How to Nail a Pop-up Shop Opening

REEFExperiential Marketing Blog
How nail a pop-up shop opening
Thinking of getting in on the pop-up shop game? It can be an awesome way to gain brand exposure and harness the Instagram market. There are tons of benefits to hosting a pop-up shop, but with a limited run, you’ve got to nail it for it to be a success. Here are 4 pillars to hosting a standout, Instagram worthy pop-up:

Establish your metrics beforehand

Dig deep and consider what you want your customers to get out of their experience with your product. How does interacting with the product in the real world change their experience? These are vital things to consider when planning a pop-up shop because you are creating an experience which needs an anchor and a direction. Are you looking to reach a new market? Create a new stream of revenue or is it solely to generate leads? Perhaps, you are looking to educate people on a new product or range of products. Nailing down these metrics will help you ensure your pop-shop is a success before it even opens.

Define key value drivers

Now that you’ve decided your pop-up shop’s value driver or drivers, time to think about the data. If you are looking to explore buyer habits during the duration of your shop, then tracking data between in-store versus online shopping would be important. That correlation is something you wouldn’t want to miss because it helps you measure success.

Use digital marketing to promote pre, during, and post event

Use digital media to promote your pop-up shop at key points. Build hype prior to your shop by pushing it across social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, blog posts, and even email marketing campaigns. Reaching out to influencers and creating a press strategy is key to spreading the word and expanding your audience. Get people excited, let them know when and where you will be, think sneak peeks of the theme, design, share anything you think will get people excited and is going to ensure people add your event to their social calendar.

Example of a killer pop-up shop experience

During your event, continue to promote it all! This is especially important if you’re running an event that spans more than one day! Show off your pop-up shop visitors and what you’ve got going on. If there is an exclusive aspect to your event, share it. An example of a pop-up shop that did this well is YSL’s Hotel campaign. The YSL Hotel moved from country to country maintaining the hype and ensuring people were excited about the arrival. During your visit to the Hotel, you could explore the newest, unreleased collection, have YSL experts help you find your perfect shade of lipstick, have your photo taken with YSL models or on a motorcycle. You could also have your lipstick engraved which left visitors with a permanent reminder of their visit. Providing your visitors with both digital and physical reminders of your shop means you’ve created Instagrammable moments and content that is based on their experience in your pop-up. You’ve created a sense of envy and FOMO and made visitors feel valued.

How to create your own successful pop-up shop

Don’t feel like models and a motorcycle are going to connect with your audience? That’s why we are here. We know how to crunch the numbers and compile the data that will help us identify what will hit home for your audience.   Use this as an opportunity to get really creative with how your audience is going to engage with your brand. Think outside the box and take into consideration the experience you want your visitors to have. The long and short of it is, despite a pop-up shop only physically existing for a short period of time, it really is a long game. Let Reef’s in-house experts get your pop-up shop from conception to reality.