To mark the launch of the Joe Fresh Style Kids collection, Loblaw deployed a fully functional store on wheels – replete with sales staff and change rooms – to five cities across Canada.

The road trip marks the fashion retailer’s first departure from its

store-in-store deal with Loblaw since it launched in 40 Superstore

locations last March. Without any marketing, 18 months later the line is carried in around 350 stores under the Loblaw banner. ‘It’s no secret, [Loblaw executive chairman] Galen Weston [Jr.] wants this to be a billion-dollar brand in the next few years,’ says lead designer Joe Mimran.

Not surprisingly, then, the pop-up shop is part of a larger push for Joe that includes Gap-esque TV spots produced by Bensimon-Byrne and double-page magazine spreads shot by design agency Perennial, both of Toronto. Two more TV executions are expected this year.

But the real draw has been Mimran himself. The man behind Club Monaco, Caban and Alfred Sung has become the new face of Loblaw fashion. ‘It was critical to give it a face and some fashion credentials, a real design sensibility and philosophy,’ says Mimran, who had a hand in the TV spots and travelled to promote the new line.

Target and Uniqlo have tried pop-up retail in the U.S., but Joe’s is the first cross-country effort in Canada. The stunt seems to have paid off, scoring press in the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. ‘The response is so positive, I don’t see why we wouldn’t do it again in other cities,’ says Loblaw VP public relations and public affairs Elizabeth Margles. ‘There are so many applications for this program that, to use the cliché, the possibilities are endless.’