On Thursday night, Samsung leveraged the ever-increasing popularity of pop-up stores to host their second pop-up concert in Toronto’s downtown core. Last August, Metric played for a crowd of about ten thousand outside of Union Station and it seems that Samsung is making these concerts annual events, this time expanding nationwide to include dates in Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal too. The bands delivered stellar crowd-pleasing performances, so I’m glad I went to see The Midway State once again and to hear the Juno award winning Arkells play live.
Through an effective marketing campaign that included a #samsungsecret Twitter hashtag, press releases and a full page colour print ad in the Metro, Samsung invited Torontonians to see The Midway State and The Arkells, no tickets required. The concert was held in a parking lot at Blue Jays Way and Wellington Street West. The twentysomethings living in condos across the street, some of whom made Bristol board signs, were delighted to have a great view from their balconies.
Reaching out to local influencers, such as Casie Stewart and Lauren O’Neil, who are active on Twitter, ensured that the event remained at the forefront of their followers’ post-work plans. Twitter further played a role in generating brand awareness because retweeting Samsung Mobile Canada granted people like myself, curious as to what they would giveaway, a snazzy Samsung swag bag. Well, let’s not embellish their water bottles and pen too much, but all the items were branded in blue colours and Samsung logos. The only item that directly relates to their Android phones and tablet that the event was meant to promote, is a screen cleaner, which is certainly a useful freebie. Everyone at the event was friendly however and the distribution of free water bottles on a humid evening was certainly appreciated.
Perhaps the product demonstrators should have received better training, given that the Samsung representative I spoke to lacked knowledge about the Galaxy tablet’s camera functionality. After watching videographers capture the performances using the tablets, I was interested to see how they worked, but was unimpressed by his brief explanation.
Overall, the pop-up event organized by Communique was a hit and it put the event planning agency on this marketing intern’s radar. I’m eager to see what other exciting events pop up unexpectedly in the city this summer.
