How Wholly Guacamole Reached its Target Audience Through Pop Up Tours

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How Wholly Guacamole Reached its Target Audience Through Pop Up Tours

Wholly Guacamole is a big fan of the pop-up tour concept, and this year, it held yet another tour to draw people to its brand and experience. This year's tour moved away from last year's focus on music festivals and instead focused on the brand's core consumers, who are women in the 30-40 age range.

At each site in this year's tour, Wholly Guacamole offered dishes with a range of custom toppings available. The company also provided special "taste of" recipes that were customized to capture the local flavor of each city. This, however, was just the start of the experience for participants. Inside each pop-up location, attendees found updated versions of old games, such as a giant Jenga set, Connect Four, and other favorites chosen to appeal to the company's target audience.

Games of this nature emphasize guacamole's prominent presence at parties among 30-40-year-old women. By having them at the pop-up locations, Wholly Guacamole cements this connection and helps to ensure that people will remember their brand in particular when it comes time to buy some for a gathering.

While the games that were chosen are all of the physical variety, Wholly Guacamole certainly didn't forget about the modern wonder that is social media. It set up vending machines that dispensed giveaways when people entered a code. These giveaways were better than the average, and included water bottles, bandannas, and socks. The code to use was obtained by tweeting special hashtags along with a comment about the event. This gave people a direct incentive to spread the company's message.

Some activities were used only in particular markets. This allowed the company to really "wow" each market instead of giving everyone a totally generic experience. Some customizations included the availability of avocado facials, jewelry making, screen-printed T-shirts, and more. The company says that these offerings were unified by an underlying theme of health, beauty, and working out.

This year's kiosks, or "activations" as the company called them, were also meant to tie into the "guac bar scene" that has been on the rise in recent years. By doing so, the company positions itself as keeping up with the times even as it calls to mind the less-hip imagery of playing analogue games with groups of women in their 30s and 40s. This is important because it allows Wholly Guacamole to aim for this target audience without turning off younger people in the process.

One of the keys to a successful pop-up tour is choosing the right cities and venues for your event. Miami is always a good place to have a stop – its hip, multicultural environment spans several generations and includes a wide variety of interests. Once there, make sure to choose Soho Studios as your venue. We have two outdoor pavilions, and the weather here is suitable for using them all year round.

We also have up to 70,000 square feet of indoor space available for your event. It can be customized to meet your needs, not only for size, but for decorations and sets as well. This ensures that you can create the exact experience needed to promote your brand's image as well as your products. Just give us a call to reserve space indoors, outside, or a combination of the two.

How to Know if Your Brand is Ready for a Pop Up Event

If your brand is like most brands, timing is key. In the business world, pop-up events aren’t used every day—and for good reason. They’re tough to advertise, tough to maintain and very tough to make effective. Experiential marketing of any type gives a brand opportunities to engage with the public. Unlike traditional advertising campaigns, experiential marketing campaigns rely on timing, a good eye and motivating features to succeed.

So, is your brand ready for a pop-up event? We’re about to break it down for you.

Are Your Goals Defined?

Before starting a pop-up campaign, you should nail down your goals. Consider your key messages, and make sure you can measure results. The only way to measure results is through goal definition. Before ever executing your campaign, make sure you have your brand’s message, outreach opportunities and future capabilities grafted.

Do You Have a Target Audience?

Your pop-up’s target audience is not the same as your brand’s. It is, however, part of it. Who will likely see the pop-up event? Is your brand already hitting it off with this group? If you’re capable of reaching this target audience already, you might be ready for a pop-up experience. Just make sure you’re able to gain the audience’s attraction before setting foot inside the pop-up world.

Do You Have a Secure Venue?

Next, you should make sure your venue is tied down. Consider the venue’s spatial requirements, and determine which performers you’ll use. If you’re lucky enough to have a venue, it’s time for an experiential event in conjunction with your pop-up event. The double-hitter might seem disjointed, but it’s entirely conducive to a fully formed strategy. Having 70,000 square feet available is good for attracting pop-up crowds—even if the pop-up is hitting the city streets beyond.

Do You Have Attractive Offers?

Next, you should come to terms with your brand’s ability to offer value. Can you provide sufficiently attractive offers? What about discounts? What have your brand’s past visitors been attracted to? If you’re able to take a small money hit, consider implementing a pop-up campaign to boost long-term revenue.

Do You Have a Strong Online Marketing Team?

If you’ve recently worked with an online marketing team—either in-house or third-party—you’re ready to implement a pop-up campaign. Effective pop-up experiences are based on research, and the Internet crowd is inherently useful as a pop-up fanbase. Between e-commerce opportunities, growth hacks and lead generation, an online marketing team is your one-stop shop to success.

