This week’s hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover charitable hair flips, a cross-country scavenger hunt and “Death to Midlife.”

BEAUTY FANS FLIP THEIR HAIR FOR GLAMBOT SHOTS—AND CHARITY

If you watch a lot of red-carpet events, you’re probably familiar with GlamBOT director and celebrity whisperer Cole Walliser, who on Feb. 19 teamed up with K18 to give consumers their own time in the spotlight at an activation in NYC that aimed to break a Guinness World Record.

In support of longtime nonprofit partner HairToStay, the haircare brand took its viral Hair Flip Challenge to Grand Central Terminal, where it aimed to break the record for most hair-flip moments posted on TikTok and Instagram within 24 hours.

Beauty fans, creators and commuters were invited to stop by to get freshened up at glam stations, and pose for their GlamBOT shots, with Walliser and his red-carpet team there to direct and capture their “best hair moment.” Nearby, a roving K18 mascot and oversized hair mask bottle installation helped attract curious consumers.

In the end, K18 didn’t break any world records, but it did accomplish something far more important. For each hair-flip video posted, the brand contributed $20, ultimately donating $100,000 to HairToStay, which provides low-income cancer patients access to treatments that reduce hair loss caused by chemotherapy.

To boot, #HairFlipK18 generated 1.9 million social impressions, while 5,000 K18 hair masks were sampled on-site. That’s how you do hair and care.

Photo: Courtesy of K18

CORONA AND ITS ‘SUN TAGS’ HELP WORKERS RECLAIM THEIR LUNCH BREAKS

As Corona Cero makes a major push for global expansion, the non-alcoholic beer brand is reinforcing its relaxation-focused philosophy with a “Sun Tags” campaign. The new effort is aimed at helping city workers take back their lunch breaks and get some R&R by soaking up the sun, despite the looming buildings that block it.

Across four locations in Argentina, with subsequent launches planned for Japan and South Africa later this month, Corona has turned overlooked public spaces into sunny sanctuaries featuring branded, custom-built tables and resting apparatuses (Sun Tags) that can easily be adjoined to existing city structures, like public railings, staircases and lamp posts.

To help people find their whereabouts, Corona unveiled a microsite that maps out where the sun hits between 12 and 2 p.m., and shows the exact locations of its corresponding Sun Tags. Those who encounter one of the installations can scan its QR code and register to redeem a free Corona Cero at a nearby point of sale, bringing the refreshing lunch break concept full circle.

Photo: Courtesy of Corona Cero

WITH A PUBLIC FUNERAL, HONE HEALTH DECLARES ‘DEATH TO MIDLIFE’

As anyone who’s made it through middle school knows, words can be harmful. In that spirit, Hone Health has declared “Death to Midlife,” and any other outdated terms related to aging. RIP, “Past your prime.”

To drive the new campaign messaging home on Feb. 26, the telehealth brand, which provides services that support hormone health and longevity, hosted a funeral for “midlife” at New York’s Grand Central Terminal. The stunt follows Hone Health’s recent full-page ad in the Sunday edition of The New York Times calling for the symbolic death of the word “midlife.”

The activation encompassed an open casket that featured accents of Hone’s signature yellow hue; a “Bury a Word” station that invited consumers to toss away the age labels they want to see eradicated from the vernacular, like “senior moment”; stand-up comedy routines; a free juice “Shot of Life” that represented vitality; and branded educational touchpoints showcasing how hormones, stressors and metabolism shape the way people age.

The highlight, however, was a eulogy delivered by comedian Whitney Cummings, who did less mourning of passé language, and more roasting of “midlife” and its cohorts.

We’re not sorry for this loss.

Image credit: Hone Health

A NATIONWIDE SCAVENGER HUNT CELEBRATES THE 50^th SEASON OF ‘SURVIVOR’

Across its multidecade history, CBS’s “Survivor” has garnered fans from all walks of life, and to mark the show’s milestone 50^th season, the network on Jan. 30 launched the Survivor 50 Challenge, a coast-to-coast scavenger hunt that gave members of its widespread audience a chance to uncover “treasure” in their home state.

CBS placed a hidden immunity idol (an amulet from the show that can protect contestants from elimination) in a secret spot in all 50 states, and teased the locations via cryptic riddles and other mysterious puzzles and clues that had to be unraveled. As CBS News Colorado reported, residents discovered that their immunity idol was stowed in Castle Rock by solving a riddle that read:

“Not Manitou, but Just as Steep,
Where Wooden Steps in Silence Creep,
Beneath a Butte, a Castle’s Base,
This Hill Will Test Your Heart and Pace.”

