The Brand Power of Retail Pop-ups

Speaker A: The Rebrand Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything podcast network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a, uh, voice then visit iheareverything.com. Welcome to the Rebrand Podcast. A, uh, member of the I Hear Everything podcast network. This podcast tells the stories of world changing marketing campaigns as told by the people who build them. Ready to hear untold stories behind the brands you love? Then sit back, relax and get ready for the rebrand. Here's the host of the Rebrand podcast, the CEO of the Harkey Group, Scott Parkey.

Speaker B: All right, Rebrand podcast time. Where as you know, we tell untold stories of world changing brand campaigns as by the markets who built them. I'm your host and founder of the Harkey Group, Scott Harkey. Uh, pretty excited because we got Chris Schmicher who is the director of brand marketing at Shopify, a leading global commerce company. Shopify provides trusted tools to start, grow, market and manage a retail business of any size. I'm sure if any of you are in the startup or small business or even major brands on E commerce, I'm sure you've heard of Shopify. Their platform and services are engineered for reliability, delivering a better shopping experience for customers everywhere. Yesterday Chris and I talked about how Shopify's retail Grammys program helped drive brand affinity. And today we're going to talk about the brand power of retail pop ups. I'm sure you've heard about these. You've seen these. I'm still a big fan of brick and mortar retail. I want to hear more about these pop ups. So we're going to have Chris right back on. Welcome back, Chris. So here's what we're going to do. Let's talk a little bit more because it was a cool ass program for the, for the retail Grammys. Let's finish the retail Grammys point on episode two, which you guys are on now. And then we'll get into the brand pop up. So talk to us more about it. I'd love like just rip on it because it was a really cool program and I got uh, distracted and was talking about politics and all sorts of shit on the front of the show. So let's, let's get back into it.

Speaker C: All good. Yeah, this is a fun one. Again. I think the strength of this program is a simple concept but powerful execution. It's a year old now. It started last spring. We've shipped 10,000 orders or 10,000 awards actually out to date to merchants and we've gotten like 11 million or something earned social impressions out of this. It's really, really nice to see how the community of award winners has you know, come out of the woodwork, shared their unboxing experience and even done things like challenge one another to race to the next tier. Like okay, we each got 100,000 lifetime orders on Shopify. Race you to a million. And also how they've connected across you know, sort of like business lines and actually like organized their own meetups within local markets and you know, found ways to like connect online. That kind of growing winners community is going to be really interesting for us to kind of you know, invest in further and leverage um, as a marketing team. I think there's a lot of upside in bringing these, you know, vetted like top businesses together as a community. But it really all goes back to like that heart and soul of the program.

Speaker B: Did you say 10,000 you shipped out?

Speaker C: Yeah, to date we've shipped out 10,000 awards to our merchants.

Speaker B: That's insane. I've seen more and more tech platforms gamify the system, but I'm not sure I've seen this whole like hardware award always on program like intermixed with it like within your badges online with like the actual awards coming to your house and the fact that you're able to capture that content like a, like a creator, you know, unboxing as you said, which is you know, sort of uh, an influencer, creative move for sure. I think it's super unique. I mean, you know Spotify got a ton of accolades for their program when they did sort of the end of the year listening and who you listen to and what band you listen to the most. What percentage mentioned. Huge good, uh, friend of mine who runs huge out New York shout out to Matt Weiss and his team for that Spotify program. It, it was incredible. I've won a bunch of awards and stuff. I've seen other platforms like Meta do like you know, I'm a whatever content creator on, on Meta and I like, it shows like how many people have liked this or like that in certain milestones. But it's it, it tends to be in a more platform specific like gamification. This to me is taking that gamification but then adding sort of an award real life and then unboxing moment which is really cool. Have you thought about maybe even what's next for this program? Because uh, obviously has a ton of legs.

Speaker C: Yeah, to your point, it's it's in part that idea of gamification. It's also that idea that a tangible physical object means a lot more in a world where everything is digital.

Speaker B: It's badass.

Speaker C: And we obsessed, Our creative team obsessed over all the details. It was very fun. It was taxing to go through as a, as a creative exercise, but it was a lot of fun. Right? We're like, what does the box feel like? You know, how many seconds does it take to, to remove the COVID What does the embossing look like on the, on the card? Or whatever. But there are some useful principles there, like personalization always works. You know, I think as marketers, we forget that.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Did you have any issue with the word Grammys? Sorry to cut you off, but do you have any issue with the word Grammys?

Speaker C: That's not our official name. Shopify Milestones is our official name. But.

