorable. Indeed, events are everything, and it’s the mantra that guided the 2024 Experiential Marketing Summit in Las Vegas. From April 24-26 at the MGM Grand, the industry convened for a three-day discussion that explored every aspect of the event marketing discipline, including exhibit design, neurodiversity, harnessing creativity, measurement, digital + IRL, mobile tours, hospitality, and the list goes on. Of course, this is EMS we’re talking about, so the compelling content was only part of the conference experience. Also on ..read more

Dj Aaron Smalls kept the energy up at breakfast. Setting the tone for the second day of the Experiential Marketing Summit (EMS) during breakfast on April 25, dj Aaron Smalls played upbeat hits and quizzed attendees with pop culture trivia. Then, Jessica Heasley, group editor and publisher of Event Marketer, had the audience giggling at a funny, but relatable, AI-generated experiment, showing AI’s depiction of the perfect event marketer and her slow descent into a vortex of madness as the chatbot prompts kept adding more and more festival-related programming and logistical issues. It was a ti ..read more

The MGM Grand Las Vegas came alive with the sounds of lively networking, industry speak, music and laughter, as attendees took part in day one of the Experiential Marketing Summit (EMS) on April 24. The No. 1 conference for creators of the brand experience immersed a global audience of b-to-b and b-to-c marketers, trade show organizers, agency executives, meeting planners, event strategists and tech specialists in hands-on workshops, creative group work, panel sessions, booth exhibits and a festival-themed Ex Awards ceremony. Contests, music, sports, swag, snacks and gamified experiences got t ..read more

The year’s best experiential marketing campaigns The editors of Event Marketer announce the winners of the 22nd annual Ex Awards, the experiential marketing industry’s most prestigious recognition program. New to the program this year are expanded Trade Show Categories including: Best Overall Trade Show Exhibit Portfolio, Best Trade Show Exhibit Under 50×50, Best Trade Show Exhibit Over 50×50, Best Outdoor Trade Show Exhibit and Best In-Booth Trade Show Activation/Experience. The post Winners Unveiled: The 2024 Ex Awards appeared first on Event Marketer ..read more

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK This week’s hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover “tortured” Swifties, prophetic brainwaves and “Hot Ones” live.   SPOTIFY’S LIBRARY POP-UP ‘TORTURES’ SWIFTIES It’s been much longer than a Fortnight since Taylor Swift dropped a new album. So before she released “The Tortured Poets Department” (“TTPD”) on April 19, the queen of Easter eggs herself teamed up with Spotify on a library-themed art installation at The Grove in Los Angeles that offered clues about the new record around every shelf. From April 16-18, Swifties who attended the open-a ..read more

With artificial intelligence and the creator economy in the spotlight, the 2024 NAB Show brought together more than 61,000 attendees and 1,300 exhibitors in the broadcast, media and entertainment industry, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, April 13-17.  “We’re blown away to see over half of our attendees this year experiencing NAB Show for the first time,” said Karen Chupka, incoming evp and managing director, NAB Global Connections and Events. “This, and the strong international attendance, proves that NAB Show is where global storytellers come to find the tools and technologies needed ..read more

Festival season has sprung once again and, per usual, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is serving as its launchpad. The Indio, CA-based event at the Empire Polo Club, hosted this year April 12-14 and April 19-21, features headlining performances by No Doubt, Lana Del Ray, Tyler, The Creator and Doja Cat; a new blockchain-based scavenger hunt dubbed Coachella Quests; and a new stage that’s home to extended sets. But beyond the music is a swell of brand activity that may serve as a barometer for festival trends to come, so we rounded up some of the top Coachella 2024 experiential mar ..read more