Event Marketer

Sharp’s Aquos brand marked its second season as the official HDTV of Major League Baseball with the largest integrated sports marketing effort in the company’s history. Key to this year’s strategy was a series of regional overlays that allowed the electronics brand to activate its promotions and national sweepstakes locally and drive traffic to its more than 5 500 retail partners.

In an effort to reinforce its brand among U.S. consumers Russian Standard Vodka recently hit nine markets with the Girls of Miss Russia USA tour. Claiming to be Russia’s No. 1-selling premium vodka and nightlife spirit the vodka brand traveled with five finalists from the Miss Russia pageant which is owned by the company.

Restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday is saying goodbye to its old image and ushering in a new one by turning the demolition of its last restaurant into a live consumer event. On Tuesday Aug. 5 at 3:00 p.m. EST the chain’s last remaining old-style eatery was blown up in a live Internet broadcast at rubytuesday.com. The event was part of the It’s a Brand New Tuesday campaign which is designed to kick start the chain’s brand makeover from bar and grill-style food and décor to fresh simple and modern American fare.

Pentel in August will engage in its largest college marketing effort to date. Teams of brand ambassadors will hit 37 college campuses this fall with samples to generate word-of-mouth for the brand with a back-to-school contest that plays up the smooth writing qualities of its Pentel Hyper G pen.

Bravo TV has launched Top Chef: The Tour a grassroots mobile experience that has many of the contestants from the reality show out on cooking demos and meet-and-greets with fans around the country. The tour launched in late June with stops will draw to a close in New York City in early October.