And it travelled far and wide, this Chip Shop that didn’t sell chips. Heated cabinets, kitchen utensils, UV-emitting insectocutors were schlepped around the country, popping up (literally) everywhere from galleries in Scotland to London’s British Library. On arrival at the latest destinantion, the counter would be set up, print purveyors Ping and David Henningham would take their position and soon screen printed blocks of board were being wrapped in newspaper and delivered to the public for a single British pound. 

Then the Chip Shop died. It was 2013 and the city of the demise was Dundee. The remains now rest there, somewhere. One of print’s first forays into the cooler-than-cool concept of the pop-up shop was over. 

The Henningham Family Press – the business name for the husband and wife duo above – was not the first print company to try a pop-up shop, but it was one of the few to have tried it. These temporary stores – sometimes a trial run at having a store, often a pure marketing exercise or, as in this instance, a piece of performance art – are popular with brands of all types and sizes. But it is a trend that has largely passed the print industry by, with some notable exceptions, perhaps the most notable being East End Prints. 

“We try to do a pop-up regularly,” explains director Helen Edwards. “It’s a way of getting our name out there – it’s not enough to be online only. The online market is very crowded. What we are doing is going after the impulse purchases in physical stores, too.”

East End Prints commissions, prints and frames artwork and sells it predominantly online. Edwards says the company aims to have one of its prints in every house in the East End. Running regular pop-up shops is part of the marketing push – and sales push – to make that happen. 

The company has run a number of pop-up events, most recently in January. Edwards say they tend to use the same site close to Old Street Tube station. 

“I started out running exhibitions, sometimes featuring more than 100 artists, so in comparison organising a pop-up is quite easy,” she explains. 

Unfortunately, for those printers not used to running large-scale exhibitions in the heart of the capital things will be more difficult. Pop-ups can be set up anywhere you can get a licence to run one – you can find them everywhere from festivals and parks to the middle of roundabouts. But people with a pop-up plan will mostly take advantage of empty retail units. This is for a good reason, says Rosie Cann, director at pop-up specialist Popupspace. 

“The vast majority of pop-ups we arrange are empty high-street retail sites because most people that do this tend to want a high-street location for the footfall and the visibility for their business,” she says.

Because of this, setting up a pop-up can be a complex business. 

“We find the space for the clients and negotiate the lease on their behalf,” Cann explains. “A lot of our clients come to us having tried to do it themselves, but have found it tough. Usually, you are dealing with commercial property agents and companies such as ours have vast experience negotiating with these people and know how to make it work. Without that experience it can be complicated. You need the go-between that speaks the language of the property agents. 

“It’s about negotiating the best deal, but also getting buy-in from the landlord. A lot of them don’t like the idea of lots of short-term deals, but if it is professionally handled then they can be persuaded.”

It is possibly for this reason that printers have yet to embrace pop-ups. Cann says she has yet to work with any and when you consider the complexity you might understand why. But both Cann and Edwards urge printers to get involved. 

“I think the benefit for the bigger companies is that you can really show the human side. Big businesses can appear faceless but a pop-up can show the people behind the business,” says Edwards. “Also, you don’t necessarily have to sell anything. You can just use it as a showcase of your work; if you were, say, a wide-format company, why not commission some work, sell it in a pop-up and invite existing and target clients?”

Cann adds: “We have had a lot of trade customers. We helped an interior design and furniture company that were purely selling to trade. They set up a store with all their products and invited their suppliers and buyers and it worked really well.”

She has also helped trade customers with a slightly alternative use of the model. 

“Another use of pop-ups for those selling to trade is to put a twist on the exhibitions,” says Cann. “Rather than spending a fortune on exhibition space, you can set up a satellite store nearby and drive traffic from the exhibition to you through marketing. We have found that to be really effective.” 

There is, then, a pursuasive case to be made for pop-ups. And whether you are a one-man operation in a garage, a three-staff business like East End Prints or a 1,000-plus operation on multiple sites, there is clearly a pop-up solution that can work for you. 

That said, it can be easy to get a pop-up wrong, and there are a number of things you should do to maximise the impact and effectiveness of a store. Here are the main things you need to think about. 

Timing is... not so crucial

“There aren’t really any hard and fast rules about how long the pop-up should last,” says Cann. “We have organised leases for two or three weeks but also many months at a time.”

She adds that it will depend on what  you are trying to achieve. As a marketing ploy, you probably only want a short lease, but to trial a high-street operation you might wish to opt for a longer one. Printers could feasibly find themselves in both camps. 

East End Prints’ last pop-up lasted just over a month. Henningham Family Press’ Chip Shop tended to move on after just a single evening. 

Cann says that you should err on the side of caution to begin with, as leases can always be extended. 

“What we can do is come to an arrangement where it runs for a set time, but if it’s going well and both parties want to extend, then that can be sorted,” she says. 

Location, location, location

“Location doesn’t matter that much as long as you can drive the traffic there,” says Edwards. “Where we do a lot of our pop-ups is a pretty low footfall area, but we always get loads of people attending.”

Cann takes a slightly different view. 

“If you can’t afford high-street, you can make off high-street work, but it depends what type of business you are,” she explains. “You would have to put a lot of marketing into it and persuade people to come by suggesting they would get an experience they could not get elsewhere. 

“We have had clients take secondary locations and regretted not taking a high-street location. It’s about being among other brands, that can be important. But if you are creative, you have strong ideas for marketing, then yes it can work and you will get people through the door.”

East End Prints certainly meets the creative requirement. As we will discover in point number three...

Creativity is crucial

“It is useful to theme your pop-up,” says Edwards. “Every pop-up we have run has had a theme. Our most successful one was a gold-themed event, but our film poster theme was also really successful. We are running another film-themed pop-up in October. So find a theme that will appeal to people and tailor the product range on offer around that.

“We worked with partners to promote the events. For the film-themed pop-up we targeted local film companies. We even created a film about the theme and put it on YouTube. People watched it and came to see it in the flesh. You have to be really creative. I have a full-time marketing person who does all the promo for me.”

Cann goes even further and says that if you aren’t prepared to put serious money into the look and feel of the store, as well as the marketing, then there is no point doing it at all.

“Branding is crucial, you have to sell the pop-up correctly,” she says. “That is about being creative about how the shop looks and how you market it. I would think the print industry would be way ahead of the game in that respect. They will be able to achieve a very professional look. 

“It depends what you want to achieve, but if your main aim is brand awareness then the more gimmicky you can make it, the more exciting, the more likely you will get someone through the door. There’s no point spending money on the lease if you aren’t going to spend on the marketing. You can’t expect people to simply walk in, they need to be encouraged.”

Fun is important (as are partners)

“You want to have fun!” says Edwards. “Show people a good time.”

She adds that other companies are often willing to join the party. “We got sponsored by a popcorn company to fit the film theme,” she reveals. 

And she concludes that if more printers were doing this sort of thing, it would be easier for all to get involved. 

“Print should really embrace this; the more the merrier. Perhaps we could set up a space just for printers to use? Perhaps PrintWeek could arrange it for us!” 

The Henningham Family Press Chip Shop

The Henningham Family mobile pop-up started life as part of a celebration of words after the business was commissioned to stage a Live Art event at the 2010 London Word Festival. 

“We decided to print and sell words suggested by the public in an abandoned chippy. But then we hit on the idea of making it mobile! One pound for a fresh word wrapped in newsprint,” explains David Henningham.

“Gubbins, cloacal, anosognosia, archipelago, bampot – these are just a few of the wonderful words suggested by the public and screenprinted by the Chip Shop. Words arrive on our shores in a similar way to foods. As American potatoes and Jewish battered fish met here and became our national dish.” 

Henningham adds that the spirit of the Chip Shop lives on and that the business is preparing to “sharpen our squeegees” for new events later this year.