From the moment the world first saw the 350 GT at the Geneva Auto Show in 1964 to the introduction of the all-electric Lanzador concept at this year’s Monterey Car Week, the Lamborghini brand has been defined by the vehicle experience.

For eight months, Lamborghini America put its experiential marketing account up for review, looking for an agency that could capture the brand’s energy and culture as it neared the milestone 60th anniversary. After paring the field down to three agencies, it accepted a bid from BMF—an integrated strategic, creative and public relations firm that’s partnered with Gucci, Savage X Fenty, Visa and Madonna on experiential campaigns. 

Lamborghini America awarded BMF a four-year deal, but ushered it into the spotlight quickly when floods in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region forced Lamborghini to cancel its 60th anniversary celebration. Instead, BMF-led events at Monterey Car Week in August took on added importance, with Lamborghini unveiling the Lanzador, displaying its heritage vehicles at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and having a designer show visitors the custom leather and stitching possible in the interior of a Lamborghini vehicle.

“That’s the point of experiential,” said BMF CEO Bruce Starr. “How do we get people to feel the product, touch the product, design the product? Those are the touch points that really get the customer and the dealerships very excited.”

Lamborghini tasked BMF with bringing those experiences to markets across North America, with the realization that no two activations will be alike. At Monterey Car Week, for example, BMF focused its efforts on auto enthusiasts and those catering to them, giving 15 editors of various publications 17-mile test drives in the Lanzador concept car at Pebble Beach.

At Art Basel in Miami, meanwhile, BMF would cater its experiences to art collectors and dealers who also happen to love cars. Last year was Lamborghini’s first at Art Basel, where BMF sees the automaker parked at an intersection of marketing opportunities.

“If you collect cars, your home probably collects art,” Starr said. “There’s a cross-section of luxury—watches, art, vehicles—that all play to the same consumer and are all, in the same way, interesting.”

For Lamborghini, the future of those dovetailing interests will look markedly different than the 60 years that preceded it. The automaker plans to make its entire line hybrid electric by 2024. By 2030, it plans to have four all-electric vehicles in its lineup (with the Lanzador slated for 2028).

North America represents an important part of its large-scale regional strategy to convince American, Asia Pacific and European/Middle Eastern/African markets that Lamborghini’s electric future is worth embracing. 

BMF will make the automaker’s pitch at a Lamborghini NYC Lounge, an off-road course in Sonoma and a Movember-linked event in Southern California, among other locations. But as automotive brands become less reliant on foot traffic at auto shows and other events and more dependent upon the social media ripples from said events, BMF sees influencer engagement and social media metrics as pillars of the Lamborghini experience going forward.

“You can’t measure emotion—there is no way you can measure that first time you sit in a Lamborghini, that you feel the steering wheel, that you smell the leather, that you put your foot on the pedal—but that has a unique effect,” Starr said. “But what we can measure are the social results and the PR results … and they matter.”

For those who believe New York real estate has gone to the dogs, Uber Eats’ latest activation hit home in an adorable way. 

To celebrate the arrival of PetSmart as one of its newest vendor partners, the delivery platform opened “The Best Pet House Ever,” a pop-up that served as part showcase for the treats available to pets of all varieties, and part design inspiration for their home improvement-prone human “pawrents.”

Surrounded by a cartoonishly large white picket fence and decorated with an oversized bird bath, faux garden and PetSmart branded bowl on its exterior lawn, the multi-room Petopia—created by agency Kamp Grizzly—was stationed in Domino Park in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood on September 12.

The house was outfitted with an “animal communal room,” a gourmet kitchen, a non-working shower area, a lizard room, a cat room and “catio” for felines, and a doggie bed and recreation room. Visitors and their pets could peruse the interior and scan the corresponding QR codes for more information on the room’s dedicated products, all of which are available for purchase online.

“Not only is PetSmart relatively new to Uber Eats, but so is the behavior of using Uber Eats to order items beyond restaurant food,” Meredith Savatsky, head of brand campaigns and co-marketing at Uber Eats, told Adweek. “That’s why we wanted to do something innovative and delightful with PetSmart to capture the attention of pet-loving consumers across the U.S.” 

