Top of the Pops

It doesn’t matter if you couldn’t care less about Elizabeth’s bash nor give two hoots how quickly a man you’ve never heard of can get from A to B on a stretch of track in Stratford: 2012 is set to be a big year.  And don’t the marketing men (and women) know it.

We’re set to be swamped under a deluge of marketing bumph coming in from all angles.  Some of it will cleverly relate to the Jubilee or Olympics; the very clever ones will try to allude to both; the less imaginative ones will probably not make any effort, opting to exploit the occasions without paying lip service to them.

Here at FRUKT we predict seeing more activations in unexpected places and adhering to the principle of less is more.  What serves as a better platform for this than the experiential pop up?

Pop ups are, of course, nothing new in brand world.  Following the model established by pop up retail spaces and pop up restaurants we have seen a steady influx of temporary activations designed to promote products to a temporarily engaged audience.  This spans from the lateral thinking of Nike offering massages to sporty types in the Runners Lounge, to the more intriguing marriage of whiskey and haircuts.

They are a no-brainer in many ways due their ability to appear quickly, unexpectedly and without breaking the budget.  Not only are you catching people off guard in a sure fire way to maximize impact, but you are doing so in a cost effective way.  Result.

Furthermore, it’s not solely about austerity, but also a matter of zeitgeist.  We live in fickle times, where today’s viral sensation is tomorrow’s spam, and so the immediacy of the pop up negates any fear of being out of date before you’ve had an opportunity to speak to your target market.  Pop ups appeal to the early adopter market more than most other experiential routes.  They gift the ‘discoverer’ with elevated tastemaker status and instant bragging rights, valuable currencies whether in the boozer or on social media.

The beauty of a pop up activation is that in the right location they actively take the brand to the consumer.  Yet creating an effective pop up is not as easy as filling a shipping container with gimmicky props, plonking it in a busy city centre and scrawling a logo over it.  It is paramount to consider the content inside, how this relates to the brand message and why it contributes to the economy of experience for your (potential) consumer.  For years the digital marketers told us that content was king, brands need to realise that the same principle applies in the real world.