5 Unforgettable Summer Promos

Posted on May 9, 2022May 26, 2022 by britney

Experiential Marketing

The success of outdoor brand promotions and product launches depends significantly on the amount of foot-traffic in a given area— generally, the busier the street, the more successful your branded event.

This means that it’s important not only to think about which city areas are more popular than others, but also, which time(s) of year will bring the highest ROI. With summer just around the corner, it’s worth noting that the summer season is the perfect time to get outside for an unforgettable summer promo.

During these months, brands all across the board get the opportunity you to capitalize on the fact that more people spend time outside. This of course means that a branded street event gets more visibility and traction than ever.

So, while you’re thinking about how to take the experiential approach to promote your brand, take a look back at five amazing summer promos to get inspired.

1. Magnolia Bakery

In honor of the iconic Magnolia Bakery’s 25th birthday, the brand took to the streets of NYC and handed out complimentary cups of their famous banana pudding.

Over the course of two July weekends, the Magnolia banana pudding food truck was able to hand out over an impressive 3,000 servings and gain over 1.5M social media engagements.

This summer promo was so successful because Magnolia Bakery took advantage of the summer heat by offering a treat to cool people down- and they also got creative.

Not only were guests given a free banana pudding cup, but they were also able to enter a raffle that gave them the opportunity to win an entire year’s worth of banana pudding. That much banana pudding definitely leaves a lasting impression.

2. Forager Project

With our help, Forager Project’s vegan ice cream made its way to nine different locations across San Francisco in a fully-stocked branded food truck that gave people the opportunity to sample Cookies & Cream, Chocolate, and Vanilla in the Californian summer heat.

For maximum effect, Food Truck Promotions made the consumer experience simple and straightforward: guests had the choice of signing up for the Forager newsletter or following Forager on Instagram to get their choice of an ice cream sample and a coupon code to buy the delicious, dairy-free product in-store.

This face-to-face experiential marketing campaign, as well as the savvy call-to-action, was able to turn many dairy-free skeptics into new, long-lasting customers for Forager Project. The branded vehicle gave out as many as 500 samples a day, which meant that the brand directly reached an astounding 4,500 people, not even to mention the growth that the activation sparked on social media.

In the end, we knew that all people needed from a Forager Project summer promo was one taste of the brand’s ice cream to get them on board with the dairy-free, vegan alternatives, so that’s exactly what we did.

3. Instagram

For the very last weekend of summer, Instagram brought their delicious helado to Miami Beach Latin Week. Miami beach-goers were able to enjoy fresh, complimentary ice cream from a show-stopping branded vehicle, as well as experience appearances from their favorite artists like Farruko and more.

Because Miami Latin Week is so popular, this summer promo was the perfect way to continue promoting their new reels feature to a high-volume of people in a memorable way.

Ironically, by creating an experience so unique, we helped Instagram itself became instagrammable. In other words, this summer promo was the perfect way for Instagram to promote itself on its own app and get users excited about their new feature.

4. Zara

In June 2019, Zara transformed a glass truck into a 3D Pride flag using 9,000 colorful Just Water bottles. Parked right in the excitement of the parade, Zara was able to make an important brand statement in support of the LGBTQ+ community, while also bringing general awareness to their clothing brand.

On a hot summer day, cold water is JUST what everyone needed. Brand ambassadors stood outside the truck handing out free waters and inviting attendees to celebrate with Zara. Attendees not only hydrated in style, but they got their bright on by staging photoshoots in front of the iconic rainbow truck, which made for the perfect backdrop for social posts to go viral.

This summer promo was definitely one unforgettable way to keep NYC hydrated, filled with love and pride, and dressed in Zara.

5. Aerie

Aerie’s Waffle Clothing line launched in summer of 2021, and to get the word out about their new line, Aerie partnered with us, serving tasty branded Belgian Boys waffles on a summer mobile tour that people wouldn’t forget.

