Are you doing everything possible to benefit your brand and improve the brand identity? Retail branding, retail designing, visual merchandising, promotional campaigns, everything would give a bounty to your business, I’m not disagreeing with you on that. Instead, this blog expounds on a strategy that would take care of every touchpoint with your potential customers. It is about brand activations. Let us find out what are brand activation activities and how brand activation works for your business.

What is a Brand Activation Event?

A brand activation event is any activity that showcases a new product in the market while also enhancing brand awareness to the public. Unlike other branding tactics, brand activations focus primarily on a one-to-one or group interaction with the attendees, considering them as potential customers. Contests, fun activities, games, or any activity that personally connects the brand with the customer can turn out to be an influential activation event.

Events are one of the strategies used in brand activation. The benefit of brand activation is that customers can explore the brand with all their five senses. Apart from activation events, there are other types of brand activations. Businesses design brand activations as per their niche and target audience.

• Experiential marketing.
• Digital marketing campaigns.
• Sampling campaigns.
• Promotions
• Mall activities.
• Social media engagement and contests.

HubSpot defines brand activation as “One-off, in-person events, experiences, and interactions that forge lasting emotional connections between a brand and their target audience.” If your activation space in an event activation is welcoming, it will not only attract a large number of potential clients to your experiential area but also provide you with a large number of high-quality leads.

Why is Brand Activation Important?

Brand activation events play a significant role in

• Launching a new product.
• Launching a new service.
• Creating brand awareness.
• Revamping your business.
• Engaging customers with direct interaction.
• Establishing a bond with the customers.
• Initiating high brand recall.
• Portraying brand value, brand message, and brand identity.
• Gathering feedback from the customers about your brand.

Don’t you want your customers to become your fans? You would love to. Then the intelligent choice would be investing in radiant events and brand activations.

How to Design a Brand Activation Strategy?

Before planning a brand activation, you must have a clear picture of your business goals and targets. The strategy should highlight how your brand stands out from the competition. Never overlook any factor that has the potential to wow the audience; yeah, for that you have to think like they do. To make your brand a trend, you must plan the best brand activation event possible. Make use of exotic elements like sound, music, virtual engagement, and in-person experience to entice the audience to take part in the event.

A thoughtful brand activation strategy should focus on brand activation ideas that address the following elements.

• The business objective
• The brand message to be conveyed.
• The target audience to be focused on.
• The budget involved.

What does Activation Mean in Marketing?

Brand activations attempt to raise brand awareness, develop long-term relationships with target audiences, and increase consumer loyalty. Customer surveys suggest that 98% of the people make a purchase decision after attending an activation. The success stories of many brand activations show that no event will go ignored if you add a personal touch to them.

The significance of activation events in marketing is that they can immediately prompt the customers to experience the product or service in an engaging way. Through personal engagement, brand activation events make the clients handle the brand themselves. Any business that hosts successful brand activations has seen a boost in foot traffic and sales.

What are Examples of Brand Activations?

Let us dive into two exciting examples of brand activation. This will show you how dynamic and engaging an activation event can be and how can brand activation help you.

GoGo squeeZ

The brand GoGo squeeZ, known for its apple sauce and yoghurt pouches, came up with an exciting event activation in 2015. The structure called the “Goodness Machine,” built by GoGo squeeZ, invited kids of all ages. To attract children and their parents, GoGo SqueeZ’s team designed a massive version of their distinctive squeezable apple sauce that generated children’s favorite dessert when they activated the machine.

They designed the one-of-a-kind brand activation, where apple sauce pouches were delivered from the sky through an interactive vending machine. The packets were affixed to parachutes with the GoGo SqueeZ label and the #CatchtheGoGo activation tour hashtag. The activation event was memorable and fun-filled for everyone who caught a parachuting GoGo.

With a dedicated video recorder that caught kids engaging with the machine, the activation also included social media video component. The videos were published as 15-second GIFs on the “Goodness Machine” website, where they may be seen and shared on social media and email.

Vitaminwater

Vitaminwater’s event and activation is another example of what may be done with brand activations. Vitaminwater, the beverage brand owned by Coca-Cola, designed an irresistible Hydration Station at the WayHome Music and Arts Festival. They developed the concept of a “people vehicle wash” where the attendees got a chance to experience cool mists accompanied by bottled drink handouts.

With their festival wristband, the attendees had the chance to get their photos taken at the Hydration Station. The photographs were provided directly to their email address, making Vitaminwater and WayHome stars on the social media platforms through picture sharing by the attendees.

How Can Brand Activation Companies Help You?

Having effective brand activation tactics helps your business by engaging customers and grabbing their attention. Successful brand activations rely on engaging the target audience and making them active partners throughout the event. Each attendee should feel personally considered and engaged to the core. This helps create a long-lasting impression of the brand among the audience, increasing their loyalty and emotional bridging with your brand.

Several elements like planning of the brand activation event, designing, incorporation of digital technology, logistics, budgeting, execution, etc. would determine the success of any brand activation. To come up with stunning brand activation ideas would be tough for any business without having a solid professional team.

How do you plan an activation? Why squeeze yourself unnecessarily when experienced hands are there to help you? Bring on board an expert brand activation agency that can give a buzz to the event attendees through festive brand activations.

AD Vantage Marketing has vast expertise in designing brand activation events that create mind-blowing experiences for the customers. Not just an event to forget, brand activations by Ad Vantage Marketing would exude your brand story. Our brand activations are the best ever, with astounding activations ideas. AD Vantage Integrated Marketing has a history of designing the best brand activations for its prestigious clients, making us one of the best brand activation companies in India. Clients who have tasted the quality of our brand activations include Seagate, Raymond, JBL, and Continental Tyres.

To sum up the blog, brand activations should be custom made for each business, considering the target community and the brand message. It should be a perfect mix of creativity, technology, and brand message singing the same song. When executed perfectly, creative brand activations would create positive vibes in the customers, making them know more about your brand. No doubt, a well-organized brand activation event would make every attendee a brand ambassador who indirectly contributes to marketing and brand promotion.

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”