Cellarmaster Wines Trials Virtual Pop-Up Store in Hong Kong Subway

Cellarmaster Wines has trialed a 12-meter virtual pop-up store in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) MTR station to test brand awareness and engagement off the back of the region’s high mobile use.

The store, devised by Hong Kong agency The Daylight Partnership, contained virtual vending machines displaying selections of wine, beers, spirits, and mixers. Using QR codes, passengers could make purchases directly from their mobile phones.

Awareness was spread via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email marketing, and the Cellarmaster Wines website, in addition to offline brand exposure to the 200,000 commuters passing the billboard everyday over a four-week period between February and March.

“It was an experiment to see if people in Hong Kong would buy wine via the billboard,” says Sean Seah, marketing director at Cellarmaster Wines.

“We definitely got an increase in traffic to the website – from 30 percent to 50 percent, and we saw more sales. But multi-channels were at play, and we learned that mobile commerce is a multi-step process.”

Hong Kong boasts one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world, at 238.4 percent, with mobile commerce expected to be worth HK$18 billion (US$ 2.3 billion) this year.

“Customers want the ability to buy wine online 24/7 and we wanted to empower this growing trend of mobile commerce,” says Seah.

“Everything was an experiment to test and measure if we could get good return on investment, and if it could become a new pop-up strategy for us with virtual stores across Hong Kong.”

Passersby were also invited to upload photographs of themselves in front of the display onto social media platforms using the hashtag #wonderful, and then go into a draw to win prizes.

The virtual store coincides with a revamped website and a campaign, Making It #Wonderful, which were both launched in December.

The website’s new user interface includes a one-page checkout, the addition of a “buy now” button running alongside the existing “add to cart” option, and responsive design for tablets and mobile phones.

“We’ve seen similar things before in the supermarket category, but not for wine,” says Seah of the TST virtual pop-up store.

“We created awareness, and learned that customers saw the billboard, visited the mobile site, and then bought on the desktop. And we learned that there are maybe more steps involved in the path to mobile conversion.”