Speaker B: Okay, I was going to say I was looking on there. I was like, no way. Okay, Shopify Milestones. Why did I put a Grammy? Someone, obviously, you know, all. Uh, right. Don't, don't sue us Grammys.

Speaker C: No, no, it's all good. We're flattered that our customers themselves have begun calling this program.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: And it's, and it's the kind of program now where like people are waiting and actually like posting about their race to hit their first milestone tier. So they have like 9,000 orders. They need to get to 10,000 to get their first award. They're that invested and aware of the program that they're anxiously awaiting the moment where they're going to hit that, that key milestone. It's fun stuff.

Speaker B: I'm such a dork and I'm so old school. I'm like Picturing like the 32nd commercial of like different entrepreneurs, like, with music, like opening these, these like Grammys and holding them up. Like, what a powerful, again, to my early point, earlier part of the show, like, what a powerful consumer insight that now once you have that, like, there's just infinite possibilities of creative and programs to highlight your customers and to highlight the entrepreneur. I think when marketing at its best and we again, when we find that really core human insight, the brief writes itself and then the program start to really write itself. And I can see, I can just feel and see your excitement about the programs. Uh, I don't know, I'm kind of going off on a tangent there, but.

Speaker C: No, I feel that too.

Speaker B: Such a beautiful insight.

Speaker C: I feel that too. And you know, it's, it's strongly, emotionally charged and what's nice about that is as brand marketers, we love that, right? It feels good. You can see those reactions on screen. You really are, like, fostering a deeper connection emotionally with the brand. But the secret sauce here is like, all of those moments of UGC are also customer testimonials, right? Some of them are just brags, maybe, but most of them are customer testimonials in some form. They're saying, thank you, Shopify, for this award, or thank you, Shopify for helping me build my business over time. So, as brand marketers, a program like this has a lot of downstream benefit to your other marketing compatriots who are running revenue marketing or product marketing or whatnot. We have begun embedding UGC from this program on other marketing landing pages in other marketing campaigns that are talking about how Shopify outperforms Wix or BigCommerce. And we're using, like, the actual UGC of someone saying how much they grew on Shopify versus on wix and how happy they are to receive this award as a proof point for, you know, for campaigns like that. It's so much more interesting than just like a quote from Sarah L. In Michigan or Johnny M. Um, from, you know, from Tulsa.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: You actually are seeing them talk about their love for the brand.

Speaker B: That's cool. And I can tell B2B marketers are their wheels are turning. They have a real life example that they can think about their next insight and how they can highlight their customers in a unique way that creates content and fandom everywhere. And I love the term fandom. I know, I've heard Wyden Kennedy. See, I've seen a lot of their fandom presentations. They did one for McDonald's, they did one for Major League Baseball. So we're going to continue to hear that, you know, marketing term. It's not going away and it makes a ton of sense. All right, so let's get back to our next one here. I want to hear about pop ups. Talk to us about the power of popups and, you know, some of the things you guys are doing with pop ups or what you've seen from your partners and customers.

Speaker C: So, of course, a brand that's all about, you know, commerce is going to be invested heavily in retail popups, actually, as a marketing channel. We own and operate, uh, a space in SoHo in New York City that we use to host retail events on weekends and then also educational programming on weekdays for entrepreneurs. We hosted 146 events there last year. The team is hustling. It's amazing. An event almost every other day. But we've seen through this wide range of events hosted in this space as well as its counterpart LA space that huh. Retail pop ups can be a really fantastic way for brands to generate buzz, to create a lot of brand visibility in market, to gauge customer reactions to new product launches or new brand messaging in real time, in person, and of course to drive, you know, sales outcomes and other kind of commercial goals. I think that retail pop ups are something that more brands should be considering, especially in a world where it's harder and harder to purchase attention and sort of cut through for customers who can be a bit jaded about digital surfaces.

