How We Designed Differentiated and Engaging Event Experiences with Pendulum Magazine's Cocktail Hour Series
Our sister company and media platform Pendulum Magazine has been venturing into the experiential marketing space with a series of unique collaborative events titled Cocktail Hour at 89 Smithe.
The premise of the event is to bring together hidden gems and talents within the city to create an experience money can't buy. The events help our readers build a sense of community by connecting them over a topic we are all passionate about - great food and drink; the initiative also helps to solidify Pendulum Magazine’s positioning as a curator of events and experiences of elevated taste. Within a timeframe of 6 weeks, our small but extremely efficient events team conceptualized and executed 5 events covering 3 different collaborations.
Once we nailed down the main concept and operational rollout formula, the fun part was brainstorming which talents we would bring together to create a delightful taste that would resonate with Vancouverites.
The basis of the events program would be one featured collaboration per month. In the case of our November 30th event, it was because the team we wanted to work with was away the entire December, so we settled for the second-best option, to hold the event on November 30th!
There are a few key factors that made Pendulum Magazine's Cocktail Hour a differentiated social experience:
We proposed a 'secret ingredient' challenge. For each of the featured collaborations, we would implement a concept like the Food Network show Chopped Canada, where competitors are presented with a secreted ingredient and asked to create a dish with it. In our case, we challenged the mixologists to create a unique cocktail with a secret ingredient.
We reversed the creation process. Instead of following the traditional approach of pairing drinks to a designed food menu, we did it the other way around, we would tailor the food to highlight the tasting notes of the cocktail - the drink is the star.
We made it an exclusive experience. Outside of our Cocktail Hour event, even if you wanted to buy the drink, you wouldn't be able to because the recipe is specially designed and prepared for the Cocktail Hour event. This helped to drive interest, traffic, and even online engagement. When you know it's exclusive and you are one of a few that got to experience the cocktail, you are more likely to share photos on social media.
We made it a timed experience. Those who registered for Cocktail Hour would notice that the experience is mentioned to be 30 minutes overall. This way people know exactly what to do with themselves, which is not often the case when we attend other mingler events when we stay longer and get bored because we don't know when the exit cue should be. Cocktail Hour is swift and memorable.
We made it FREE yet still exclusive. How did we make it free but still exclusive? While the event is free to register, the registration link was private, so the event is not searchable online or on the Eventbrite platform. This gave us control over guestlist creation and curation to ensure we are sharing Cocktail Hour with those who would appreciate it.
Curious as to what the three collaborations were over the course of just 6 weeks?
PENDULUM MAGAZINE X ORIGO CLUB
Dates | October 12th and 26th
Secret Ingredient: Vin Jaune 'yellow wine' from the Jura region
Theme: French
Our first Cocktail Hour collaboration was with Origo Club, a French fine dining restaurant located in Richmond. As mentioned, we wanted to bring experiences that are not readily accessible to those who live and work in downtown Vancouver, and so bringing in Origo Club was a great way to highlight a restaurant located some thirty minutes driving distance away from the city center. Their bartender created the 'Peculiar Fashion' cocktail, a modern update on the classic Old Fashion cocktail with the use of an 8-year aged Vin Jaune, paired with an 18-year Madeiran cask aged whiskey. This one was definitely a sipper!
PENDULUM MAGAZINE X ARTISAN SAKEMAKER
Dates | November 6th and 16th
Secret Ingredient: Junmai Sparkling sake created by Artisan SakeMaker, Canada's first locally-made premium sake
Theme: Japanese
Our second Cocktail Hour collaboration was with Artisan SakeMaker based on Granville Island, where we challenged award-winning mixologist Kevin BrownLee to create a cocktail using their Junmai Sparkling sake. Kevin delivered the 'Osake Spritz', a blend of aromatic Elderflower liqueur, Junmai Sparklling and Vermouth. You first taste the sweetness of the sparkling sake, finished with the slight bitterness of the vermouth - a perfect match with the crowd-favorite canapés menu prepared by Juno Kim Catering. The menu featured a chicken skewer with sake kasu (a by-product in the sake production process which Juno used in the sauce of the chicken skewer), a carrot with Gochujang yogurt, and a mushroom cracker everyone wanted seconds of.
PENDULUM MAGAZINE X THE VANCOUVER CLUB
Date | November 30th
Secret Ingredient: Homemade spiced Limoncello
Theme: Italian
Our latest and upcoming collaboration features The Vancouver Club, the city's prestigious, members-only club known for its hospitality and innovative events. Bartender Hossam Elshafie designed 'Lo Scintillio' (The Sparkle) to celebrate the festive season. With a base of homemade Limoncello, the concoction is spiced with aromatic herbs and organic lemon zest; bubbly prosecco is then added and the cocktail is finished with a splash of soda. The accompanying canapés menu will be designed by Top Chef Canada Season 6 competitor Chef Felix Zhou.
For every event experience, we also serve a surprise (and very well received!) dessert. For our first event, we had strawberry macaroons with iridescent gold powder, for our Japanese theme event we had white chocolate matcha mochi, and who wants to take a guess at what we will have for our festive season collaboration?
We are so proud of our Pendulum Magazine team for all the innovative event experiences they have created over just 6 weeks. To date, over 300 guests have attended our Cocktail Hour experiences, and we can't wait to create more of these differentiated, branded experiences for our clients at Catalyst Agents as well!
Have a brand or product launch or a special event you are looking to host? Bring on our Event Consultants to make it a memorable, engaging, and industry-leading event! Contact us at info@catalystagents.com.