As the challenge unfolded, other immunity idols were revealed to be located in places like a cave in Kentucky, a resort in Idaho, a hotel in New York and a park and preservation area in Arizona—and hundreds of people showed up in the locales for a shot at victory. Photo moments and appearances from past “Survivor” winners were also part of the activation in each state.

The contest wrapped just before the debut of “Survivor’s” 50^th season on Feb. 25. And for the grand prize, a winner and their guest will be flown to L.A. on May 20 with all expenses paid to view the live season finale of the show. Everyone else will have to watch from their couches. The tribe has spoken.

Photo credits: CBS; Tamarack Resort

LACTAID STIRS UP THE TASTE BUDS CAFÉ IN MANHATTAN

Who says lactose drinkers get to have all of the café fun? With a new line of lactose-free creamers to promote, Lactaid on Feb. 12 hosted the Taste Buds Café experience in NYC to offer consumers a sip of its latest product innovation. Because if you want to earn New Yorkers’ attention, you might as well start with a free cup of caffeine.

The pop-up spanned hands-on tastings, cold-brew flights featuring drinks with foam art; a claw machine game; a charm bar; curated photo moments, including with an oversized creamer bottle; and an appearance by comedian and brand partner Hannah Berner. Bottoms up. (Agency: Dera Lee Productions)

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• The Brief: Clean Machines and Gummy Bars
• The Brief: Drive-Thru Pit Stops and Traveling Basecamps

The post The Brief: Hair Flips and Word Burials appeared first on Event Marketer.

Not all NBA fans can make it to a game, so AT&T is shooting its shot with a Dunk Bus mobile tour that brings the action directly to them. The program, which launched Jan. 30 in Miami and wraps in Chicago this April, is rolling into community plazas and parking lots on game days to give hoops fanatics a chance to experience the NBA, and basketball culture, outside of the arena.

Across five cities, AT&T is parking the Dunk Bus in high-traffic areas and drawing people in with the allure of robotic hoops, gaming competitions, photo ops, player appearances and giveaways. And with each touchpoint, the brand is quietly showcasing how its mobile connectivity technology can connect fans to basketball whenever and wherever they want.

“As a partner of the NBA, and having several team partners, we wanted to start to see the power of that league and team partnership come together,” says Andrea Wilson, director-sponsorships and experiential marketing at AT&T. “So we’re excited to bring the AT&T Dunk Bus to cities across the country. It’s mobile, it’s interactive and it really was crafted to bring all of the NBA action and culture and community closer together, and to shorten that distance between the league and its fans.”

The on-site experience, which encompasses engagements inside and outside of the vehicle, comprises a strategic blend of basketball-themed experiences with passion points that most fans share, including fashion, art and gaming. The interior of the bus, for instance, includes an area for head-to-head NBA 2K competitions, a mirrored vignette designed for fit checks, a digital postcard activity and brand giveaways.

On the exterior, two motorized hoops featuring adjustable heights, which were first introduced last year at NBA All-Star Weekend, provide fans of any age or stature the chance to live out their “dunk dreams.” There’s also a mini “shop” where attendees can score limited-edition merchandise created by local artists, another 2K gaming zone, seating, and at most stops, the opportunity to interact with past and present NBA players, as well as team mascots and dance squads.

In addition to gameday activations, AT&T is leveraging the tour to give back to the local community in each city. In some cases, that means distributing devices to people in need, and in others, it means bring the Dunk Bus to a local organization. Like in Miami, where the brand hosted a community day at an area school in partnership with Learn Fresh, a nonprofit aimed at making learning more fun by combining sports, entertainment and STEM education.

“The NBA continues to be a great partnership for us because they have such a fun, engaged audience. And it’s not just about the action on the court; it is truly about the basketball culture,” Wilson says. “It’s about fashion, music, art and everything in between. So that’s what you’ll see. We’re tapping into those local communities and finding that intersection, again, between fandom, community and art everywhere we go.”

More Scenes from the Dunk Bus Tour:

Photo credit: Jenna Fernandez for AT&T

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• WNBA All-Star 2025: Activations from AT&T, DICK’S, Meta, Starry and More

The post How AT&T’s Dunk Bus Brings Gameday Action Directly to NBA Fans appeared first on Event Marketer.