The summer promo took place in multiple cities like New York City, Chicago, Nashville, Boston, and DC. These big stops were the perfect destinations to grow awareness about Aerie’s new look, so in an extra effort to stay in theme and draw attention, Food Truck Promotions wrapped the truck in a one-of-a-kind waffle design that suited the tour perfectly.

All in all, Aerie capitalized on the summer months to put on a promo that would be truly interactive and immersive. The brand hit more than 5 cities, served 4,000 Belgian Boys Waffles, and garnered more than 3M impressions.

Your Summer Promo is Next

If you’ve liked the work we’ve done with brands in the past, then please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team about your summer promo.

Whether you’re looking for a mobile showroom, a mobile pop up, a mobile café, or a product sampling activation, we can help you execute the branded activation of your dreams.

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Rendering of a Barbie themed pink airstream with a water slide a pool and people enjoying the event.

Come on, Barbie, Let’s Go Market!

There’s no doubt about it — Barbie is back. Everyone’s favorite childhood dream girl is hitting the big screen on July 21, and the hype

A Guide to Branded Food Trucks

Posted on April 26, 2022May 24, 2024 by britney

Experiential Marketing

When it comes to promoting your brand, the main challenge is deciding how to have the most impact and widest reach. Especially with so many brands trying to stand out, entrepreneurs and small business owners are always looking for the next big idea in brand promotion that makes them unique. As far as originality in brand promotion, hardly anything beats branded food trucks.

However, just because an idea is unique, doesn’t guarantee that it will be successful. Thankfully, food trucks are both. Luckily, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive branded food truck guide.

The Food Truck Evolution and Revolution

About fifteen years ago, the food truck took on new life as a trendy spot for gourmet food. Food trucks used to be just a cheap and quick place to eat, but then they took on a new meaning. People began booking them for special events like weddings, birthday parties, graduations.

We’ve now reached a new stage of evolution. Food trucks exceed strictly dining purposes and are being viewed as a vehicle for brands to build consumer awareness and loyalty through immersive branded experiences.

More On The Food Truck Trend for Brand Promotion

You may be wondering, what do ‘immersive branded experiences’ mean, exactly? Well, unlike other forms of advertisement like stand-alone digital ads, commercials, or billboards, immersive branded experiences leave lasting impressions by creating in-person, memorable experiences for customers.

Food trucks are the kings of immersive consumer experiences, helping businesses across the board increase customer knowledge about new products and services through real life experiences like mobile pop-up shops, showrooms, tours, and more.

Branded Food Trucks: A Great Use Of Experiential Marketing

Branded food trucks are a great example of experiential marketing, also known as “XM.” Exactly what is experiential marketing? The key is that it is immersive and engaging. If you just hand someone a product sample, they may take it and use it, but this is hardly immersive.

Immersive experiential marketing engages all their senses in your brand. They’ll see your attractive eye-catching graphics and fonts; hear positive messaging through brand ambassadors who staff your food trucks; and finally, taste and smell familiar or new food treats.

Secondly, emotion is a crucial part of creating a desirability for your brand, and being immersed in the experience of a food truck can create a strong positive emotion that will last.’

Lastly, human connection is a key to experiential marketing. Since your food truck will be staffed by brand ambassadors, you have the chance to directly engage new customers in a fun way that will brighten their day.

Take People By Surprise With Guerrilla Marketing

Another technique that’s shown a lot of success is so-called guerrilla marketing. This takes advantage of the element of surprise. Imagine a group of bored office workers, quietly gathered in a park eating their lunches, when your branded food truck arrives, shaking them out of their mundane day.

Or, think of people enjoying a park with their family. Your branded truck arrives, not to push them to buy, but to simply add to the experience of the day, being immersed in the best of what you have to offer.

Go Viral: Let Your Customers Take Your Social Media Engagement To The Next Level

It’s hardly a secret, people love sharing their lives on social media. It’s all about signaling to others that they lead interesting lives full of fun experiences. Experiential marketing from branded food trucks goes hand and hand with social media sharing.