House and hunters

Visitors and passersby could also scan a QR code located on the “open house” sign at the entrance to take a virtual 3D tour of the house on a shoppable Zillow listing—a first for the company. The listing allowed people to browse over 75 PetSmart products in the “Treatsville, USA” based abode, and access $1 million in promo codes. 

“Since the house is located in New York City, and only accessible to folks locally, we are excited to partner with Zillow to list the house so customers across the country can enjoy the experience too,” said Savatsky.

Uber Eats will also launch videos inspired by viral real estate-content on TikTok to encourage users to preview the house, visit the listing and take the virtual shoppable tour.

“We’ve focused our efforts singularly on TikTok because of the relevance of both Zillow and pet content on their platform, as well as the opportunity for greater shareability and engagement,” she said, noting that influencers who attended the event live will also post on their respective TikTok and Instagram accounts. 

Leave it to Dove to turn a taboo subject into a teachable moment in its ongoing quest to redefine beauty standards. That the brand managed to do so during notoriously beauty-focused New York Fashion Week is even more apropos. 

This time around, the brand is bringing attention to a body part not typically the focus during the parade of high fashion garments: armpits. 

On a sweltering day in the Meatpacking District, New Yorkers of all ages and genders lined up at “The Pit Stop,” Dove Deodorant’s subway-themed activation, waiting to take Polaroids of themselves posing as stylish straphangers. Some of them left the photos on a corkboard after writing messages on them, encouraging others to embrace their imperfect pits and signing off with #FreeThePits—the brand’s hashtag for its latest global campaign.  

“The Pits of New York” campaign, created by agency Ogilvy London in collaboration with David New York, features images of women baring their pits while riding the subway. The accompanying lines included: “Care for your underarms. Not what others think of them” and “Does hair make you stare?”

The ads reveal that “6 in 10 of us admit to judging other women’s armpits,” according to a recent study conducted by the brand–and call for a change to that attitude.

“At Dove, it’s our mission to help women to feel confident in their bodies,” Pranav Chandan, U.S. head of deodorants at Unilever, told Adweek. “’#FreethePits’ was created to bring attention to the underarm insecurities that women face and empower underarm acceptance and celebration. We intentionally chose to activate during fashion’s biggest week in NYC, as it’s a time when people come from all over the world to help define the next evolution of fashion and beauty.” 

The brand staged a “station domination,” taking over the ad space and turnstiles in the high-traffic 42nd Street Times Square, 34th Street Herald’s Square and 14th Street 8^th Avenue subway stations.  

Visitors to the pop-up received a MetroCard good for two rides and a Dove “Pit Kit” filled with a mini deodorant and fact sheet, a battery-operated fan and a compact mirror. 

The brand also partnered with several influencers to promote pit empowerment, including model and content creator, Remi Bader, who stopped by the activation to take photos with fans and hand out kits.   

“This campaign is a continuation of Dove’s commitment to make a positive experience of beauty accessible to all and liberate women from underarm inhibitions, helping them be beautifully self-conscious and able to freely participate in life,” said Chandan.

Aerie’s latest marketing play is an organized effort to draw attention to other brands. Moving beyond the typical brand collaboration driven by a core product—a Barbie Burger King meal, for example—the clothing brand created a shared experience with a host of small businesses. 

Aerie’s Hidden Gem Marketplace, which featured small New York City businesses as well as other social-driven brands, was a marketing campaign for its fall 2023 line. Partners included floral boutique Brooklyn Blooms, crystal shop Palace One Eleven and granola brand Tom’s Perfect 10. Aerie collected bra donations for Free The Girls, a nonprofit that gives economic opportunities to sex trafficking victims, and offered each attendee a free bra in return.

Aerie has used its likeness to build buzz for the activation while establishing consumer recognition for the other brands. 

“Awareness is definitely an opportunity for us, but we decided to connect with local brands and amplify our messages together,” chief marketing officer Stacey McCormick told Adweek. “Most of the inspiration from our paid campaigns come from grassroots approaches or organic content from people who are just into the brand. Everything we’re doing here feels similar to that.”

