The Ultimate Beginners Guide To Brand Activation

Discover what is brand activation and why you need it. Understand the modern approach towards marketing that is highly effective with Gen Z.

It is often difficult for brands to get noticed in the world of the internet full of competition and media clutter. In this day and age, an average consumer is exposed to millions of products, how can a brand get noticed? Brand Activation is the answer.

Brand Activation is bridging the gap between the brand and customers. It promotes brand awareness and builds a connection with the audience which is the end objective. With consistent user engagement strategies, brands can create a niche in the market and build a strong and long-term relationship with the consumer. This can lead to developing brand loyalty and a strong foothold in the market.

Let’s comprehend the concept of brand activation and its importance plus learn from the examples of successful brand activations.

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What Is Brand Activation?

Brand Activation is defined by Hubspot as a one-off, in-person events, experiences, and interactions that forge lasting emotional connections between a brand and their target audience.

Let’s understand with a simple example when one starts a new business no one knows the brand. A brand is lifeless and needs to be activated to bring it to life and create a position in the mind of the customer. The same logic applies for the businesses who want to rebrand itself for people to notice it.

6 Types of Brand Activation

It's easy to write or talk endlessly about brand activation as its an abstract topic but it is important to know how can it yield tangible results for a brand. With increasing channels and touchpoints, there are different ways to create a brand activation campaign for brand marketers to understand ways to plan an effective brand activation strategy.

So, what are the types to start brand activations with a bang?

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1. Experiential Marketing

One of the best ways to activate a brand is to allow people to experience it for themselves using experiential marketing.

To define experiential marketing in simple words, it not only advertises brands but encourages customers to interface with the products and get engaged to make an instant connection. These event activations can be conducted physically or digitally. Participants are encouraged to play games and apps or take a virtual car ride or have the photos taken. However, brands prefer an external vendor to achieve the goal of reaching people and provide them first-hand experience.

70% of users become regular customers after an experiential marketing event. (Event Track)

A unique experiential marketing experience was created by 3D Oreos at SXSW Festival.

Oreo’s parent company Mondelez International in partnership with Twitter offered the visitors ‘hyper-personalized and customized snacks based on real-time data’ and using cutting edge technology.

During the SXSW festival in 2014, Oreo came up with a creative and unique idea of combining Twitter, 3D printing, and Oreo cookie into one experiential strategy. Visitors would receive a flavored cookie made by an edible 3D printer depending on which flavors are trending on Twitter at that moment. The marketing campaign includes the hashtag #eatthetweet. This activation was a great way to capture the visitor’s attention adding a modern tech twist to a cookie.

2. Digital Campaign:

A brand activation campaign can happen online or in-person. Digital marketing campaigns enable brands to reach audiences beyond physical interaction. Brand activation online engages customers and provides marketers a chance to collect data and gain insights to improve their marketing and sales campaigns. Digital marketing is a part of the larger brand activation and supports in-market campaigns.

During the 2014 World Cup, Pepsi led a football-specific augmented reality campaign with Blippar as a flavor of the month. 250 million interactive cans were produced where users can play a football game with the world’s five leading players. The result was 60,000 hours of engagement on the cans within a month and a conversion of 2 percent.

Image Credit: CMO Australia

3.Sampling Campaigns:

In simple words, sampling campaigns are events where a potential consumer can try a sample product of a brand or get the product or service free. Be mindful while pulling off the campaign as it can even go the wrong way.

For instance, people avoid over-enthusiastic vendors in a shopping mall or exhibitions who try to force a free snack or any random product. This creates an unpleasant experience and customer refrains from checking the brand. To pull off the sampling campaign, determine the target audience, and find relevant events or spaces to get the right audience to try the products. The positive brand experience from the audience can boost sales and create brand awareness

A study reveals, 80% of polled attendants mentioned that live demonstrations and free samples drastically helped solidify their purchase decision. (Event Track)

A brilliant example of a sampling brand activation is the award-winning Nature Valley campaign- Be Great Out There.