Customers who feel that positive connection with your brand want to turn that around and share it with the world. Whatever you are doing, make it highly visual and those posts will go flying!

Your social media engagement team should be on top of those posts, with funny and engaging responses.

The In's And Out's Of Getting The Most Out Of Your Branded Food Truck

While the decision to utilize a branded food truck in your marketing campaign is a wise one, and likely to produce a great return on your investment, it’s important that you plan and prepare carefully. Here’s some tips to make sure you get the best return on your investment!

Have A Clear Goal

Branded food trucks are a great way to reach customers, and educate them on the products you provide. However, you need to nail down a fairly specific goal for your campaign. Are you trying to reinvigorate an existing brand? Do you have a new product launch you are trying to promote? Are you a new business trying to build a customer base?

Ask yourself these questions, and many more to decide the goal of your campaign. If it’s too broad, it will lose much of the excitement. If it’s too “niche” you might find many customers that aren’t interested.

Hire Friendly Brand Ambassadors

It’s key that you find friendly and personable people to staff your food truck. Remember that the human connection is key to making the customers experience a positive and memorable one. Make sure they look and act the part of true brand ambassadors, not just “employees” or temporary workers.

Remember their clothing, hairstyles, accessories are all part of the look and feel you are trying to achieve, so making this an integral part of your plan is very important.

Brand Ambassador Training

Building a system for customer interaction is also incredibly important in a successful campaign. What is it that you are trying to achieve? If you have a new product, make sure your ambassadors are trained to answer questions and provide specific highlights. What value does your product or service add to your customers’ lives? Make sure your brand ambassadors are including that in their messaging.

Friendly but not fake is the best demeanor. Today’s customers are more sophisticated than ever, and they always appreciate authenticity over slick and produced. All sorts of people make great candidates for brand ambassadors. The main qualifications are that they are fun, friendly and genuine!

Your ambassadors should have a clear understanding of making some observations of foot traffic, demographic and feedback for your debriefing session, which we’ll talk about below.

Location Selection

You’re making a significant investment of time and cost in your branded food truck so you want to make sure it’s highly visible! You want a popular, highly trafficked location, ideally with a wide cross section of customers that you want to serve.

Preparation and research are keys to success in location selection. Spend some time observing several locations to see exactly where you’d like to position yourself, when and for how long.

Food trucks can be positioned at so many different spots, and you aren’t restricted to just one! That’s the benefit of a branding vehicle on wheels! You can set up on a street in a financial district to attract workers on their lunch break. Farmers markets and community festivals are another great place to find a crowd of eager customers.

You’ll want to reach out to festival organizers to see what options you’d have in terms of location, cost and hours. When it comes to city streets, be sure to check with the local police department to see where you can park and for how long.

Measure Success And Make Changes

At the end of every event or set up, it’s so important to debrief. Collect as much data as you can on demographics and foot traffic. Listen to any challenges that were encountered during the day.

Pay attention to the times that most people engaged with the food truck. Being efficient means being set up at a location when it’s highly trafficked. If activity dropped off early, or picked up late, you can consider moving to additional locations to make the most of your investment.

Food Truck Fundamentals

For as many uses as a food truck can have, you should remember not to forget the basics: good food. You don’t have to be in the F&B Industry to take pride in the culinary aspect of your branded promotion.

Plus, if the product or service you provide is unrelated to the food industry, we’ll work with you to help craft a fun menu with treats that tie into your brand. As we said above, there’s nothing like the power of food to build a positive and memorable experience.

It’s not the menu items that can build your brand, it’s the entire experience including shape and feel of the container, along with the graphics.

Make Branded Food Trucks Part Of Your 2022 Marketing Plan

Some of the biggest companies in the US are utilizing food trucks to reach new customers and deeply engage them in their brand. Whether you have a big business, small business, old or new, food trucks can play a big part in bringing your brand engagement to new heights.

