Lamborghini rebuilt its presence in China in 2024. On the ground that work was site selection: five districts surveyed on foot, and a case strong enough to move a venue already chosen.
A competitor had just run a public activation in China, and it had landed. Lamborghini wanted to be seen again — by more people than the ones who already own one. I helped design the activation. Inside it I owned one question: where.
Two pop-ups, Beijing and Shanghai. The brief looked like a venue decision. It was really an audience decision, so I started there: the room had to work for high-net-worth prospects and for the people around them — younger buyers, photographers, enthusiasts, families with children. A luxury pop-up that only speaks to owners is a showroom.
The busiest address is not the same as the right one.
I had to be able to say why.
I surveyed five commercial districts on foot and assessed each on three criteria: sustained foot traffic, consumer profile, and brand fit. The obvious candidate was a high-density office district with excellent peak numbers. I recommended against it and put forward the mall with the strongest sustained traffic instead — peak volume concentrates at commuting hours, when nobody has forty minutes to spend with a car.
The recommendation was adopted and became the final site: Sanlitun Taikoo Li in Beijing, and Zhang Yuan in Shanghai for the second leg. Around them we built a managed entry flow, a pre-booked guest track with welcome gifts, and an invited creator programme sized to carry the activation online as well as on the ground.
Across the run the site drew 400+ visitors a day and generated 10,000+ tagged mentions. We won the pitch, and I stayed on through delivery.
After Beijing closed I wrote the handover review that set up Shanghai — what the entry flow got wrong, what the weather contingency needed, what to lock earlier. The second city ran on it.
What I keep from this is not the traffic number. It is what the research changed: there was a venue in mind, and a defensible case moved it. Research earns its keep when it changes a decision, not when it confirms one.
I only answer from what is written on this site.
Type a few words — I will show you where it says so.