Pop-up retail marketing is fundamentally designed to provide a metaphysical outlet for brands to see beyond the boundaries of their own brick and mortar and provide experiences for consumers that excite, entertain, and illustrate the innovation of the brand. The mobile medium is uniquely equipped to provide that same level of intrigue, based on an understanding of the context through which a consumer engages in brand encounters.

1. Integrating Mobile into Pop-Up
Retail Marketing Strategies

2. The conceptual model of pop-up retail is certainly not a
new strategy in the brand and product marketing
playbook. Pop-up stores have been effectively
employed by a number of the world’s most recognizable
brands.

3. Most often they are used to introduce new product,
gauge consumer interests, and enhance exposure
through cleverly placed, transitory concept venues that
are designed to generate buzz by creating an out of the
ordinary brand experience.

4. By nature both experiential and ephemeral, the pop-up
concept forces a greater degree of interactivity and
imaginative engagement between brand and consumer
because the timetable to create memorable impressions
is accelerated.

5. The consumer desire to experience a pop-up venue is
fueled by time sensitivity and exclusive access to the
brand. Customers want the opportunity to experience a
unique orchestration of art and commerce available to a
limited few, given time and space restrictions.

6. For these orchestrations to be staged and performed
symphonically, however, brands must invest extensive
economic and operational resources in these
intentionally limited interval sprints designed to generate
excitement among a limited consumer base able to
experience them.

7. The persistent question among brand marketers
continues to be how to most effectively scale an
innovative pop-up strategy to achieve maximum
exposure impact. Enter the mobile medium, and the
introduction of a new, complimentary approach to pop-
up experiential marketing.

8. The essence of the pop-up experience is time sensitivity,
location and exclusivity. Much the same is true when
speaking of the differentiated elements of the mobile
medium. The mobile medium is location aware, dialed-in
to time, intensely personal, action-oriented, and
integrated into the social DNA of of a consumer
audience of often moving targets.

9. As such, the medium conveys a unique value proposition
to experiential brand marketing – offering a transitive
platform for a more scalable and consistent pop-up retail
delivery infrastructure.

10. To intelligently integrate mobile for this highly scalable
model, considerations must be given to the aspects of
the medium that make it unique.

11. Whereas the physical pop-up experience is spatially
focused – with considerations concentrated primarily on
location, staging, atmosphere, and exhibition – the
success of pop-up mobile encounters is predicated on
creating actionable mobile moments that adhere to the
following fundamental premises:

12. The Mobile Consumer is a Moving Target
!
The mobile medium is constantly connected and often in
motion. As such, it represents the ideal events-driven
medium for engaging consumers in a pop-up fashion.
Effective mobile events, when properly orchestrated,
consist of actionable, properly sequenced occurrences
and provide an instantaneous portal into the brand
encounter. This ability to effectively market in the
moment bridges communication lag, with precision aim
focused at the moving target.

13. The Mobile Medium is Transitive
!
Mobile provides a consistent interface for customers to
assist in the navigation of an ever-evolving ecosystem of
digital consumer touchpoints. The transitive functions of
the mobile medium provide the continuous messaging
and engagement capabilities necessary to deliver a pop-
up marketing model. This model ensures a balanced,
timely, and relevant encounter with the brand, providing
heightened degrees of interaction.

14. The Mobile Medium is Contextually Aware
!
Location and time recognition capabilities specific to the
medium allow savvy pop-up mobile marketers to engage
consumers in a contextually relevant manner. The
effectiveness of any pop-up mobile marketing campaign
is predicated on being relevant. Communicating branded
messaging with an understanding of time and space
creates interaction momentum and encourages
consumer engagement.

15. Pop-up retail marketing is fundamentally designed to
provide a metaphysical outlet for brands to see beyond
the boundaries of their own brick and mortar and
provide experiences for consumers that excite, entertain,
and illustrate the innovation of the brand.

16. The mobile medium is uniquely equipped to provide that
same level of intrigue, based on an understanding of the
context through which a consumer engages in brand
encounters.

17. The imaginations of marketers are free to guide
consumers along a collaborative journey and create truly
engaging, consistent, and scalable experiences that build
intimacy and loyalty, while highlighting the creative
vision and innovative nature of the brand.

18. Scott Forshay
scott.forshay@gmail.com
Twitter @scottforshay