The PR & Marketing Successes of Brand Pop-Ups
Bricks and mortar still reign supreme in the interiors world. Pop-up designs and temporary retail spaces are proving their worth for brands who need more time to take the plunge with a permanent residency and, of course, for spaces explicitly designed to be fleeting. There is no doubt that seeing a product in person is hugely beneficial - not only to consumers looking to purchase or interior designers sourcing items for clients but also to journalists who need to mention the textures, colours and patterns in their copy. These details can be hard to convey through imagery alone.
Image credit: Otto Tiles and Design x RIXO Selfridges
We’ve worked with plenty of clients who have had their own brand pop-ups, taken part in industry installations in line with key design moments throughout the year, or have other innovative ways to allow their audiences to experience their offering without committing to permanent locations.
Temporary = exclusive
A pop-up's allure comes from the fact that it is temporary, providing a short window of opportunity for visitors to attend and experience a product or service in situ. Marketing emails and social media content that highlight the limited-time nature of the opening help generate a buzz, a sense of urgency, and excitement to encourage high footfall. A strategic PR campaign that positions the news of the opening and its exclusivity in front of the right audience will undoubtedly help encourage additional drop-ins.
Our agency, equipped with both PR and digital expertise, can help you align your communications for maximum impact and exposure. We understand the importance of a well-timed PR campaign and a strategic social media presence. By ensuring that a piece of great coverage is published the same week your social media campaign kicks off, we can guarantee wider brand recognition. This means potential customers will be reminded of your brand in print, digitally, and on social media, maximizing your exposure and impact.
Source: Architectural Digest - Bottega Veneta
A great example of a recent opening that is sure to encourage discussion and draw a crowd is an appointment-only location by Bottega Veneta. The luxury fashion house has opened a new creative and cultural residence in a 15th-century gothic palace right in the heart of Venice. The residence offers personal consultations, red-carpet service, made-to-order pieces for their VICs, and access to city-wide industry events. The resulting press coverage and social media buzz will encourage further discussion and wider awareness of the space.
Engaging audiences
It's not just about showcasing products at a pop-up. It's about creating an immersive experience that engages all the senses. Customers can feel the fabrics, touch different textures, sit on furniture pieces, and appreciate the scent of new fragrances. This direct interaction fosters deeper connections with the attending audience, whether it's editors, interior designers, industry specialists, or the public. There's nothing quite like immersing your audience in the brand's history, messaging, and products.
Source: Somerset House | Shelter Boutique
Opportunity for product feedback
Brands can also use pop-up spaces or even presence at temporary design fairs and exhibitions as a trial for new ideas. Asking for feedback from your audience, especially those who have long supported the brand, can help inform decision-making about design updates or new launches. For example, one of our clients, a longtime exhibitor at Decorex, uses this time to showcase new prototypes and receive feedback from their critical contacts alongside their main launch to keep improving the prototype ahead of the following year’s launch. It has proven incredibly effective: their clients appreciate having their voices heard; the brand knows the result is a product collaborative with their target demographic.
Building relationships
Source: Hill House Lifestyle
While in situ, brands and designers can host events or one-on-one visits to engage further and build brand awareness with their target demographics. We’re working with Hill House Interiors, who have a temporary residency in the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour to promote the launch of a debut product collection, and have helped to organise exclusive events to meet with other designers, an invitation-only press preview, and broader networking opportunities that align with their current database and potential future clients. Personal invitations and opportunities to meet the founders and creative forces in the business tend to lead to further avenues for brand promotion or press activity. An engaged audience will also freely publicise their attendance on their social channels, furthering the reach and engagement beyond your current orbit.
Strategic media coverage
With internal marketing promotion activity, a considered approach to media outreach will further boost the success of your pop-up. We have a wealth of media contacts and know which publications rely on news of store openings and launches, who are more interested in interviewing the faces behind the brand, how to position collection imagery, and which Q&A will encourage visits from the right audience. News of a pop-up on its own isn’t always enough to capture the attention of key press, so working with clients to consider additional angles ensures our success pitching the story in and success for the client once published.
Driving sales
A key objective, of course, is to encourage sales of the products displayed or a growth in customer engagement with a service. Visitors are more inclined to purchase once they have experienced the brand in person - this is the case for both returning clients and to increase sales for new audiences. The exclusive element comes into play as well, with visitors likely to be drawn in by the allure of a limited edition offer or unique items not yet seen elsewhere.
Depending on the location of your temporary showroom or display space, you might find that some visitors will stumble across your brand by accident while out and about. This could lead to new connections with people your brand might have yet to reach through traditional marketing activity.
Networking and inspiration
Whether hosting your own showroom residency or popping up at temporary industry installations and exhibitions, there are opportunities for networking, to meet with current and potential future contacts. The Design Centre’s WOW!house is an excellent example of this, technically a pop-up for 20+ interior designers to showcase their craft and creativity, but offering avenues for wider brand and industry involvement. Open to visitors from all walks of life, WOW!house has become a place to meet and greet, to introduce friendly faces, to be inspired. It’s not just the designers who benefit, but the wider community.
We have a client who provided flooring for one of the room sets at WOW!house this year, thus improving their relationship with that designer and their community, while also allowing them to promote their involvement in marketing activity, and encouraging new business leads through the increased exposure and awareness. The return on investment has simply skyrocketed.
“WOW!house has been a brilliant way to engage with a new audience who visit the show and then go on to discover the Design Centre as a destination, often spending a day visiting showrooms, attending tours or talks and enjoying lunch at the Design Restaurant by Social Pantry.
Once visitors have experienced the Design Centre this way, they return throughout the year, particularly to see the new collections and hear from renowned speakers at our flagship events London Design Week in spring and Focus every autumn.”
Temporary showrooms and brand installations are a great asset within PR and marketing campaigns, particularly in the interiors world where seeing something in person really can sway an opinion. Through the presentation of products directly to the desired audience, visitors can experience the tangible qualities of the pieces while learning more about the story of the brand and meeting the faces behind the innovation and design.
Maximising your time in the pop-ups, events and personal invitations to editors or most faithful customers will not only bolster support but also forge deeper, more personal connections. Not all visitors will be in purchasing mode at that exact moment, however when it comes to them reconsidering their decor down the line, fond memories of your brand will help steer them back. Consumers want to purchase more meaningfully, from brands that are sharing their stories and their backgrounds. By building those relationships, you will inspire loyalty in your customer database.
There is no doubt that the ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ approach is not just effective, but also strategic - both in a PR and marketing strategy and in drawing in visitors who want to feel they are seeing something new, something exclusive. By generating buzz on and offline, it is possible to broaden the scope of audiences seeing your brand - whether they can visit or not, the constant reminder that you’re doing something interesting and unique will grab their attention.
“Digital engagement is essential, and we ensured there were lots of strands to our social strategy, including interviews with our WOW!house designers and room sponsors. These one-to-ones give our audience a sense that they are glimpsing behind the scenes, learning the stories behind the designs and the concepts behind the schemes.
That said, digital cannot compare with an in-person visit to WOW!house, the thrill of walking through spaces designed by legendary designers and rising stars whose work we can usually only access in the pages of a magazine. ”
Permanent shopfronts might not be feasible for every brand. Still, there is undoubtedly merit and worth in looking into temporary residencies to enhance your brand perception and grow resonance with the press, the public, and those in the industry.
