Pop-ups. Part 1: Creating Micro Tourism

Introduction

Pop-ups – blink and you’ll miss them. Shops, restaurants, bars and art spaces set up to be here today and gone tomorrow. One could argue they form an active part of destination seduction on a micro level, satisfying people’s desires to collect as many experiences as they can ‘now’.

Pop-ups use the Internet as a major marketing tool, and as social media grows ever more pervasive, these micro events can reach an audience far and wide with the ability to bring people together to certain places and points in time. More and more, people are wanting to be connected from a virtual world into the real one.

While not a new concept their popularity doesn’t seem to be diminishing. Starting as a novel approach to retail, they have now reached well into the mainstream with Central Government backing announced in 2009 for pop-ups in empty shops.

This article, over two parts, looks at what contributions these micro enterprises make to visitor economies. Part 1 focuses on their history and currency, and examines the intriguing guerrilla-style pop-up’s function and value in the context of creative micro tourism. Part 2 looks at the other end of the spectrum and examines pop-ups in the mainstream, focusing on public-funded versions.

A very modern twist on an old concept

Markets and market towns are a familiar sight across the UK, many have been operating for centuries. The recent resurgence in farmers’ markets and their popularity is well documented, appealing not only to locals but tourists alike. This is perhaps exemplified most in London’s Borough Market, winner of several awards including winning the vote overwhelmingly for People’s Favourite ‘Totally London’ experience at the London Tourism awards in 2003. A more modern twist on this is idea for now is the ‘pop-up’. Temporary shops, restaurants and businesses, which rather like markets, pop up and then disappear, creating the excitement of an event not to be missed.

Differing from markets however, pop-ups take over and inhabit a space temporarily for a run of time, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks or months, offering a different experience from the regularity and continuity of markets, but at the same time attracting considerable visitor interest.

Low cost micro events

A pop-up by its very nature, its temporality, creates an excitement, a freshness, the promise of something not to be missed, an event. Pop-ups generally inhabit small spaces, a disused shop or warehouse, a corner of a department store, someone’s front room.

Even though on a much smaller scale, from a tourism point of view, they also function in a similar way that large events can, by enhancing a destination, drawing people in and thereby adding to the visitor economy. Unlike most large events however, these micro events can be relatively low cost with lower environmental impact as they can be installed and marketed online with minimal set up cost and without a reliance on physical infrastructure to be put in place. This means that almost anyone with something to sell or show can set one up.

Today’s trends – liquid modernity and the fleeting nature of now

The fleeting nature of these pop-up micro events inhabits and parallels an idea of the state we live in now, ‘Liquid Modernity’ [1], a state postulated by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. It is one of fluidity, of rapid consumption, choice and adaptability, lives full of a series of fragments without sequence and long-term plans, rapidly changing orders that undermine all notions of durability.

This idea has been reduced down to a notion of ‘Nowism’ by international trendspotting firm, Trendwatching.com. In their Nov 2009 trend briefing, they talk of the thrills achieved by consumption of the experience [2].

'This focus on experiences, this living in the now, instead of the future, this lust to collect as many experiences and stories as soon as possible, is addictive. Take travel: these days, it’s more of a basic consumer need than a luxury. It’s about detachment, fractional ownership or no ownership at all, trying out new things, escaping commitment and obligations, dropping formality, and of course collecting endless new experiences. No wonder tourism is and will remain one of the biggest industries in the world.'

Tomorrow’s trends – mass mingling and social media

Moving on to 2010, one of Trendwatching.com’s predictions for key consumer trends include ‘Mass Mingling’, the use of online social media [3] for getting people out, meeting and interacting with others rather than staying in and inhabiting a virtual world. They predict the following [4]:

'Mass Mingling will be even more impromptu, temporary meet-ups of strangers, mobs and crowds with similar interests, hobbies, political preferences, causes and grievances. Many of these (temporary) meet-ups will revolve around generating public attention, or getting something done...(the) opportunity is obvious: Anyone involved with anything that helps people get and stay in touch, that gets people from A-Z, or that accommodates those people before, during or after meeting up with others, should not only rejoice in Mass Mingling, but make it even easier for customers to meet up in any possible way too.'