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5 Ways to Test Market Your New Product

Posted on April 12, 2022June 17, 2024 by britney

Experiential Marketing

When you’re anticipating a new product to launch, how can you be sure it will be something your target audience wants? The easy answer is test marketing. Test marketing your product is a sure way to pre-determine the success of your product; however, you should know that there are a few ways to use test marketing to your advantage, and there’s no one-size-fits all strategy.

One approach you can take involves experiential marketing. This strategy involves setting up immersive experiences like mobile showrooms, pop ups, or product sampling activations where potential customers can get a feel of your product before they commit to purchasing.

5 Creative Ways to Test Market Your New Product

Paid surveys
Market research apps
Freelance market researchers
Mobile showrooms
One-on-one connections

We’ll also discuss the pros and cons of each marketing tool so that you can make the best decision for your unique business goals and needs.

What is Experiential Marketing?

The number of business owners who have successfully launched their new products is growing. Yet, how do you know how to effectively market a new product? Although there’s no ‘right answer,’ one of the most popular approaches is experiential marketing.

Experiential marketing involves putting your product in front of potential customers and seeing how they react in real time. In a nutshell, the strategy involves designing an interactive experience that lets people be a part of your business creation in a truly interpersonal way.

Why Use Experiential Marketing?

There are a number of reasons why you might want to consider using experiential marketing to test market your new product. Here are some of the most important ones to consider:

It’s a great way to get feedback from potential customers. When you give your potential clients a chance to experience your product, you can see how they interact and receive honest feedback. This can help you make appropriate changes and improve your product before the launch, saving you time and money.
It’s a cost-effective way to market your product. Experiential marketing is a low-cost way to reach out to potential customers and find the right people who are interested in your product.
It builds excitement around your product. If done well, experiential marketing can generate significant buzz around your product. This can help you pique people’s interest, which can lead to more sales when you launch your product.
It can influence word-of-mouth marketing for your product. Imagine all the potential customers who are enthusiastic to share this unique experience with their friends and family!

How To Test Market Your New Product Using Experiential Marketing

Now that we’ve discussed some of the reasons why you might want to use experiential marketing, let’s take a look at how you can test market your new product using this approach.

Mobile showroom. A mobile showroom is a great way to reach potential customers in different locations. It is also known as a mobile showroom vehicle or mobile boutique, and is a kind of experiential marketing vehicle that develops engagement between brands and consumers. It’s also a cost-effective way to set up an interactive product experience. Check out Food Truck Promotions’ mobile showrooms to discover how we can help you improve the testing and marketing of your business.

Pop-up shop. A pop-up shop is a temporary store that you can set up in high-traffic areas. This is a great way to generate attraction and excitement around your product. It’s also a useful way to get feedback from potential buyers.

Mobile tours. Mobile tours can be organized for experiential marketing events that are activated in multiple locations, cities, and states over a set period of time at any time of year. Mobile tours are held in public areas such as festivals, concerts, fairs, stadiums, parks, and other locations. Summer usually is the most popular season because of the higher concentration of shoppers spending time outdoors.

Mobile Showrooms

As mentioned earlier, mobile showrooms are some of the most popular approaches to experiential marketing. And, creating a mobile showroom is not as difficult as it may appear. The first step is sourcing a vehicle that can be converted into a mini showroom.

Once you have secured a ‘vehicle’ for success, you’ll also need to apply some creativity to create an exhibition space and set up some product displays. The goal is to create a smooth consumer experience where the space allows people sample your product and provide feedback, whether that be direct or indirectly.

Paid Surveys

Paid surveys are a great way to test the market for a new product. You can even integrate surveys into a showroom or pop up experience like discussed previously.

By signing up for a few reputable survey sites, you can easily find out whether people are interested in your product and whether they would be willing to pay for it. You can also get feedback on what people like and don’t like about your product, which can help you make changes before you release it to the public. The most important thing to keep in mind is that your business product is trying to solve a problem and understanding this problem in depth through surveying is a very useful asset!

