How to Create a Pop-Up Stall: A Step-by-Step Guide for Effective Community Engagement
"It's three hours in and I seem to be wearing a human repellent..."
Everyone who has worked at a pop-up stall knows this feeling. The pressure to gather feedback or sales battling against the human instinct to avoid the train wreck feeling of awkward interactions. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. By implementing a few key principles, you can ensure that your pop-up stall goes from a daunting, awkward encounter to an enjoyable experience for all involved.
Creating a pop-up stall is a powerful tool for community engagement. It allows you to interact directly with your target audience, gather valuable community feedback, and make a lasting impression. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to create a pop-up stall that captivates and engages your community.
What is a pop-up stall?
A pop-up stall, or pop-up store, is a temporary instalment of a physical display in a public space. Think of a local market or temporary information stand. These displays can serve for several reasons; to showcase and sell products, to provide information, to deliver an experience. In this article, we will be focusing on the use of pop-up stalls for community engagement, however, the principles still apply for retail pop-ups.
What is community engagement?
Community engagement is the process of consultation and collaboration with the underlying group of people affected by the decisions of an organisation or authority. The process involves actively creating opportunities for the community and stakeholders to participate in, and share feedback on, the decisions that affect their wellbeing.
While we often think of community engagement as a responsibility of larger organisations such as companies, councils and governments, it is important to consider that there is always going to be a flow on affect when an entity (including small businesses) makes a decision about their operations.
For example, if a small café were to open in a residential suburb, it may raise potential concerns over noise, pollution and parking issues.
Why are pop ups important for community engagement?
Pop-ups are just one of many ways to engage with a community, however, they are arguably the most powerful tool for increasing brand, or cause, visibility. By setting up in a public space, pop-ups ensure that the agenda of the stall are visible present for community members, not just on their smartphone but in front of their faces.
For organisations, councils or governments, pop ups provide an instantaneous feedback opportunity, where community members can share their opinion, perspective or ideas on a particular topic.
For community members, pop-ups provide a personalised experience to learn or share concerns over a matter affecting their life. The face-to-face nature of a pop-up stall allows community members to feel heard and associate a human connection to an inhuman concept such as a brand, project or issue.
Being able to facilitate an interactive, personalised pop-up that provides an experience for the community while capturing important data
How To: Create a Pop-up Stall
Step 1: Know Your Community
Understanding your audience is crucial for successful community engagement. Before you create a stall, define your target audience by considering demographics, behaviours, and preferences. For instance, if you’re aiming to gather community feedback from young families, setting up your pop-up in a park on the weekend could be ideal. If your focus is on professionals, a lunchtime setup near office buildings might be more effective.
Research where your target community spends their time and plan your pop-up accordingly. Timing is key—choose a time when your audience is most likely to engage with your stall, avoiding moments when they may be rushed or busy. Sporting events are a great place to boost reach and interaction as participants have time on their hands.
Step 2: Design an Inviting and Interactive Space
The design of your pop-up stall is critical to attracting participants and encouraging community engagement. Firstly, you need to consider the non-negotiables. Your pop-up must be safe, accessible for all and inviting. Consider where your stall might be set up and plan accordingly, factoring in any location-specific factors that may have an impact on the safety of the stall, such as weather conditions if you plan to set up outside. For example, store cables securely behind displays and provide weather protection with a marquee if you’re outdoors.
Consider co-designing your pop-up with community members or clients. This involves collaborating with your client, the community and any other stakeholders to visualise the design and experience of your pop-up. This collaboration ensures your stall resonates with the audience.
Pop-up stalls should not just be visual, they should be an experience. The public can often perceive that pop-up stalls are always trying to sell them something or lock them into some sort of commitment (for example, donations). As such, many people try to avoid pop-up stalls and will attempt to close down interaction opportunities. Your visual design is the first thing a community member will see, so this has a large weighting on whether or not they make a conscious or unconscious decision to engage. People are more willing to participate in engagement if the stall: looks inviting, has an experience or leisure element to it, and the motive of the pop-up is clearly communicated.
A really simple yet effective way to improve use experience at your pop-up is to include interactive elements like games or challenges to make your stall engaging. These activities not only make the experience enjoyable but also help in collecting community feedback. The most effective way to balance the fun and interaction with the objectives of your pop-up, is to have the activities themed around your cause, where the outcomes of the pop-up are recordable.
Below you can see an example of where the activities were ingrained in the culture of the community, as the pop-up was delivered at a local tennis club and asked participants to provide feedback by throwing a tennis ball onto a board using a tennis-lingo scale to indicate their answer.
Step 3: Secure Permissions and Prepare
Before you create a stall, it’s important to secure the necessary permissions. If your chosen location is privately owned, such as some shopping centres, contact the landlord for approval. For public spaces, reach out to your local council for the required permits. This step is particularly important if your stall involves food, beverages, or giveaways. Check state and local legislation and authorities for the process of gaining approval to operate a pop-up stall. For example, if you wish to sell food at your stall in NSW, Food Authority NSW provides guidance on this.
Once you have approval it is time to start preparing your materials and the equipment you might need to bring your pop-up design to life. This includes visual assets like banners, flyers, and display posters. Due to the visual salience importance of the pop-up design, it is often very worthwhile to get a graphic designer to make these assets for you.
Ensure that all equipment is safe and suitable for use, such as having electrical equipment tagged by an electrician if necessary.
Step 4: Engage Effectively with the Community
Effective community engagement at your pop-up stall relies on positive and transparent interactions. When people see a pop-up, they may initially be wary, thinking you’re trying to sell them something. Approach community members with friendliness and honesty about your objectives. Focus on offering value through experiences, gifts, or useful information.
By creating a welcoming atmosphere, you’ll encourage more meaningful interactions and gather better community feedback.
Step 5: Collect and Utilise Feedback
Gathering community feedback is a key objective of your pop-up stall. Plan ahead to determine what data you need and how to collect it. This could be through digital forms, paper surveys, or interactive activities that naturally lead to data collection.
Balance the fun, engaging aspects of your stall with effective feedback collection methods to ensure your pop-up is both enjoyable and a valuable source of insights.
Why Captivate Consulting:
Our approach to community engagement is grounded in innovative techniques that facilitate meaningful dialogue and gather insightful feedback. We employ a variety of interactive methods at pop-up engagement events, ensuring that your community has an unforgettable experience!
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