Speaker B: Okay, brand marketers, you notice what we're not talking about? We're not talking about performance marketing, right? Which thank God we're not because everybody's doing that. I think what I'm hearing from you and I I peppered a lot of questions earlier in our our last podcast. More for insights for brand marketers on on your platform that are using Shopify. And I couldn't agree more. And I, I don't call it like out of home anymore or experiential or retail. I call it in real life. And I think there's a real consumer need to have more real life experiences with brand, whether that's shopping at retail store, whether that's seen out of home billboard, whether that's a pop up, whether that's, you know, some sort of brand activation at a concert. I think we're going to see a lot more in real life opportunities for brands that then of course will drive online sales down the road. And I'm not sure if retailers are even looking at their retail stores as, you know, complete money makers, although I'm sure they are. I think they really see it as an opportunity. I mean I can't tell you how many e commerce brands now are in the malls, you know, like Blue diamond, right? You know, they have mall presence. Why? So they can sell more online stuff. And then just the way that you guys as brand marketers at Shopify, your team and others are doing content creator partnerships, more pr, more programs that are getting attention, things that are beyond the return on ad spend, performance marketing. So I'm just so tired of the performance marketing m conversation and multipoint attribution kind of stuff and really thinking about more human stuff and more in real life stuff. So to me I think the pop ups really check that like in real life box and hopefully your brand teams, your brand marketing teams, your CFO understand how important in real life experiences are for People to touch, feel, talk about, see brands that of course are majority uh, of your sales are still going to be E commerce and online. So I'm off on a tangent here but maybe you can narrow me in here, help me out. Like what pop ups? Have you seen any exact case studies you can talk about? I love the soho example of course, such a vibrant city. I think New York's still very underrated from a retail standpoint. I love walking around soho and, and you know, Westminster and you know all the areas of New York that are hip and trendy and you see you know, different brands and you want to go feel and touch. You know I've heard about you know, Malbon as an example, a great golf brand. I wanted to go see, you know, their store. It was cool. Anything else like any other maybe human insights you're seeing or maybe other advice to brands around um, pop ups around retail or in real life experiences? Yeah.

Speaker C: I think this is especially relevant for DTC brands who have primarily sold online and marketed online but they haven't had the chance to build brand affinity with their, in many cases very loyal and sort of vocal fans in an in person setting where you're really going to foster a deep connection and also where fans are going to see one another and meet one another. Bringing your community kind of around you in real life is so powerful. And yes it's a driver of brand loyalty and all that but it's also a driver of growth. Of course on some level I think a lot of DDC brands now are investing in retail channels because they can't grow through digital, you know, sales and marketing channels alone. Of course.

Speaker B: Right, correct. I'd be cool, be like I'd love to see like Gymshark like pop up, you know, like oh, I've told you guys about this frickin Gymshark, you know, and then like you know, you're with a friend or with other people and like it's sort of validation that you were early in the game kind of deal.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And I think some brands that are small feel like they have to have a full, you know, multi year retail strategy and a ton of capital on hand to invest in this. But, but they don't. I mean pop ups are special because they're temporary so it drives urgency, it drives buzz, it provides a press headline, you know, so it's, it's a one time only, this weekend only kind of thing and they can also service a lot of different objectives for the brands. We've had brands like Amore Pacific, so The big K beauty conglomerate that's behind laneige and other products. They are sold in all sorts of Sephora, you know, stores and other retailers across the country. But they hadn't had an opportunity to really like tell their brand story to, to their fans. They have very rapid fans. They've done that online, they haven't done that in person. And you can't do that in a Sephora, uh, at a Sephora counter, in a Sephora store within a store. So we did a really fun activation with them both in New York and la to bring their talent, uh, their, their sort of values, their sense of playfulness and fun to our New York and LA spaces. And oh my God, the K Beauty fans turned out. And uh, I think one of the biggest attractions for the fans was again like meeting one another.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: There's a sense of identity that people have now as fans of a brand and they want to share that sense of identity with others who are also fans of the brand. That's something that brands can give to their fans that I think they don't realize.

Speaker B: Uh, and I'm so slow. I'm thinking like, oh yeah, Shopify got these and then brought their customers into the. Basically the Shopify pop up. Is that what I'm hearing? Did I miss that?

Speaker C: The model that. Yeah, so good question. The model that we're typically, typically used for these pop ups is to give merchants who use Shopify to sell online the chance to activate with us IRL in a retail pop up setting.

Speaker B: That's cool. Okay. I felt that I caught that in there. That's badass.

Speaker C: So this is like the Japanese snack box company that many folks know. A D2C business has been operating for a number of years. Very successful on our platform. But they haven't had a chance to bring their community together and you know, say something to that community. It would be cost prohibitive for them to rent out a fancy Soho space or a fancy LA space on their own. So they partnered with us to use our space.

Speaker B: Cool.

Speaker C: But we also loved working with a brand that had a lot to say. They're cultural ambassadors for Japanese food culture in America. They had a partnership with hello Kitty that was just about to be announced. So we built the pop up around the uh, announcement of this new limited edition snack box. Hello Kitty of course showed up. I had the pleasure of meeting hello Kitty in person. That was pretty funny. But it was really, really fun to see folks who have nerded out to like Japanese stock culture all show up and chit chat over Drinks and food and of course some shopping as well.

