Campaign Spotlight: The summer's best pop-up experiences

Summer ’16. Heralded by some as the Summer of Sport but it could also go down as the summer of the pop-up. Brands challenged their agencies to create the best experience and get their message heard. Some were a resounding success while others left us scratching our heads. This week we count down the summer’s top five most memorable pop-ups. 

5. NOW TV Naked Sun Terrace by Taylor Herring. This event made the list for simply being down-right wacky. NOW TV promoted its contract-free Combo service by opening a nudist colony on a rooftop in London. The pop-up relaxation area offered unspoilt views of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the London Eye while allowing visitors to go "clothes free". The activity was meant to symbolise the brand's refreshing lack of constricting contracts. The tie-up seemed a bit far-fetched, but then again, it did make for an interesting water-cooler conversation so the brand did succeed in getting its name into the spotlight. 

4. The Walkers Crisp Sarnie Club by DeVries Slam. If you’re quick, you can still book in for this pop-up which caters to fans of crisp sandwiches. The new Sarnie Club pop-up in London’s Tooley Street was launched a fortnight ago to promote Walker’s new line-up of limited-edition sandwich flavoured crisps. Fans of the new variants can buy tickets to build their own sarnie at the location. The pop-up café is included on our list because of an ambitious supporting campaign including sponsored social media content, and an accompanying TV ad fronted by brand ambassador Gary Lineker and comedian & presenter Paddy McGuiness. The pop-up does the job in offering consumers a fun way to interact with the limited edition products. A star-studded debut which saw Paddy McGuinness, Ferne McCann from The Only Way is Essex and Sam Thompson from Made in Chelsea make appearances only helped to drive interest for the event which sold out of tickets for its first week of operation. The pop-up will be running for the next week. 

3. Ribena Colouring Café by Brass. This one has already come and gone, but photos and videos from the event attest to its success. The one-day pop-up was held on 30 June in London’s Covent Garden and invited attendees to get creative in colouring-in a huge illustration while enjoying Ribena drinks. At the end of the day, each person’s completed tile was arranged to create a huge mural designed by artist Alex Lucas. A short-form film by Truenorth captured the best moments of the day and has already received over 1.5 million views on YouTube. A dedicated microsite made the experience more accessible by allowing the public to access illustrations to colour online. The microsite is also shoppable allowing fans to get their own Ribena Colouring Book or a case of their favourite drink. The pop-up was the first to make use of the current stress-busting adult colouring trend in a way that fit with the brand’s established ethos. 

2. Ikea The Dining Club by Hope&Glory. Want to impress 20 of your closest friends with a dinner complete with maître d’ service but don’t want to shell out the time or money? Look no further than The Dining Club on Shoreditch High Street in East London. The pop-up will run from 10 September to 25 September and offers the chance for aspiring cooks to become a chef for the day. Didn’t make a booking? That’s not a problem because The Dining Club will also feature an Ikea café serving Swedish delicacies, workshops, a virtual reality kitchen and Ikea kitchen shop. The pop-up is the perfect accompaniment to Ikea’s ‘Cooks’ advertisement by Mother by helping busy Londoners discover the fun to be had while cooking with friends and family. The hands-on experiential idea, hyped as “the world’s first do it yourself restaurant” by Hope&Glory, has enjoyed a lot of press including coverage in Time Out, the Daily Mail, City AM and the Evening Standard. 

1. Havana Club Rum Casa Havana by John Doe. A hard hitting experience from August that combined our love for experiential with our newest obsession with VR technology. The six-day pop-up tapped into the upsurge in interest in Cuba as a tourist destination and comprised a restaurant, bar and event space. A secret space inside the pop-up also housed a ‘real-time 3D animation’ offering an authentic look into Cuba’s culture in order to show off the brand’s historical connections to the island. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook supported the event. The event earned our top spot as the brand seamlessly delved into culture in an authentic way and blended new technology to create a unique experience. Here virtual reality was done right and implemented to serve a purpose, working wonders in helping visitors feel like they had left the UK and entered a tropical paradise.