Bravo Network's Experiential Upfront
Eager to break from the traditional Upfront formula, Bravo set out to showcase its content not through speeches and sizzle reels, but through experience.
For Bravo Media’s Upfront, the goal was clear: create an environment that would translate the network’s distinct voice into something tangible for advertisers. A raw SoHo venue was reimagined as a stylized “house,” with each room reflecting a core passion point across food, fashion, beauty, design, and pop culture. Guests moved seamlessly from a live kitchen featuring Top Chef talent to a beauty studio with hands-on styling, into fashion-driven photo moments and a fully realized talk show set inspired by Watch What Happens Live.
The experience was powered by nearly 70 Bravo personalities, integrated not as appearances, but as active participants across the environment. A custom blue carpet arrival, branded entry sequence, and layered press moments set the tone, while curated food, color-driven cocktails, and music extended the energy well beyond the scheduled program. Every detail was designed to keep guests engaged, exploring, and interacting throughout the night.
Our team led the full creative and production scope, from environmental design and scenic build to talent logistics, guest experience, and technical execution. The result was a highly social, deeply immersive event that strengthened Bravo’s connection with its advertising community and brought its programming to life in a way that was both strategic and unforgettable.
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Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
A series of breakout sessions presented content targeted to attendees’ varied interests, while imagery displayed throughout the venue showcased real-life applications of how products designed to empower developers help to unleash the power of data and reimagine possibilities that will improve our world.
Every element of Microsoft Connect(); from registration, breakfast and keynote, to lunch and evening cocktails, were custom-designed to communicate exacting brand messaging and to deliver a high-touch guest experience to this important audience. The keynote and breakout sessions were livestreamed through an onsite studio built for this purpose and content was watched online by millions around the world.
Empire is proud to collaborate with Microsoft on this annual, top-tier business communication event.
To view excerpts of Connect(); 2017, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/connectevent
