With the Christmas season and New Year’s Eve celebrations behind us, holiday decorations and festive pop-up stores are probably the last things on your mind. Nevertheless, this is a good time of the year to look back at the best holiday pop-ups, retail experiences, brand activations, and visual creative merchandising campaigns that were rolled out over the last month or two. There is a fine art to designing and delivering temporary retail activations that make a mark without deviating from your brand identity. Holiday pop-ups need to be original, engaging, and impactful. A good holiday pop-up or brand activation will attract new shoppers and facilitate positive associations with your brand. Pop-up stores present a valuable opportunity to target new market regions and shopper demographics. Online brands can also benefit from reaching a wider audience and introducing their products to customers who prefer in-person shopping over e-commerce. Let’s take a look at some of the most impressive holiday pop-up stores and experience this past Christmas. Quick facts: Pop-ups can improve market visibility and increase sales by as much as 50%, according to Business Insider.According to Storefront, launching a pop-up store can cut the costs of a full-sized brick-and-mortar outlet by up to 80%.Only 15% of retailers in the Asia Pacific region plan to launch more pop-up stores, according to a survey by Statista. This indicates a major gap in the market for brands and retailers to maximise the benefits of pop-up formats — enhanced customer experiences and brand visibility at lower costs and shorter rollout timelines. AllBright x The White Company In London, AllBright partnered with the homeware retailer, The White Company, to host a multisensory winter holiday pop-up experience on the rooftop of the Mayfair members’ club. AllBright is a collaborative business and community initiative with a digital platform where professional courses and online events are curated for its members. Existing and new members of the AllBright club were treated to a cosy pop-up experience fitted out with luxury linens, home decor, kitchenware and furniture from The White Company. With seasonal scents and elegant holiday decorations adorning the pop-up event space, visitors could indulge in winter cocktails and magical city views from the rooftop. This brand collaboration was a good fit since one partner provided the venue while the other ensured a stylish and comfortable environment for guests to dwell in. The cocktails on offer were crafted using winter herbs and were inspired by The White Company’s winter scent collection. This is an excellent example of elevating the product experience by engaging hospitality. Cost-efficiency was promoted by utilising the existing venue, furniture and display items. Both brands won: visitors could browse and get a feel for the homeware products from The White Company while engaging with the AllBright club activities. Cocktails by Candlelight The UK-based online brand, Cocktails by Candlelight, hosted an in-person workshop and community event inspired by Christmas scents and flavours. The brand sells bespoke candle and cocktail making kits that shoppers can make at home. The kits include all the ingredients needed along with detailed instructions and a personalised Spotify playlist to accompany the at-home activity. The brand offers private classes and corporate bookings. To extend its in-person experience offering, the brand hosted an immersive pop-up event in London, inviting shoppers to partake in a candlelit masterclass to make their own Christmas candles and winter holiday drinks. Visitors spent 90 minutes in a guided workshop as they learned to create their own eco-friendly coconut wax candles and Christmas cocktails. This experience is a great example of a predominantly online brand employing the pop-up format to reach a wider audience and build valuable connections with its customers. The subtle festive touches were effectively integrated into the experience, creating a useful template for similar pop-up experiences in the future — whether they are targeted at a specific holiday or event, or simply hosted to engage visitors in a hands-on product discovery environment. Pinkmas at Museum of Ice Cream The Museum of Ice Cream in New York hosted a series of holiday-themed installations to enhance the visitor experience over the Christmas period. Ranging from giant candy canes and pink Christmas trees to snowflakes and a sprinkle pool, the Pinkmas holiday experience featured 13 multisensory installations that entertained visitors of all ages. Interactive and experiential elements were woven into the installation, inviting guests to craft ornaments and decorate the trees while enjoying sweet treats and seasonal cocktails at the museum cafe. A special after-hours nighttime adventure was also on offer. In conjunction with the holiday installation, the museum encouraged visitors to donate toys for the Toys For Tots programme in exchange for complimentary ice cream to enjoy while exploring the museum. The Laundrette of Dreams The