When choosing a paid survey site, be sure to look for one that is reputable and has a good reputation among users. The site should also offer a variety of surveys that pay well.

By following these tips, you can easily find a reputable paid survey site that will help you test the market for your new product. With a little bit of effort, you can get valuable feedback that will help you make your product serve even better.

Market Research Apps

Market research apps are a great way to get feedback on your new product. There are a number of different apps available, so it’s important to choose the right one for your needs. Some considerations you should make when choosing a market research app include:

The type of research you need to do.
The size of the app’s user base.
The ease of use.
The cost.

Freelance Market Researchers

If you’re looking for a way to test the market for your new product, you may want to consider using freelance market researchers. Freelance market researchers can help you gather information about your target audience and how they might react to your product. They can also help you develop marketing plans and strategies.

When choosing a freelance market researcher, be sure to look for someone who has experience in your industry and knows how to conduct market research. You should also make sure that the researcher is reputable and has a good track record.

The best way to find a good freelance market researcher is to ask around. Talk to other business owners, and see if they have any recommendations. You can also check online review sites to find out what other people have said about the researcher you’re considering.

One-on-one connections

One of the best ways to test the market for your new product is to get personal with potential customers. Talk to them about their problems, needs and how your product can solve their problem. Get curious about how they would feel about using your product.

When getting personal with potential customers, be sure to listen to what they have to say. Take their feedback into account and use it to improve your product.

One of the best way to test the market for your new product that adds value is by getting to know your potential customers on a personal level. It is not so different than the reflecting on relationships in our lives, as the interaction with your product is a relationship created between your client and the business product.

Considerations for Experiential Marketing

There are a number of things that you need to consider before setting up an experiential test marketing activation where your customers will interact with your product. Here are some of the most important ones:

Location: You need to find a high-traffic area where people will be able to see your pop up shop.
Timing: You need to make sure that your pop up shop is open during times when people are likely to be shopping.
Budget: You need to make sure that you have enough money to cover the costs of setting up and running your pop up shop.
Staff: You need to make sure that you have enough staff to run your pop up shop.
Promotions: You need to make sure that you have a plan for promoting your pop up shop.

If you’re not sure how to set up strategies for marketing your product, there are a number of resources available online that can help you. Alternatively, you can contact Food Truck Promotions – we’re always happy to help.

Pros and Cons of Each Experiential Marketing Method

What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each method? What would be the best method for your company specifically? Let’s take a look at each one in turn.

Setting up a pop-up shop or a mobile showroom is a great way to get people to interact with your product. You can control the environment and ensure that potential customers have a positive experience. However, pop-up shops and mobile showrooms can have higher costs to set up and run, and you’ll need to have enough staff on hand to deal with customer queries.

Organizing a mobile tour is a great way to reach a wide audience. It’s also relatively easy to set up and run. However, you’ll need to make sure that you choose your locations carefully, as not all areas will be equally successful. You’ll also need to promote your tour effectively in order to generate interest.

Running surveys or focus groups are a great way to get detailed feedback from potential customers. However, it can be difficult to reach a large number of people this way, and you may not get an accurate picture of how people would interact with your product in the real world.

As you can see, each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. It’s important to weigh up these factors before deciding which approach is best for your company.

Ready to Test Market Your Product?

Experiential marketing is a great way to test market your new product. It allows you to get feedback from potential customers and understand how they interact with your product. You can use all these observations to enhance the user experience of your product. There are a number of different ways that you can use experiential marketing, so choose the method that is best suited to your product and your goals.

With experiential marketing, you can launch your new product with confidence, knowing that you’ve already tested it out on your target market.

Do you have any questions about how to test market your new product? Browse through our services for more information!

