American Express led off its sponsorship activities for Toronto’s Summerlicious festival yesterday by serving up meals on a table suspended 35 metres above Dundas Square.
Each of the table’s 22 seats were filled by members of the public, media and representatives of both American Express and Dinner in the Sky—the Belgian company that conceived the concept—for a series of airborne meals yesterday.
American Express cardholders could reserve hour-long dining experiences, while non-cardholders participated in 30-minute lifts.
The American Express Dinner in the Sky event, the first in Canada, continues today.
Lauren Dineen-Duarte, senior manager, public affairs and communications for American Express, said Dinner in the Sky served as a thematic link to the company’s sponsorship of Summerlicious—a Toronto dining festival that runs from July 4 to 20—as well as its “Front of the Line” brand messaging as a provider of unique experiences to its customers.
“Our overall marketing campaign is all about ultimate access, and it’s centred on dining and entertainment,” said Dineen-Duarte. “This kind of event shows people what kind of access you can get as an Amex card member.
“We have such a great property with our Front-of-the-Line events, and we saw this as Front of the Line on steroids.”
Dineen-Duarte said spaces were completely booked for Dinner in the Sky last week, shortly after an e-mail blast went to cardholders and ads ran in major daily newspapers.
Jean-Francois Grenier, president of Dinner in the Sky Canada, said he was surprised by the enthusiasm for the inaugural Canadian lift-off and hopes that marketers buy into the concept as high-profile branding opportunity.
“It attracts everyone’s attention, and everyone heading to the site sees the table up there and sees (the sponsor’s) logo,” said Grenier. “It also offers that want-to-be-there aspect, a little jealousy from the people attending the event to want to be at the table.”
Certainly Dinner in the Sky was very successful from a PR perspective with most of the major broadcast news programs airing live broadcasts of the event, with plenty of footage of the large Amex logo on the underside of the dining table.
American Express’ other Summerlicious sponsorship activities include a program in which the company will donate 5% of meal purchases made with an American Express card to Canadian food banks.