A symbiotic storefront 

While marketers often consider community building an effort within their own consumer base, Aerie wants to challenge that method by uniting a variety of names under one roof. And as a brand that has significantly benefited from growth on social channels, Aerie is aligning itself with newer names like PopUp Bagels that have blown up on TikTok.

The brand handed out newspapers at the event that included Q&As and profiles on businesses featured in the market, as well as information on its own products and the birth of its Aerie Real platform. 

While the event’s title of “hidden gem” may seem to refer to the smaller brands that Aerie spotlighted in its marketplace, McCormick applies the term to the retailer itself and has been candid about making customer acquisition a priority. Research from YouGov found that Aerie is at 54% awareness for ages 18 to 35, and almost half of Aerie customers don’t buy its bras.

Though many of them found an audience on social media, the local businesses participating in the marketplace cited the benefits of connecting with consumers in person. After closing its flagship store last year due to pandemic challenges, ice cream brand Mikey Likes It said the marketplace was a valuable opportunity to reach customers offline. Dani Egna, founder of ecommerce temporary tattoo brand Inked by Dani, also recognized the perks of connecting with people face-to-face about their latest design interests while learning from other brands in a noncompetitive setting.

Asserting a timeless purpose  

In 2014, Aerie committed to a defiant role in the slow-moving intimates industry when it launched Aerie Real, which featured un-retouched photos of models with diverse bodies.

As the campaign that put the brand on the map approaches its 10th anniversary, Aerie is emphasizing the continued urgency of inclusion while focusing on new ways to differentiate when much of what it has always advocated for—unfiltered images and body representation—has become industry table stakes. 

“We like to say, ‘If the product had a bad season, then Aerie Real is still there,’” said McCormick, stressing the importance of maintaining a consistent identity that is unlinked to ever-changing purchasing patterns. “That helps us with our storytelling approach around seasonal campaigns, because we don’t fade in and out and we’re not a trend.”

Last year, cat food brand Fancy Feast hosted a restaurant pop-up called Gatto Bianco, where people could eat like their feline companions. After garnering buzz among cat lovers, the brand’s marketing team faced a daunting challenge. “How are we gonna top that for 2023,” recalled senior brand manager Amanda Zaydman.

Its answer: in celebration of International Cat Day on Aug. 8, the Nestlé Purina brand hosted “Fête du Feline,” a two-day “feastival” in New York’s Madison Square Park. The event comprised a private tasting experience as well as a holiday celebration that was open to the public.

During both days, Fancy Feast invited feline-friendly guests to nibble on dishes and sip libations inspired by its range of cat food offerings. Diners enjoyed dishes such as “silky-saffron bisque with honey-peppered salmon” and “Tuscan panzanella with braised beef,” while drinking lemonade (with or without Prosecco) adorned with “everything shrimp” crusted in sesame seeds.

Following an introduction to the event’s foods and flavors by Fancy Feast’s in-house chef, Amanda Hassner, guests dined on a selection of patés created by Babish Culinary Universe YouTube channel founder, Andrew Rea. A dessert selection decorated with the brand’s logo in cocoa was also available.

“We were very inspired by what happened at Gatto Bianco,” Zaydman told Adweek. “Something we hadn’t expected was just the inspiration of getting to meet face-to-face with cat lovers—with cat people—and spend hours with them.”

Zaydman and her team spent those hours learning more about the brand’s fans, some of whom were either celebrating a birthday or a wedding anniversary. Fancy Feast already has an active subscriber community “several hundred thousand” strong, many of whom await updates such as the release of the brand’s annual holiday ornament, she added.

For this year’s event, “we wanted to bring back certain elements, but we wanted to do it in a way … that could be experienced by more people,” Zaydman explained.

Unlike last year’s two-day trattoria, whose eight tables were only available to a lucky few who snapped up reservations through OpenTable within minutes, this year’s celebration was open to the public and—because it was outdoors—their cats.

In addition to the cat food-inspired cuisine, the fancy feasters could also get hand-drawn pet portraits, onsite insights from a Purina pet behaviorist, a custom engraved spoon with a branded serving dish and have photos taken with props against a splashy backdrop made from real cans of the product. They were also invited to meet and greet the famous Fancy Feast cat in its trailer and connect with fellow members of the cat community with conversation-starting cards located at every table.

