On Tuesday I shared the story of my visit to the American Girl Store during a Spring Break trip with my daughters to Chicago. It is one of the longest-running and most-successful examples of meaningful-marketing experiences. While I was in the area, my girls and I also had a chance to check out one of the newest examples of a brand experience—the Bounty Make-a-Messterpiece. This new concept aims to give kids a place to learn, play, and create—without worrying about messing up the house. And while it’s too soon to say that these will be sweeping the nation, it’s a brilliant way for a brand to test out its purpose and to learn by doing.

(Full disclosure: Bounty is a client of ours and I am definitely biased in my reporting here, so please take this more as a personal example than a deep analysis.)

Located in one of those new kinds of outdoor malls in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the Make-a-Messterpiece concept offers a place for parents (I was the only dad there, even during their Spring Break) to bring kids for an hour or two. Upon walking in you notice a large, open, and friendly space with several sections of specific activities. Parents pay $10 for their children to enter and get access to some of the basic art centers, and there is an additional $5 cost for a special-project area. This seemed like a smart pricing idea, as it provides options for multiple budgets and time availabilities, and gives kids a chance to choose.

I let each of my daughters choose an activity for both of them to do. First, they did “The Drum Roll”—which is essentially a special room with piped-in music where they banged on drums filled with paint. No art was created, but they had a blast. Next they painted pictures in the open workspace in the center of the room. Finally they finished with a project in which they made bird feeders using old Bounty paper towel rolls, honey (for glue), and birdseed. I was happy that the instructor for this project taught them a few facts about birds along the way.

My kids had a great time. They came away with paintings, bird feeders, and some nice memories of the experience. It was something they said they would like to go to again some time. (We’ll need one to open in Cincinnati, though.) From a parent’s perspective, I liked the chance to disconnect from the real world with them for an hour, and I felt much better about bringing them to this option rather than something like Chuck E. Cheese’s. The staff was all young, smiling, helpful, and smart—basically like a group of the world’s best babysitters.

As a marketer, I liked the Bounty Make-a-Messterpiece for a few reasons. Overall, it is a way for the brand to truly bring its Brand Purpose to life. Bounty’s purpose of a brand is to encourage families to “go for it”—to have fun, tackle projects, and basically enjoy life together without worrying about the messes and spills that freak us parents out far too much. What I love about this is that as a parent it completely resonates with what I have come to discover about myself as a parent. We all have these moments when your child, say, asks if she can make the peanut butter sandwich for lunch. Your first thought is how it will turn into a mess and it would be easier for you to just make it. But then something clicks, and you realize that she needs to learn, she wants to learn, and you’ve got plenty of Bounty on hand to clean up the mess. That’s why you work hard for the money to afford quality paper towels. And you go for it.

In creating this actual experiential business, the Bounty team has a chance to take its brand purpose to the next level. Instead of watching parents and kids in focus groups, the team can take a road trip to see real families engaging with a real experience that the brand has created. For a marketer, there is nothing more important than seeing how your brand can directly impact people’s lives.

Of course this was very effective marketing for Bounty as well. The brand is seen as enabling this clever idea and fun activity. There are plenty of Bounty cleanup stations throughout the facility. And the premium feel of the experience ensures that Bounty has a premium reputation for all who enter the facility.

I can’t say if this store is turning a profit or whether we can expect to see dozens of them opening up in a city near you. But I can say that my family had a great time and will treasure our time at Make-a-Messterpiece. And I give tremendous credit to the Bounty brand team and its experience agency, Gigunda, who took risks to turn this idea into reality.

Here are some additional fun photos from our trip: