Brand Activations
Brand activations
Brand activations are essential
Consider your brand inactive until you've accomplished a successful brand activation. Brand activations are essential for spreading brand awareness and launching a product. A brand activation allows you to forge lasting emotional connections with your target audience. Keep reading to learn more about brand activations, why they're important, and how to initiate your own.
What are brand activations?
Brand activations are events, promotions, and experiences that you, the business owner, host to increase brand awareness and get your business off the ground. Brand activations are useful for businesses at any stage, but they're crucial for new businesses. How are your ideal customers supposed to find you if they have no idea you exist? It's all about making a splash when you enter the marketplace.
Why is brand activation important?
Studies show that consumers need to interact with your brand 5 to 7 times to remember it. The more impactful each impression is, the more your brand will come to your ideal customers' minds. Brand activations are essential for new brands. However, any business can benefit from a brand activation, no matter its age. They're a great way to launch a new product and reignite interest.
Types of brand activation campaigns
There are unlimited ways to achieve a successful brand activation. It all depends on your audience, your brand, and what success means to you. Here are a few categories of brand activations that you can look to for inspiration.
Experiential marketing campaigns for brand activation
What better way to expose your target audience to your product than to let them experience it for themselves in a fun way? Experiential marketing campaigns offer face-to-face impressions through a branded experience. Curate a fun and interactive experience to showcase your brand and give your audience a good time. Experiential marketing isn't solely for in-person products and services. You can craft a killer virtual experiential marketing campaign, too.
Promotional marketing campaigns for brand activation
Promotional marketing is a broad term for brand activations that aim to - you guessed it - promote a product or service. Promotions are a popular digital brand activation strategy, but they work for any kind of business. Host a giveaway, sale, or bundle promotion to generate brand awareness and customer traffic.
Social media campaigns for brand activation
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook are excellent avenues for brand activation. You need to grow an audience on these platforms to make an impact. Influencer marketing is an excellent way to get started. Partnering with influencers and other brands can help your target audience find you organically.
In-store retail campaigns for brand activation
In-store brand activation is a great way to engage directly with your community. Consider offering free samples, if that applies to your brand, so people can experience the excellence of your product. In-store retail campaigns work whether you own a retail store or not. It's a great opportunity to partner with local businesses to promote your brand.
Pop-up store campaigns for brand activation
Pop-up stores are a fun way to make a splash in the marketplace. You'll get to directly interact with your customers and showcase your product. They're a creative way to draw attention and extra hype to your brand. Pop-up campaigns often gain traction on social media which can boost sales and brand awareness. Consider hosting a pop-up store in a vacant building or public space. Just make sure you get the necessary permitting for it.
Product sampling and free trial campaigns for brand activation
Product sampling campaigns are a highly effective brand activation strategy. They provide the opportunity to connect with your audience by immersing them in the experience of your brand. Investing in free sample products or offering a free trial can bring great returns. Customers who resonate with your brand and your product will bring more business as a result. Once they get a taste of what you have to offer, they'll want to come back for more.
Industry events and trade show campaigns for brand activation
This type of brand activation is a great way to showcase a new brand to a large number of like-minded people. Set up a booth or exhibit at an event within your industry to spread brand awareness. Knowing your target audience is crucial for a successful industry event or trade show brand activation. You need to make sure that the people attending the event are your ideal customers.
Six tips for a successful brand activation campaign
Successful brand activations all have a few things in common. They authentically highlight the brand's values and vision and they focus on impacting their target customer. If you are a new business owner, it can be hard to know where to start with brand activations. Here are some tips to pull off an excellent brand activation campaign.
Start with the end in mind
Before designing a brand activation, ask yourself what you want the outcome to be. Ultimately, a victorious brand activation will end in increased brand awareness and customer acquisition. The more specific you can get with your goals, the better. Start by defining your mission, vision, target audience, and sales goals. From there, you'll start to find an intentional direction for your brand activation.
Know your audience
Clearly define your ideal customer. Build a deep understanding of their interests and needs. Look at who they are following, the content they interact with, and how they react to competitors. Craft your brand activation around that. Your entire brand activation should reflect the audience you are trying to reach. If it does, you will catch your ideal audience's attention and convert it into sales.
Have an element of surprise
A fantastic brand activation touches its audience on an emotional level. Surprise is a great way to trigger that impression. This doesn't have to be anything crazy, just something unexpected to catch people's attention. Don't be afraid to go big. Your grand brand activation. It’s got to wow and amaze. Don’t settle for a few leaflets. What’s going to get people interested? A creative shock factor will make an impact on your audience. They won't soon forget you.
Be relatable
Once you understand your audience on a deep level, you can effectively communicate your brand values to them. People love to see and feel the story behind a brand. Tell your authentic story through your brand activation. The more relatable you are to your potential customers, the more inclined they will be to stick around and shop.
Offer interactivity
The more your potential customers can interact with your product, the more likely they will purchase it. Interactivity increases your impact on potential customers. You will stand out in their memory so that the next time they have a need arise, they'll think of you.
Collaborate
Consider collaborating with another brand whose audience overlaps with your target audience. Collaborating with another brand that has a loyal audience is one of the best ways to promote your business. Their audience trusts them, so when they recommend you, customers will come running.
Gather feedback
Brand activation campaigns are as strategic as they are fun. Use yours as an opportunity to gather feedback from your audience. Ask them what works about your product experience and what can be improved. Carefully track engagement and sales metrics and marketing efforts to see what is most effective in increasing awareness. New businesses must stay true to their values while being flexible with what the market is asking for. Brand activation is a great way to test those waters.
Hire experts
You don't have to do it alone. Here at Isilumko Activate, offer award-winning brand activating services. We place a strong emphasis on ROI (return on investment) and consumer insights. Our brand activations are a day to remember for business owners and their customers.
Brand activation examples
If you need some inspiration for your brand activation, look to some examples that knocked it out of the park. Here are a few brand activation examples that saw great success and huge ROIs.
Lipton Iced Tea
Lipton executed an experiential marketing campaign with an element of surprise when they set up a big yellow water slide in the middle of London.
Revolve
The apparel brand, Revolve, combined social media marketing with experiential marketing with their brand activation. They hosted a carnival and invited influencers to attend, enjoy, and share.
Adidas
Adidas, the popular sports apparel and shoe brand, hosted an interactive in-store brand activation campaign. They offered an interactive experience where customers could try jumping in their new basketball shoes.
The bottom line
The term brand activation refers to any event, offer, or effort put on by a brand to increase exposure and awareness. Marketing efforts look different for every brand. Choose the type that best suits you, your business, and your target audience. The goal is to curate a brand experience that leaves lasting emotional connections between your customers and your brand.
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