THE FACTS

This year Nestle approached Steel Space with a unique and challenging field marketing project in mind: create a stylish, branded and easy-to-manage pop-up shop that would tour the largest cities of Canada to introduce the new Dolce Gusto coffee makers.  The campaign started on September 16 2011 and lasted for 13 weeks – 9 in Ontario and 4 in Quebec – where Nestle’s Steel Space Pop-Up Shop would aim to sell an optimal number of Dolce Gusto products while simultaneously raising awareness of the brand and helping passersby discover the new machines.

THE CAMPAIGN

Taking up the challenge, Steel Space designed an extraordinary mobile café that was both trendy and welcoming – the best possible setting for Nestle to demonstrate all its different Dolce Gusto capsule machines. From the moment it was deployed at Toronto’s Union Station, the Nestle Steel Space 20 unit was an instant success. Over the next 3 months weeks, the unit traveled to all of Ontario and Quebec’s most notorious hot spots, including the likes of the “Nuit Blanche”, Place des Arts, The Bell Centre, City Centre Drive, Roy Thomson Hall, Bloor & Church and Boulevard St. Laurent. The fact that it was stylish and upmarket in appearance helped draw in passersby. Additionally, with the unit at street level and designed in an open-plan manner, there was a steady flow of traffic and people felt comfortable coming in and out of the mobile café.  This led to more interaction with the products and to more customers trying out the Dolce Gusto coffee.

These occurrences had a direct impact on sales.  With an original target of 60 units sold, the Nestle Pop-Up Shop largely surpassed its objectives by selling a total of 400 Dolce Gusto machines and distributing exactly 21,628 samples throughout the campaign. The traveling boutique brought success to the entire line of Dolce Gusto products and Nestle was completely blown away by this triumphant marketing concept.

THE HIGHLIGHT

This case is one of the many examples where a short-term marketing strategy executed by Steel Space was extended due to incredibly positive feedback and tangible results.