The beauty of a pop-up event is that it’s fleeting and whimsical, and this temporary nature allows you to be more creative than you otherwise might be. When it comes to planning a pop-up event, you’re only limited by your imagination!
If you want some inspiration, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve curated 10 great examples of recent pop-up events, each of which can teach you a valuable lesson to help your pop-up really stand out.
1. An unusual location can attract attendees
You might not think a remote cliffside would be a great place for a pop-up shop, but this location did not deter visitors to 37.5 Technology’s Cliffside Shop.
Visitors to the shop in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado could bag free hoodies, jackets, socks and other gear – they simply had to climb 300 ft up the sheer face of the mountain to get there. Around 70 climbers managed to make it but the exposure the “world’s most remote pop-up” received introduced the fledgling brand to far more potential customers.
The two-day stunt also enabled participants to test out, in real time, the apparel made with 37.5 Technology’s advanced materials (designed to maintain an ideal core body temperature of 37.5 degrees Celsius). The brand now intends to take the pop-up shop to other far-flung locations where it can meet extreme sports enthusiasts in action.
2. Creating a hashtag, check-in location and Snapchat geofilter can maximise social media coverage
Snack brand Cheetos was all over social media for the three-day run of its pop-up restaurant in Manhattan – thanks not only to the cheesy, crispy cuisine on offer.
Omnicom, the agency behind the activation made sure the pop-up restaurant, The Spotted Cheetah, was established as a location on Facebook and created a unique hashtag for it, #TheSpottedCheetah.
This meant customers could check-in on Facebook, post location photos on Instagram and tagged posts on Twitter. Meanwhile, they also created branded Snapchat geofilters that were only available to those inside the restaurant.
As well as plenty of snaps of the food – which included Cheetos meatballs and Cheetos Sweetos Crusted Cheesecake – the restaurant’s quirky decor also featured frequently. Especially popular was a large model of Chester Cheetah that fans could pose with.
3. You can maximise your profit by selling merchandise
Your pop-up event can do more than just raise your brand’s profile; you can actually generate revenue through onsite sales. It stands to reason that people who have experienced your brand brought to life will be keener to buy from you, so be sure to have products available.
A Hello Kitty pop-up restaurant, being held in London for six weeks from 1 September, will feature both themed food and an exclusive range of Hello Kitty products. The event at Japanese tea shop Tombo in Fitzrovia will see Hello Kitty poke bowls, cupcakes and ice cream sundaes served up alongside speciality teas and coffees with Hello Kitty designs.
Visitors to the restaurant can try to recreate their Hello Kitty matcha lattes and teas at home with special branded packs from Tombo. There will also be tote bags, postcards and posters on sale.
4. You can use a pop-up to promote a bigger event
PAX-AUS is Australia’s biggest gaming and game culture event, held annually over three days in October at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. Rather than simply sending out an email about what to expect at the 2017 edition of the show, the organisers decided to give people a live sample.
A “snack-sized” PAX pop-up was held in Melbourne’s Federation Square in September, offering people the chance to play the latest game releases and compete in high-score tournaments with the chance to win a three-day pass to the show.
Of course, no gamers event would be complete without some awesome cosplayers, and there was even a free Friday night concert.
5. You can make high brow subjects fun
If what you do is considered high brow or serious and you want to expand your audience, a pop-up event is a great way to do it. Opera San José is doing just that, putting on pop-up performances in the offices of Silicon Valley tech companies.
Soprano Katharine Gunnink kicked off the new pop-up series, Arias in the Office at Adobe’s San Jose headquarters at the beginning of August. The initiative aims to introduce people to the concept of opera as something that can be fun and enjoyable.
“That’s the idea — to bring what we do, and the level at which we do it, to people who’ve heard it and are fans, or people who’ve never heard it,” Aaron Nicholson of Opera San José told NPR music.
About 60 self-selecting attendees gathered in the Adobe lobby for the free performance.