Top 10 Best Pop-Ups of 2023

It’s been a big year here at Food Truck Promotions. With the holidays on the horizon and the new year quickly approaching, we’ve been looking back

Creating Experiences That Drive UGC

Why UGC is a Key to Successful Modern Marketing If you are interested in modern marketing, you already know that the advertising world has dramatically

Come on, Barbie, Let’s Go Market!

There’s no doubt about it — Barbie is back. Everyone’s favorite childhood dream girl is hitting the big screen on July 21, and the hype

8 Ways To Use Branded Food Trucks To Ramp Up Sales

Posted on April 7, 2022June 11, 2024 by britney

Experiential Marketing

When food trucks were created in the 70s, they were just a quick, easy, and original way for customers to grab food. Now, food trucks have a different use. Most notably, they can be branded to bring more exposure to a company at corporate events, music festivals, and other community gatherings.

Because of the high visibility that food trucks can get, they are great “vehicles” to showcase brands. While branding a food truck might turn some heads, this alone is not enough to create meaningful brand-consumer relationships. Read along and learn the top 8 ways to use branded food trucks to ramp up sales.

Top 8 Ways to Use Branded Food Trucks

1. Activate At Festivals

One sure way to showcase your branded food truck is by activating in high-engagement locations. Food, art, and music festivals are often perfect spots because they attract foot-traffic. Already high-excitement and high-engagement, these bustling environments give you the opportunity to capitalize on a high volume of approachable people.

By participating in a food, art, or music festivals, you also get the opportunity to check out what tricks other brands are using. Keeping an eye out helps you improve your own mobile experience to create maximum brand awareness.

Also, high foot-traffic locations give you the chance to connect in the long-term. These are the kind of events where you can capture email addresses or have people follow your business on social media.

According to the Hubspot State of Marketing Report published in 2021, email collections were seen as the most successful at converting 15% of viewers or spectators into customers. This is definitely something to keep in mind as you develop call-to-actions at your mobile activation.

2. Capitalize On Mobility

What sets food trucks apart from brick-and-mortar locations is that trucks are mobile. Unlike your standard pop-up shop or showroom, experiential vehicles allow you to go on a mobile tour. So, the benefit of hitting multiple key markets for your brand can’t be overstated.

Because branded food trucks are transportable, you can grow the reach of your product launch, sampling activation, or showroom in an alluring way. Since you’re not locked into a particular area, branded food trucks should opt out of staying in one place at a time. Go ahead- choose a few dream destinations to maximize your visibility.

If you’re open to the idea of a mobile tour, you may wonder how to gain publicity in each of these areas. This is where creating buzz around your mobile tour comes in. Social media is a great tool to let people know where your mobile tour is headed and to create more buzz.

3. Use Geo-locations

Ok, your phone knowing where you are – and maybe even listening to your conversations – can seem creepy, and understandably so. However, there’s a plus side. The fact that smartphones are so in-tune with our lives can serve as a great marketing tool for your branded food truck, especially if you’re on a mobile tour.

Location-based advertising is essentially using location services on a person’s phone to directly reach out. This can mean text messages with product discounts, branded food truck updates, or other brand information. Targeting ads is also a great way you can get people who are in the vicinity of the area to get to know your brand.

Another tool that you can use is Geofencing which enables business owners to target a specific group of people based on their interests.

4. Offer Free Samples, Discounts, and Loyalty

“Free” is everybody’s favorite word. This next tip may seem really simple, but there’s no overstating that complimentary giveaways and exclusive offers are effective and timeless. Using this age-old practice in a new-age a branded food truck makes for the perfect combination to turn heads towards your product.

An experiential vehicle that offers free items will no doubt entice people to try out your product, and in the end, grow to love your brand overall.

A loyalty program is also a great way to encourage customers to keep coming back by rewarding them with freebies.

5. Include Entertainment

Although people initially designed food trucks to be a convenient way to grabbing food on-the-go or outdoors, people are now using these vehicles as a platform for a wide range of offerings.

