When Owala launched its new coffee tumbler in September, the Utah-based company known for its colorful water bottles drummed up excitement with a pop-up in Los Angeles’s trendy Silver Lake neighborhood. With the promise of a free tumbler and access to Owala’s temporary café, fans came out well before having their morning coffee. According to Owala, more than 3,500 attendees visited the pop-up on September 14, with some staking out their spot in line as early as 3 a.m. At its peak, the line reached a mile long, with attendees waiting up to five hours to access the pop-up.
Such dedication is not uncommon for free pop-ups in 2024. When beauty brand Fresh hosted a June pop-up to promote its rose-centric skin-care line in New York City’s Meatpacking neighborhood, more than 4,500 attendees turned up with some showing up as early as 5 a.m. Skin-care brand Tatcha saw attendees lining up four hours before the opening of its Say I Dew pop-up in February, which gave out more than 2,000 samples. Hailey Bieber’s skin-care and makeup line Rhode has made its traveling photo booths a TikTok sensation, with consumers waiting in line for as long as seven hours for a free lip gloss and photo reel.
“This is an opportunity to show the consumer: This is what we’re doing for you,” said Austin Connor, vp of experience and creative services at Autumn Communications, which crafted the summer Fresh pop-up. “We’re creating this connective opportunity that allows you to get that white glove experience from [the brand] and feel that we’re actually taking care of you.”
And brands are spending more to curate that type of experience. According to data from PQ Media, spending on global experiential marketing is expected to reach $128.35 billion in 2024. That represents a 10.5% increase from 2023 and marks the first time spending on experiential marketing has surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
In a crowded market for consumer goods like beauty, experiential marketing and free pop-ups are increasingly valuable channels as they offer tangible ways to forge IRL connections with consumers — that is, if they successfully give consumers something they value in exchange for their hard-earned time. That could come in the form of an exclusive experience, limited-edition items or engaging social content. But, similarly, brands can create a lasting negative impression if they fail to make the hours spent in line feel worthwhile.
“If you’re just giving out schwag, it’s not going to be worth their time,” said Caitlin Starke, head of strategy for brand design agency Pearlfisher. “If you’re giving them an incredible experience, something they’ve never tasted or something they’ve never been able to try, [that’s] something with lasting value.”
While experiential marketing can target any consumer, brands frequently design pop-ups to reach Gen-Z consumers specifically. “Our Gen-Z cohort, in particular, is really hungry to have real experiences,” said Starke. “They were sort of robbed of that at a very pivotal moment in their lives.”
Such was the case with Fresh’s summer pop-up. For the activation, the brand teamed up with creators Brooke Miccio and Danielle Carolan of the “Gals on the Go” podcast to drum up excitement among Gen-Z consumers for the Rose franchise. But with Gen Z already the target of so much experiential marketing, organizers need to be creative about how they attract those consumers.
“Everybody’s done a charm bracelet now, everybody’s done some sort of screen printing. So how are you making twists on those things that make them feel fresh and elevated for the individuals?” said Connor.
From both creative and logistical standpoints, crafting those pop-ups and managing crowds of thousands of people is no easy feat. One of the biggest logistical hurdles to hosting a pop-up in a high foot traffic area like the Meatpacking District can be acquiring city permits, said Connor. They’re often not signed off on until the week prior to an event. “The public can be very destructive without realizing that they’re being very destructive,” he said, referencing the potential impact on the hosting neighborhood.
Connor said, ideally, his team will have at least six weeks to two months of lead time to organize a weekend pop-up, with budgets running at around $250,000-$300,000. And while brands don’t expect to recoup those costs in direct pop-up sales, what they get in return can be even more valuable.
“Our primary [ROI], from purely an eventing perspective, is consumer data capture,” he said. “An email [address] can sometimes be even more powerful than $1 in the bank for some of these brands, because it allows that continued conversation with the consumer.”
And, invariably, the pop-up experience will translate well beyond the few thousand IRL attendees. According to Autumn Communications, Fresh counted 3.75 million social media placements for its Rose pop-up. And Tatcha reported experiencing a 98% increase in Instagram engagement rate during its New York City Moisture Match Up pop-up in August.
But attendees can just as easily showcase their negative experiences when the reality fails to live up to the hype, particularly as an immersive experience can leave a lasting impression on a customer — for better or for worse. “That awe-inspiring moment is going to have a larger effect on customer lifetime value or brand awareness,” said Melissa Gonzalez, leader of the advisory team and principal at architecture and design firm MG2. “Be really mindful of how you’re showing up, because that’s the opportunity to delight them, or to underwhelm.”
A February pop-up in Glasgow tied to the Timothée Chalamet “Wonka” movie made headlines when children were left in tears after finding that the advertised immersive chocolate factory experience was instead a few props and a cup of jelly beans. The organizers, House of Illuminati, promised to refund the £35 tickets. Ostensibly free events can disappoint, as well. Rhode fans at the brand’s Miami photo booth this summer shared frustration on TikTok and Instagram when some attendees fainted in the Florida heat, they said, and walked away empty-handed after waiting for hours.
Virginia Tijerino, a student at Florida International University, said she heard about the Rhode Miami pop-up through her aunt and high school-aged cousin. She and her family waited in line from roughly 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. and left without a photo when the photo booth stopped working — a brand representative denied the claim that the booth broke down.
“I think it’s worth the wait if you’re meeting the person creating the pop-up or if they are giving out stuff that’s limited-edition or unique to only the pop-up and if the line isn’t crazy long,” Tijerino told Glossy. But her experience at the Rhode booth turned her off from attending further pop-ups from the brand. “I had such a bad experience. … It’s just not worth it.”
Long lines can often be a sign of success, but Gonzalez said organizers need to be proactive about how consumers are experiencing long wait times, such as by sending out ambassadors to entertain those waiting in line or handing out free samples. “You keep the positive energy while they’re out there for you,” said Gonzalez, whose firm has created experiential pop-ups for likes of footwear brand Sorel and the Amazon Prime show “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” “That way, being in that line becomes part of the experience in a positive way, too.”
But for some consumers, the hassle of arriving early and staking out a spot in line for hours at a time is a feature of the pop-up experience, not a bug. That’s particularly true for those who now spend much of their lives — be it school, work or socializing — in a digital experience.
“You almost feel like you’re deprived of sensorial experiences for so long, and all you’re stuck with is the screen,” said Matt Sia, creative director at Pearlfisher. “There are people that are in line because they want to document it, and they want to post about it, and they want to share their opinions about it. And then there are other people who are there just for the excitement of doing something out of the ordinary.”