Speaker B: All right, I got your next idea. You take your top 10 brands on Shopify and you do a celebrity boxing match. You see who has the punching power of a brand. We'll do it. We'll do like a little like final four knockout. We'll have barstool Rank, you know, the most popular D2C brand on Shopify. We'll have a whole boxing event in vn. I love what you're doing to hide. Like there's just so much opportunity to highlight like the fun brands you work with and, and by highlighting your customers again you're, you're highlighting the power of your platform. The other thing that I uh, do think is really important that we miss in marketing a lot. And I have to remind myself of it a lot. And it's, it comes down to like early brand planning and brand workshops that I, I've done hundreds of brand workshops and it's some of my favorite work to do. But if you look at the old school brand wheel, how you have uh, different like brand attributes, whether it's visual assets or self expressive assets or untangible seeing assets. Like there's different, all these different keys to a brand but the one that I think is the most powerful that people forget is self expressive benefits by associating with a certain brand. To your point, there's a sense of identity and it says something about you because you drive a Mercedes or you drink, you know, Tito's vodka, like it's part of your personality. The brand you align with Harley, like there's so many great examples and I think a pop up actually can really highlight some self expressive benefits in a buzzy cool Soho. I can just imagine like the, the big brand fans and their validation when they see their D2C brand in life, real life that they've been repping, that is a part of them. And I have to believe there's a lot of other brand opportunities to really highlight the self expressive benefits of your key people. And I've seen a lot of these online and with content creators of course. But the in real life aspect to it I think just makes it so much more powerful and I think you've really highlighted that and that makes a ton of sense. So it's cool.

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean listen, we're all, we're all searching for meaning somewhere in our lives, right?

Speaker B: Absolutely. What's next for you guys? What's next for you, Chris? Like what are you excited about? Shopify? Any other exciting maybe campaigns you're Thinking about or maybe any exciting trends you see coming up.

Speaker C: We're still very bullish on fandom. That's a through line for much of the work that we do. As you've heard, Scott, fandoms that are going to be relevant to our business is, um, difficult at times because, you know, just because a fandom has a ton of social media activity around it or has cultural heat, you know, around it doesn't mean that it's going to be a good thing for your business to get involved. But I'm excited by fandoms that have a lot of social media buzz, cultural heat and commercial activity. So going back to the pop up thing, you know, there people do want to participate as consumers in a movement. They want to feel like they're supporting brands that are on the cusp of greatness. And sometimes like buying a thing is a way of winning, uh, a ticket into a fandom, showing that you, uh, are a member of that fandom. And that's something that we see like absolutely. For example, with K pop culture, just as an example of one of many fandoms that is of interest to us, folks are purchasing Idol merch because they want to feel closer to their, to their icons, to their celeb idols. That's a really powerful kind of human instinct to tap into as a brand.

Speaker B: I love it. We're at that point and we'll probably end it here, but man, thanks for coming on. Learned a ton. I think this is the exact kind of episode we want on the rebrand. Just helping us get better at marketing every day. Big thanks to Chris Schmicher, director of brand marketing at Shopify. Man, thanks for coming on.

Speaker C: Thanks so much, Scott. It was a pleasure.

Speaker B: If you can't wait till the next episode, you want to learn more about Chris, just follow his LinkedIn profile like always. We'll put it in our our show notes on rebrandpod. Uh dot com. You can find more about shopify@shopify.com Ah. As people know on the show, like I don't push things I don't believe in. I don't have a lot of advertisers. Like this is just a for fun marketing show that we've built a great community. But I love Shopify. A lot of the small businesses I've started I've worked with. It's a no frickin brainer. Like Shopify's the platform. So super excited to have a brand that I actually care about and love on the show. So anything you want to know about shopify, just shopify.com Another note in our show notes I want to tell you about. You know, again, everything you need to know and want to know is just@rebrand pod.com someone did get a rebrand. Com website, so don't fall for that. It's just rebrandpod.com if you want to apply to be a guest speaker. The summer's been a little light. I know everyone's been traveling and things like that. So we are looking for some uh, more speakers, which is rare. We're probably getting, I don't know, 10 to 20 ish a week and I'm probably having maybe 20% on. So if you didn't quite make it, don't feel bad. We're trying to bring the best of the best for this community we've built. As always, um, I'm on all the social channels. Just got herkey, probably LinkedIn and Instagram probably best. And again, if you haven't subscribed and you like marketing and you subscribe to marketing shows and you just want quick 15 minute hits of real brand marketers doing really cool stuff, giving you real insights on, on all the platforms and, and the latest, that's what we're trying to build here at this show. That's we're, that's the content we're trying to produce. So thanks for following, thanks for the support, thanks for the subscription, love to have more. That's it for today. Remember, it's never too late to rebuild, reboot or revolution.