L’Oréal Paris “Leave Your Mark” Pop-Up Experience

Client

Services

TL:DR

Sundae Creative partnered with L’Oréal Paris to design and execute the “Leave Your Mark” consumer pop-up at the Toronto Eaton Centre. This captivating and immersive retail experience was built to drive product discovery, social sharing, and in-store conversion. Through a thoughtfully designed guest journey, from shade selection in queue to a personalized product moment, interactive Kiss Mural, and a playful Bon Bons Bar finale — the activation transformed a simple lip launch into a multi-sensory brand experience. Challenge: Create a high-impact consumer pop-up that educated guests quickly while encouraging emotional connection and purchase intent. Solution: Sundae Creative developed a seamless experiential flow combining guided product discovery, interactive visual storytelling, and a direct path to retail via SDM coupon distribution. The result was an engaging, content-driven environment that blended education, personalization, and shareability, ensuring guests didn’t just try the product, they left their mark.

L’Oréal Paris “Leave Your Mark” Pop-Up Experience

Client

Services

TL:DR

Overview

L’Oréal Paris sought to launch its Hyaluron Lip collection through an immersive consumer activation that would bring the “Leave Your Mark” platform to life in a tangible, shareable way. The goal was to create a pop-up experience that went beyond traditional sampling, allowing guests to discover their shade, understand the product benefits, and form a memorable emotional connection; all while encouraging immediate retail action through Shoppers Drug Mart. Sundae Creative was mandated to conceptualize and execute a cohesive guest journey that blended product education, visual storytelling, and experiential moments designed for both IRL engagement and social amplification. By combining strategic flow design with playful sensory touchpoints, the activation transformed a product launch into a fully immersive brand experience that guided guests seamlessly from discovery to purchase intent.

Challenge

L’Oréal Paris needed a pop-up experience that could deliver multiple objectives simultaneously: educate consumers on the Hyaluron lip collection, help them confidently choose a shade, create strong visual content opportunities, and drive measurable retail conversion.

The experience also needed to accommodate high consumer volume while maintaining a premium, curated feel. Guests had to move efficiently through the space without losing the sense of personalization or emotional engagement that drives brand affinity and social sharing.

Another key challenge was ensuring the product message remained clear and memorable within a short interaction window. In a busy retail environment, guests often spend only a few minutes at an activation, making it critical that every step of the journey reinforced the product story while encouraging participation.

Finally, the activation needed to feel cohesive from start to finish — not a collection of standalone stations, but a narrative-driven journey where each moment built naturally into the next, culminating in both a memorable takeaway and a clear path to purchase.

Solution

Sundae Creative developed a structured, story-led guest journey designed to guide consumers through discovery, personalization, interaction, and reward.

The concept centered on empowering guests to “Make Your Mark” — not only through the lip colour itself, but through their participation in a collective visual installation. Each step of the experience was intentionally designed to reinforce this message while balancing speed, engagement, and shareability.

The journey began before guests even entered the space, with Brand Ambassadors introducing the collection and encouraging early shade selection to streamline the in-pop-up experience. Retail conversion was integrated from the start through coupon distribution, ensuring the path to purchase was seamless and immediate.

Inside, guided product exploration ensured guests received both tactile experience and concise education, helping them feel confident in their shade choice. The Kiss Mural transformed a functional blotting step into a memorable interactive installation, turning each guest’s participation into a visible contribution to the brand story while creating a natural social content moment.

Finally, the Bon Bons Bar added a playful, sensory reward tied directly to the guest’s shade selection — reinforcing personalization while ending the journey on an unexpected, delightful note.

This layered approach ensured the activation delivered on education, emotional engagement, and retail intent within one cohesive experience.

Implementation

The activation was executed through a carefully choreographed guest flow designed to maximize engagement while maintaining efficiency.

Queue Experience:
While guests waited in line, two Brand Ambassadors circulated with elegant branded trays, offering a first look at the lip collection. Guests were invited to select the shade that best matched their mood and style, helping streamline their journey once inside. At the same time, each guest received a Shoppers Drug Mart coupon, extending the experience beyond the pop-up and establishing an immediate retail connection.

Shade Discovery Bar:
Upon entering, guests presented their selection card and received their chosen shade. With guidance from Brand Ambassadors, they explored textures and finishes, applied their lip colour, and completed the process by blotting onto paper — combining product education with hands-on experience in a focused, supportive environment.

Kiss Mural Installation:
Each guest’s blotting paper was scanned into a projection system, instantly displaying their lip print on a clear statement wall. Over time, these prints formed a vibrant, evolving Kiss Mural — a living installation that encouraged guests to photograph and share their contribution. A nearby bistrot table with floral accents and branded decals created an additional styled photo opportunity.

Bon Bons Bar Finale:
To conclude the experience, guests visited the Bon Bons Bar, where they received a confection matched to their shade. This playful pairing delivered a memorable sensory close while reinforcing their personalized colour choice and leaving them with both product and experience in hand.

Results

The Leave Your Mark pop-up successfully transformed a traditional product launch into a dynamic consumer experience that combined discovery, participation, and retail intent.

The structured guest journey ensured smooth traffic flow while maintaining meaningful engagement at every stage. Early shade selection reduced decision time inside the space, while guided application and concise education helped guests feel confident in their product choice.

The Kiss Mural became a standout visual centerpiece, organically encouraging social sharing and turning individual participation into a collective brand statement. Meanwhile, the Bon Bons Bar added an unexpected, emotionally resonant ending that strengthened memorability and guest satisfaction.

By integrating SDM coupons directly into the queue experience, the activation also created a clear and immediate link between brand engagement and retail conversion.

Overall, the experience demonstrated how a thoughtfully designed experiential flow can simultaneously deliver education, emotional connection, and purchase intent — ensuring guests didn’t just interact with the brand, but left with a lasting impression and a clear next step.