LEGO Group collaborated with the award-winning artist and designer, Yinka Ilori, to create a stunning interactive art installation and play space called ‘The Laundrette of Dreams’. The design reimagines a community laundrette as a colourful and immersive play area that was built using more than 200,000 LEGO bricks. The design is inspired by the artist’s childhood memories of accompanying his family to the laundrette where they lived in North London. Demonstrating how children use creative play and imagination to transform mundane tasks into adventures, the installation featured giant mural walls, kaleidoscope laundry drums, colourful hopscotch flooring, and LEGO-dispensing vending machines. Located on Bethnal Green Road in London, the installation ran for a limited time during October and November 2021. Although this is not a strictly holiday-themed pop-up, it is a prime example of creative, interactive design that prioritises a family-friendly customer experience over once-off transactions. The pop-up succeeded in engaging visitors of all ages. Children were captivated by the interactive space made from toys while their parents were immersed in the nostalgia of playing with LEGO blocks in a retro laundrette setting. Digitally-focused Gen Z and millennials visitors were quick to take to social media to share images of the vibrant and playful design. Tips for designing successful holiday pop-ups Stay true to your brand identity (but think outside the box).Keep it simple — focus on only a few products or a particular experience you have to offer.Prioritise customer experience over transactions.Choose the location based on your target customers.Stick to your budget.Harness interactive elements such as product demonstrations or VR/AR experiences.Set clear KPIs to measure the success of the pop-up.Consider doubling up on customer reach by partnering with another brand.Create a call-to-action to engage shoppers.Ensure efficiency by providing quick and convenient ways to pay.Implement smart retail merchandising principles to take shoppers on a journey through the pop-up store or experience.Have fun with visual merchandising, product displays, cross-merchandising, and window displays. Greater Group is a multi-disciplinary global retail design agency. We have been creating award-winning retail spaces, customer experiences and workplaces since 1989, utilising our combined expertise to deliver high-impact, high-return design, fit-out and manufacturing solutions and provide clients with one point of contact throughout. Share :
With the Christmas season and New Year’s Eve celebrations behind us, holiday decorations and festive pop-up stores are probably the last things on your mind. Nevertheless, this is a good time of the year to look back at the best holiday pop-ups, retail experiences, brand activations, and visual creative merchandising campaigns that were rolled out over the last month or two. There is a fine art to designing and delivering temporary retail activations that make a mark without deviating from your brand identity. Holiday pop-ups need to be original, engaging, and impactful. A good holiday pop-up or brand activation will attract new shoppers and facilitate positive associations with your brand. Pop-up stores present a valuable opportunity to target new market regions and shopper demographics. Online brands can also benefit from reaching a wider audience and introducing their products to customers who prefer in-person shopping over e-commerce. Let’s take a look at some of the most impressive holiday pop-up stores and experience this past Christmas. Quick facts: Pop-ups can improve market visibility and increase sales by as much as 50%, according to Business Insider.According to Storefront, launching a pop-up store can cut the costs of a full-sized brick-and-mortar outlet by up to 80%.Only 15% of retailers in the Asia Pacific region plan to launch more pop-up stores, according to a survey by Statista. This indicates a major gap in the market for brands and retailers to maximise the benefits of pop-up formats — enhanced customer experiences and brand visibility at lower costs and shorter rollout timelines. AllBright x The White Company In London, AllBright partnered with the homeware retailer, The White Company, to host a multisensory winter holiday pop-up experience on the rooftop of the Mayfair members’ club. AllBright is a collaborative business and community initiative with a digital platform where professional courses and online events are curated for its members. Existing and new members of the AllBright club were treated to a cosy pop-up experience fitted out with luxury linens, home decor, kitchenware and furniture from The White Company. With seasonal scents and elegant holiday decorations adorning the pop-up event space, visitors could indulge in winter cocktails and magical city views from the rooftop. This brand collaboration was a good fit since one partner provided the venue while the other ensured a stylish and comfortable environment for guests to dwell in. The cocktails on offer were crafted using winter