Can You Garner In-Depth Feedback?

Many modern marketers make a mistake: They start pop-up campaigns without being able to garner reviews, feedback and subjective opinions. In 2017, quality written feedback is as important as raw data. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses don’t see it as such.

Before starting a pop-up campaign, make sure you’re able to get in-depth reviews, comments and rundowns of your event’s “job well done.” High-quality reviews are necessary to connect a brand’s on-the-street efforts with social media marketing campaigns—which are vital to overall marketing success.

Do You Have a New Revenue Stream to Test?

We don’t suggest getting too experimental with your experiential campaign, but you should use it to gauge a new revenue stream’s long-term viability. Pop-up stands are great for gaining consumer trust, and they’re similarly great for examining possible revenue stream possibilities. Assuming you can popularize your brand’s image and execute an event adequately, you’ll have little trouble measuring future potential revenue.

So, where does your brand stand? Is it ready for a pop-up campaign? Be honest with yourself, and make sure you’re taking advantage of every opportunity. Your brand partners will thank you. More importantly, so will your customers.

Why Thomas Created the Rolling Toaster Tour

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Why Thomas Created the Rolling Toaster Tour

The best way to engage your customers is to interact with them live and in-person because this encourages them to participate with you and your brand in whatever you are offering. This type of marketing is often called experiential marketing, engagement marketing, event marketing, ground marketing, or live marketing. Experiential marketing helps create a closer bond between you and your customers, which is a great way to build brand loyalty and a lifelong following.

How Thomas' Developed a Unique Interactive Breakfast Campaign Unlike Anything Before

Thomas', makers of some of the most popular bagels, English muffins and other fine products, came up with a unique way to get up close and personal with as many people as possible.  And they did this by hitting the streets with a truck and trailer, but not just any truck and trailer, a rolling toaster truck and trailer to be exact.

The Thomas' Rolling Toaster Tour Cross Country Marketing Campaign

Talk about experiential marketing at its best. Thomas' has taken this interactive marketing technique to new heights. They fully customized a trailer that was designed to look like a toaster with a huge bagel and English muffin sticking out of the top. So there was no question about who this was or what they were offering.

Thomas' called this event their "Breakfast Like No Other" tour and it was an instant phenomenon. People all over the country flocked to their trailer when it rolled into town. But then Thomas' took their marketing a few steps further which added a viral element to their efforts.  

What Thomas' Did to Create Excitement, Encourage Engagement and Cause Their Efforts to Go Viral

Obviously, Thomas' Rolling Toaster Tour was a live event that stretched across the country. But how they engaged their customers at each stop was really what skyrocketed their efforts into a marketing sensation.

• Customers were able to order freshly made breakfast sandwiches created by the resident chef.
• While waiting for their order, customers were invited to walk into the giant toaster to take selfies in front of a seven-foot tall English muffin statue. Which was a great tactic for getting their message to go viral.
• Then they were offered a turn at a toaster-themed game that awarded prizes to the winners who then again took selfies of their winnings.
• Once receiving their freshly made breakfast sandwiches, customers were encouraged to eat at one of Thomas' custom designed tables that were built to look like stacks of English muffins and bagels.
• After the meal, Thomas' provided some fun outdoor games such as a Ring Toss, some Cornhole, and KanJam for their customers to enjoy.

The Secret Sauce Thomas' Used to Kickoff Their Tour

To kickoff the tour Thomas' held a special free sampling event at Santa Monica Place to celebrate National Bagel Day. This allowed their customers to be among the first to try their new limited edition Lemon Blueberry flavor that was only offered for six weeks. Then they donated over 2,000 packages of bagels to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

What Thomas' Did That Made This Campaign So Successful

Thomas' made this a memorable interactive experience that no one is likely to forget. And they did this by thinking outside the box, so to speak. They came up with a unique idea for their marketing campaign. Then they continued to drill down their ideas to further ensure its success, as well as turn it into a viral sensation which is ultimately free advertising and unlimited brand exposure. And so much more!

This is the beauty of hosting a live event, one that allows you to get up close and personal with your customers. This is also what helps create loyal, lifetime followers of your brand. It is all about the experience and making your customer feel special and appreciated. If you haven't tried hosting a live event to build your brand and your customer base, you are definitely leaving money on the table. 

How High Brew Samples its Coffee with Style

How High Brew Gets Consumers to Sample its Coffee in Style

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Not every brew is a type of beer. For High Brew, it's all about coffee – and adventure. The company recently sent a refurbished 1952 GMC bus on a nationwide tour to reach millennials with its cold-brew coffee, old-fashioned great taste, and to reinforce its branding. Since this branding is all about travel and adventure, the company figured that sending a big Coach bus, once a favorite of tour operators, would create an image that was a perfect fit.

