High Point Furniture Market

Reintroducing a Brand Through Experience

$200K budget | 75,000 show attendees | 10+ partners and vendors | 6 days

The Opportunity

Following the disruption of the pandemic, Sunbrella had an opportunity to reintroduce itself to the residential design community while launching its refreshed Sunbrella Interiors identity.

This was not simply a trade-show presence. It was a pivotal moment to redefine how designers, manufacturers, customers, and industry partners perceived the brand.

The challenge was to establish Sunbrella as more than a familiar performance-fabric company. The experience needed to express a more sophisticated interiors point of view while retaining the trust and performance equity the brand had built over decades.

Strategy

Rather than building a showroom around products, we created an immersive brand experience.

Merchandising, storytelling, hospitality, product education, executive engagement, and customer interaction were designed as parts of one cohesive journey. Every detail communicated the refreshed identity and reinforced Sunbrella’s evolution into a premium interiors brand.

The environment balanced inspiration with practical product discovery, giving designers the freedom to explore while creating natural opportunities for deeper customer conversations.

My Role

I led the cross-functional planning and execution of the market experience, bringing together Brand, Product Marketing, Sales, leadership, creative partners, and production teams.

My role was to translate the business opportunity into a cohesive experience—aligning teams around the story, coordinating customer and executive engagement, and ensuring that the strategic intent survived every operational detail.

Execution

The launch included:

  • Cross-functional alignment across Brand, Product Marketing, Sales, and executive leadership.

  • A cohesive environment reflecting the refreshed Sunbrella Interiors identity.

  • Thoughtful merchandising, product storytelling, and interactive demonstrations.

  • Coordinated customer programming, executive hosting, and media engagement.

  • Hospitality designed to encourage exploration, conversation, and relationship building.

Business Impact

The activation became a defining moment in reestablishing Sunbrella’s presence and momentum within the residential design market.

It generated strong engagement throughout the market, strengthened customer relationships, and established the refreshed Interiors brand with key audiences. Long after the market concluded, customers and internal stakeholders continued to reference the launch as the moment the brand regained its momentum and confidence.

The experience did more than introduce a new identity. It changed how the organization and its customers saw the future of the brand.

Key Takeaway

Brand experiences should change perception—not simply generate traffic.

People at an outdoor event in front of a building sign that reads 'Sunbrella Interiors,' with a woman painting on a canvas, a man serving food, and two people chatting near a coffee station.
A group of four people, two women and two men, gathered together in front of a fabric display. The women are taking photos of a young girl and another woman with their cell phones. The young girl has long brown hair and wears a brown dress with white
Interior of a modern showroom with a display of fabric samples on the wall and a white armchair with an ottoman nearby.
A woman shopping for fabrics in a store, standing in front of a display of patterned fabric rolls on a wall, with a white arched doorway framing the scene.
A man cleaning a white painted surface with a large scrubbing brush.
Woman painting an abstract portrait on a large canvas outdoors, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and sunglasses, with trees and outdoor furniture in the background.
People at a sunbella interiors booth with coffee dispensers and cups, viewed through an arched entrance.
A woman with long dark hair, wearing a floral dress and colorful earrings, stands in front of a wall display of fabric sample swatches, holding two swatches in her hands.
Two women posing next to an abstract painting at an outdoor art event, with one holding a paintbrush, under a striped canopy.
A woman with long blonde hair wearing a white dress takes a photo with her phone under a large striped outdoor umbrella. In the background, two women are inside a small white building, and there are trees, parked cars, and a building with windows beh
A white outdoor booth with arched openings displaying the Sunbrella Interiors logo. Inside, a woman in a white dress is preparing coffee. Two other women are standing outside the booth, one in a pink dress and the other in a beige vest and white skir
A woman in a white dress shopping for fabric, with various patterned fabrics hanging on a display.