6. You can support your community
While a pop-up event is a brilliant way to put your business or organisation in the spotlight, it can also help others at the same time. Canadian dance group Halifax Dance teamed up with the Downtown Halifax Business Commission (DHBC) to create an event that would bring people out to support struggling local merchants.
The free, public ballet barre class called Dance for Downtown gave people a chance to learn the fundamentals of ballet (also known as bar work) and took place in a street which has been undergoing refurbishment. Ongoing construction throughout the core of Halifax has had a negative impact on local businesses.
To help promote the pop-up, dancers appeared in locations around the city; serving drinks at an Irish pub, pouring espresso at a cafe and doing the splits while having a pint at a bar.
7. Collaboration can result in a better event
If you’re a chef, you could stage a pop-up restaurant. If you’re a musician, you could put on a concert. If you’re a poet, you could host a reading. But if all three of you teamed up, you could put on a Creative Feast.
Taking place inside an art gallery in Oregon, USA, the pop-up event will be an evening filled with art, music, poetry, and of course, food. The idea is that it is all connected, with the colours from the art, words from the poetry and sounds from the music all paving the way for the food.
Executive Director Alexis Chapman said, “This event is a collaboration of talented community partners coming together to share their passions, each enhancing and inspiring one another to create a unique and unforgettable evening for everyone involved.”
8. Providing an interactive experience helps attract millennials
Unilever created a St. Ives Mixing Bar in New York’s Soho neighbourhood, allowing customers to choose ingredients from its St. Ives skin care brand to create their own facial scrubs and body lotions.
St. Ives brand director Suzanne Palentchar said the concept combined customisation and interactivity – two things millennials are looking for today. “We wanted to create a space where millennial consumers are heavily engaged,” she told CNBC. “They’re seeking experiences, not just products, and we wanted to be part of that journey they’re on.”
At the mixing bar, customers received a form to choose the ingredients they wanted to be blended into a face scrub or body lotion. They were then paired with an employee to teach them about the products. The employee blended the ingredients together and wrote the customer’s name on the bottle.
In addition to the extra sales (10,000 lotions and scrubs were sold) and significant social media coverage the brand received, St. Ives also benefitted from data collection. Customers were questioned on their skin concerns, which skin care products they use most often and where they buy them. In total 25,000 email addresses were collected.
9. A pop culture theme will win you fans
People love a pop culture themed pop-up. Fact. In the past, there have been temporary bars paying homage to Harry Potter, Will Ferrell, Tim Burton, Game of Thrones, Quentin Tarantino and Oscar Wilde, to name but a few.
And now there’s a pop-up bar themed around the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. Conceived by Emporium Popup, a company that creates temporary shopping and drinking experiences around Chicago, the bar is modelled after the show’s eerie set.
It features a recreation of the Castle Byers fort, and a replica of the wall Will’s mum covers in Christmas lights and uses to communicate with her missing son. A visit to The Upside Down for a “Mouthbreather” cocktail is an ideal way for fans to fill their time while they wait for the start of the new series of on October 27.
10. A controversial subject can get you attention
You might not think a big brand would want to hit the headlines for selling marijuana, but that’s exactly what Netflix was banking on when it launched its West Hollywood pop-up shop Alternative Health Herbal Services.
The stunt was part of Netflix’s promotion for its new series, Disjointed, about a woman who realises her dream of opening a marijuana dispensary. At the pop-up shop, those with qualifying medical conditions requiring cannabis use, could purchase strains of marijuana inspired by ten different Netflix shows.
These included the “Camp Firewood” strain, inspired by Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, “Prickly Muffin” inspired by Bojack Horseman and “Banana Stand Kush” inspired by Arrested Development.
According to a press release, “each strain was cultivated with the specific shows in mind, designed to complement each title based on their tone. For example, sillier shows may be more indica dominant, while dramedies will be more sativa dominant to help the more powerful scenes resonate.”
Conclusion
As you can see from these 10 pop-up events when you create wonderful experiences for people in unexpected places and at unexpected times they can be even more delightful. Now you know how others are using pop-up events to connect with their audience in more meaningful ways, it’s time to connect with yours!
