Summer tends to be a go-to season for brands to promote awareness, hype a new product, or bring a marketing campaign to life through interactive consumer pop-ups. Three culinary and wellness brands recently hopped on this experiential bandwagon by hosting their first consumer pop-ups.
Meal kit delivery service Blue Apron, beverage and supplement brand Bulletproof, and coconut water brand Vita Coco each debuted spaces that were open to the public in New York. The pop-ups brought their brand aesthetics and positioning to life—and targeted both fans and curious passersby—with on-theme decor, interactive programming and stations, and food and drink offerings. Here's a look at some of the highlights from each activation.
A yellow room, inspired by the flavor lemon ginger, had a hanging installation of balls on strings that offered popular Instagram fodder.
As part of the coconut water brand’s “Bubbles With Benefits” marketing campaign, Vita Coco held its first experiential pop-up July 20 to 22 at a vacant space in SoHo in New York. Outside, the pop-up welcomed passersby with giant fruit-theme chairs and pyramids of the brand’s new line of sparkling cans in the windows. The brand partnered with Invisible North to produce and design the pop-up.
Inside, the activation had four rooms, each inspired by the brand’s sparkling coconut water flavors and cans. The grapefruit room had a bar that served the cans and coconut water cartons, flanked by a neon sign of the campaign name. Additional decor included cans hanging from pink balloons.
The green room, inspired by the pineapple passionfruit flavor, held fitness classes and activities, including yoga, meditation, and dance workouts throughout the weekend. Guests could R.S.V.P. for classes through a website.
Additional photo ops included three different color “changing rooms” with mirrors that displayed on-theme tag lines such as “I’m full of flavor” and “I’m popping.”
Bulletproof, a food, drink, and supplement brand—best known for its “Fat for Fuel” movement highlighted by coffee made with grass-fed butter—opened its first pop-up at a vacant space in SoHo in July. The fitness-theme pop-up is holding weekly events, including yoga and guided meditation through August 2. The activation, which was designed in house, features a body vibration plate garden where guests can test out the brand’s plates for five to 10 minutes. The experience is designed to reduce recovery time after exercise.
The pop-up has an oxygen bar with flavors such as lavender, grapefruit, and lemongrass.
Cartons of the brand’s cold brew coffee were used as decor to spell out “Upgraded.”
The brand used a minimalist sign to welcome guests to the pop-up.
As part of its new, cross-country “Unboxed” pop-up series, meal kit delivery service Blue Apron hosted a monthlong pop-up shop in New York in May and June. The pop-up, which was located in a vacant space in Flatiron, showcased the brand’s newest products and held daily programming such as cooking classes and panel discussions with chefs, including Sam Kass, Marco Canora, and Tamar Adler. Proceeds from the cooking classes were donated to food rescue organization City Harvest. The brand partnered with TH Productions to produce the pop-up.
Each week of events had a theme, with a schedule displayed on a branded chalkboard. Decor included a knitted blue apron.
The design of the space incorporated the brand’s story in blue letters, and it also featured tips on how to throw a dinner party. In a wine-tasting section, different wines and their descriptions were showcased on wooden shelves.
