What Are Sampling and Pop-Ups? The Basics of Experiential PR and When to Use Each

Sampling is a method of building awareness and understanding by letting people actually try a product or service. A pop-up is a method of conveying a brand's world directly by setting up an experience space limited in time and place. The measures grouped together under the label "experiential PR" actually include three types with very different characteristics. A request to "run a pop-up" and a request to "do some sampling" may sound like neighboring ideas to the person in charge, but they differ in where design begins, what preparation is required, and what results they produce.

This article compares three types—street and in-store sampling, limited-time pop-ups, and invitation-only launch events and experience sessions—across four axes: breadth of reach, depth of experience, likelihood of posts, and preparation burden. By the end, you should be able to judge which type suits your project, and what changes when you combine it with influencers.

Experiential PR Falls into Three Types with Different Purposes

Experiential PR is a general term for measures that, rather than delivering information one-way as advertising, create occasions for people to actually engage with a product or brand, and lead from there to purchase intent and word of mouth. The three types covered in this article can be organized as follows.

• Street and in-store sampling — Measures in which passersby or store visitors are given the chance to pick up a product on the street or in a store
• Limited-time pop-ups — Measures in which a dedicated space is set up for a set period, letting visitors experience the product and the brand's world
• Invitation-only launch events and experience sessions — Measures aimed only at invited guests, offering a comparatively rich experience

Note that although we treat invitation-only launch events and experience sessions as a single type, the on-the-day design actually branches further: launch events focus on conveying information about new products, while experience sessions focus on giving guests time to experience them. In this article, we focus on what they share—delivering a rich experience to a narrowed audience—and treat them together as one type.

All three begin from the experience of getting people to try something, but the design decisions—who to reach, how deep an experience to offer, and at what scale—are entirely different. If you start from a format, saying "let's just do a pop-up," without understanding these differences, preparation will proceed with the objective and the measure out of alignment.

Street and In-Store Sampling Is a Measure That Goes for Breadth

The strength of street and in-store sampling is the breadth of its reach. Anyone who passes a given location or visits a store can be part of the audience, so a large base can be secured.

On the other hand, the time available per person is short, and the depth of experience inevitably stays shallow. Most people receive the product and move on, so this type is poorly suited to conveying a brand's world in depth. The likelihood of posts is also not high compared with the other two types, because the experience of simply receiving something offers little that people want to talk about.

In terms of preparation burden, it is the lightest of the three. There is little heavy work such as building out a venue or managing invitations, and the time from start to execution is short. It suits situations where you want to "widen the base first" or "move with a short preparation period."

Limited-Time Pop-Ups Balance Depth of Experience and Likelihood of Posts

The difference between limited-time pop-ups and street or in-store sampling is that visiting is a step more voluntary than simply being at a store. People who go out of their way to come to the location already have a certain level of interest.

That makes it easier to design depth of experience. Because the space itself can be built out as the brand's world, it is easy to introduce touches such as a photogenic corner or a designed route through the experience, and the likelihood of posts is higher than with street or in-store sampling.

However, the preparation burden grows accordingly. Steps that sampling did not require pile up: an operations setup to maintain the space throughout the run, production of fixtures and decor, and promotion to draw visitors. The breadth of reach is wider than that of invitation-only launch events and experience sessions, but not as wide as street or in-store sampling. It suits situations where you "want to raise the quality of the experience while keeping the audience reasonably broad."

Invitation-Only Launch Events and Experience Sessions Take On a Heavier Preparation Burden in Exchange for Richness

Invitation-only launch events and experience sessions let you design a deeper per-person experience than the other two types, in exchange for narrowing the audience. Because the number of attendees is known in advance, each element of the experience can be built into the design, and the likelihood of posts is the highest of the three.

In our own records, the posting rate among attendees also runs at a higher level than for the other two types. However, this level is not uniform as scale grows, and we have found that the more attendees there are, the more the per-person experience design tends to thin out. A detailed breakdown is covered in How Scale Affects Post Rates at Events (the record shows an attendee post rate of 94.6%).

