Making retail experiences POP: the rise in popularity of pop-up shops | TheBusinessDesk.com

With the monumental rise of online shopping and a shift in consumer behaviour, particularly amongst younger millennials and Gen-Z audiences, some brands have struggled to offer a meaningful connection with their audiences as they move away from the traditional high street way of shopping.

What we’re seeing more and more brands do incredibly effectively offer experiential and tactile interactions through short-life ‘pop-up’ shops and displays. The agile and flexible nature of a short-term pop-up presence gives brands the ability to be more playful, more thoughtful, and more innovative than taking a brick-and-mortar space.

A pop-up branding experience is also a great opportunity to look at sustainability through the messaging and use of materials, showcasing the brand’s mission and values whilst giving the audience something new and exciting.

We’ve scoured the internet to compile a list of our favourite brand pop-ups below:

Oatly’s Fountain of Youth

Recently launched into Italy for the first time during Milan Design Week, Oatly’s pop-up shop featured a whimsical ‘fountain of youth’ with gentle cascades of oat milk inviting visitors in while they wait to be served an oat-milk coffee from the serene serving hatch.

Pantone’s Pop-up Café 

While they’re not planning on diversifying into the food and beverage industry, Pantone’s pop-up Monaco café offers visitors a range of snacks and drinks corresponding to their industry-standard colour values. Would you go for a Pantone 16-0924 croissant? Or sip a Pantone 17-1227 latte?

Lego’s Valentine’s pop-up: Le Florist

In the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, Lego decided to do something a bit different and turned their Creator floral range into a full-blown floristry pop-up in the heart of Battersea. They got Lego employees to help build the 220 boxes of Lego to populate the shop, and it was a great way of showcasing the range to an audience you may not traditionally associate with Lego products.

Hamley’s Retail Experience – from DRPG 

When you hear the name Hamley’s, wonderful scenes of delight and magic are conjured by the imagination; a whir of activity, colours and surprises. So, when DRPG was approached by Exertis, one of Europe’s fastest-growing tech distribution companies, to craft an installation at Hamley’s, the inner kid in all of them was super excited!

An installation for Hamley’s flagship store on Regent Street, it had to not only last three years, but encourage repeat footfall, word of mouth and social sharing. It had to be engaging and experiential; somewhere to get lost in. One particular challenge was being sympathetic to the brand guidelines of the 11 different brands the installation housed.

You can read more about Hamley’s case study over at DRPG: https://www.drpgroup.com/en/experience/ee-summer-of-founders-roadshow

EE Summer of Founders Roadshow – from DRPG 

The Summer of Founders Roadshow for telecoms company EE marked the coming together of all EE colleagues, known as founders. It needed to not only be highly motivational and informative, but it needed to be clever enough to cater to various audiences and durable enough to pack down and travel well over the six weeks it was in use.

Stopping at 43 locations over the UK, and reaching over 16,000 team members, the roadshow formed part of the EE Live Experience. The roadshow brought to life each internal EE business function for the team to discover from Customer Care, Sales, Partners and Retail to Corporate; playing, talking and networking were all imperative to enrich the team’s understanding of what’s new in EE, and the exciting innovations on the horizon.

You can read more about the roadshow over at DRPG: https://www.drpgroup.com/en/experience/ee-summer-of-founders-roadshow