FM 2023 complete (1) - Flipbook - Page 27
Achieving Pop-Up retail
success
#2 Duration – Activating for more than
one weekend vastly improves results.
Most brands activate for one long
weekend (Fri – Sun) for cost reasons
1. What sorts of brand have you
which means most people will only hear
helped make an impact at a pop-up
about the pop up after it goes live and
event?
when it is too late to attend. Choosing to
We have worked on pop-ups for Beauty
activate for an extended period vastly
Pie, Charlotte Tilbury, NEOM Organics,
improves ROI as it only costs around 20%
Nespresso, Space NK, Three Mobile and more to activate for a further week (10most recently Rituals.
days). In our experience activating for
10-days from Friday to a week Sunday
D2C brands such as Beauty Pie work
provides the best results as the
especially well as it is a unique
opportunity for consumers to touch and increasing daily results over that period
massively increases daily average results
feel the products and experience the
– It is often twice as busy in the second
brand.
weekend than the first!
2. What sorts of duration do you
3. How do you energise a pop-up
find work well for brands? Why?
and make sure it makes the most
In our experience there are two key
of every point of contact?
success factors to consider, when and for
In our experience the biggest pop-up
how long.
success driver (even over location) is the
#1 When – Aim to activate on or
overarching creative concept, as this is
immediately after end of the month pay
what drives press / influencer coverage
day weekend so shoppers are feeling
and excites consumers to attend. Too
more ‘flush’ and more likely to purchase. often we see brands activating their
FMBE put the questions to one of our
2022 agency winners, James Barnes,
founder and business director, Backlash
existing standard retail experience in a
slightly different format and adding in a
selfie station. Pop ups are meant to be
temporary environments for brands to
have fun with and provide a generous,
exciting and unique experience to
shoppers. Pop-ups that win and capture
their audiences’ hearts push creative
boundaries and make them an absolute
must visit for fans of their product or
category.
4. How do you get the right
location?
By understanding the audience profile in
detail and how these fit with the
shopping habits of the locations you are
looking at. You also need to have an
intimate understand of the areas you are
interested in to know how these
locations work in reality – A location that
is busy in the week with commuters can
be dead at the weekend when they are
not around, or, being one street over
from a main shopping road such as
Carnaby St can often mean your footfalls
decrease by 80%. My advice, go to these
locations at the time you want to activate
to see how they work.
5. What are the risks of popping
up in the wrong place or at the
right time?
Location and timings are important
factors. You do not want to be difficult to
get to or go live towards the end of the
month when people are often broke.
However, going back to our main success
factor of having a creative concept; if the
pop-up concept is truly exciting and
shoppers can have a unique experience
or product benefit (e.g. limited edition
or personalisation) then they will seek
you out.
6. Is it possible to pop-up on a
budget without losing impact?
How?
Focus on doing one thing really well and
avoid the temptation to try and cover off
all aspects of the brand or your product
range. For instance, if you have a new
beauty product, then celebrate it totally
and really dive into the product rather
than diluting the occasion and adding in
every other product you create. Your
existing range can be bought in any
number of retailers, it is your new
product shoppers are coming for!
Venue trends - A look at
Lo:Down 2.0
Lo:down 2.0 is published, year two of a
brand experience report that looks set
to be a key one for trend tracing industry
marketers and venue owners. FMBE’s
Frank Wainwright took a look:
larger and often leave brands with less
competition for visual angles and more
relaxed height regulations. Lo:down
reveals large spaces of greater than
8mx8m dominate space searches.
So, what does the report –
covering the UK’s first full postpandemic year, reveal?
The move to outdoor space searches is
likely to be somewhat skewed by the
return of previously cancelled festivals,
but green spaces with good visual
backdrops and settings are surely a
wishlist trend.
For the detail, don’t rely on me. The
report is easy to grab online. There’s
masses of data in it about all types and
locations for brand activations.
So, here are four standout findings and
why I think they are significant.
l Larger spaces and exclusivity
are desired
Outdoor spaces gained traction because
of COVID. The report shows this trend
continuing. Outdoor spaces are often
l Broader base of businesses
using brand experience
Covid saw the emergence of hybrid
campaigns, especially ones where the
live environment was used for digital
content creation and user generated
content. The report indicates
‘entertainment’ as a growth sector, and
our coverage bears this out, with many
more case studies coming to FMBE
Awards and Magazine from home
entertainment and gaming brands.
shopping centres, city squares and
London locations transition more
coherently from searched to shortlisted
to booked.
l Shorter campaign lead times
There’s evidence in the report that
indicates reactive marketing is big. That
hints towards more tactical events,
either stand alone or used to boost a
strategic marketing plan. Lo:down
reveals a huge spike in location
searches in October, some clearly with
Black Friday and Christmas in mind. I’d
speculate that the reactive side comes
following market volatility and a sense of
unpredictability following global and
national events. For instance, you cannot
sell discounted tech if there are
products delayed in China from by
extended Covid rules.
That said, some of the Q4 search traffic
for larger open space locations may well
be realised as bookings in 2023.
Certainly lo:live’s role as a speedy
process allied to space diversification
looks well placed to facilitate this
interest.
Also, spaces that are logistically simple
to operate in are typically popular and
whilst green spaces and nationwide
locations come high in initial searches,
l Reaching beyond the norm
Lo:live is also well placed to serve the
brands that dare to reach out to people
beyond the main conurbations. Brighton
and South Coast towns were trendy
locations to book in 2022 and I would
expect that to grow, but where next?
Certainly, FMBE often sees great results
for brands that risk appearing outside
the most popular locations to make a
bigger impact with shoppers and
consumers who see less promotions.
Summer 2023
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