• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, February 9, 2017

Hawke Media, a Santa Monica-based agency which bills itself as "your outsourced CMO," will launch a pop-up, co-retailing space in March. The space, called The Nest, will feature the products of ten brands curated by the agency. The goal is to provide these brands with a physical presence on one of the most popular shopping streets in the country. 

The Nest will go live March 1 at 1301 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Santa Monica and remain open until March 31. Featured brands will include womenswear brand Wildfox, men's clothing brand Sweat Tailor, wallet brand The Ridge, watch brand Zinvo, men's and women's denim brand DSTLD and others. Once the initial run finishes at the end of March, the agency plans to continue on a monthly basis for April and May and is seeking other brands to participate. 

For brands interested in participating in the storefront in either April or May, Hawke Media is soliciting interest on a special The Nest website. Interested brands can head over there and tell Hawke about the brand, a Hawke team member will reach out, the agency will specially design a branded storefront, train staff to, ahem, hawk the brand and help market the pop-up presence. 

While the pop-up concept is not new, it's nice to see an agency step up and do more for a brand than simply creating pretty pictures in hopes those very pictures result in someone actual purchasing a product from the brand.