Around the same time, Mattox says, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division started cracking down on cannabis consumption events, so it was a good opportunity for Spherex to pivot from sponsoring consumption events to hosting events that didn’t involve trying cannabis products. And skating events fit the bill.

“We were doing events so consistently, while our competitors were having a hard time trying to come up with a plan B, and we were hitting our stride with it,” she says. “Activity-based events are more approachable for the general public. We found that with consumption events, someone’s significant other or friends may not consume and those types of environments can be overwhelming, so they tend to be a lot smaller. We opened ours up. As long as you’re 21 and older with an ID, you can come, and it’s basically like any other event. That really helped us to gain a lot of traction.”

This year marked the fifth Skate with Spherex event, which has grown through the years from 150 attendees to 700, at its biggest. Word of mouth has largely contributed to the growth, Mattox says, noting that fans of the brand would bring friends, co-workers and roommates to the events for a good time, even if they weren’t cannabis consumers. Spherex also works with cannabis and roller-skating influencers to promote its events, as well as local dispensaries to hang up and distribute flyers.

Spherex centered its most-recent Skate with Spherex event around Halloween, encouraging its 600-plus attendees to dress up in costumes. In addition to free admission and free skate rentals, the Oct. 29 event at Reelworks in Denver included games, seven vendors and dispensary partners, djs, free drink tickets and merch, a photo booth, and prizes for costume contest winners.

Specially for this edition, Spherex added aura photographers and airbrush tattoo artists to help attendees enhance their costume looks. Outside were food trucks and a BYOC consumption bus as an option for attendees who wanted to consume. Mattox hired a visual artist to create themed graphics with Spherex’s logo for the stage, and branded graphics and videos from Spherex and its sponsors were projected onto the venue walls.

“It’s really important for us to keep the events free, just because it establishes trust with the consumer. Trust is important in the buying experience, and we’re starting to see that more and more, especially with the younger generation,” she says.

For each of its events, Spherex partners with nonprofit organizations to collect donations, food, clothing and essentials. In November, the brand delivered more than 400 brand-new and gently used bags and blankets donated at the Halloween skate party to The Gathering Place in Denver.

To stay ahead of the game, Mattox is planning the brand’s entire event calendar for 2026 before the year ends, and this kind of foresight was what helped her snag a date for the Skate with Spherex 5 event 10 months in advance. In January, Spherex will hit the ground running by sponsoring tentpole events in Colorado, including Aspen Gay Ski Week and Icelantic’s Winter on the Rocks concert in February. Some guerrilla marketing campaigns are also on the horizon in 2026.

“This is something we’ve been building over the past three years. Our first event was very small, and then we’ve grown to now mostly sponsoring big events in 2026,” Mattox says. “The strategy for us, originally, was to establish community. I realized that if people met our team, they would like us and trust us more, and what better way to get people to know you than to go do something fun together with drinks and food and get to talk in a casual environment. The more memorable we can make our experience and close the gap, the better.”

Photos: Courtesy of Spherex

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The post Inside Cannabis Brand Spherex’s Community Skating Event Strategy appeared first on Event Marketer.

This week’s hot takes on hot topics in experiential marketing cover sandcastle restaurants, pop-up orchards and the Betch of the Year Meme Gala.

BETCHES’ MEME GALA RECALLS THE MOST LUDICROUS MOMENTS OF 2025

It’s easy to forget just how preposterous the modern world is until those “top viral moments of the year” roundups hit the news cycle. Lest we forget that in 2025, Katie Perry was an astronaut for 10 minutes, the Louvre got robbed in broad daylight, an interoffice affair was exposed on a Jumbotron, and that Dictionary.com’s actual word of the year wasn’t a word at all, but the nonsensical Gen Alpha battle cry, “67.”

Fortunately, Betches Media ensured that a year’s worth of absurdity was not only remembered but celebrated in grand, irreverent style at the “Betch of the Year Meme Gala: Night at the Louvre” event on Dec. 12 at The Back Room in NYC. Billed as a “speakeasy-meets-museum-gallery,” the affair, presented by Dunkin’, distilled 365 days of internet and meme culture into one cheeky experience.

Explorable exhibits ranged from Nicole Kidman’s post-divorce bangs, to the Coldplay Kiss Cam “HR files,” to Skims’ Pierced Nipple Bra. Beyond the meme installations, attendees could sip on Dunkin’s espresso martinis, enjoy late-night Munchkins served on cocktail picks, and interact with an Etsy witch, who cast custom spells and offered “potions” themed to consumers’ 2026 aspirations (like finding a love as strong as Taylor and Travis’ or unlocking the prosperity of a beauty brand ceo).

