Choosing The Right Vehicle for your Mobile Pop-Up

Let’s say you want to grow your brand, both geographically and demographically. You like the idea of staging brand activations or pop-up shops in markets where your target audience is large but your brand has yet to gain a foothold. You want to include sampling, maybe live demonstrations. And you want to involve product experts to help audience members understand which products are right for them and how to use them. How can you accomplish all of these goals affordably and effectively to increase brand awareness and sales? By taking your brand on the road with a mobile experiential marketing vehicle.

“Many brands will attest that the best answer is to turn to experiential marketing, and specifically to mobile experiential marketing via marketing vehicles,” says food truck promotions. Vehicles offer a flexible, mobile way to bring your brand to new consumers. “Because promotional vehicles are so customizable, the possibilities are truly endless.”

How to Choose the Right Vehicle

The simplest definition of a marketing vehicle is a truck, bus, RV, tuk tuk, or anything else on wheels that provides a specific firsthand experience between brand and consumer. Every type of vehicle has its own pros and cons, however, and the choice of vehicle for your brand activation depends on your target audience, budget, brand image, and the experience you want to provide. Whether your brand is assembling your mobile activation on its own or using an agency that brings a wealth of experience in experiential marketing, ask yourself these questions as you begin the planning process and determine what type of vehicle is right for your needs:

Goals and Purpose: What are the brand’s goals for this project? What’s the primary purpose of your activation?What do you want to do with the activation — distribute samples and swag, play games, collect customers’ information for your brand’s email list? Will you sell products at the event?

Audience: Who is your target audience? What kind of experience do you want to create for your audience? Which type of vehicle supports and accommodates that experience, and resonates with your audience?

Location: Where is your target audience? Within that region, state, or city, where will the activation take place (urban, rural, outdoor, indoor)? What does the specific location allow room for? What about the space immediately surrounding the location — what footprint will the activation have and will there be comfortable room for it?

Vehicle Needs: How will you be using the vehicle — preparing and serving food, distributing samples, hosting demonstrations and hands-on activities? Will guests need to enter the vehicle as opposed to walking up to a window? Considering rental, customization, staffing, and fuel costs as well as the nature of the event and the taste and culture of the target audience, which vehicle checks the most boxes?

Popular Experiential Marketing Vehicles

Food Trucks

Across industries ranging from food and beverage to beauty and personal care, food trucks are arguably the most popular choice for mobile activations and pop-up appearances. They’re an excellent fit for many different experiential events, for many reasons. “Via a food truck, your company can design a variety of appealing culinary experiences, like one where consumers are guided to sign up for your app in exchange for free ice cream or panini,” says food truck promotions.

Food trucks are easy to customize by “wrapping” them in colorful, custom-designed vinyl decals. Once branded, they stand out in a crowd, too. “They act as giant rolling street-level billboards and activation vehicles,” says an article on alt terrain.

And although food trucks don’t offer the spacious interior that allows guests to explore, when placed in the right setting they can support a broad footprint for sampling, games, comfortable seating, and more — all opportunities for a street team of brand ambassadors to interact with customers.

Buses, RVs, and Trailers

For an activation or pop-up concept requiring room for attendees to move around, larger vehicles like RVs, buses, or trailers (such as the iconic Airstream) provide ample space for creating a world that’s all about your brand. Such vehicles offer brands the space to create a mobile immersive experience, such as a mini-store or salon, that can travel to precisely target the sought-after demographic. One example: For a mobile activation that spanned 16 states, grooming brand Axe and Promobile transformed a 39’ bus into an immersive, Axe-themed barber shop/lounge. Dubbed the ChillMobile, the bus visited high schools to introduce teenagers to Axe products via sampling and demonstrations.

Due to their size, large vehicles often have more complex permitting requirements. It also takes lots of open space, such as a pedestrian plaza or parking lot, to accommodate the crowds these behemoths draw. But for a brand looking to make a huge impact and connect with hundreds of consumers per stop, a touring trailer could be the ticket.

Glass Box Trucks

The beauty of glass box trucks is not only that they’re fun and eye-catching, they are also rolling photo opportunities, a way to get consumers to share your brand on social media. Glass box trucks create high product visibility, says food truck promotions. “There’s no doubt that the openness of this vehicle creates immersive experiences that guarantee customers fall in love with your brand.”

Supported by a street team, brand ambassadors or influencers, and interactive games or contests, a glass box truck can turn a pop-up or sampling activation into an event. Tie-ins with other marketing efforts don’t hurt: Hellmann’s used a glass box truck and giant mayo jar for a recent campaign against food waste. In addition to the truck’s cross-country tour, the campaign included a Super Bowl ad featuring the same giant-jar motif.

Another example: Amika’s “FrizzMobile”, a glass box truck that took the beauty brand’s new anti-frizz treatment to four of the muggiest cities in the U.S. Wrapped in the brand’s signature vivid, cheerful colors, the truck served as both an inviting, visually appealing pop-up shop and an immersive experience.

Trikes, Carts, and Tuk Tuks

Small, quirky vehicles pack a mighty marketing impact. Versatile and fun, they can be a great fit for a brand looking for a way to put itself as close as possible to consumers, in the heart of the action on a city street, beach, sporting event, or festival. Many are suitable for indoor use, allowing them to set up shop in malls, terminals, and other high-traffic interiors.

Tuk tuks are compact, motorized three-wheeled vehicles similar in size to carts or trikes but typically tricked out more like a pop-up shop, with rich decor evocative of the brand and its products. To put it simply, they’re cute — and that makes them a great photo opportunity for consumers as well as a convenient mini-shop and sampling venue.

Trikes — a broad term that refers to bike carts, ad bikes, vending tricycles, and billboard cycles — allow consumers to experience your brand firsthand. Like tuk tuks, trikes are three-wheeled, small enough to fit in compact spaces, and easily moved to multiple locations per day. “Some of the perks to trikes is that they don’t require a permit, they’re cost-effective, and they make the perfect accessory vehicle,” notes food truck promotions.

Carts combine the functionality of a food truck with the compact size and portability of a trike or tuk tuk. The two main pros of using a food cart are the window display and parking flexibility. From the window display, you can show off a certain product or brand merch that instantly catches people’s eyes. Carts are less easily moved than trucks — they typically aren’t street-legal — but their ability to squeeze onto crowded sidewalks makes them especially versatile in cities.

Taking the marketing show on the road has been a hot trend in experiential marketing for the last decade, and when it comes to choosing a vehicle, the options are diverse and ever-evolving. For brands looking to expand into new markets, reach new audiences, or create a social media splash, going mobile is a powerful, impactful option.

Promobile Marketing is a dynamic experiential marketing agency based in New York City. For over a decade, Promobile Marketing has collaborated with a range of brands—from budding startups to major CPG brands—on immersive marketing campaigns. Get in touch to discuss your next project.