Maybelline Bodega

Maybelline New York, the world’s leading color cosmetics brand, partnered with Agency Guacamole, an award-winning LA-based PR, social media and events firm, to concept and produce an influencer and professional make-up artist-facing launch event in Los Angeles.

In line with Maybelline’s New York City roots, the January 2020 event’s theme was inspired by the iconic NYC convenience stores, the bodega.

Within a private venue in LA, guests were instantly transported to New York City at the Maybelline Bodega. A typically unglamorous bodega turned into a glamorous evening through AG’s build-out of the Maybelline-only corner store. The pop-up, built from scratch, contained rows of store aisles filled with the latest Maybelline products.

AG reimagined iconic plastic “Thank You” shopping bags into black, reusable tote bags with a Maybelline logo pattern. The same pattern tied the event together through branding on the glass doors at the venue’s entrance, on the concrete floor, the custom lucite counters and the “secret” lounge area in the back.

No bodega is complete without a deli station, so we created a “stop-and-swatch” station featuring a range of products from each makeup category for guests to test. Event staff acted as sales associates, assisting guests with product recommendations.

After testing products, guests enjoyed food and drinks in a grab-n-go fashion, ready at reach-in fridges and freezers containing bodega-style ice cream bars, recyclable glass bottles of juice, and cardboard boxed water. Guests could also enjoy a full candy bar spread with treats perfectly matching the shades of the new lip and cheek products.

At the end of the shopping aisles was a photomoment—a fully wrapped wall designed to replicate additional bodega aisles of Maybelline-branded grocery products. Attendees posed for photos with a branded shopping cart filled with Maybelline-branded, bodega-themed goods.

Agency Guacamole brought this event to an all-new level with their creativity in immersing guests in the world of Maybelline New York. The event’s success was proven by plenty of Maybelline social love, with a reach of over 10.5M people via social media.