Kat Burki – Sunset Studios

OVERVIEW

As part of award-winning skincare brand Kat Burki’s global packaging re-brand & product launch, Sunset Studios was tasked with creating its largest proprietary in-person experience to date, while also developing the brand’s experiential identity for strategic replication worldwide.

Kat Burki wanted to create as much buzz as possible around their highly-anticipated, biochemistry-backed VitaBiome Active Skin Optimizer. Looking to expand beyond past digital and small-scale activations, a standalone multi-day pop-up was the perfect route to build brand awareness while engaging with existing loyalists. In order to attract new customers, encourage product trials, and inspire genuine user-generated social media content, the activation had to capture the brand’s singular voice and express its compelling scientific approach. It also aimed to set the tone for Kat Burki’s presences in Europe and Asia to follow.

CREATIVE IDEATION PROCESS

To create the event’s visual presentation, Sunset began with proprietary AI-generated and personally curated mood boards that communicated our vision. Our creative team gets inspired by studying a brand’s key tonal and messaging elements, as well as ever-evolving aesthetic trends. Here, we referenced Kat Burki’s eco-conscious, science-backed product with images evoking lab technology, natural landscapes, and organic materials.

Based on this established direction, we offered multiple custom fabricated design options, product display moments, and overall elements that would define the brand’s experiential identity.

3D MODELING

Once the mood boards were fully realized, we used them to develop tangible ways of bringing the brand and product to life.

Custom-crafted digital renderings along with detailed copy around materiality explained how our vision would actually work in a 3-D space. These realistic depictions not only previewed the finished product, but provided necessary spatial and object dimensions, and insight on how the event could be further perfected for maximal impact. We work collaboratively with our clients to adapt and finalize the concept.

The final product was carefully rendered to precision and scale so that the brand can see down to small details exactly how every event element will come to life.

Sunset designed a custom-fabricated, multipurpose pop-up. On Day 1, the space was utilized for internal company meetings and training, followed by an evening invite-only influencer + press event with a live panel. On Day 2, the space was opened to the public and drew in over 500 consumers who sampled products, learned about the brand and purchased. A line down the block attracted longtime fans and new enthusiasts, driving buzz beyond anything the brand had seen before with this type of activation.

The result was tons of user-generated social media buzz that the brand was able to retweet and engage with resulting in community building and engagement.