Pop-up Shops in London: A Startup Marketing Playbook

Most startups treat “experiential marketing” like a luxury line item. Then January hits, footfall is unpredictable, paid social CPMs creep up, and everyone’s fighting for attention with the same “New Year, new you” creative.

That’s why I like what Higgidy is doing with its London pop-up pie shop, opening 15 January. It’s simple, seasonal, and physical. People can try the product in the real world, talk about it, and share it. For UK startups, that combination—an offline moment engineered to produce online demand—is still one of the most reliable ways to build brand memory.

This post is part of our Startup Marketing United Kingdom series, and it’s written for founders and marketers who want leads, not “buzz”. You’ll get a practical playbook for running a pop-up that earns attention on the street and captures it digitally.

Why pop-ups still work (especially in January)

Pop-ups work because they solve a problem digital marketing can’t: trust at first contact. When someone tastes a pie, feels packaging, chats with staff, or watches a queue form, your brand stops being an ad and starts being a thing.

January is a particularly strong month for experiential marketing in the UK:

• Consumers are back in routines (commuting, in-office days, school runs), which stabilises footfall.
• Media and social feeds reset after Christmas campaigns—fresh formats stand out.
• Comfort food and “small treats” play well post-holidays, when people are cutting back but still want moments of joy.

Higgidy’s move signals a useful stance for startups: you don’t need a massive above-the-line budget to create a moment worth sharing. You need a clear offer, a tight location strategy, and a plan to convert attention into owned audience.

The real goal: turn footfall into a growth asset

A pop-up is not the goal. It’s the top of a funnel you can control.

The mistake I see: teams spend 90% of their energy on the build and 10% on the capture. Then they wonder why the event “didn’t translate”. If your pop-up doesn’t produce measurable digital outcomes, it’s theatre.

Define success before you pick a venue

Answer these before anything else:

1. What’s the conversion event? Email sign-up? App install? Waitlist? Retail trial with QR proof?
2. What’s your target CPA/CPL? If you can’t estimate this, you can’t evaluate success.
3. What’s the follow-up journey? A welcome sequence, SMS, a retargeting audience, or a founder-led outreach flow.

A practical benchmark I’ve used for consumer pop-ups: aim for 20–35% of visitors to complete some owned-channel action (email/SMS/loyalty). If you’re below 10%, your offer or capture mechanism is too weak.

Make the offline experience “digitally legible”

Your pop-up should create content without begging for it.

Design for:

• One iconic photo moment (queue sightline, product wall, open-kitchen action, branded takeaway).
• One short-form video loop (steam, slice, pull-apart, pour, sizzle—food brands are blessed here).
• One repeatable social prompt staff can say naturally: “If you post, tag us—we’re resharing all day.”

The aim is to generate user-generated distribution that’s cheaper than paid and more trusted.

Experiential marketing on a budget: what to copy (and what to skip)

The myth is that pop-ups are expensive by default. The reality? They’re expensive when you treat them like a mini flagship store. For startups, the better model is a focused activation that behaves like a conversion channel.

The “minimum viable pop-up” stack

If you’re doing this lean, prioritise:

• A tight product offer (3–5 hero items, not a full menu).
• Fast service design (queues kill conversion if people wait too long without payoff).
• Clear capture (QR at point of delight, not at the exit when they’re gone).
• One partner that reduces cost or increases footfall (coffee brand, local creator, nearby gym, coworking space).

Skip (at first):

• Overbuilt interiors
• Complex multi-step interactions
• Too many SKUs
• Long brand films no one watches in-store

A good pop-up is a performance: one strong scene, repeated all day.

Location strategy: don’t chase “cool”—chase intent

In London, “busy” isn’t the same as “right”. A high-footfall street can still be wrong if your audience is rushing through.

Pick locations based on:

• Audience pace (are people browsing or commuting?)
• Nearby anchors (stations, offices, markets, gyms, universities)
• Purchase context (snack now, take-home later, giftable?)

Food pop-ups often win near lunch and commuter routes, but the best spot depends on the behaviour you’re selling into.

