Pop-up cafés are defined as temporary coffee shops that operate in unexpected locations. As you might expect, a pop-up café sells or gives away coffee, pastries, and other culinary items you would normally find in a coffee shop. However, unlike permanent brick-and-mortar shops, your business does not need to be in the coffee— or food and beverage— industry at all to leverage pop-up cafés and turn your brand into an experience.
Pop-up cafes offer limitless opportunities for companies in any industry— like fashion, beauty, tech, finance, wellness, and more— to incorporate a culinary experience and engage with consumers outside of their usual brick-and-mortar location. If done creatively and carefully, this experiential and non-traditional approach can create positive associations with any brand, leaving lasting impressions on its consumers.
When Nespresso launched their Nordic Limitless Edition flavors, they turned to Food Truck Promotions to create mobile pop-up café and bring the holiday warmth to four key markets: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. We turned our Tuk Tuk into a Nordic-inspired café where guests enjoyed complimentary coffee samples, learned about Nespresso’s coffee machines, and received exclusive in-store discounts to take advantage of during the holiday season. The six-week mobile tour resulted in increased in-store sales and an expanded customer base with a newfound love for Nespresso coffee.
How does a pop-up café help a brand like Chanel? Well, this guerrilla marketing campaign involved decking out three vintage vehicles in Chanel’s shade of red and serving rich, creamy ‘Hot Coco.’ The cafe trucks created lines around the block and gave out over 10,000 servings each weekend. In total, the campaign drove over 5 million impressions, showing you just how far a cup of ‘Hot Coco’ can go from a mobile pop-up café.
We teamed up with Origins to celebrate the launch of their new ‘GinZing Energizing Gel Cream’ with a mobile pop-up café in Los Angeles. As a nod to the ingredients in the new product- such as caffeine from coffee beans, Ginseng, and Vitamin C- the very-orange café served complimentary coffee, deluxe product samples, and exclusive giveaways.
A pop-up café for a chef looking to get their name recognized will look different than a business trying to support the grand opening of its flagship store. Once you decide in the clearest of terms what the goal is for your pop-up café, you've made a great first step. The more specific you can make your purpose the better.
Whether you have your location finalized, or you're still trying to pin down a spot, we can help you with logistics. Our services include everything from location scouting, spot-holding, and permitting so we have all the bases of your mobile café covered.
For brands who are looking to handle this aspect of the promotion internally, you should try to establish a connection with private property owners or work through city permitting offices to secure your spot and other safety and health permits you may need.
If you’re a food and beverage brand, your pop-up café will most likely involve sampling your own product. However, if your company is in a different industry, you can be creative when it comes to your menu selection. Either way, Food Truck Promotions has a highly experienced culinary team that can support menu development or production needs-- especially if you’re looking to make a culinary item thematically linked to whatever your pop-up is promoting.
Of course, you're going to need the right equipment for whatever you choose to serve. If you're doing a coffee service, you’ll need a barista, the proper coffee machines, coffee beans, etc. And if there’s a food item involved, you may need line chefs, refrigeration, stoves, etc. Figure out the most efficient way to distribute your food & beverage items so that you provide a 5-star experience.
Pop-up cafés are typically structured as ‘grab-and-go.' However, if spacing and permitting regulations allow, we always recommend setting up tables, chairs, and benches for people to enjoy their food and beverage on-site. Consider whether or not a dining area is an aspect of your café or restaurant that you would like, and if it is, then extra planning and permitting may be involved!