One way to attract people to your branded food truck is by offering entertainment. This can mean live music or performances, magicians, face painting, arcade games, wheel of fortunes, and more. An extra detail like this is extremely magnetic and is element that will definitely distinguish your mobile activation.

6. Exhaust Social Media

According to Pew Research, 84% of US adults between the ages of 18 to 29 are active social media users. Social media marketing should be at the front and center of your digital marketing strategy.

It’s not enough to just have a social media presence. As a business owner you need to have a designated employee who is posting on your social media. Their job will also entail answering DMs and other interactive features.

Constantly updating your posts and curating your content is also an integral part of your strategy. Sharing human stories about the interactions and experiences you have with customer- is an excellent way to humanize your brand.

In addition, social media giveaways a great way to keep up with your followers and engage with them.

7. Create Eye-Catching Designs

Eye-catching designs are of the utmost importance for your branded truck, and so is every detail down to the menu board.

The actual custom wrap of your food truck is the biggest piece of advertisement for your brand. It allows you to get exposure not only when you’re parked during activation hours, but also when you’re just transporting your truck from one location to another.

However, no detail is unimportant when it comes to creating a branded food truck that will build brand awareness.

8. Partner With Food Vendors

While a branded food truck serves more purposes than just a traditional culinary experience, people will still be expecting delicious food. This expectation is something you can capitalize on by partnering with culinary masters and chefs. This will surely boost your brand and entice people to stop at your branded food truck for more than just the food.

Branded Food Trucks Wrap Up

Food truck marketing is taking the advertising world by storm. It’s an easy and convenient way that you can showcase your brand. With the 8 tips that we shared above, you will see an increase in brand awareness which will positively affect your sales.

Food Truck Promotions can help you elevate your brand using the tactics we talked about. Don’t hesitate to contact us and get your food truck marketing campaign started!

Top 10 Best Pop-Ups of 2023

It’s been a big year here at Food Truck Promotions. With the holidays on the horizon and the new year quickly approaching, we’ve been looking back

Creating Experiences That Drive UGC

Why UGC is a Key to Successful Modern Marketing If you are interested in modern marketing, you already know that the advertising world has dramatically

Come on, Barbie, Let’s Go Market!

There’s no doubt about it — Barbie is back. Everyone’s favorite childhood dream girl is hitting the big screen on July 21, and the hype

How to Host a Trendy Pop-Up Shop Event in Your Neighborhood

Posted on March 28, 2022June 12, 2024 by britney

Experiential Marketing

As a kid, did you and your siblings or friends ever set up your own lemonade stand? If the answer’s yes, then believe it or not, you already have some experience in hosting a pop-up shop event. Well, ok, pop-up shops are much more sophisticated than a ten year old’s lemonade stand, but they’re still inextricably linked to the old practice of setting up in a public location in the morning, interacting with customers, and packing away in the evening. So, if you want to host a trendy pop-up event in your neighborhood, just combine that old tradition with some new tools, and there you have it.

What is a Pop-Up Shop Event?

Pop-ups are more than fashionable, “apparently spontaneous,” or transient events; they offer significant potential for increasing brand awareness, and anyone who has hosted their own knows that they require significant planning and effort. It’s worth noting, too, that when you talk about ‘pop-up shops,’ you’re really talking about something as broad as a ‘party’ or a ‘conference.’ They come in many different forms, depending on the occasion and objective.

Pop-up shops came into popularity only a decade ago, and they’ve become crucial brand awareness platforms in all industries, from tech to fashion to art to hospitality; today, marketers spend up to $600 billion on brand activations.

At their most effective, pop-up shops offer people passing something unusual and exciting on somewhat familiar grounds. But, as everyone who has attempted to perfect the casual look knows, pulling off an extraordinary event with a sense of spontaneity about them requires a lot of planning, ironically enough

Define Your Goals

Write down your goals: this cannot be stressed enough. Doing something as simple as this can help you immensely, helping you prepare, stay on track, and execute your pop-up event. It also aids in client retention and lead generation.

