Pop-up and Pop-downs
We’re all amazed as Amazon ventures from online-only to brick-and-mortar stores. Even more surprising is that pop-up shops, the realm once dominated by flashing lighted T-shirts and cell phones, is becoming a prized brand tool. 
Adweek declared pop-up shops a legitimate “experiential brand extension.” Typical pop-up shops were controlled by malls, airports and farmers markets, but now the pop-up store has been disrupted.
You can find pop-ups whenever and wherever people congregate. Large brands are using the new pop-up concept inside of existing stores or at events and attractions. Any brand needing a brand pump-up is finding pop-ups a way to recharge the social media discussion. It also helps brands actively reach out to people who may not be familiar with the brand or see it in their social media feeds.
It’s also a great way to have people engage with your brand in an authentic way, by providing research or involving people in the decision-making process.
You can put up an Instagram booth, but the new age of pop-ups is true street-level marketing that drives branding and experiential, personal marketing.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.