Are you familiar with the concept of brand activation? Companies are constantly trying to make a good impression on their audience. Sometimes, the idea is simply to show up for these people, linking brands to unique moments that create incredible experiences. That way, through positive association, companies grow in the consumer’s mind.

Interactions are always a great way to capture attention. And at many points, whether a brand is entering the market or looking for engagement, this exchange with the audience is essential. That’s why activation is a strategy that has been used for so long, especially by the biggest brands across the most diverse industries.

Emotional connections, extraordinary experiences and the ability to create positive memories through a single campaign. Brand activation is all that and much more. So keep reading this post to learn more about the topic!

What is brand activation?

Brand activation is a marketing strategy that aims to deliver unique, often interactive, experiences with the intention of engaging the consumer. These campaigns are one-off and usually take place in person, such as at events, parties, supermarkets and other occasions.

A good brand activation will create a positive perception in the consumer. For it to be effective, brands need to identify their audience’s profile and how to be effective within their persona’s world. That way, companies create the ideal experiences, at the right moment and with the most on-target triggers.

The concept of brand activation itself isn’t hard to understand. It’s putting it into practice that becomes a challenge for companies, especially when they’re new to the industry.

Putting a new business in touch with its potential consumers requires a lot of market intelligence and a series of focused efforts. However, doing this can be particularly tricky for recently created brands.

That’s because activation itself is a process that begins when users are able to recognize the value a business offers and find a role in their lives for the products it creates. In other words, it’s a process of creating experiences that ensures that, from a particular interaction onward, our relationship with a company becomes more than mere awareness of its existence.

A customer who goes through a successful brand activation builds impressions, memories and emotions tied to that day and carries them for a lifetime. These impressions guide their purchase decisions when they’re standing in front of the shelves and are also a great starting point for building loyalty.

That’s why we say brand activation is, essentially, the task of generating value — and you, as an entrepreneur, know this isn’t the easiest task in the world.

One of the strategies that helps us most on this journey is understanding the shopping experience and building experiential marketing capable of setting it apart. That’s why, among the marketing disciplines, there’s one specialized in brand activation, bringing together distinctive concepts and activities that help us succeed in generating the value mentioned above.

Activation marketing

As the name suggests, this is the branch of marketing dedicated to activation. It revolves around executing the marketing mix in a way that generates the best possible results for the business.

Activation marketing is the creation of exclusive experiences and interactions. These campaigns can make it clear to potential consumers what the benefits are of choosing or switching to a brand. And in some cases, show them exactly what they’re missing out on by not doing so.

Efficient activation marketing will allow your business to earn more and reach its strategic goals, because it’s tied to achieving returns. However, since the stakes are high when it comes to activation marketing, it’s to be expected that the discipline comes with its share of challenges to overcome.

One of them is how our market constantly changes and evolves, requiring brands to be ready to respond and to reframe the experiences and values they make evident to their consumers.

Today, resources such as data-driven marketing have made brand activation less complex. Companies are now basing their actions and initiatives on the data they have access to.

This also makes it possible to measure the results of these efforts more accurately. So data-driven marketing has contributed to successful activations because it lets us understand exactly what we’re doing throughout the process.

Understanding what activation marketing is, however, also means understanding what it isn’t: traditional communication initiatives and providing good customer service. That’s because this field highlights the experiences a brand can offer its market.

The role of innovation in brand activation

Delighting the consumer is one of the fundamental principles of activation marketing, and this trait alone is enough to set it apart from other techniques your team uses. Today, we have a range of resources available that make the task of delighting customers less complex for companies.

Using tools such as augmented reality and holograms, for example, are smart ways to catch the consumer’s attention and bring them into your brand’s world, even if only for a few moments.

The highlight here is the initial wow factor delivered by technologies like these. In other words, the way brands can use certain tools to pull consumers out of their routine and spark their interaction with a particular business.

There are countless examples of how innovation can be used in brand activation and, to make this point clearer, we’ll show you some success stories from around the world.

Lipton Iced Tea

Lipton was one of the first brands to innovate in activation marketing, and that’s why it deserves a spot here.

With a slide more than 100 meters long installed in the city of London, the brand invited passersby to try a different way of getting to work and to their leisure activities. The inflatable, installed during the summer, encouraged people to pause their routines and have a little fun — and it was a hit!

Decked out in the brand’s signature yellow and installed next to one of the most famous subway stations in the world, King’s Cross, the slide let the brand tap into the heavy foot traffic to grab the attention of new consumers. And since tea is a British tradition, offering the drink became even more appealing as a way to beat the typical summer heat.

This is an example of how innovation doesn’t necessarily require new technology. A good idea can be just as valuable for your activation marketing as the most cutting-edge Internet of Things sensor.

Beam Suntory

But since we’re talking about innovation, we can’t ignore how specific tools available today can transform the relationship between consumers and traditional products. That was the bet made by Beam Suntory, a bourbon brand commonly found in airport duty-free shops.

For the activation we’re highlighting here, Frankfurt Airport was the chosen location, and Beam Suntory created a station where people could sample its products and engage all of their senses.

A film about the brand was screened, and free popcorn was handed out to draw in passersby. The experience, however, was complete when customers were invited to taste the bourbon and use a touchscreen to choose the ideal product and leave their feedback.

The initiative gained even greater reach because it was promoted on the brand’s social media. On its own, it generated enough content to reach more than two million consumers worldwide.

IHeartRadio

IHeartRadio wanted to better reach young people, so it decided to create a machine that offered free merchandise but was fully connected to the internet and used social media users’ information as the key to unlock the prizes.

With a camera and a direct link to Instagram, the kiosk toured several American universities and gave away free T-shirts to those who shared posts interacting with the brand’s promotional content.

The activation campaign wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, though: like so many others, it piggybacked on our social media addiction to promote the brand.

By creating a hard-to-forget interactive experience (with photos that could easily serve as a reminder for consumers, if needed), IHeartRadio generated more than five million online impressions and went on to rank among young people’s favorite brands from then on.

Innovation is one of the most effective ways for a brand to create experiences that stand out. That’s why it’s so relevant to activation marketing, which relies on exclusive experiences to cement a product or service in customers’ minds.

What is brand activation for?

Like trade marketing and other retail innovations, brand activation works on several fronts at once, with the goal of promoting a specific brand over others. This promotion serves to boost sales, consolidate a market position, or make the brand synonymous with a specific product or solution.

That’s why activation is one of the most important items on the business agenda. Together with other resources, such as a strong social media presence, it helps generate awareness and enough content for a business to benefit from it for a long time.

A good activation can yield hundreds of thousands of reais in free publicity, because it’s about building experiences so meaningful that they end up becoming newsworthy.

You’ve probably noticed, at one point or another, how much your brand spends on promoting itself. Whether it’s paid social media ads or pages in newspapers and magazines, media spend is one of the most painful costs for marketing departments.

A good activation, on the other hand, is an opportunity to save in this area by generating earned media, whether through people sharing a campaign on social media or through the extraordinary buzz of people gathering around an out-of-the-ordinary activity.

Brand activation serves to cement a positive impression of a given business in the minds of consumers and the public. That’s precisely why we’ve talked about value creation every time we’ve mentioned brand activation throughout this article. The main results of an activation aren’t necessarily on-site sales, but rather building a lasting relationship with the people who took part in the experience — and even with those who watched it from afar.

How does a brand activation campaign work?

Retail marketing has a lot to gain from brand activation campaigns. That’s why, in the following sections, we’ll show you some creative examples of how this immersive experience can bring new consumers to your brand and drive value creation.

All the cases mentioned here were created by Alice Wonders. Our goal, therefore, is to show that in Brazil, too, brand activations get people talking and make all the difference in companies’ results.

Just like the cases mentioned earlier, every example in this section increased business ROI and enabled the acquisition of new customers.

Brand activation actions and examples

One of our favorite cases is Colgate. The launch of its new whitening toothbrush was a success, and the brand activation took over some 80 stores across the country, where shoppers could interact with the product in a unique way and discover everything it could do.

Using virtual reality, Alice Wonders built a bridge to another world where people could understand how the product worked and what its benefits were. Entertainment content was also built into this virtual universe to amplify the brand’s results.

The activation caught consumers’ attention and won them over emotionally, inviting them to take a closer look at Colgate’s products.

Creative brand activation at events

Among our event activation cases, the interactive room for Tegra is another favorite. With projection mapping, augmented reality and exclusive testimonials from residents, the company created an immersive experience that gave users the chance to experience the city of São Paulo and see how its neighborhoods have evolved over time.

The entire interaction was controlled by sensors that automatically measured the audience’s reaction to what was being shown. It’s one example of how technology and a good idea can make all the difference in brand activation.

What does a brand activation agency do?

Now that you’ve seen these cases, it’s time to ask yourself: can your brand pull off an activation this good relying only on the staff it already has? In most cases, the answer is no.

Even at large companies, brand activations are usually handled by specialized agencies, which can dedicate the time, resources and expertise needed to create unique experiences for consumers.

