Shipping containers are experiencing a continued increase in popularity for several purposes, but notably, custom shipping containers have been used by companies for experiential marketing purposes, i.e. bringing products and events to customers in fun, engaging ways like a pop up container bar.
One prime example of how shipping containers have been used for entertainment purposes is in Las Vegas. Downtown Container Park spans about 19,000 feet and boasts restaurants, bars shops and more. Here are a few ways to use custom shipping containers for marketing purposes.
Shipping Crate Restaurant
Apart from being fun and cool-looking (and trendy), a pop-up shipping crate restaurant is an inexpensive way to reach more customers more quickly. By utilizing the mobility of shipping crates–which can be designed with brand guidelines in mind and custom designed to fit exact specs–restaurants can drop a pop-up restaurant to test a new location, new looks and new menu items.
Pop Up Container Bar
In locations that have a huge crowd but not necessarily the infrastructure to support traditional building, shipping containers as pop up bars can provide event-goers with an enhanced brand experience, one that is a huge step-up from a traditional booth or tent that are omnipresent at concerts and festivals.
Pop Up Retail Events
Because of their appeal to a desirable marketing demographic, shipping containers can be used to market products effectively to a generation of people who prefer their products to be an experience vs. a traditional storefront.
Apart from being trendy (although widely not considered a mere “fad”), modified shipping containers are also environmentally friendly. Since the containers are up-cycled, much fewer resources are utilized. This is something that a good marketing communications team will clearly broadcast as part of a green-friendly strategy, which will appeal to the same demographic of people who are attracted to pop-up establishments in the first place.
Pretty Much Anything…
Seriously. From hotel rooms to massage, health and wellness pop-ups, shipping containers can be modeled for pretty much any marketing, retail, restaurant or bar purpose you can imagine. Since they’re so flexible, finding a company who has experience working with customers and customizing the shipping containers is the most important part.
Shipping containers are portable, eco-friendly, durable and affordable. And increasingly, they have been used to create permanent fixtures in certain locations. So even though their use as a temporary experience is fantastic for marketing, their use as permanent experiences are something to look for moving forward.