Karla Cook's recent article on Pop-up shops deserves considerable attention. In 15 Creative Examples of Branded Pop-Up Shops, published 8.2 on Hubspot, not only are the examples creative and well-branded, the entire concept speaks to our immersive culture, rapidly growing in response to the internet and, particularly, social media. As Cook's article explains, pop-up shops create opportunities for highlighting brand, experimenting at a reasonable cost, testing responses, educating, expanding audiences, and publicizing. Every opportunity documented had, at its core, an immersive, experiential adventure. What's really intriguing is the fact that not only is immersion a sound approach to positioning an entrepreneurial effort/store/product/concept, it defines who we are as a culture. The advent of social media and online purchasing has yielded immersive behaviors we not only participate in, but expect. And not just recreationally, ie, video games or Pokemon Go or posting videos and images, but professionally as well ; both in the business world and within scholarly research exists the legitimate field immersive social media practices. Somehow we understand it, for better or worse, in terms of gaming or news reporting or politics or medicine, but only the truly creative see all of its cultural applications. For example, business has long relied on focus groups to test concepts before launching, but BarkShop Live and Frut, kick traditional focus groups right to the curb. And experiential--imagine the 5 minute internship or Real Life at Work as a method of testing the fit of a workplace as opposed to applying and working before discovering it's not the job you expected it to be? Or, consider a method of reducing the fixed location overhead cost of the physical footprint while expanding brand awareness; instead imagine putting your store and product on tour, like lootcrate. And truly, isn't an architectural application a better, more humane, use of pantyhose than wearing them? Go Arnsdorf!We are an immersive culture, at play or work, and our opportunities for engaging in that culture are limited only by our own imaginations.
