Mars’s fourth M&M’s World store, and their first outside of the United States, opened in June 2011 in London’s Leicester Square, as the world’s largest candy store at 35,000 sq. ft. (3,250m²). The $20M, four-level world occupies the ground floor, mezzanine, and two basement levels of the W London hotel, in the heart of London’s theater district.The team at Pompei A.D. was involved at all levels of this mammoth project. M&M’s five characters—cocky Red, clue Blue, confused Yellow, paranoid Orange, and audacious Green—are woven into the store experience in location-specific scenarios. We were tasked to create a story—what would each of these characters do in London? The results—Red as a tower guard, Blue as a British spy driving an Aston Martin, the whole group crossing Abbey Road—provide photo-ops unique to this brand in this location.The Pompei A.D. team met the challenge of the mammoth, mostly underground space by bringing in a bold color palette, organic shapes and forms, and creating a massive, spiraling grand stair down into the store. The form of the stair both draws customers down into the store and brings light into its lower levers. Even the stairs themselves are used as part of the story—one with a timeline of the history of M&M’s, and another with a humorous timeline of M&M’s as characters in British history.The store’s color-changing luminescent façade and classic British double-decker bus repurposed as an entry gateway pull customers in from the street. The opening day of the store attracted more than 28,000 visitors, and it is not uncommon to find customers queuing outside, waiting to get in. Ironically, the stylish W Hotel building is now more commonly known in London as the “M&M’s building.”
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