The High Brew Tour is expected to cover a total of over 16,000 miles, with plenty of stops in key places. At each stop, it sets up a sampling bar inside the bus complete with stools so that those who come over can enjoy tasting their coffees in comfort. When the bus is on the road, the bar folds into what was once the luggage compartment. This makes it easy to set it up and take it down, and the innovative system adds to the attention-getting qualities of the stops.

Unlike many branded experiential marketing efforts, High Brew has chosen to keep things simple and fairly low key. The bus itself isn't completely plastered with its imagery, and inside, the only experience besides the coffee is a station for sending out postcards so attendees can share the news. These postcards include coupons to buy one and get one free.

One of the reasons for the choice of communication medium is that the company is hoping those who partake will tell older people about the brand. Assuming it works, it will get the message across the generations without losing the "cool factor" that helps to sell High Brew to younger people.

The bus will be stopping at some obvious places, such as key retail accounts, but it will also hit areas where it can associate the brand with those on the go. These areas include college towns and city areas that have plenty of professionals. Once the bus leaves, field marketing personnel will continue promotional efforts.

This is just the latest news from the experiential marketing world. Companies all over the world are using new and innovative ways to draw regular people into their brand experiences. A successful campaign doesn't just entertain people; it cements the brand image and gets those who partake to interact with, taste, or otherwise get personal with the products being promoted. This icebreaker can be enough to earn repeat customers for years, and sometimes, for life.

You don't need a bus to set up an experiential marketing event for your company. All you need is a great venue in a thriving city, an innovative idea, a target market, and a solid goal for your brand's image. Here at Soho Studios in Miami, we can provide the venue and the city. Our 70,000 square feet of indoor space can be configured to your needs, and we also have two outdoor pavilions. We can also help with the rest of your needs. Our full-service package includes design, sound, and other support services for your event. Just give us a call to learn more and to get started on producing a memorable experience for your current and potential customers.

Why SPAM® Jumped on the Tour Train

Why SPAM® Jumped on the Tour Train

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Tiny houses and marketing tours have both been making waves recently, and the SPAM brand has jumped onto the trend with its Tiny House of Sizzle tour. This tour features a towed tiny house, painted in SPAM's iconic blue and yellow colors, that is traveling across the country serving SPAM recipes to those who enter. These recipes are cooked right inside the house in the Tiny SPAM Kitchen that makes up its heart. This will show those who have managed to miss out on the smells and sounds of sizzling SPAM how great it is just waiting for it to come out of the pan. Of course, the finisher for the experience will be the meal that gets served at the end, so no one will have to leave hungry.

The recipes used in the Tiny House of Sizzle will be chosen to highlight the product's versatility. Many have been developed by local chefs and influencers to tie in on food trends across the nation. Even so, those who want their SPAM in a traditional form won't be out of luck: SPAM sliders and other such favorites are on the menu.

SPAM has chosen this form of marketing not only to be trendy, but to engage all of the patrons' five main senses. There will be smells, sounds, sights, the feel of the food, and of course, the taste of the dishes all waiting to be enjoyed. The company is sure that after all of this, no one will forget the experience or the brand that provided it.

This tour won't just help the SPAM brand. The brand has partnered with Convoy of Hope, a hunger-fighting charity, to help raise funds for food. Each person who texts SIZZLE to 50555 will cause SPAM to donate $5 to Convoy of Hope. The brand will also match people's own donations dollar-for-dollar up to a total of $25,000.

A total of 12 cities, some of which have already been visited, are on the schedule for the Tiny House of Sizzle Tour. Many of the appearances are connected to food and other festivals, so they will be part of a larger fun experience. This will allow the company to catch people while they're already excited and having a good time, which will further cement the association between SPAM and positive feelings.  

While tours are fun to do, they aren't in the plans of every company. Experiential marketing also works when it takes place at a stationary venue in one or more popular cities. This allows more people to attend your event and it lets you avoid the expense of driving all over the country with a specially-designed vehicle.

For a great venue in Miami, try Soho Studios. We can provide up to 70,000 square feet of configurable, customizable space for your extravaganza. If you'd rather have your event outdoors, one or both of our two outdoor pavilion areas will provide just what you need. We also have a variety of service packages to take care of any details you don't want to have to handle on your own. For more information, just give us a call.

How Rick and Morty are Taking on the Road

How Rick and Morty are Taking on the Road

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While the "marketing" aspect of experiential marketing almost necessarily involves trying to sell a product, service, or idea to new people, it isn't always the only goal. Sometimes, events are held to reward current loyal fans – or as it may be put, "spread the love" to these people. This is the case with Adult Swim's Rickmobile, which is a traveling pop-up retail shop making stops in several cities and towns this summer. Adult Swim is making a point of hitting cities that are often overlooked by marketers, such as Cleveland, Santa Fe, and San Antonio as well as some of the more predictable places.

