Hype up your Pop-Up Event. Build a marketing strategy that is well within budget.

Take the time to build positive hype around your brand and your Pop-Up Event. This is the first step towards meeting your financial and customer experience goals. Make it easy to define success by defining your initiatives clearly.

After a year of hosting Pop-Up Events: shops, art openings, fashion presentations and branding events, I’ve realized that the brands walking away from the experience with the most confidence, are accomplishing their goals by executing creative branding strategies that are well thought out and well within budget .

The right RSVP list
Most recently, Côte&Ciel produced their first US-based Pop-up in New York Ci

ty at Open Gallery Space.  Côte&Ciel focused on an original marketing strategy, a modern build out, and a solid RSVP list of press, big-box retailers, and local fans. Creatively using the space and time frame of their pop-up brought dynamism to the overall production. That style of execution provided Côte&Ciel with increased brand excitement and a number of valuable takeaways from their in-person, press, buyer, and customer interactions.

A once in a lifetime chance
General Idea, serves as a good example of how embracing a novel approach to the pop-up shop model will yield results. General Idea created a unique experience for press, retailers, clientele and fans over a month long fashion presentation featuring Autumn/Winter 2014 and Spring/Summer 2015. The “right off the runway” previewing and pre-order opportunity for S/S-15’ provided attendees an inside scoop behind the brands’ new and forthcoming collections. This runway/sales-floor guaranteed fashionistas and buyers alike that they would be sure to get the seasons fashions before anyone else.

It’s just you and me in this
The Transience, created a Made-In-New-York event, converting Open Gallery Space into a “factory plus retail store”, allowing clientele the opportunity to intimately experience the production of the bag they had just purchased. Through innovation and a robust marketing strategy which garnished a variety of press, The Transience was able to gain the exposure a new brand requires in order to succeed.

Shhh, it’s a secret
Kanye West was one of Open Gallery Space’s first clients and his Yeezus Tour Merch Shop revealed what a major brand can do using experiential marketing to take full advantage of the proper neighborhood. The Yeezus team cast a wide net with their marketing but strategically positioned the pop-up as being at a secret location. Releasing the location just hours before the opening brought on a social media frenzy that created a line wrapped around the building and blocks down the street. The Kanye empire managed to net $300,000 in two days selling t-shirts, hats, and tote bags.

Be novel 
An original build-out and out-of-the-box thinking when creating hype proves to be the biggest influencers of pop-up success. The most successful brands focus on building a novel customer experience and a measurable acquisition strategy. In short, being novel will ensure maximum exposure.