Celeb Status Optional

On a recent Thursday afternoon, 260 guests celebrated a birthday on the rooftop of the Standard Downtown, a scene usually packed with hip young things starting the weekend early. No fewer than six DJs were spinning, while industry types downed Grey Goose vodka Jell-O shots, bleached blonds sipped sparkling wine from Roederer Estate and revelers walked out with goodie bags filled with tchotchkes from Barracuda, a clothing boutique on Melrose Avenue.

Think this was a bash for Lindsay Lohan? Or even sorta-celeb Kim Kardashian? Nope. It was a party for the decidedly unfamous Matthew Schwartz, chief financial officer of an ambulatory surgery center, who paid exactly zero dollars for this sponsored blowout. Of course, it helps that he had worked for a modeling agency and his boyfriend is an agent at CAA, so he’s plugged in tangentially. But the 24-year-old is hardly Justin Timberlake. “We just know enough people and have the resources,” Schwartz says.

It seems celebrities aren’t the only ones getting their parties sponsored these days, as alcohol companies and other youth-targeting enterprises are working with a different kind of influencer--the no-name, but popular, tastemaker who can have more credibility than paid-to-endorse stars. “You have to do something off the wall to stand out,” says Rebecca McQuigg of the Intelligence Group, a trend analysis firm. That can include providing free alcohol to 200 random guests. Sponsoring “is definitely a good move for more sophisticated and savvy brands,” she says. “They are staying small and reaching out to a specific type of people.”

Courtney Reum, co-owner of 6-month-old VeeV Spirits, has made this tactic one of the key marketing strategies for his acai-based liquor company. Among the L.A. events he’s sponsored are a going-away party for Marisa Zafran, a publicist who moved to New York; a birthday bash for music consultant/DJ Michael Smith; and a barbecue for Paris Hilton. “I can tell you that Michael Smith’s party had a lot more legs than Paris Hilton’s,” Reum says. “She can basically remember the name of the alcohol, but that’s it.” He adds that providing freebies for the right person can be “more cost-efficient” than traditional advertising.

There’s certainly no doubt about the financial benefits for the sponsorees. Lonnie Moore, a partner in the Dolce Group of restaurants, rounded up two brands--Rock Star energy drink and Star Rum--to fuel his birthday party earlier this year at Les Deux, one of his company’s properties.

“Not to be self-aggrandizing,” Moore says, “but if we do a birthday party, there are going to be hot people there . . . I think tastemakers are even more important [than celebrities]. The guy who’s going out four nights a week--maybe he’s a Hollywood agent, maybe he’s a young up-and-coming actor, maybe he’s a promoter --they are the ones who determine what’s cool.”

So how do you get your party sponsored? You have to know the right folks, Schwartz says. For instance, he’s friendly with Matthew Goldman, one of the producers behind Swimming With Sharks, a series of summer parties at the Standard Downtown, so Schwartz simply called Goldman to see if he could merge his birthday with an SWS event.

Still, don’t expect Grey Goose to come knocking just because you have a great Rolodex. Even Josh Madden--whose younger brothers are Benji and Joel of Good Charlotte--had to put his best pitch forward when it came to organizing his 30th birthday earlier this year in New York. Madden, who says he’s content earning a “modest living” as a stylist and co-founder of the streetwear collective DCMA, looked for venues and services, eventually persuading the event planner at Johnny Utah’s--a bank vault-turned-restaurant/bar beneath Rockefeller Center--to turn the place over to him gratis for the night. He also asked Kristiana Vodka and Bass Ale to contribute free booze.

“I didn’t say, ‘If you give me sponsorship, I’ll get 150 of the right people there,’” Madden says. “I just wanted to have all my friends there. And they happen to be rockers, bloggers, DJs, party promoters, people who work at record labels and fashion designers. But I don’t want it to sound like I was capitalizing on something.”

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Additional reporting by Chris Lee.