Pop up retail stores, restaurants, and night clubs are one of the hottest trends in experiential marketing right now. They enable brands to let consumers experience their product/service outside of their conventional arenas and in turn form a more emotional connection.

I just finished reading an article on Springwise about a pop up laundromat. This was debuted at a music festival in the Netherlands where it would be just plain strange to see an event-goer without mud from head to toe. The festival organizers created a sponsorship partnership with Wrangler and erected an 18m tent on the grounds of the event.

Revelers could pop in and drop off their dirty clothes, pick up a pair of black overalls and continue to enjoy the show. They were sent a text message when their clean clothes were ready for pick up!

I just love this idea of incorporating an experience that is a win/win for everyone involved…the guests get a valuable experience, the event producers get to offer value added and the sponsoring company gets unique exposure for their brand. The key here is relevance.

Think about what you can do at your next event to create a relevant brand experience that will set your event apart from the crowd.

Photo source: Flickr

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I came across this company out of Australia and fell for their collection of miniature bombonieres:

Visit Cafe Bride’s website

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It’s August – which means it’s peach season again. I just polished off a basket of peaches that we bought from our farmer’s market. I love how sweet and juicy they are…and just had to share this delicious recipe from Epicurious.com…

PEACHES’N CREAM ECLAIRS with BOURBON CARAMEL SAUCE
Bourbon lends depth to the sauce and extra sweetness to the cream filling, but this dessert is fantastic even without it.

Ingredients
For choux pastry
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs

For caramel sauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons bourbon or dark rum

For peaches-and-cream filling
1 pound firm-ripe peaches or nectarines
2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 1/4 cups chilled heavy cream
1 teaspoon bourbon or dark rum

Equipment: a large pastry bag fitted with a 3/4-inch plain tip

Preparation
Make choux pastry:
Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in upper third. Butter a large baking sheet.

Bring butter, water, and salt to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over high heat, stirring until butter is melted. Reduce heat to medium. Add flour all at once and cook, beating with a wooden spoon, until mixture pulls away from side of pan and forms a ball, about 30 seconds. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well with an electric mixer at high speed after each addition.

Transfer mixture to pastry bag and pipe 8 (5-inch-long) strips (about 1 inch wide) onto baking sheet, spacing them at least 1 inch apart.

Bake éclairs 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 400°F and continue to bake until golden, puffed, and crisp, about 15 minutes more (leave oven on). Immediately pierce side of each éclair with tip of a paring knife and return to oven to dry, propping door slightly ajar, 5 minutes. Halve an éclair horizontally: If still moist inside, return éclairs to oven and dry 5 minutes more. Cool éclairs completely on a rack, about 25 minutes.

Make caramel sauce while éclairs cool:
Heat sugar in a 10-inch heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is a dark amber. Remove from heat and immediately spoon about 1 teaspoon of caramel along top of each éclair, spreading it with back of spoon. Add water and salt to remaining caramel in skillet and simmer, stirring occasionally, until all of caramel is dissolved. Add butter and bourbon, swirling skillet to incorporate. Remove from heat and keep sauce warm, covered.

Make filling:
Cut peaches into thin wedges and toss with 1 tablespoon sugar. Let stand until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat cream with bourbon and remaining tablespoon sugar using cleaned beaters until it just holds stiff peaks.

Assemble éclairs:
Halve éclairs horizontally. Put bottom halves of éclairs on plates and top with whipped cream and peaches, then cover with top halves of éclairs. Drizzle plates with caramel sauce.

Cooks’ note: éclairs can be baked (but not glazed or filled) 1 day ahead and kept, once cooled, in an airtight container at room temperature. Recrisp on a baking sheet in a 375°F oven, about 5 minutes, then cool before glazing with caramel.
Make 8 servings.

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One of my blog readers, Roberta, emailed me to let me know that she was using Alia Designs Invitations for her wedding. I just finished browsing through the site and loved the level of detail put into every piece of correspondence.

All too often, when determining where to spend money, people neglect the invitation. But this is the most integral piece to building interest and setting the tone for the event. In many cases, this is the only event promotion. It’s so important to create anticipation…just don’t let them down when the get to the event!

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On the plane ride from Montreal to Toronto, I finished reading the latest issue of Corporate Event Magazine. There’s a fantastic article in it called: Customer Anthropology, which shares many great ideas from RSA Security Inc.’s annual information-security conference. I wanted to share one of them with you.

Everyone has seen and/or experienced the standard badge ribbons you pick up at the registration desk. They stick on to your conference nametag and usually tell people your position, your role at the conference, etc. RSA took a pretty tactical product and turned it into a tool that got people talking (literally). With tongue-in-cheek ribbons like:
“I read your e-mail”
“I’m the man in the middle”
and, “Brainy: The New Black”,
they “helped RSA develop a sense of community among attendees, and helped them feel connected to the larger industry.”

All too often conferences, trade shows, exhibitions, etc feel impersonal. But it’s simple and easy, yet big impact ideas like this one that make the experience a lot more interactive and enjoyable.

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How magnificent would it be to share this gift with your guests? A bejeweled box filled with sinfully delicious passion fruit and plain chocolate truffles from L’artisan du chocolate. These truffles have a beautiful iridescent quality to them that makes them look like pearls. Simply beautiful!

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In the same vein as the Blooming Tea, this magnificent product adds drama to the table with a simple idea. You simply drop one of these beautiful (and edible) Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup into a flute of Champagne and watch as the bubbles slowly open the petals.

Believe it or not, a jar of 11 flowers costs just $11 USD and 50 flowers $35 USD!!!

Source Trend Hunter

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