THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 60 NOVEMBER 13, 2019
BELL:^ COU
RTESY^
OF^
SAVED^
BY^
TH
E^ MAX.
FLEABAG:^ COURTESY^ O
F^ A
MA
ZON.^ FR
IEN
DS:
COURTESYOF
COFFEE^ B
EANAND^ T
EA^
LEAF.^ D
UFFER:^MICHA
EL^
KOVAC/GETTY^
IMAGES.HangoutsStyle
NBC to do more Saved by the Max
pop-ups, which are heading to a
yet-to-be-revealed city next year.
Short-term experiences can
cost a network in the mid to high
six figures, depending on the level
of detail. The 12-day Scoops Ahoy
pop-up began with a modest con-
cept. Netflix was “interested in
working with an ice cream brand
to bring one of the flavors from
the show to life,” says Dave Nagel,
Baskin-Robbins senior director of
consumer engagement. “We real-
ized that it could be a much bigger
opportunity for both brands.”
The final installation featured a
digital game — complete with 160
pages of story, thanks to a team
of developers and scriptwrit-
ers — and a giant ice cream ship
weighing 10,000 pounds as an
Instagram op.
Nagel’s group ended up working
closely with the Stranger Things
creative team, including the Duffer
Brothers. “Obviously, the Stranger
Things brand has a lot of equity,
and that was appealing to Baskin-
Robbins,” Nagel
says. Netflix’s goal
was “100 percent”
about delivering an
authentic experience
for passionate fans,
he says, “so there were not a lot of
hard-and-fast business metrics
or goals that you would normally
have in a partnership.” (Netflix
declined to comment.) Nagel says
he didn’t pay licensing fees to the
streamer, and despite the tight
36-hour remodel of the parlor,
including removing all Baskin-
Robbins logos, he claims it was
profitable: “We had to shut down
the drive-thru for safety because
the lines were so long.” Along with
1 Saved by the Max (here in L.A.) was the first of
events marketer Derek Berry’s pop-ups.
2 Hilary’s Cafe referenced where Fleabag’s title character worked.
3 Guinea pigs were available for fans to cuddle.a takeover in Toronto, the two
Scoops Ahoys more than doubled
sales and “this boost continued for
both locations after returning to
Baskin-Robbins branding,” says a
brand rep.
For the L.A. Friends pop-up
Central Perk in August, Coffee
Bean paid an undisclosed part-
nership fee to Warner Bros.,
which granted access to the
show’s graphics. “Knowing that
everyone loves Friends, it was
like, ‘OK, we can get thousands
of people’ — and it definitely
surpassed what we were gauging,”
says Ashley Keehne, head of stra-
tegic partnerships at Coffee Bean,
which saw a “significant spike”
in foot traffic that “contributed
significant growth” to the entire
company’s sales.new. It’s much more interesting
than just dropping a trailer.”
The evidence bears this out. In
less than three hours, the New
York Friends experience sold out,
accommodating 50,000 fans. At
$29.50 per ticket, that’s as much
as $1.5 million in sales; plus,
75,000 non-ticketed fans vis-
ited the merchandise shop. The
pop-up moves to Boston next,
from Nov. 21 to Jan. 5, with special
events on Thanksgiving and
New Year’s, when ticket prices
are upped to $55. “Most of the
time we’re looking to break even.
Sometimes it’s a pure marketing
spend, like buying a billboard,”
says van Roden. “Then the dream
is, can they live on and sell tickets
and become an ongoing vehicle?”
For a few days in August,
Amazon hosted Hilary’s Cafe,
inspired by the guinea pig-
themed eatery in Fleabag that
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s cha rac ter
runs. It offered a free drink and
snack, as well as guinea pigs
for fans to pet. The streamer ran
the concept by Waller-Bridge
and Fleabag producers, who
“loved the idea,” says Jennifer
Verdick, head of promotions
and consumer/trade events at
Amazon Studios. Fans entered
the Melrose Avenue spot on a
first-come-first-served basis
ahead of the Emmys, where the
show netted six wins. “We chose
L.A. to target both consumers
and voters,” Verdick says.
This fall, Pop TV is expect-
ing 600 people per day for its
free Schitt’s Creek experience at
Hollywood’s Goya Studios. “It’s a
whole new business model,” says
Berry. Pop-ups “resonate and
[fans] go home and want to binge-
watch — it’s beneficial for the
studio, and if money can be made,
that’s great, too.”Peter van Roden, senior vp
global themed entertainment at
Warner Bros. Consumer Products
who oversaw the Friends instal-
lations, explains that fans are
into “the charm of the pop-up,
where it’s sort of ‘I found it.’ ” The
experience proves that young
people do want to get up off of
their couches in the digital age:
“Actually, you’re in a heyday of
people connecting and wanting
to go out and do things,” says van
Roden, adding that “this is an
evolving space.”
Kristin Diehl, a professor of
marketing at the USC Marshall
School of Business, explains that
pop-ups have the same draw
for millennials and Gen Zers
as wildly popular attractions
like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
at Disneyland, where they can
experience a world they’ve been to
“in their mind” but not physically.
“They don’t just want to watch a
show, they want to be part of the
story,” she says. “We know from
research that taking on a first-
person perspective intensifies
emotions.” Diehl attributes the
rise of pop-ups to the increase in
content: “People are going all out,
and we need to offer somethingDuffer Bros.54 The L.A. location of
the Friends pop-up.
Lines were out the door
for 12 hours every day.
5 The famous Central
Perk couch, an
Instagram favorite.124SAVED BY
THE BELLFRIENDS3FLEABAG