And with the event falling squarely within the holiday season, Betches made sure attendees walked away with gifts in the form of Dunkin’ swag bags stocked with viral products, like Labubus and Touchland Hand Mist, and Dunkin’ merch. Feels like an Anthropologie rock would’ve been a nice addition, too.

Photo credit: Luis Antonio Ruiz/Larufoto

AS L.A. PREPS FOR TENTPOLE SPORTING EVENTS, BRANDS PLOT NEW MUSIC AND FAN FESTS

For the next three years, Los Angeles is poised to be the epicenter of major sporting and entertainment events as it plays host to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2027 Super Bowl and 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. And brands and properties are plotting their moves accordingly in a very big way.

Consider this: The Santa Monica City Council has been in talks with Goldenvoice (producer of Coachella and Stagecoach), ESPN, Anheuser-Busch and two Olympics committees about activating their own adjacent events across the city’s famous beach and pier.

Here’s the breakdown: Michelob Ultra aims to produce a World Cup fan festival next June, Goldenvoice is proposing a 550,000-square-foot beachside music festival slated for the fall, ESPN proposed a fan experience for sports buffs on the pier for 2027, and both a “Club France” hospitality house and “Nations Village” international broadcast center for the Summer Olympics have been pitched.

The City Council is slated to make initial decisions on the event proposals during a public meeting on Dec. 16. Industry eyes will surely be watching.

Photo credit: iStock/AlexKane

DINING AND DESIGN TAKE FLIGHT AT CANADA GOOSE’S SENSORIAL EVENT

From fan fests on the shores of L.A., we take you to an intimate and intricate dinner in Milan, Italy, where earlier this month Canada Goose marked the opening of its new flagship store. Part design installation and part culinary journey, the sleek, sensory-forward launch experience was crafted to embody the brand’s principles of precision and material storytelling by leaning into the themes of ice, reflection and submersion.

Design elements, including rippling light projections and a “glacial ceiling” constructed from water-treated metal, positioned diners beneath the surface of icy waters. And the meal matched the mood. Cocktails were served up in sculpted ice vessels, like giant blocks and perfect spheres with textured surfaces that fragmented the light, while each meticulously architected course of the meal represented water, air, earth or fire. And you can bet that attendees got goosebumps along the way. (Agency: Fourth Wall)

THIS POP-UP RESTAURANT WAS MADE WITH 100 TONS OF REAL SAND

Speaking of unique culinary adventures, DoorDash made childhood dreams come true in Miami over the weekend with The Sand CastleDonna, a real-life sandcastle that functioned as a limited-time restaurant. From Dec. 11-14, in partnership with Casadonna, consumers could sign up to dine in the one-of-a-kind venue for free by using the new in-app DoorDash Reservations feature. Those who scored seats experienced either a three-course lunch or four-course dinner featuring Casadonna’s signature Italian dishes.

Naturally, erecting a life-size sandcastle was a true feat of engineering. The Sand CastleDonna was built using 100 tons of real sand, included full turrets and a custom-built dining interior, surrounded attendees in 120-plus real plants and trees, and featured a reusable structural frame. And it took more than 40 specialists, from scenic artists to blacksmiths, to make it happen. We’d love to see what that creative brief looked like. (Agency: MikeTeevee)

Photos: Courtesy of DoorDash

FARMLINK’S POP-UP APPLE ORCHARD—AND MISSION—BLOSSOM IN NEW YORK

’Tis the season for giving and on Nov. 25, The Farmlink Project, which reroutes surplus produce from farms to families in need around the U.S., delivered for consumers in NYC. For one day, in partnership with discount luxury retailer 260 Sample Sale, the organization transformed its Fifth Avenue flagship into a pop-up apple orchard, and dished out 20,000 pounds of free, locally grown New York apples—enough to feed about 4,000 families.

Consumers who stopped in were met with hay bales, cider and thousands of fresh apples, along with limited-edition Carhartt x Farmlink merch, like hats and tees, that supported Farmlink’s mission. The experience was meant to turn the traditional sample sale prototype on its head by demonstrating the country’s overstock of produce, rather than apparel, and spotlighting how community action can help reduce food insecurity.