Who doesn’t want to know if they achieved what they set out to achieve? When you have pre-defined goals from the get-go, you can easily refer back and evaluate your success in the end. One or more of the following goals should be the focus of your pop-up shop event: obtain new clients, boost brand awareness, provide an outclass customer experience, and conduct market research.

Create A Standout Concept

You can choose the ideal event theme by assessing your goals. It also acts as a guide for determining what style of the pop-up store to open, what materials to buy, and how to advertise it once it’s up and running. Rather than sacrificing your idea to accommodate a location, select a location that matches your theme.

Whatever your event concept may be, just make sure your identity and concept are obvious, engaging, and support one or all of your event goals. The beauty of the pop-up idea is that you don’t have to offer your goods or services directly. It might be as basic as putting on public activities.

For example, consider TULA Skincare, a popular influencer beauty brand, which held a pop-up event in Dallas to promote one of its newest products. The tropical-themed event had lots of balloons, a manicure station, and a beautiful background for photos that created a lifetime experience for the guests.

Choose Your Pop-Up Shop Venue

Okay, now that you have a great concept and a defined framework, start looking for good locations, and maybe more crucially: places you don’t want to be in. Think about where prospects work, chat, dine, and unwind when picking an event location. If you’re selling tickets, the uniqueness of the experience is a factor in how much they’ll pay. Following that, it’s preferable to provide special bargains or bonuses to entice new clients.

When you have decided on a location, things start to get tricky. How much room is needed? Is it an indoor or outdoor event? Seated event? Try putting somebody with a knack for logistics on your team so they can help you! If this is a solo-project, you may seek advice from professionals, which is to say, us. We’d love to learn more about your next pop-up. Simply tell us what type of venue you want, and we’ll provide you with some fantastic possibilities for how to host a pop-up event.

Don't Go Solo - Collaborate On Your Pop-Up Shop

Consider a pop-up collaboration. Is it necessary? Absolutely not. But, collaboration is a great idea and adds to the enigmatic nature of your event. A co-branded and hosted event can have a bigger reach and appeal.

In other words, people are more inclined to make an effort to attend or stop at your pop-up if they realize it’s a one-of-a-kind, limited collaboration.

Spread The Word With Creative Marketing

There’s no denying that social media is vital for spreading the word and generating interest. So, in the weeks leading up to your event, come up with a catchy hashtag that would grab attention, create mysterious social media posts, and keep them wondering!

Invite bloggers and influencers to your pop-up event because they have a large following who will become aware of your event. And they will introduce you to a new target audience you may not have considered previously. This might expand the scope of your marketing activities far beyond the event.

Word-of-mouth is a great way to spread your name swiftly. Create an extraordinary experience for your guests because you want them to talk about your event when they leave, don’t you?

Also, don’t overlook other types of conventional offline marketing. For example, leave flyers and leaflets at places where your target audience is saturated because you want to attract potential customers.

Lastly, reach out to folks who cannot attend your event in person. Provide visually appealing images as well as a succinct, relevant hashtag. If you’re going to live stream, make sure your images are distinctive and eye-catching, and test them on mobile and laptop devices.

Set A Budget

The best way to proceed is to be forthright with a real budget early on because our bank accounts are not limitless as our imagination. Making a budget beforehand will assist you in determining where to rent, as well as the price of the ticket, food, beverages, and items. It facilitates and simplifies decision-making.

Due to the transient nature of pop-up shop events, it’s impossible to accurately estimate the finances. However, it would be favorable to start by making an objective to break even.

Wrap Up

The importance of planning cannot be overstated. So, plan, doublecheck and doublecheck the doublecheck. Good research is also an element of planning. So, when are you hosting your trendy pop-up shop event in your neighborhood?

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Want help executing your pop-up shop? We’ll take your brand to the streets. Learn more about us and contact us today!