The mad scramble for market share has demanded greater creativity and relevance. From Geico’s unusual nonsensical commercials to Chick-fil-A’s Cow Mascot, getting the attention of consumers has become increasingly difficult. The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (CRVA) held a special event to unveil its new brand, “Charlotte’s got a lot,” The Celebrate Charlotte! event was held on the top floor of The Residence at South Park, a luxury condominium complex with a rooftop pool, outdoor great room, and upscale indoor clubhouse. The event planner, Stephanie Drew of Drew Event Design, wanted a chic fashion show with club style atmosphere. I suggested creating a charlotte fashion show with common historical Charlottean: politicians, mine workers, mill workers, bankers, shoppers, NASCAR, chefs, etc. A fashion show of the common man with the story of his life would be a playful brand opening for Charlotte’s elite. She liked the concept and revised it to form a fashion show of today’s charlotte activities.

Charlotte is a progressive city. Young and aggressive, Charlotte is home to myriads of successful businesses and celebrities. The release party had to reveal the new campaign with modern branding techniques reinforcing the campaign’s relevance to its residents. Instead of banners and props, we designed a party primarily with electronics. Using all the native assets of the space aka LCDs and computers, we were able to stretch the budget with relevant branding. Armed with an army of small DVD players, every LCD in the space looped “Charlotte’s got a lot” ads and commercials. The homepage at each computer terminal in the club house was set to CRVA’s new website. All servers and bartenders were dressed with fitted tees: Savor Charlotte for the servers, Flirt Charlotte for the bartenders, and Roar Charlotte for the valet parking attendants. Using modern marketing techniques, Celebrate Charlotte! established its leadership for the new generation.

For the fashion show, we needed a runway. In the center of the rooftop garden, a long pool stretched across the open area. Going around the pool would not work, we needed more surface area. Conquering the pool space, Stephanie used a custom built u-shaped Plexi-glass cover. In the center of the runway, we constructed a goal post truss system with the Celebrate Charlotte! backdrop. On top of the truss two TV’s looped the charlotte campaign logos. The design made a fashionable backdrop for the press release, and a foreshadowing of the upcoming fashion extravaganza.

Power was a huge concern. Due to noise and space, getting a generator on the rooftop wouldn’t have been practical. The pool was on the 4th floor and sending up cabling would have been expensive and undesirable for The Residence. We carefully counted amps and mapped out a design with LEDs and moving heads. To provide proper lighting for both the club atmosphere and the fashion show, two truss towers were placed at each end of the U-shaped runway. The towers and the goalie system were lit with a color changing LED fixtures, creating a sheik, club-style effect. On top of each tower, a moving head projected the brand on the rooftop walls with custom logos. Two more movers under the goalie system projected the logo in the pool and surrounding landscape. Modern and fashionable, the elegant rooftop garden was ready to be transformed into an ultra hip south beach party.

After the press conference, we prepared for the fashion show. Everything had to be perfect. In less than 20 minutes, we had to set the tempo for the campaign. To light the models we didn’t have the luxury of an overhead par can systems to light the entire space. We programmed the movers to follow the models as they walked the runway. For our big hits, we doubled up the movers with LEDs. At the center of the U, four LED fixtures mounted to the goalie truss and all six movers fully exposed the model to the audience. The models exploded with energy as they entered the runway through the center truss. As the model traveled to the top of the each arm, the unused movers faded out. Using 3 point lighting, the model was washed from the back with one of the movers on the goalie truss and the two movers on each side of the runway arm. At the end of each arm, two more LED fixtures increased the lumens on the model, heightening the energy as the model turned to walk to the other side. The setup was not only power efficient; but by using darkness in unused space, more attention was brought to the models instead of the other guest or rooftop décor during the fashion show. Many times the power of the event is the ability to manage the attention of the guest, minimizing the distractions.

Coordinating with the video, each model theme was accented with a specific color. Cheer a lot represented sports with the back ground color of Red; Create a lot, Arts & Fuchsia; Splurge a lot, Shopping & Cobalt; Blossom a lot, Gardening & Magenta; Thrive a lot, Manufacturing & Tan; Splash a lot, Outdoors & Cyan; Thrill a lot, NASCAR & Burgundy; and Savor a lot, Culinary & Green. The entire space changed color which changed the atmosphere as each model entered. Coinciding with the TV logos, the color changing truss wrapped the theme around the runway embracing Charlotte’s representative models. DJ SupaSkip played relevant and cheeky tunes adding humor and style to their presentation. The perfect finish was the story with each theme. Hardin Minor, our MC, told the thrilling tale of each model as they danced, paddled, shopped, juggled, and walked the runway. The impact was unmistakable. The impression was unforgettable. The event was an overwhelming success.

To finish off the evening, the club atmosphere was completed with the DJ SupaSkip’s mash-up style on the turntables. The guest danced and some even did their own runway show. The lights flashed and spun as the subsonic reverberations encouraged everyone to move. The final task was to get the party indoors. We had to be a little tricky. Due to fire restrictions and perfectly framed doors, we couldn’t run the cable through the door. We used a wireless in-ear monitoring system to travel through the windows. Once we transferred the music inside, we setup several speakers to fill the clubhouse with the energy on the rooftop.