The Rickmobile is patterned after the character Rick in the series Rick and Morty, complete with a painted Styrofoam-and-fiberglass Rick on one end. From the side, the vehicle opens to display plenty of Rick and Morty merchandise. This gives fans a chance to stock up, and the eye-catching nature of the vehicle ensures that even people who have never seen the show will be curious enough to come and find out what the display is about.

In keeping with the fun and youthful nature of the show, the Rickmobile's stops have been chosen for their similarly fun nature. Comic shops and conventions and arcades are on the list. For older fans, the Rickmobile will stop at taverns, bars, and other such "social spaces." By combining the event types while sticking to ones that are associated with fun, the show will be able to reach people of all ages without diluting its messaging.

According to Adult Swim's Jim Babcock, its vice president of consumer marketing, the intent was to create moments akin to seeing the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile for the first time. He characterized it as "unforgettable," and the Rickmobile is going for the same effect. Adult Swim also wants the scene to be hilarious, and it posed its giant Rick so it would surely get a laugh. Rick is on his hands and knees as seen from the side, and stares slightly downward from the back of the truck. Those following it on the freeway therefore get to look right at the mad professor's giant eyes as he stares down through their windshields. It's sure to give anyone who ends up behind the vehicle plenty to talk about with everyone they know.

Since this tour is already in progress, preliminary results are coming in. By the time it made 12 stops, it registered 5,000 transactions and got 15,000 people to engage with the Rickmobile. It also caused people to tweet about it 15,000 times and post about it on Instagram 7,500 times. This caused messages about it to be seen over 10 million times. Such a resounding success is sure to bring more viewers to the Rick and Morty show!

You don't need to custom-make an expensive truck or tour across the country to reach people with your experiential marketing event. For a less-extravagant option, try renting a venue in a big city. Here in Miami, try Soho Studios. We can configure up to 70,000 feet of indoor space to suit your needs or provide one or both of our outdoor pavilions for events out in the open.

How to Map Out the Perfect Pop-up Tour

How to Map Out the Perfect Pop-up Tour

Digital communication rules the world, so how do companies make that personal connection with their target audience? They "pop-up" in some very special places, so their marketing plan is not just about promotion, but about appealing to the different emotions that drive consumers. Pop-up shops are all the rage right now because they grab their attention with hands-on interactions to dazzle them up close and personal. How can you map out your next pop-up tour to get the best ROI?

Establish Measurable Goals that Cater to the Audience

The moniker "know your audience" fits almost any marketing scenario including creating a successful pop-up tour. When Disney wanted to promote their Doc McStuffin show in the UK, they didn't set up Doc clinics in office buildings or on the street; they picked venues like Toys R Us and Smyths because they appeal not just to kids, but to parents, grandparents and aunts, too.

They took a multifaceted approach when planning their pop-up strategy. Their goals didn't focus just on increasing ratings for their show, but on retailing merchandise and creating a buzz for the characters, as well. The acted on goals they could track on social media, too, instead of just tallying up the revenue from event to event.

Find Spaces That Mesh With the Brand

Be a visual thinker when picking out venues. Visual space says something about a brand. Consider Supreme clothing stores. Each one has visual clues that related directly to the brand image such as the parquet floors and steel rails. They wouldn't think of opening a pop-up at a country fair or in a dirty warehouse because that is not the look they want.

Promotion, Promotion, Promotion

Marketing your pop-up before, during and after each event is the key to success. Adidas combined both a celebrity appearance and a fan challenge to get people buzzing about their D Rose Jump Store before it opened. Use every form of content marketing at your disposal from your website to the company Facebook page to get the word out. If sponsoring multiple pop-up locations, consider an app or map that fans can use to track each event.

Use some social media tactics to promote live as it happens, too. Trolli and 7-Eleven went with free giveaways at the beach to market both a new candy brand and the Slurpee inspired by it.

#slothsome

What's your hashtag going to be? Add some real-time graphics to make people wish they were there, too. Snapchat, Facebook Live, Vine, Instagram – set up one or more and appoint a brand ambassador to manage the show.

Before moving on to the next place on the tour, make sure people understand what they missed at the last one. Provide statistics if possible, lots of pictures and some videos of all the fun along with information for the next few stops.

Take Notes and Learn

When the final guest leaves and you pack up to go to the next venue, reflect on what you learned at this one. What worked and what didn't? Ask for feedback during the event and online afterward, too. Grow with each stop on your tour to make the next one that much more meaningful.