How long will it last?

One of the problems with following trends is that they come and go, they fall out of fashion and people lose interest. However trends also mutate and adapt. The pop-up concept has now been around for quite a few years here in the UK and overseas, mainly in larger urban areas. One of the earliest documented was in 2003, Song’s (a no frills airline) store, ‘Song in the City’, opened in November for nine weeks only in the heart of New York’s Soho. Early pop-ups were retail focused [5], often called guerrilla shops, with restaurants following not long after. One of the first in the UK was London-based ‘Reindeer’, a restaurant and cabaret in the East End open only for the 23 days leading up to Christmas 2006, which sold out.

It hasn’t stopped. In 2009 there were many pop-ups ranging from DIY/low budget such as underground (ie secret) restaurants, art galleries, bars on top of car parks, through the everyday and well known. These included the Marmite shop on Regent Street, Nissan, who opened a series of pop-up shops in European capitals to promote its new Cube model, Prada who opened a pop-up in Paris for five months and the Gucci Icon-Temporary stores which travelled around the world selling limited edition trainers [6].

Now in the mainstream

These micro events have moved across retail, hospitality and the arts. Pop-ups have also moved from the cutting edge novelty of the first guerrilla shops well into the mainstream, as evidenced not only by the many retailers – including HMV and Harvey Nichols [7] – jumping onto the pop-up bandwagon in 2009 hoping to increase sales, but also the support provided by the UK Government.

In August 2009 Government made ‘£3m available to help areas hit hardest by the recession to find creative ways to reduce the negative impact empty shops are having on the high street’ [8] by essentially creating pop-ups. The Empty Shops Funding Grant has been split equally between 57 local authorities mainly in regional areas, with only one London borough recipient [9]. Each council can use the grant of more than £50,000 as they see fit on ideas to transform empty shops into something useful.

A creative way to make money

The current economic recession has undoubtedly been a contributing factor in maintaining the popularity of the pop-up trend, whether the generator is the potential for creating high visibility or novelty for a short period of time in the effort to generate income in difficult financial times, low capital outlay, or a local or central government push to fill empty premises. Individuals have lost jobs and, along with businesses, are looking at creating other ways to make money. As a form of micro tourism these pop-ups contribute to the visitor economy.

Case study: Creative micro tourism from the front room

Micro-clusters creating a tourism destination

The Surrealist Dinner Party was not an isolated event, media and visitor interest is likely to have been due in part to the amount of underground or secret restaurants popping up at that time in London. There are no exact numbers, but figures are in the ‘tens of’ rather than ‘hundreds of’ [12].

Ewen Michael in his book, ‘Micro-Clusters and Networks: The Growth of Tourism’ [13] examines a relationship between tourism and the principles of cluster theory economics. He writes of ‘micro-clusters’, a term ‘coined to refer to the geographic concentration of a small number of firms in a cohesive local environment, where the complimentary interaction between those firms contributed to an enhanced level of local specialisation...micro-markets…when operating in a cluster formation, are capable of creating a tourism function (or destination) in their own right’.

Although the book explores this idea in the context of physical local activity and networks, the same principles could also be applied to the virtual world. Clusters of specialist businesses found in virtual regions created by search engines or social networking sites, acting as tourism trip generators.

Social media allows small businesses, like those run from the front room, to be part of a larger, more visible, common community, one that doesn’t rely on close physical proximity, and one also more likely to catch traditional media attention. For the visitor, it is the common interest or specialisation that acts as the generator. Returning to the example of pop-up restaurants, it is an interest in food and, specifically in this case, fleeting pop-up secret restaurants that is the generator with most, if not all, found exclusively via the Internet.

As a form of micro tourism, pop-ups make a contribution to the visitor economy in several ways. Generally, they function as micro events attracting visitors to a temporary destination. Where several pop-ups are operating with a connection of commonality, as for example food, this clustering contributes to higher visibility, generating more media and visitor interest.

