How to Get Your Pop Up on the Map

In our ever-changing digital world, it can be a difficult task to capture the attention of the masses through traditional marketing means.

Consumers are incessantly exposed to an endless reel of ads, both digitally and physically, and as a result, we’ve become indifferent. So, whether you are an established household name or an up-and-coming brand, it’s imperative to look toward innovative and experiential techniques to secure engagement. Predictably, that’s exactly what a pop up is!

Pop ups provide a unique opportunity to refresh typical marketing strategies – offering consumers an inventive and immersive shopping experience to remember. However, they can only be successful if planned correctly. For example, if constructed as a temporary shop in a new location with no notable features then you’re unlikely to see any remarkable results. But, create a pop up that exemplifies brand values, pushes the boundaries of what is expected and focuses in on a specific target audience, then the benefits will speak for themselves.

So, what persuades consumers to visit your pop up? Well, we decided to find out.

We circulated a survey to 1000 UK consumers that investigated what they want to find when attending a pop up. From there we compiled their results to give you the 3 best techniques to get you pop up on the map!

Provide the opportunity to try and test new products

Our survey found that having the opportunity to try something unfamiliar and original was of most importance to potential consumers. A substantial 51% of entrants displayed a clear attraction to pop ups holding a sense of exclusivity by providing something that they could not find in a usual retail experience. Not only does this technique draw consumers into your pop up, but additionally provides a great opportunity for you to market a specific product to them!

For instance, on behalf of our client Merchant Gourmet, we created a pop up restaurant that was tasked with taking pulses and grains to the masses for a three-month period.

The pop up’s skilful and strategic design managed to not only inspire consumers to try the product range in their own homes, but also prompted major retailers to stock the brand’s products through an immersive business-to-business demonstration area.

The pop up resulted in several new listings, a roll-out of the concept in a major grocery retailer’s stores, served 30,000 dishes and reached 5 million new consumers.

​​Present a new or exciting experience

A final insight from the research highlighted the way to draw people into your pop up is by creating a new or exciting experience. So how could you bring to life a novel and disruptive experience for the public?

Cornetto decided that they would do so by providing something completely original and bespoke to their brand. With the help of iD, Cornetto chose to surprise and delight consumers by challenging cinema expectations with ‘Beyond the Screen’. To do so, we were tasked with creating an immersive experience to resonate with consumers’ everyday lives, whilst amplifying the brand and creating a buzz. As a result, we transformed a prime retail unit at Westfield Stratford into a unique cinematic art-deco theatre pop up that used a combination of 3D-sound cinema and a live theatre to create a unique storytelling experience.

It didn’t stop there, however. The Cornetto ‘Tear & share samples’ offered a further way of engaging with consumers by sampling the product upon entry to be enjoyed during the screening – meaning that the target audience was fully engaged with the brand. This multi-award-winning campaign boosted both online and offline engagement significantly with 83,000 experience visitors and a staggering 6.3 million online impressions.

The Winning Formula

By creating something tailored specifically to your brand – whether it be a new product, experience or special offer – consumers are left with a distinct impression that generates wider word-of-mouth conversations both online and offline.
So, what do you want them to talk about?

If you want to learn more about how pop ups can help your brand test new products, drive sales and make more meaningful and sustained connections with consumers in the real world, then get in touch.