General Mills’ Nature Valley brand target is to reach millennials who grew eating its granola bars and carried them in their lunch boxes or snacked on them during their soccer practice. The aim of the campaign was to remind people that Nature’s Valley has always been and continues to be their source of energy -physical and emotional.

The first step for brand activation was the slogan "Be Great Out There". The brand reconnected their target group through sampling and involved them in a more contemporary way as the consumers created a customized packaging and created sharable moments around the slogan. With a food truck that passed through music festivals, concerts and markets, visitors used iPad to create their personalized custom packaging for two bars, one for themselves and others to share.

Nature Valley Challenged the Millenials with the slogan "Be Great Out There" to express themselves, be out of their comfort zone, and make a difference in someone’s life. The visitors shared the artist-designed stickers online using the hashtag #BeGreatOutThere. The campaign generated more than a million impressions and nearly 7000 packages.

4. In-Store Brand Activation:

In-store campaigns or events involve an experiential element of brand activation where customers can touch, feel, and interact with brands. These types of activations are more suitable for a restaurant or a retail store where people can experience products than any service business.

One such unique in-store brand activation campaign by IKEA who created a pop-up restaurant in London that allowed visitors to cook their meals for family and friends and "celebrate the joy of cooking together." The event showcased their products (kitchenware to kitchen outfits) and their food product line. Such brand activation events help to reach a larger audience and create brand awareness.

5.Promotional Marketing

Promotional marketing is a technique of brand activation to promote the product and increase brand awareness, build customer loyalty, and increase sales. It can be targeted at B2B or B2C. Consumer promotion (B2C) includes loyalty programs, contests, sampling, giveaways, special offers, and digital campaigns especially mobile interactions. Business promotions (B2B) include trade shows, events, email campaigns, or reward sellers.

Wrigley’s #5 Game On - No Pain, No Gain Contest campaign invited consumers to buy a pack of 5 Gum and upload the UPC code online to win daily prizes and a Grand Prize Trip to the EB Games conference. The brand gathered more than a thousand entries.

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6.Social Media Engagement:

Social Media drives engagement creates brand awareness, and generate buzz with compelling content and offers. With experiential marketing at its peak, it is essential to incorporate social media activity to ensure the campaign receives the exposure that is needed. A combination of social media strategies with brand activations can help brands an edge over others.

The most relevant example is Carlsberg. Part of the campaign was promoted on social media encouraging user participation that gave the campaign an additional push and publicity.

Why Brand Activation Is Important?

Brand Activation is a stepping stone for any business. The term ‘brand activation’ is not merely another marketing jargon but is a very powerful tool in this advanced and well-connected world where customers are more demanding. Consumers are tired of promises that are not delivered and due to this, it becomes difficult for brands to build up because the success of building brands depends on trust. To establish this trust, the brand has to be exceptionally different from the others and provide the right products at the right time to stand out.

All successful companies have built a strong brand with strong followers using brand activation. This creates an emotional connection with your customer. The stronger the bond, the better the brand, and this reflects on the sales rate. Brand Activation brings life to the brand, gathers attention from the audience, and generates engagement. A study shows - 98% of users feel more inclined to purchase after attending an activation. (Source)

Final Thoughts

Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Building a brand is a gradual process and cannot expect any event or campaign to turn the brand into an overnight success. The ongoing branding initiatives and brand activation will help to build the brand and achieve the set objective. Brand activations will help to build customer relationships, create brand awareness, and transform the way customers perceive the product or service. Brand activation agency are a vital part of brand strategy and will help to engage with the target audience and establish an emotional connection. A strong and creative brand activation campaign will help to stay ahead in the race as one cannot underestimate the power of a well-executed campaign.

Neha started her journey as a financial professional but soon realized her passion for writing and is now living her dreams as a content writer.