A reason to pop out

Their temporality is another tool in attracting interest, a reason to visit. Part of the draw of pop-ups is the sense of urgency they create, to get there ‘now’ before it disappears, as well as to have been one of the few who were there to have had the experience. With the amount of pop-ups around there are a lot of experiences on offer and available to collect quickly.

The Internet makes it easy, information is only a click away. Pop-ups have harnessed the power of social media as an effective marketing tool with an ability to reach far and wide, to move people out of the virtual world and into the real. They have more pulling power than their tiny size belies, as long as the interest remains in this pop-up trend.

Think outside the box

Pop-ups, with a little bit of creativity, can have a wide range of applications. Working along similar principles to events, a bit of imaginative thinking can transform an empty space into a vibrant and exciting temporary attraction. A disused corner of a hotel, an empty retail unit, a marquee in the park or grounds of an attraction closed over winter could all be turned into a pop-up with ideas such as a theme bar, a gallery for local artists, a retail store for fashion students, an interactive mini museum for local produce or history, for a few days, weeks or months.

The help of a designer to make it look good can pay dividends, partner up with a local, or not so local, business, think outside the box. As an unusual example, Nissan the car manufacturer is currently collaborating with Collette, a high end Parisian fashion and lifestyle store, on a joint pop-up venture in a warehouse in London’s East End. On the hotel front, Madame DinnerHyphenParty is currently working on a pop-up hotel for one. The hotel is to be based in an installation which could be a ‘hotel within a hotel’ and she is looking for partners to collaborate with. Interested parties can contact her at surreal_dinner@yahoo.co.uk.

Public-funded pop-ups

Part 2 of this article will give examples of pop-ups in the mainstream. It will illustrate how town centre managers and their local partners are being encouraged by the Government to use them as a tool to keep towns looking attractive for locals and visitors alike, outline various forms of public funding available to help with long-term goals of regeneration in mind and explain how mainstream pop-ups contribute to creative micro tourism.

References

1. Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Modernity. 2000. Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd
2. Trend Briefing ‘Nowism’ Nov 2009 Trendwatching.com http://trendwatching.com/trends/nowism
3. Social media includes social networks eg Facebook, Myspace, blogs and micro-blogs (Twitter, wiki’s, podcasts), and content communities (Flickr, YouTube)
4. Trend Briefing. 10 Crucial Consumer trends for 2010. Dec 2009. Trendwatching.com http://trendwatching.com, search mass mingling
5. For early examples see http://trendwatching.com search pop-up Retail
6. For examples in 2009, Frank’s summer rooftop café and bar in Peckham London, Marmite’s Pop-up store in Regent St, London (http://www.marmitepopup.co.uk/), Prada’s Pop-up Paris store at Place Beauvau 92 open for 5 months only from 23 July, Gucci’s travelling Pop-up ‘Gucci-Icon Temporary Shop’ opened 24 October on Crosby St. Soho New York for two weeks before it travels to London Berlin, Tokyo and Paris.
7. Hopkins, Kathryn. ‘Pop-up shops cash in for Christmas’. 13 Nov 2009. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/13/christmas-marmite-popup-shops
8. See ‘£3 million empty shop revival fund for most deprived and hardest hit high streets’ published 13 Aug 2009 http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1311364
9. For a list of boroughs that received funding see http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1311364
10. See http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-United-Kingdom/Surrealist-Dinner-Party/98880702105
11. http://www.thelondonpaper.com/going-out/bars-and-restaurants, search surrealists dinner party
12. For examples of underground restaurants see http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/features/8001/London-s-underground-restaurants.html
13. Micro-Clusters and Networks: The Growth of Tourism. Edited by Ewen Michael. 2007. Elsevier.

About the author

Sue Cambie is a director at SCD Design Ltd, a UK based Architecture, Interiors and Project Management Practice with associate offices in New Zealand, Thailand and the Caribbean. The practice has been involved in providing concepts, design and procurement for pop-ups in the UK. Contact suecambie@scd-design.com.