Find out why marketing events like brand activations are a powerful marketing tool and bring you closer to your customer base.

Because experience has more impact than exposure!

Whether we notice or even want it or not, we live in a branded world, and brand activation events can help make brands stand out in an over-crowded, highly branded marketplace. What is a brand activation? Have you ever received a discount voucher for a product or service, so that you could experience it for yourself, received freebies or seen a grocery store live demonstration of a detergent or appliance, or got to sample a new food product for free? Well, that’s brand activation.

Brand activation events create the highly-desired two-way conversation between brand and customer; they generate interest by allowing the customer to experience a product or service in a personal way. Experiences are used to educate and motivate, and allow the brand to connect with the consumer on an emotional level. The stronger the emotional connection, the more meaningful the interaction between consumer and brand will be, often resulting in customers re-buying a brand.

Consumer brand activations are a crucial part of building a positive perception of a brand

Activations can achieve outstanding results, that allow the consumer to engage first-hand with a brand. To complete a successful activation, a mix of the right elements is needed. Brands need to reach potential customers in a way that can shift perceptions and create a real emotional connection. These marketing events must bring up positive feelings in the minds and hearts of consumers about the brand for them to become loyal customers and drive sales.

Key principles of brand activation for sales

• Access the consumers’ passions using creative brand activation strategies and ideas.
• Timing and location need to be in line with the target demographic.
• Using well-executed activation strategies, such as in person experience events, this can lead to the consumer starting to believe in the brand and what it stands for, which is a closer step in the path to purchase.

Strategies for implementing a consumer brand activation campaign:

• Experiential events: Live experiential marketing events are used by global brands to help position the brand in the consumers’ minds by attracting and emotionally engaging with them in personal experience, by inviting them to try a product, ask questions about it and participate in some way that makes them feel apart of the brand. This is to reach people on multiple levels (emotional, rational, psychological) so that they walk away from the event remembering what is was like to touch, taste, and feel the product rather than just reading about it.
• Promotional marketing: Promotional marketing events raise awareness of your brand and products to generate more sales and gain a loyal customer base. This can be by targeting businesses, or the end consumers through loyalty programs, giveaways, special offers, product samples as well as point of sale displays. Business promotions can include workshops, event sponsorships, trade show booths, incentives, or bonuses to reward resellers.
• In store / mall / retail marketing: In store retail marketing activations can help a customer choose one brand above another while inside a retail store or mall. It helps to enhance the image of a product or brand and as well as feature the benefits it offers or introduce the lifestyle associated with purchasing the product. 

Advantages of brand activations

Here are a few of the benefits of consumer brand activations:

• Brand activation events allow your customer to give feedback on what they love, what to change or improve as they are interacting with you.
• It allows the brand to have an emotional connection with an otherwise non-emotional brand or product.
• It allows your consumer to walk away from the experience with a favourable feeling about your brand, if the activation is executed well.
• It can bring life into an old brand and help to reach younger Millennial audiences.
• It can reinforce the brand’s positioning in the minds of the consumer.
• Helps to cut through the traditional advertising clutter.
• It makes your brand more prominent.

Don’t underestimate the influence experiential brand activations can play in shaping the future and relevance of a brand. Brand activations are not meant to be measured in terms of direct sales made on the day; rather they should be viewed as a way to generate awareness and visibility for a company through cultivating real life engagement experiences with the target consumer.

Where traditional marketing has a more ‘quantity for success’ approach, such as high impressions, or greater footfall, activations are more ‘quality’ oriented, with a strong focus on personal engagement, that allow the customer to ‘feel’ the brand, and not just know about it. So even if an event is small, what better way to spend your marketing budget and make an impact than through well executed, experiential brand activation?

Contact us to bring your brand directly in front of your target consumer.