Slurpees on Standby

There wasn’t a single Slurpee in sight at this 7-Eleven store in New York City when Nascar and Wheat Thins teamed up to develop an 8-hour “pop-up store” last October .

To promote its new Wheat Thins Bold Chili Cheese Big Bag flavor and other Big Bag Bold flavors (like Zesty Salsa and Spicy Buffalo), Wheat Thins brought in Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman to sign autographs and pass out free Big Bag samples inside the newly created store.

To visually camouflage the existing 7-Eleven store – located in the Flatiron District on Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street – with Wheat Thins graphics for the meet and greet, Apple Visual Graphics (www.applevisualgraphics.com) was summoned.

“We covered all the walls, floors, counters, and standing displays in the 5000-square-foot store,” says Adam Sturm, Apple Visual Graphics. Not a single normally sold product – like the chain’s famous Slurpee – or shop item was visible.

The creative team at Van Wagner Communication (www.vanwagner.com) created the designs via Photoshop, and these files were then adjusted to “account for the location of outlets, lights, and alarms” in the store, says Sturm. Apple Visual then produced the proofs. “We always provide electronic proofs, but this client also requested quarter-size proofs of all of the graphics.”

Sturm and company then output 10,000 square-feet of material (printed in 60-inch sections) for the job over five days. The shop relied on its three Mimaki JV33 solvent printers with OEM inks for the print work, in part because “their eight colors opened up the color spectrum,” says Sturm.

“We used several types of media for this job: LexJet photo paper for the mounted boards, Avery floor adhesive vinyl for the floor graphics, S&F removable clear adhesive vinyl for the windows, and an opaque adhesive vinyl for the walls.”

Everything was matte laminated to minimize glare, says Sturm, using Apple Visual’s GBC Falcon laminator. The finishing process took three days, followed by one night for installation with a team of six.

Taking over an entire store, especially overnight, did bring its hurdles: “The concept itself was unusual and challenging. We had to measure every surface and then cover, wrap, and remove any signs that it was a 7-Eleven store,” says Sturm. “And, replace all of the existing graphics within 10 hours, overnight. There was no room for failure.”