Photos: Courtesy of Farmlink

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The post The Brief: Sandcastle Restaurants and Meme Galas appeared first on Event Marketer.

The company’s most recent endeavor, Ford Building Together, combines the desire to enrich employee-dealer relationships with the brand’s long history of philanthropy. The new global community initiative, which was introduced in Michigan at a launch event in June, was built to enhance the synergy among Ford’s expansive dealer network, employees, and key nonprofit partners, and help create a lasting impact on the communities they serve.

In September, the program was rolled out worldwide. Ford dealers in 31 countries mobilized their teams and communities to participate in what became the world’s largest auto dealer-led food drive, yielding more than 2 million pounds of food and essential supplies for local charities. (Agency: Imagination)

“This year, we started thinking about how do we focus on conversations around community with all the dealers’ existing efforts, all Ford employees’ efforts,” says Caroline Pernot, global dealer community engagement director at Ford Motor Company. “How do we focus that conversation and bring all the goodness of the collective power of Ford? That’s where Ford Building Together came about, so that is a big strategy for engaging with our employees, our dealers and our nonprofit partners.”

We sat down with Pernot for a deeper dive into Ford’s internal engagement strategy and how the approach generates lasting impact.

RALLYING AROUND A CAUSE

The Ford Building Together launch campaign united internal stakeholders and nonprofits under a single purpose, motivating them to work in unison to support a meaningful cause. In fact, the program was initially built to hit 15 global markets, but when dealers from other areas showed a strong desire to participate, that number more than doubled.

“It was something that every dealer could rally around. They really understood what it meant, what they were contributing to, and they wanted to be part of this bigger [initiative],” says Pernot. “The dealers collected and worked directly with the employee teams, who then went to dealers to deliver the food. So there was really a camaraderie there because they all believe in it.”

DEALERS DO THE LOCALIZING

No one in the organizational orbit knows local communities better than the dealers who serve them, so for the Building Together rollout, Ford put its trust in dealers in each market, who ensured the items the brand and its nonprofit partners provided were catered to that area’s needs. Countries in Africa, for example, were provided with fresh fruits and vegetables, while in Germany, there was a greater need for clothing and canned foods.

CLEAR LINES OF COMMUNICATION

In a similar vein, Pernot says that having consistent and clear lines of communication among employees, dealers and nonprofits was key to the success of the Building Together food drive, and to building companionship and trust among those groups.

“Communication is key,” she says. “So communicating frequently, especially when you’re dealing with 31 markets, different languages, different cultures, and then being able to understand those cultures. Only the markets can do that. Only the dealers can do that.”

PROGRAMMING FLEXIBILITY

Event planning always requires a nimble approach, and that’s especially true for a company that aims to keep both employees and a vast dealer network feel supported and engaged.

“It’s listening, understanding where the needs are, and adapting to that,” Pernot says. “Because when we started, for example, we said food only, and then, as we learned working with the markets, some markets actually cannot do food for either legal reasons or the way of distribution. So it was being able to understand where it’s going up front, which then means planning time ahead is very critical, and that’s where we saw the flexibility help… It allowed for everyone to be able to participate.”

INSTILLING PRIDE

With every experience or environment that Ford creates, the brand is intentional about building touchpoints and programming that are designed to instill pride in employees, which makes community outreach crucial to its internal engagement playbook.

The Ford Volunteer Corps, Team Rubicon, participation in Global Caring Month, and an array of disaster relief efforts are all part of the company’s approach. This year alone, 5,500 Ford employees participated in 183 community projects, resulting in 65,422 hours volunteered.

COLLABORATIVE SPACES

For Ford, providing employees (and dealers) with the time and space to collaborate and ideate is vital to strengthening internal relationships and advancing the business. The company’s sparkling new world headquarters in Dearborn, MI, which opened this week, is a prime example. Among perks, the building was designed with “redefining the work experience” in mind, including providing Ford’s product development teams with more opportunities, and more spaces, to collaborate. Pernot says that dealers will also be regulars at the headquarters.

“As we introduce new retail facilities, it relates to what we do with our dealerships,” she says. “It’s bringing the experience to the employees. It is a beautiful place, a transformative place where we’re working together. So it’s that collaboration, that togetherness, that really is the key, and we saw it when we did our community work. We do so much more when we are collaborating.”

Photos: Courtesy of Ford Motor Company

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The post Internal Engagement: Six Insights from Ford’s Employee-Dealer Event Playbook appeared first on Event Marketer.