To promote Unboxed, Chicago Children’s Museum’s cardboard-only exhibit, we needed to demonstrate how exciting cardboard can be. So, we built a toy store. But instead of toys, we stocked the store with boxes.

Mister Imagine’s Toy Store opened after a month of being marketed as a real toy store. Which meant when shoppers entered the space, they were disappointed. But once they realized Mister Imagine’s was full of toys – it just took children’s imaginations and the workshop to uncover them – disappointment let way for joy.

Mister Imagine’s Toy Store lead to a 13% increase in general attendance and a 50% increase in attendance among members, making Unboxed one of the most successful exhibit launches in Chicago Children’s Museum history.

Once retail space was confirmed, we got to work building and promoting the store. Prior to the grand opening, we used grassroots media channels - including blogger kits, a website, yelp page, 'coming soon' window displays, posters, flyers, and stickers - to build anticipation for the hip new toy store without giving away the twist.

The store interior was built almost entirely out of cardboard, and featured distinct areas for shopping, creating (a workshop staffed with museum art facilitators), and sharing your toys (a cardboard photo booth that captured, printed, and automatically uploaded your pictures to the museum’s Facebook page).

We then turned everything in the store into a media vehicle - box purchases came with a voucher good for a free visit or 15% off membership. Photos from the photo booth contained reminders to visit the Unboxed exhibit, and packaging delivered exhibit information.

Mister Imagine’s Toy Store welcomed thousands of Chicagoans who averaged over an hour apiece in the store. However, the story of the store spread far beyond the actual space. Mister Imagine’s was featured on FOX News, ABC, TimeOut magazine and hundreds of blogs, from Chicago to Japan.

But best of all, Mister Imagine’s Toy Store led to a 13% increase in Chicago Children’s Museum’s general attendance and a 50% increase in attendance among members, making the launch of Unboxed one of the most successful exhibit launches in the museum’s history.