Four ways to elevate a pop-up experience: inspiration from Single Drunk Female’s Fresh Start Mart

Way back in 2019, pop-ups were so overplayed that you couldn’t walk up Fifth Avenue without hitting at least three. But the pandemic’s experiential reset now has us nostalgic for the world of three years ago, pop-ups and all. These events’ bite-sized formats make activations easier to manage as we ease back into large scale brand events.  Another highlight of 2019: you could go to the grocery store, mindlessly browse and leave with just a few things. No masks! No hoarding toilet paper! Luckily, we recaptured some of that pre-Covid magic at last week’s Fresh Start Mart, a pop-up for Freeform’s new show Single Drunk Female. The Fresh Start Mart operates on the premise that being a human is hard (lol, yeah), but at least you can still occasionally score free stuff.  The experience was, in a word, adorable, artfully curated to look like a real general store, complete with fresh flowers, a deli, a produce section and a coffee cart.  When executed well, short-lived activations like this are a great option for post-pandemic XP, as well as an opportunity to amplify past successful experiences. Many experiential thought leaders have turned to pop-ups as a dependably viable solution for hosting...