herbs and were inspired by The White Company’s winter scent collection. This is an excellent example of elevating the product experience by engaging hospitality. Cost-efficiency was promoted by utilising the existing venue, furniture and display items. Both brands won: visitors could browse and get a feel for the homeware products from The White Company while engaging with the AllBright club activities. Cocktails by Candlelight The UK-based online brand, Cocktails by Candlelight, hosted an in-person workshop and community event inspired by Christmas scents and flavours. The brand sells bespoke candle and cocktail making kits that shoppers can make at home. The kits include all the ingredients needed along with detailed instructions and a personalised Spotify playlist to accompany the at-home activity. The brand offers private classes and corporate bookings. To extend its in-person experience offering, the brand hosted an immersive pop-up event in London, inviting shoppers to partake in a candlelit masterclass to make their own Christmas candles and winter holiday drinks. Visitors spent 90 minutes in a guided workshop as they learned to create their own eco-friendly coconut wax candles and Christmas cocktails. This experience is a great example of a predominantly online brand employing the pop-up format to reach a wider audience and build valuable connections with its customers. The subtle festive touches were effectively integrated into the experience, creating a useful template for similar pop-up experiences in the future — whether they are targeted at a specific holiday or event, or simply hosted to engage visitors in a hands-on product discovery environment. Pinkmas at Museum of Ice Cream The Museum of Ice Cream in New York hosted a series of holiday-themed installations to enhance the visitor experience over the Christmas period. Ranging from giant candy canes and pink Christmas trees to snowflakes and a sprinkle pool, the Pinkmas holiday experience featured 13 multisensory installations that entertained visitors of all ages. Interactive and experiential elements were woven into the installation, inviting guests to craft ornaments and decorate the trees while enjoying sweet treats and seasonal cocktails at the museum cafe. A special after-hours nighttime adventure was also on offer. In conjunction with the holiday installation, the museum encouraged visitors to donate toys for the Toys For Tots programme in exchange for complimentary ice cream to enjoy while exploring the museum. The Laundrette of Dreams The LEGO Group collaborated with the award-winning artist and designer, Yinka Ilori, to create a stunning interactive art installation and play space called ‘The Laundrette of Dreams’. The design reimagines a community laundrette as a colourful and immersive play area that was built using more than 200,000 LEGO bricks. The design is inspired by the artist’s childhood memories of accompanying his family to the laundrette where they lived in North London. Demonstrating how children use creative play and imagination to transform mundane tasks into adventures, the installation featured giant mural walls, kaleidoscope laundry drums, colourful hopscotch flooring, and LEGO-dispensing vending machines. Located on Bethnal Green Road in London, the installation ran for a limited time during October and November 2021. Although this is not a strictly holiday-themed pop-up, it is a prime example of creative, interactive design that prioritises a family-friendly customer experience over once-off transactions. The pop-up succeeded in engaging visitors of all ages. Children were captivated by the interactive space made from toys while their parents were immersed in the nostalgia of playing with LEGO blocks in a retro laundrette setting. Digitally-focused Gen Z and millennials visitors were quick to take to social media to share images of the vibrant and playful design. Tips for designing successful holiday pop-ups Stay true to your brand identity (but think outside the box).Keep it simple — focus on only a few products or a particular experience you have to offer.Prioritise customer experience over transactions.Choose the location based on your target customers.Stick to your budget.Harness interactive elements such as product demonstrations or VR/AR experiences.Set clear KPIs to measure the success of the pop-up.Consider doubling up on customer reach by partnering with another brand.Create a call-to-action to engage shoppers.Ensure efficiency by providing quick and convenient ways to pay.Implement smart retail merchandising principles to take shoppers on a journey through the pop-up store or experience.Have fun with visual merchandising, product displays, cross-merchandising, and window displays. Greater Group is a multi-disciplinary global retail design agency. We have been creating award-winning retail spaces, customer experiences and workplaces since 1989, utilising our combined expertise to deliver high-impact, high-return design, fit-out and manufacturing solutions and provide clients with one point of contact throughout. Share :