Our first event brought lululemon brand experience, Liquid Death marketing, and emerging consumer brands into one room in Venice. We were nervous as hell.
The First BRAND POPUP
Across the street, there was Erewhon. Inside, we had 20 brands, two incredible headline speakers, and absolutely no idea how the evening would turn out.
Welcome to the first BRAND POPUP.
It was March 26, 2026, at BLANKSPACES in Venice, in the former Snapchat campus near Abbot Kinney. A place with its own history of people trying to build something that would catch on. It felt like a fitting place to try something ourselves. Event listing · Venue history
And yes, our crew eats lunch at Erewhon before the events. The $20 sandwich place. Because we’re cool like that.
Just kidding.
About being cool. The sandwich situation is real.
We Knew How to Produce Events
By then, we had been producing events under the Schmoozd brand since 2009. Our first was at a wine bar in Century City, where we got 200 people through the door with a mad amount of marketing. We had spent years bringing people together, especially in tech.
You would think that experience would make launching another event feel routine.
It didn’t.
BRAND POPUP was new territory. We knew how to produce an event. We were still discovering what this particular event could become.
Twenty amazing brands had agreed to pop up with us. We had invited people to spend their evening discovering products, meeting founders, and hearing from executives with serious experience building consumer brands.
Now we had to make the whole thing work.
The Moment Before the Doors Open
Anyone who produces events knows that feeling. You’ve handled the venue, the sound, the tables, the speakers, the promotion, and a hundred details nobody will notice unless something goes wrong. You’ve watched the registrations come in.
Then you wait for actual human beings to walk through the door.
A little over 300 people registered. About 200 showed up.
For our first BRAND POPUP? We’ll take that.
There were founders, investors, brand teams, early adopters, and agency people in the house. People building products, people looking for their next discovery, and people whose work could help a young brand grow.
Pretty epic.
Two Perspectives on Building a Brand
What made the evening exciting was the combination: experienced brand leaders sharing knowledge onstage, with emerging brands right there for people to meet and sample.
Ravi Hampole, SVP Brand, Lululemon, NUTRAFOL
Ravi Hampole brought the perspective of a former SVP of Global Brand Creative at lululemon. His portfolio includes work around the company’s first footwear launch, Team Canada, and major brand campaigns. That experience reaches into a question almost every ambitious consumer founder eventually faces: How do you expand what a brand does while keeping a clear sense of who it is? Ravi Hampole’s portfolio
For an emerging brand, that’s valuable territory. You might be thinking about your first product today, but the decisions you make about identity, storytelling, and customer experience start shaping the next chapter early.
Daniel Murphy, CMO, Liquid Death
Daniel Murphy, Liquid Death’s SVP of Marketing, brought another compelling perspective.
Liquid Death has given marketers plenty to study: a beverage brand whose name, visual identity, and entertainment-driven approach make it immediately recognizable. Murphy’s work helped earn him a place in Campaign US’s 2024 CMO 50, which recognized him while identifying his role as SVP of Marketing. He has also discussed the company’s approach to making marketing feel like entertainment in industry programming. Campaign US recognition · Tubi’s Liquid Death discussion
Put those two perspectives into an evening with emerging consumer brands, and you have something worth showing up for.
A founder could listen to someone with experience at a globally recognized company, then return to conversations about their own product. An attendee could hear about brand building and, a few steps away, encounter a brand still writing its first chapter.
That connection is what excites us about BRAND POPUP.
Why In-Person Discovery Matters
It also matters in the consumer packaged goods business. For food, beverages, and other everyday products, discovery can be wonderfully physical. You taste something. Pick it up. Ask what’s in it. Meet the person who made it and find out why they cared enough to bring it into the world.
Those moments give emerging brands a chance to earn consideration.
And consideration is competitive. NielsenIQ’s 2025 global research found that 58% of respondents were expanding their brand purchases across categories, while 68% viewed private-label products as good alternatives to name brands. Consumers have options, and they’re willing to explore them. A young brand needs a clear reason to be chosen. NielsenIQ research
We believe an event can help people discover that reason. The product gets a chance to speak for itself, and the founder gets a chance to answer back.
There’s broader evidence for the value of these encounters, too. EventTrack 2026, from Sparks and Event Marketer, reports that 61% of consumers are more inclined to purchase after attending a live event. That measures inclination rather than guaranteed sales, but it gives useful context for why the experience matters. EventTrack 2026
Our Version of SXSW for Consumer Brands
Our ambition is to keep bringing those elements together: knowledge, discovery, and a room full of people curious enough to participate.
We think of it as our version of SXSW for consumer brands.
That’s the spirit we’re chasing. Come for a speaker you want to hear. Discover a product you didn’t know existed. Meet someone whose work makes you think differently about your own. Leave with more than you expected when you registered.
How cool is that?
From Event to Magazine
The first event gave us enough encouragement to keep going. It also made us want more time with the stories behind the products. An evening ends just as you’re beginning to understand what some of these founders are building.
That helped lead us toward BRAND POPUP as a magazine paired with an IRL event. We can explore a story in the magazine, then give people a chance to experience the brand in person. We can discover someone at an event and keep the conversation going afterward.
Would We Do It Again?
Looking back, that first night in Venice feels like the beginning of something we hadn’t fully figured out yet, and already loved.
We loved that 20 brands took a chance on us. We loved that people showed up. We loved bringing experienced executives and emerging founders into the same room.
And yes, we loved the work it took to get there.
The calls. The follow-ups. The venue updates. The marketing. All the little things that make a few hours together possible.
Would we do it again?
Fuck yeah.
We’ll probably be across the street eating an unnecessarily expensive sandwich first.