Living in New York City, there’s no shortage of fun, amazing things to do in your spare time. One of my favorite pastimes has been visiting branded pop ups scattered around this city. Almost every weekend (likely more now since spring/summer means I’m more willing to leave the house), I visit pop ups, take tons of photos, get freebies, and so much more. My friends watch my stories and always ask “How do you hear about these things?!”

Experiential marketing fascinates me. In a sense, it’s very meta. You’re creating offline experiences to get people to face up from their phones just  long enough for them to want to pull out their phones to take photos in order to share their experiences. Psychology is trippy. Working in marketing, when doing any campaign (whether traditional, experiential, influencer, etc), I think the most important question you always need to ask yourself is “Why?” Why should your consumer be interested? Every pop up or event I visit, that is always the biggest question that circles in my head.

With that, I decided that I wanted to resurface my blog. I haven’t posted since 2017 and most of my previous posts have been about random entertainment things. There was never any driving factor other than Melanie wants to talk about something so Melanie will write a blog post. But now… WE HAVE A PURPOSE! So let’s go for it!

NOTE: Because I didn’t have the idea to really delve into this until after the experience, I don’t have too many photos of details. I’ll make sure to do that in my next posts!

Brand Name/Title: Warby Parker’s 10th Birthday Celebration

Location: 130 Greene St. SoHo, NYC

Why?: “In honor of Warby Parker's 10th anniversary, we're throwing the ultimate 10-year-old-style birthday party in Soho on March 7th. Join us to celebrate with pizza, cotton candy, arcade games, skee-ball, a bounce house, prizes, and more.”

Appeal: 

With all of the fun things to do and eat, the event as a whole was extremely instagrammable. As you waited in line on Greene St., they took over the block with ping pong, corn hole, a pizza truck, a Warby Parker bus for voter registration, cotton candy, and popcorn. An extremely talented drumline helped keep the energy up while waiting. Once you were able to get inside, there was a signing wall, skeeball, snow cones, arcade games, a photo booth, Connect Four, and a bounce house. They also had illustrators (more on that a bit later) and grab-and-go treats from Milk Bar.  Overall, it was definitely a 10 year old’s dream party.

The Pros:

Obviously, the pros were the freebies and the experiences. Upon entering, the staff handed you a punch card. The bottom portion of the punch card tore off and worked as your ticket to grab a slice of pizza from the truck. The punch card (forgot to take a picture) noted that if you completed at least five of the activities (ping pong, arcade, skeeball, bounce house, Connect Four), you could trade it in for a raffle ticket for free WP branded merch. Other freebies were snacks like popcorn, cotton candy, snocones, cookies, and juice boxes. For an open to the public event, that is a lottttt of free swag to give away.

The Cons:

In my opinion, the big con was size of venue and organization. Because the event itself was very active I think everyone would have appreciated a much larger space to play around in. Think back to when you were 10 years old and hopped up on sugar and pizza at Chuck E. Cheese. Think back to your parents and what they did to deal with your energetic ass. Essentially they had to let you run amuck in the playroom so you’d get tired. Now, think of yourself as an adult trying to do that, but being sardined in a tiny room with other adults (oh, and actual 10 year old kids because it’s an all ages event). 

Because of the limited space, there were no clear lines for each of the experiences. You would wait behind someone only to realize that they weren’t lining up for anything and then you essentially wasted your time. It didn’t seem like the event staff knew much either because once inside, it was hard to determine who was working there. Some people were wearing Warby Parker shirts, most weren’t. Wearing glasses isn’t really a uniform and isn’t that helpful for me haha.

One other con I had was outside in line. When the drumline started performing, the original line that I had been in for 30 minutes ended up becoming a crowd huddle. Towards the end of the performance, the bandleader told everyone to come in closer to sing “Happy Birthday” to Warby Parker. At that moment, I went, “OH NOOO” because lo and behold, the original line I was in disappeared. There were no staff members who made any mention to stay in line and once the performance was over, the bum rush to the inside experience started. Luckily, I was able to find my place again in line to go in. But for other people who might not be privy to this kind of experience, I wouldn’t doubt that they would have been like a deer caught in headlights. 

Other things I noticed that would have improved the experience:

• I think the street should have been fully blocked off for the duration of the event. With so much happening outside (pizza truck, corn hole, performances, etc.), it would have been much safer for all guests if cars were blocked from passing through the street. They blocked off the street during the drumline, but when they didn’t taxis and trucks had to make their way through the already tiny SoHo street.

• I did not see a social media hashtag for the event. One of the biggest trackers for success for experiential marketing is user generated content. Many people, like myself, tagged @WarbyParker when I posted on my social media channels. But without a hashtag, it’s hard to see content specifically from the event. 

About that illustrator 😒 :

My biggest annoyance about the event was the illustrator. LIke at many kids parties of yesteryear, they hired artists tasked with drawing guests. They had two artists working at a time and they would rotate every hour. I waited in line for one of the artists and it seemed like his hour was about to come up. As I sat down in the chair, his relief came but she said “Do you want to do her drawing? She’s been waiting for you.” For me, I didn’t mind either way for either artist. So he said he could draw me. I sat down and asked him if I should look at him or smile or anything, and he just said look natural… and… well…. According to my best friend, she said I looked like Humpty Dumpty. And honestly, I’m mad salty about it because it’s true. I’m Melanie Dumpty with a lazy eye. 😭

May this photo haunt your dreams as it will my roommates (because I posted it on our fridge.)