Turning Kérastase’s Gloss Absolu pop-up into measurable footfall

Kérastase launched the Gloss Absolu pop-up in two premium locations in the GCC: Dubai Mall in the UAE and KAFD in Saudi Arabia, to support the launch of its new haircare range through an immersive brand experience.

The temporary podiums were designed to bring the world of Gloss Absolu to life, giving visitors a way to discover the product and interact with the brand beyond digital media. It ran for two weeks at the Dubai Mall, turning the pop-up into an opportunity to drive direct product discovery in a high-footfall location.

But the short activation window also created a clear challenge. The campaign needed to drive qualified audiences to the podium during a limited period while ensuring the brand could measure whether digital awareness translated into real-world visits.

Acquisit built the campaign with the objective of connecting upper-funnel awareness with measurable offline traffic. Instead of considering the pop-up as a standalone physical activation, the team developed a 360-degree media approach that connected social awareness, geo-targeting, and location-based visit measurement.

Strategy

The strategy focused on making Gloss Absolu recognizable across every touchpoint, then using geo-targeting to guide relevant audiences toward the Dubai Mall activation.

Acquisit aligned the digital campaign with the physical pop-up experience to create a consistent consumer journey. The social media assets, campaign colors, product visuals, and overall look and feel reflected the same Gloss Absolu world consumers would later see at the podium.

The pop-up itself was designed to mirror the campaign creative, with a strong pink visual identity, floral elements, and design cues inspired by the Gloss Absolu hero content. The activation also included a collaboration with Crème, whose pink branding matched the product’s packaging and helped reinforce the playful, premium feel of the experience.

To support the location-based layer, Acquisit worked with Locala as the geo-targeting partner. Locala helped reach relevant users near the activation by geofencing each location to define primary catchment zones and provided the location intelligence needed to measure visits to the pop-up area.

Execution

In the UAE, Acquisit ran campaigns across Meta and TikTok to introduce audiences to the Gloss Absolu creative world. While these social campaigns were not direct “visit the pop-up” campaigns, they played an important role in building recognition around the product and campaign identity.

In parallel, Locala activated a customized strategy fueled by location data and machine learning around the Dubai Mall location. These ads reached users based on proximity, demographics, and interest signals related to beauty, cosmetics, hair care, wellness, and relevant content consumption.

The audience focused on women aged 18 to 45 interested in hair care, beauty, wellness, and cosmetics, with a stronger emphasis on Gen Z due to the product’s pink aesthetic and shiny hair positioning.

Locala’s ads included a “get directions” call to action button, helping guide nearby users from mobile exposure to the physical podium. 

Acquisit managed the campaign planning, from implementation and monitoring to optimization and reporting. The team also coordinated the campaign creatives and messaging provided by Kérastase to ensure consistency across channels.

To ensure the footfall measurement reflected genuine engagement, the geo-targeting setup used precise geofencing around the physical pop-up area rather than the wider mall. This helped qualify visits more accurately and ensure that measured footfall represented users who reached the activation itself, not just nearby mall traffic.

Results & Impact

Across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the geo-targeted campaign drove more than 1,400 measured visits across both pop-up locations. 

• 981 incremental visits in the UAE.
• 456 incremental visits in Saudi Arabia.

In Dubai Mall, the activation recorded an average dwell time of 12.5 minutes, showing that visitors spent meaningful time engaging with the Gloss Absolu experience.

The UAE campaign also delivered strong digital engagement, achieving a 0.94% overall CTR from the geo-targeted mobile campaign.

This campaign helped transform a short-term product launch activation into a measurable footfall campaign, using digital media to support offline discovery and bring qualified audiences closer to the brand experience.