Pair the pop-up with digital growth: a simple funnel that works

If your campaign goal is leads (and ours is), you need a funnel you can measure and improve.

Before the pop-up: build demand you can retarget

Two weeks out (minimum), run a simple pre-launch plan:

• Landing page with the offer, dates, and a “notify me” capture.
• Paid geo-targeted social within 1–3 miles of the location, optimised for leads.
• Creator seeding: 10–20 local micro-creators (5k–50k followers) invited to a preview slot.

Micro-creators are often the best ROI here because they’re local, fast, and their audience can actually show up.

During the pop-up: capture, tag, and segment

Don’t collect emails into one bucket. Segment on day one.

Capture ideas that work in real life:

• QR codes that trigger one-tap sign-up (keep forms short)
• “Vote for the next flavour” with email/SMS to submit
• Digital scratchcard: sign up to win free product (instant gratification)

Segment by:

• Visited (yes/no)
• Product tried
• Neighbourhood (rough postcode)
• Referral source (creator, paid ad, walk-by)

That segmentation makes your follow-up feel personal rather than spammy.

After the pop-up: follow up like you mean it

Most brands send one “thanks for coming” email and stop. That’s wasted intent.

A stronger 7-day follow-up sequence:

1. Same day: “Here’s your perk” (discount, recipe, early access)
2. Day 2: Social proof + UGC roundup
3. Day 4: Retail/store locator or “buy online” with a specific hero SKU
4. Day 6: Referral hook (“bring a friend, both get X”)
5. Day 7: Feedback ask (NPS-style) + next city waitlist

Pop-ups are also perfect for building high-intent retargeting audiences: people who visited the landing page, scanned QR codes, or engaged with your event content.

What startups can learn from Higgidy’s pie shop pop-up

We don’t have all the operational details from the announcement, but we do have enough to pull out the strategic lessons.

Lesson 1: Product-led experiences beat brand-led experiences

A pie shop pop-up is product-first. You’re not asking people to “understand the brand”. You’re letting the product do the persuasion.

For startups, that’s the right order:

1. Create trial
2. Earn trust
3. Ask for the next step (email/SMS/purchase)

Lesson 2: Seasonality is a growth tool, not a creative constraint

January is a specific moment. Lean into it.

If you’re a B2C startup, map your experiential calendar to UK seasonal behaviour:

• January: comfort, routines, “treat but sensible”
• Spring: refresh, outdoor footfall, markets
• Summer: festivals, parks, travel hubs
• Autumn: back-to-school, office rhythms
• Q4: gifting, parties, big retail weekends

Lesson 3: Physical engagement should feed digital distribution

A pop-up without a digital plan is a missed opportunity.

Treat the experience as content production:

• Short-form clips for Reels/TikTok
• Behind-the-scenes founder story
• Customer reactions
• Limited-time offer countdowns

The offline moment provides the raw material. Digital turns it into reach.

Pop-up KPI checklist (so you can prove it worked)

Track a small set of numbers that map to leads and revenue.

Footfall & conversion

• Visitors per day
• Queue-to-purchase rate
• Purchase-to-capture rate (email/SMS)

Digital growth

• Landing page conversion rate
• Cost per lead (CPL) from geo-ads
• Retargeting audience growth (7-day and 30-day)

Revenue signal

• On-site AOV
• Online sales lift in the postcode catchment
• Repeat purchase within 14–30 days (if you can track)

If you can’t measure at least 5 of these, simplify your setup until you can.

If you’re planning a UK pop-up this quarter, start here

A pop-up shop in London can be one of the fastest ways to create trust and attention—but only if you build it like a funnel. Higgidy’s pie shop is a timely reminder that tactile experiences still cut through, especially when they’re designed to be photographed, shared, and followed up.

If you’re a UK startup trying to balance brand and performance, I’d start with a small, focused activation: one offer, one moment, one capture path, one follow-up sequence. Then iterate.

What would your brand’s “pie shop moment” be—an experience so concrete people can describe it to a friend on the walk home?