Over the past weekend, Little Moons, a UK-based mochi brand, hosted a pop-up at JBR Dubai in an effort to connect with consumers in the city on a personal level.
The brand wanted to ‘create memorable moments’, raise awareness around its snack-able ice cream product and become the third biggest ice cream brand in terms of value sales in Carrefour, a major hypermarket retailer in the region.
““Whilst Little Moons is already the number 1 mochi ice cream brand in the region, it’s clear that many people still have never tried mochi ice cream. This presented a huge opportunity for sampling and awareness,” said Amelia Butler, Senior Marketing Manager, Little Moons.
To bridge this gap, Little Moons took to the beach and set-up an activation that would get them directly in front of potential customers. The two-day long pop-up offered visitors free samples of Little Moons’ flavour range and a chance to win a month’s supply of free Little Moons mochi.
Butler explained that Little Moons’ strategy was to start conversations around the brand through user-generated content (UGC).
“We wanted to create an experience that people are genuinely intrigued by and want to share their mochi moment with their social audience – cue, a giant, inflatable passionfruit and mango mochi, floating across the Dubai skyline,” said Butler.
The offer of free mochi further promoted UGC as participants had to take a photo of their mochi sample against the backdrop of the giant mochi balloon and tag Little Moons on social channels for a chance to win.
“We’ve seen a lot of positive uptake from this competition so it’s been a brilliant way to drive further awareness of Little Moons,” Butler said. The brand also offered free merchandise ranging from branded tote bags to beach padel sets as prizes if a collected sample had a sticker under the sample pot.
“We hoped that adding an element of surprise and delight would create a memorable and positive experience for our consumers,” said Butler, explaining that the spot prizes were chosen specifically to add value to the winner’s day at the beach.
In terms of visuals, the pop-up was designed to reflect Little Moons’ signature pink branding, with Little Moons mochi handed out from a pink Volkswagen camper van.
“Our mango and passionfruit mochi is our most popular flavour in the UAE, so we used this flavour [to inspire] the mochi balloon which looked amazing,” said Butler.
“From influencer invitations to social media execution and the activation design itself, we made sure the design elements were consistent to give a seamless campaign experience,” she explained.
Butler also explained that the strategy behind choosing JBR as the activation’s location was a culmination of finding consumers in the right mindset for some mochi, and finding them in large numbers.
“It was important for us to be located in an area with high footfall where people are in the right mindset to enjoy a little sweet treat,” Butler said. “We also wanted a location with a backdrop that is instantly recognisable, so when people share their experiences on their socials, their followers know where to go with JBR Beach and Dubai Eye in the background.”
In terms of results, Butler shared that engagement was high, and moreover, one-on-one feedback proved insightful learnings about Little Moons’ brand positioning in the UAE.
“We have sampled 10,000 mochi over the two-day JBR pop-up activation,” Butler said. Although the brand hasn’t had enough time to gauge final metrics on UGC content, she added that “a lot of people who visited the popup either hadn’t heard or tired Little Moon’s before and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.”
