Jaeger-LeCoultre
Hackett London · Brand Activation Case Study
Hackett London: a matcha stand for a store launch
Pearl Lemon built and staffed a matcha stand inside a Hackett London store launch, giving the retail floor a reason for guests to stay in the space rather than pass through it.
Brand Activation Case Study — in-store launch activation delivered in London for a menswear retail client in 2024.
- 1
- Store launch delivered
- In-store
- Live retail environment
Project snapshot
- Client
- Hackett London
- Sector
- Menswear retail
- Location
- London
- Format
- In-store launch activation
- Venue type
- Flagship retail store
- Occasion
- Store launch
- Format
- Branded matcha stand
- Environment
- Premium menswear retail
- Year
- 2024
Last reviewed 26 August 2026.
The brief
Hackett London needed a hospitality moment for a store launch — something that held guests on the floor, felt appropriate to a premium menswear brand, and worked inside an active retail environment rather than a cleared event space.
In short
A store-launch matcha stand exists to extend dwell time, not to serve the maximum number of drinks. The stand is designed to the store footprint, the menu is chosen for brand tone, and the service is paced so guests stay in the room rather than being processed through a queue.
Why is in-store launch hospitality easy to get wrong?
The instinctive brief is throughput — serve as many people as possible. For a store launch that is the wrong objective, and pursuing it actively damages the event: a fast, efficient bar creates a queue, the queue occupies the floor the merchandise is on, and guests who came to browse spend their visit waiting. The commercial goal is dwell time and conversation near product, so the service has to be paced to keep people circulating with something in hand rather than to clear a line. That is a design decision made before the event, expressed in the menu, the number of serve points and the crew's instructions — not something that can be corrected on the night.
The operating context
A flagship store still has to work as a store during a launch. Fixtures cannot move far, sightlines to key product must stay clear, and nothing wet or hot should sit where stock is displayed. Power and water are wherever the retail fit-out left them. Floor space is the real currency: every square metre given to the stand is one taken from the merchandising, so the footprint gets agreed with the retail team before anything is specified. Guests arrive in a clump after work, so the arrival spike is sharper than the average would suggest.
The constraints that shaped it
The store still has to work as a store
A launch activation shares the floor with merchandising and browsing customers. The stand footprint, service line and crew movement all have to fit around the retail layout.
Dwell time is the actual objective
The point of a launch hospitality moment is not the drink. It is keeping guests in the room long enough to engage with the product, so throughput and service pace are tuned to the room, not to speed.
Premium menswear has a specific tone
The stand and the crew had to read as part of the brand's world. Matcha rather than a generic bar is a deliberate contemporary choice for this audience.
What we did
Stand designed to the store footprint
We sized and positioned the stand so it created a natural gathering point without cutting off merchandising or the customer route through the floor.
Menu chosen for the brand and the room
A matcha-led menu suited the audience, worked without a full bar set-up, and gave the launch a distinctive talking point.
Service paced for dwell, not throughput
Crew served at a pace that encouraged conversation and kept guests on the floor rather than clearing a queue as quickly as possible.
How the delivery actually ran
Stand designed to the footprint
We sized the stand to the space the retail team could genuinely release, then worked the service backwards from that footprint. This is the opposite of the usual order — most stands are specified first and squeezed in second — and it is why the activation added to the room instead of interrupting the retail journey.
Menu chosen for the brand and the room
The menu was picked for tone as much as taste: recognisable enough to be ordered without explanation, distinctive enough to be worth talking about, and physically manageable while holding a garment or a bag. Anything that needed two hands or a table was ruled out.
Service paced for dwell
Crew were instructed to keep guests moving into the room rather than to maximise throughput. Serve points were positioned so the natural drift after ordering is towards product, and the pace was set to avoid a queue forming across the floor at the arrival spike.
What this proves for your brief
Retail launch hospitality is a dwell-time tool. This shows we design the format, footprint and service pace around the commercial objective of the launch rather than dropping a generic bar into the room.
What it takes to run this in-house
Retail teams often handle launch drinks themselves, and for a small guest list that is fine. It becomes a problem when the store team ends up serving instead of selling — the people who know the product best spend the evening behind a table. The other common failure is specifying the bar before agreeing the footprint with visual merchandising.
- Agree the stand footprint with the retail and VM teams before specifying anything
- Choose a menu that can be held in one hand while browsing
- Plan for the arrival spike, not the average
- Keep store staff on the floor selling; bring in crew to serve
- Protect sightlines to hero product — the stand should never block them
What changes across a store rollout
Rolling the same format across a store estate turns it into a kit-and-document exercise: one specification, a compact stand that fits the smallest store in the estate, a menu that can be produced identically everywhere, and a photographed layout per site. Local crew are recruited around a travelling lead. The temptation is to design for the flagship and scale down; in practice designing for the smallest viable footprint and adding at the flagship produces a far more consistent rollout.
A verified review of our service
Feedback
“The supplier provided great service for today's event. The communication from the team was very effective and efficient. Also, the staff that turned up was on time despite the first time.”
A published review of our event staffing and catering service — not a review of this engagement. All of our public reviews are on AddToEvent.
Planning an activation like this?
Send the brief, the dates and the venue. We come back with a staffing and delivery plan. Most activation programmes we take on start at around £25k and run to six figures for multi-site campaigns.
FAQ
Questions we get asked about this work
What kind of activation works best for a store launch?
A compact hospitality stand that creates a gathering point without blocking the retail floor. The format should suit the brand's audience — a matcha stand suited a premium menswear launch where a full bar would have felt wrong.
How much space does an in-store activation stand need?
Less than most brands expect, if it is planned properly. We size the stand, the service line and the crew movement against your existing merchandising layout so the store keeps functioning as a store during the launch.
Do you supply the stand as well as the staff?
Yes. We design and operate the stand, the menu and the crew as one delivery so the hospitality moment reads as part of the brand rather than a bolted-on supplier.
What is the objective of hospitality at a store launch?
Dwell time next to product. The measure of success is how long guests stay and how much of that time is spent near merchandise — not how many drinks were served. Service pace and stand placement are designed around that.
How much floor space does a launch drinks stand need?
Less than most people specify. Agree the footprint with the retail team first, then design the service to fit it. A compact, well-positioned stand outperforms a large one that forces guests into a queue across the shop floor.
How do we start a project with Pearl Lemon Experiences?
Book a call or use the direct lines on this page. We scope the brief, the venue constraints and the dates, then come back with a staffing and delivery plan. Short lead times are normal for us — we have delivered activations in under a week.