Zaydman told Adweek the team was especially excited to connect cat owners, who don’t have an opportunity to meet in parks as dog owners do since domestic cats mostly remain indoors.

Fans unable to attend Fête du Feline but curious to try the dishes can visit Fancy Feast’s website and recreate Hassner’s recipes at home. The brand previously released a downloadable cookbook in 2021, which spurred the tradition of humans eating like their cats.

The brand also launched a special AR filter for Instagram and Facebook, which Zaydman said was designed to be used beyond the holiday.

“We wanted to have some elements that are accessible to anyone,” she said. “The brand team has had a ton of fun going around New York and taking photos of the Fancy Feast cat through the filter all around New York. We hope people do the same and have a lot of fun taking the Fancy Feast cat wherever they want.”

If there’s a building that only has murders in it, it makes sense to try to escape it.

Top line

In honor of the quickly-approaching Season 3 premiere of Only Murders in the Building, Hulu and The Escape Game have teamed up for an escape room experience that brings the series to life both in-person and online.

Between the lines

Hulu’s latest pop-up for the series will look to transport participants into the world of Only Murders in the Building, giving them a puzzling mystery of their own.

Inside the game, participants will find themselves on the 10th floor of the Arconia, just outside of the apartment of Martin Short’s Oliver. There, they are tasked to find a key prop that has gone missing from Oliver’s new Broadway show. And as the mystery unfolds, participants will go deeper into the story, try to discover who took the prop and explore secret passageways in the walls of the building.

Fans of the show can expect to relive favorite moments from the series, interact with popular props, discover Season 3 Easter eggs and solve a mystery along the way.

In-person participants in Los Angeles can play at The Escape Game located within the Century City Mall from Aug. 11-13. Those in Las Vegas can check it out at The Escape Game Las Vegas in The Forum Shops from Aug. 18-20.

And for the online experience, which is available globally from Aug. 14-18, guests can RSVP at onlymurdersescapegame.com.

Bottom line

The escape room experience is the latest marketing move ahead of Only Murders in the Building’s Season 3 premiere Aug. 8.

In addition to series regulars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, Season 3 is adding big names such as Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep. The series previously debuted the first look at Streep’s new character in an Oscar-night promo.

First came Barbie, and then came her Dreamhouse. Toy company Mattel introduced Barbie’s home, a ranch house in Malibu, in 1962, three years after launching the doll. It has since taken on various styles to reflect the times, like a bohemian townhouse in the 1970s and a bubble-gum pink mansion in the 1990s. 

Now, ahead of the release of the Barbie movie on July 21, a few lucky guests can stay in the real-life version of the Dreamhouse through Airbnb. The life-size Dreamhouse is located in Malibu, Calif., and the lucky travelers will get to stay there for free. 

Barbie’s Airbnb Dreamhouse resembles the toy pink mansion, with panoramic views of the beach. It will be available for two individual one-night stays for up to two guests on July 21 and 22. Bookings open on July 17. 

The Airbnb “host” is Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend, who has put his own twist on the storied home by kitting it out with his cowboy accessories, guitars, games and rollerblades, “because I literally go nowhere without them,” he writes in the listing. 

Guests at the pink mansion will be able to access Barbie’s wardrobe, learn line dancing on the outdoor disco dance floor, perform a sunset serenade on Ken’s guitar, relax by the pool and take home “a piece of the Kendom” with a set of yellow and pink Impala skates and surfboard. 

As part of the activation, Airbnb said it will make a one-time donation to nonprofit Save the Children “to honor girls’ empowerment.”

The Barbie Dreamhouse on Airbnb is the latest in a flurry of marketing activity leading up to the film premiere. Other highlights have included a Barbie-themed Xbox console, a limited-edition collection of Barbie shoes and accessories through retailer Aldo, a Barbie Land Berry Pink flavor at frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry, and a Barbie fashion collection at retailer Forever 21.

Directed by Greta Gerwig, the live-action Barbie movie stars Margot Robbie as the titular doll, who has an existential crisis and ventures into the real world.