Project location: New York, NY · Project context: 2026 · Prepared by POPUP from the project archive in October 2026.
A coffee order can explain more than a product pitch. During New York Tech Week, ElevenLabs' SoHo store introduced voice AI through shopping, hospitality and a phone booth visitors could try for themselves.
How can a technology brand make product demonstrations feel useful?
The brief prioritized brand understanding, hospitality and conversation. Merchandise gave people a reason to enter; using the technology gave the visit its value. The store had to welcome a curious passerby and host a business guest.
Build the demonstration into the visit. A restrained retail environment makes the brand familiar. Shopping, coffee and a phone booth offer different ways to use the technology, supported by a hosted service experience.
Start with a place people want to enter
The SoHo setting, considered merchandising and restrained brand treatment gave the technology a retail context. Shopping stations sat within the store’s visual language, so visitors could discover the brand and its products in one continuous experience.
Let the product do something useful
The merchandise collection became the setting for a voice-led shopping demonstration. Visitors could explore the digital collection while standing inside the physical store, with the on-site team helping them find their way into the interaction.
Turn a familiar ritual into discovery
A coffee order offered another useful introduction to voice AI. The counter, equipment, ordering interface and service flow made the interaction part of the store’s hospitality, giving guests a reason to pause and spend time with the brand.
Give curiosity another way in
The phone booth made a more personal encounter possible. Its familiar form invited people to pick up the receiver and try the technology, complementing the shopping and coffee experiences with a distinct moment in the guest journey.
Make the whole visit work
Staffing, hospitality, merchandise handling and guest flow connected the individual interactions into one visit. POPUP’s team supported the live store, with photography and edited films extending the project’s content beyond the activation.
The planning lesson
Build the demonstration around an action that already makes sense to the visitor. Staff should help people begin without taking over the interaction. Test how the individual touchpoints connect into one visit, from the sidewalk invitation to the coffee counter.
Who delivered the experience
POPUP led physical production and operations: venue coordination, layout, custom fixtures, storefront presentation, staffing, guest flow and content capture, working alongside ElevenLabs and its creative and technology partners.
Voice AI by ElevenLabs. Merchandise and store platform by Go Swag. Creative & UI by Studio Freight. Photography by Erica Westley.
What the experience made possible
Shopping, coffee and conversation gave visitors an approachable way to explore ElevenLabs through familiar everyday actions.
Project questions
Where did the experience take place?
ElevenLabs: New York, NY.
What was the delivery scope?
Venue & production coordination; Spatial experience & custom fixtures; Storefront & environmental branding; Retail staffing & daily operations; Guest journey & hospitality; Photography & edited films.
Explore related work
Further reading
For the wider event and campaign context:
