Best way to Pop-Up Store — Google Hardware Store
So its a cold and crisp fall day in New York City and I am walking through Soho, during Black Friday and then suddenly I get the smell of hot sweet chocolate. I look up, only see a large Dominique Ansel Food Truck one of the best bakeries in the world handing out pink hot chocolate and fresh baked cookies on the street. I see people decked in light pink shouting happy Not Pink Dayand I grab a cookie look to my left and see Google Hardware store!? What is this all about?
I step inside and I see this amazing Pop-Up store decked out to look like some kind of hipster, modern, cool looking Pop-Up store for Google, showcasing hardware products in the coolest, and most interactive way possible….
The Google staff handed us a treasure map and went place to place on this adventure of interacting with products different stands and activities with products like the Google Home, Nest or the new Google Pixel Slate and see what surprises the store has. You could make your way downstairs to the kawaii kitchen that if you say the “magic words” to Google she pops out a surprise for you in the kitchen. Then climb up into the Smart Tree house, with swing sets under a roof of green leaves or head up and take selfies from a bucket. All of this in the middle of the concrete streets and buildings of Soho, NYC. This was on of the best immersive Pop-Up stores I have ever been to. I don’t want to give too much away because there are a lot of surprises if you get a chance to check it out. But Google did an amazing job, letting you experience what the features of their hardware products can do and how there were so many interesting ways that it could fit in your everyday lifestyle or in your house. If you bought something there was even a cool little wrapping station down stairs, which was perfect for the Black Friday Day and beginning of the Christmas shopping season.
Why it is the best example:
This is the perfect example of what Pop-Up stores should be like, for a business or brand. You really want to take your consumers into a journey of what your products and services are in the most creative way.
From this experience you really got an education of the products and services and an understanding of the Google brand
- How Google Home can help you with your cooking or be your personal sue chef at home, or DJ or even be like Jarvis from Iron Man. From this immersive experience it really made google home stand out from Amazon’s Alexa and made you feel so good about the brand because there is emotional connection, story and excitement you get when you walk through it and out.
The experience was truly immersive with different activities playing with all of your 5 senses
- Their Dj room for sound, Great Cookies/ Pink Hot Chocolate for taste and smell. You can literally touch everything and anything and you choose what you want to interact with. Finally visually everything was well decorated even the dress code of the staff weather Artisan Handyman outfits
Partnering up with with local and the artistic
- It was also great that they partnered with so much talent too. Google brought in Dominique Ansel Bakery and other local neighborhood heroes to bring their store to life. It really gave a local NYC sense to that hardware store. Like this wasn’t Google from California’s event. It was Google NYC, and that is great link to local pride through partnerships like. Even bringing work and collaborations with artist Heather Day coming in creating beautiful murals in the space to enjoy the best treats while taking your time walking through.
Final Thoughts
Yes EVERY BRAND wants you to share on your social media but let’s be honest, you get turned off where you see signs saying # this or follow this, or post on your insta and link this. Also we have been to so many electronics stores or retail shops with the same boring displays and ways the companies try to educate you on why you should by their product. Google did none of that. They knew that if they created something that you would not see every day in NYC and came up with a new and creative way to experience their products and the benefits of them in your life.
Finally the importance of a theme that people associate your experience with. They have had this Pop-Up store since October but on Black Friday they did a whole #NotPinkDay where everything was pick in the store and had some association to that. So when I look back at Black Friday 2018 and I think of everything single store that was promoting something or did something with the words or themes of Black Friday, I believe that Google’s Not Pink Day is going to stick out stronger than any of those other stores in my memory.
If you still want to check it out they are open till the 31st of December and have events going on like baking cookies with Chef Dominique Ansel
Thank you for checking out our post, if you have any feedback or want us to cover any other experiential marketing campaigns let us know at: valery.works18@gmail.com