Working with a partner to create activation initiatives is a smart move, because they bring years of experience and plenty of results to show for it. On top of that, activation agencies have all the resources needed to measure the impact of a specific campaign as precisely as possible, making it crystal clear how much value was generated for your business, and how.

When thinking about activation strategies, consider bringing in a partner who will help you achieve the results you expect and offer innovative options so your brand’s activation turns out just as well as you planned.

How is experiential marketing applied to activation?

Brand activation works much better when combined with experiential marketing — but it’s important to stress that the two are not synonyms. Although experiential marketing can be part of an activation, it covers all interactive activities aimed at selling a product.

So it’s possible to do experiential marketing without doing a brand activation. The reverse, however, isn’t true. Successful brand activations all have one thing in common: generating interest, using a product or experience as the draw. Generally speaking, this always results in experiential marketing.

When we use this approach, which is tied to creating positive memories and experiences for the customer, it becomes easier to show a product’s value and carve out a place for it in the market. That’s why experiential marketing is so closely associated with activations, even though the two don’t mean exactly the same thing.

To make it clearer, consider the following examples: a test drive is a type of brand activation, because it lets people try out a product and confirm that its advertised features are real. It’s a traditional form of experiential marketing and also a way to activate brands.

On the other hand, when we try on a perfume at a specialty store, we’re taking part in experiential marketing, but not necessarily in an activation. Trying the product gives us a reference point for our purchase decision and doesn’t need to be tied to an activation to serve its purpose.

How do you build a brand activation plan?

To create a successful brand activation plan, you need to follow a few principles. Below are the main ones and how they work in practice.

Have a plan

For a brand activation to work, you need a plan. What goals should it achieve? Can you quantify them?

The more precise the plan developed for an activation, the greater its chances of success. Good planning is what guides decision-making and allows the team involved in the project to understand exactly which approach is the right one.

Understand your target audience

Business Intelligence and Big Data are two technologies that can be leveraged to help your company pull off a successful brand activation. Both allow the information gathered about customers and prospects to be processed at high speed, generating actionable insights.

It’s a good idea to use both if you want strong results from your activation campaign.

The more you know about the customers the activation is aimed at, the better your chances of achieving outstanding results. Do your homework and gather as much data as possible about the audience the brand needs to deliver value to.

Know your competition

Market intelligence is useful for a business at many points — and activation is one of them. Use it to get to know your competitors better and understand exactly which kinds of initiatives work to generate value for their respective target audiences.

This information will help you separate good ideas from bad ones and build a more effective brand activation.

Check your available resources

How much will your brand invest in the activation? What technologies, expertise and tools does the team involved in the process have at its disposal? To get the best ROI, you need to know exactly how much will be invested in a project, and that information is part of a well-executed brand activation.

Monitor in real time

To calculate ROI, however, you’ll need to measure the returns your activation campaign delivers as closely as possible.

That’s why you should use tools that let you get immediate feedback from participants and show exactly how many people are reached by your initiative.

They will prove whether a brand activation succeeded or failed and will be good indicators for your next moves to boost your marketing.

What results can brand activation bring to a company?

Good brand activation campaigns have the power to take companies to the next level. For some, this is the strategy for ranking among the top competitors in the market. Of course, all of this depends on choosing the right initiatives and targeting as precisely as possible.

When these requirements are met, some standout results can be achieved. Below, see what they are and what positive outcomes they bring to brands.

Brand awareness

Brand awareness happens when consumers remember your brand when they think of a particular product you sell. For example, when we think of steel wool, the first brand that comes to mind is most likely Bombril.

You may not reach the level of our example, but you can at least be among the leading options in the market, whatever your product is. This is the result of strategic company positioning aimed at positive exposure targeted at the right audience.

Engagement

Engagement is the next result after brand awareness. Once people get to know your company and your product, the natural path is for them to buy from you and grow closer to your brand. That’s when engagement happens, as long as your branding is done well.

So, in some cases, activations serve as a kind of first contact. In others, the brand’s presence in strategic initiatives reinforces its identity and positioning, building a connection with the audience. This is a great way to generate goodwill and synergy between brand and consumer, which leads to engagement.

Market presence

Activations also place brands among the biggest players in the market, which strengthens these companies’ presence. Visibility is great for business, but it’s even better when it’s targeted. This kind of presence is achieved when activation strategies are precise.

In highly competitive markets, activations are hotly contested as well. Even established brands invest in this type of marketing. So, if your brand does the same, it’s showing the market that it’s there and can be a great option for consumers.

Competitiveness

The old saying “out of sight, out of mind” fits perfectly when we talk about competitiveness. One of the main benefits of brand activation is precisely the opportunity to stand out among many other top-tier competitors.