This type cannot match the other two in breadth of reach. There is a cap on how many people can be invited, so it is not suited to measures that seek breadth. The preparation burden is also the largest of the three. A long chain of steps follows, from invitation design to reception and flow on the day to providing materials after the event. Even reception alone requires design to avoid queues forming right after doors open. For an article dealing only with this step, see A Guide to Reception Design for Invitation-Only Events. For a comparison of reception methods—paper, spreadsheets, web invitations, and event management tools—see S/PASS GUIDE's Comparing Event Reception Methods. This type suits situations where you "want a rich experience and word of mouth, even at the cost of narrowing the audience."

Lining Up the Four Axes Makes Each Type's Strengths and Weaknesses Clear

Lining up the three types across the four axes gives the following.

Figure 1: Comparison table of 3 types × 4 axes

What this table shows is that the four axes involve a clean trade-off. Pursuing breadth tends to sacrifice depth and posts, and pursuing depth and posts makes preparation heavier. If you choose a type by looking at only one axis, strain will appear on the others.

That said, this correspondence is a rule of thumb, not a claim that values are fixed once a type is chosen. Even for the same limited-time pop-up, choosing a high-traffic location brings its breadth of reach closer to that of street sampling, and narrowing the experience route lightens the preparation burden. A practical way to think about it is in two stages: the type determines the tendency of strengths and weaknesses, and the actual design determines where within that range it lands.

When Combined with Influencers, the Deciding Factors Become Casting and Flow

Influencers can be combined with any of the three types. However, the moment you combine them, the factors that determine results shift from the type of measure itself to two questions: whom you ask to take part, and how they move on the day.

In street and in-store sampling, specific people are asked to attend among the passersby, so what matters is whether the experience fits naturally into the context of that person's content. In limited-time pop-ups, the design of the flow—when during the run you invite them and where along the experience route you guide them—shapes the content of the posts. In invitation-only launch events and experience sessions, because the number of invitees is limited, the precision of each person's experience design and flow translates directly into results.

Creating a place for experience and creating a state in which that experience gets talked about may look continuous, but they are separate jobs. Where this divide arises is explained in detail in The Work of Creating the Experience and the Work of Creating Conversation. The work does not end once you decide whom to ask; only when the design includes the flow on the day does it lead to the result of posts.

Which Type to Choose Depends on Your Objective and Your Capacity to Prepare

Figure 2: Decision flow for choosing a measure

The decision on which type to choose is easier to organize in the following order.

First, confirm whether the objective is to "get people to know" or to "get people to experience in depth." If it leans toward the former, street and in-store sampling is the candidate; if toward the latter, a limited-time pop-up or an invitation-only launch event and experience session are the candidates.

Next, confirm whether posts are one of your main objectives. If they are, choose a limited-time pop-up or an invitation-only launch event and experience session, where depth of experience is easier to design.

Finally, confirm the preparation period and resources available. Even with the same objective of "wanting people to experience in depth," if you cannot secure enough time to prepare, you would choose a limited-time pop-up, which is easier to start than an invitation-only launch event and experience session. Conversely, if you have room in both resources and time, an invitation-only launch event and experience session lets you design a richer experience.

Scope of This Article

This article compared the three types across the four axes of breadth of reach, depth of experience, likelihood of posts, and preparation burden, and organized how to think about choosing among them. It does not cover the criteria for selecting specific venues and fixtures for each type, the wording of invitations, or how to structure the operations team on the day. It also does not address hybrid measures that combine the three types (for example, a design that recreates the content of a launch event as a pop-up at a later date). Invitation wording is compiled in S/PASS GUIDE's Invitation Email Templates.

Conclusion

There is no ranking among the three types—only strengths and weaknesses that depend on your objective and resources. Whichever type you choose, we believe the surest way to keep the design on track is to decide up front which of the four axes to prioritize and which to give up.