Your brand will only sell more if it manages to stay in the consumer’s line of sight. That’s why activation strategies, especially modern, tech-driven ones, add so much value to brands. These initiatives create great opportunities to beat competitors and stay top of mind with your consumers.

What best practices should be applied to brand activation?

A good brand activation strategy involves a few key points. The success of your initiatives depends on understanding your brand’s universe, what your audience likes, and how to use that to capture people’s attention. Learn more about how to put these ideas into practice.

Know your audience’s habits

Do you know exactly what your audience likes to do? Having a sense of these people’s habits and daily lives is essential. One thing that can help you gain deeper insight into these details is developing a persona study. That way, you’ll know who the people buying from your company really are.

When you know these habits, you can find out what activities these people enjoy (sports, games, and movies, for example), what music they like, what events they attend, and more. That way, you can better position your activation initiatives, capturing attention and creating a great impression.

Learn how to match your brand to other successful ones

Knowing how to research the market and what successful brands are doing will help your company gain the standout position it’s looking for. Now, keep in mind: you shouldn’t think about copying, but rather about market trends. After all, you often need to match your competitors in order to beat them.

So, carefully research what your competitors are doing, as well as companies in the same industry in other countries. When replicating these activation strategies, remember to innovate and bring your own identity into the initiatives. It’s always possible to improve on something that already exists and works well.

Study your brand’s universe

Your brand will always be associated with a certain lifestyle, consumer habits, activities, and other things. The better you know this universe, the better you can explore it through effective initiatives. This is the best way to communicate with your target audience in the right way.

One company that does this perfectly is Heineken. The brand invests in activations at soccer stadiums and at a range of sporting events. The UEFA Champions League, one of the world’s leading sports competitions, is always the stage for major activation campaigns by the beer brand.

Red Bull does the same. The energy drink brand identified extreme sports and music as part of its universe. That’s why the brand has always positioned itself at skateboarding and surfing competitions, as well as electronic music festivals.

How can technology be used in these strategies?

These days, you can’t think about brand activation without connecting these strategies to technology. With the growing number of modern, highly effective resources available on the market, the choice to use them is obvious. In addition to creating more powerful experiences, they’re better at grabbing the audience’s attention.

That’s why major brands insist on innovating in their brand activation initiatives with the help of technology. Below, we list some of the resources that have been drawing the most attention and explain how they’re used.

Augmented reality

If you follow our blog, you’ve probably read some of our articles where we mention augmented reality as an incredible resource. Simply put, it’s a technology that places people in simulated tech experiences.

The idea behind augmented reality is to project a device, a product, or even a digital reality into the human field of view. It’s as if that universe were brought into our reality, allowing you, for example, to try on sneakers with the help of a 3D projection on your smartphone.

With these augmented reality initiatives, the idea is to put the brand in the spotlight, let people test a product, and, more broadly, make an impact. The more innovative and disruptive the activation, the better the impression it leaves.

Virtual reality

Virtual reality, on the other hand, focuses on creating experiences in a fully digital setting, without trying to bring it into the real environment. Virtual reality is more immersive, allowing the consumer to step into an environment that exists only in the digital world.

With the help of smartphones and other gadgets, brands invite consumers to interact within these experiences. In practice, besides taking part, these people can feel as if they’re inside a parallel reality, for example.

Many companies have been running activations in physical stores or retail spaces using virtual reality headsets as a tool. They provide the immersion needed to create a positive impact with these strategies.

Holograms

Holograms are 3D graphic projections designed to be ultra-realistic, usually to represent characters. Throughout history, holograms have been widely used in the entertainment industry, which helped drive their adoption in advertising.

Today, holograms are also an interesting resource for brand activations. Their endless possibilities make them very useful, since they can be explored in countless ways in campaigns.

Brands can use holograms to project products, architectural and real estate projects, brand mascots, and even real-time ads at the POS. It’s a great resource and highly effective at grabbing attention.

Interactive panels

Interactive panels are also a great way to engage your audience with a simple yet very effective resource. These panels can be kiosks or any other type of device that creates an opportunity to “take part” in a campaign.

It’s important that the proposed interactions make sense to the consumer. They need to learn something, enter to win a prize, or even get a discount on a purchase. Beyond innovation and technology, there has to be a benefit involved to spark interest.

If possible, also use these panels to capture consumer data. That way, in addition to showcasing your brand, you can generate leads that may turn into future sales.

Did you enjoy learning more about the concept of brand activation and how to run a successful one? Still unsure whether applying all of this on your own will be easy? Then get in touch with Alice Wonders right now and count on the help of activation experts who will take your brand to the next level!