Brand Activation = Events?

The term brand activation, is something still not (too) familiar in Indonesia, people have many names of for each of the specific activity it relates to, for example: sampling, trial, sales activities, promotion, event roadshow, trade shows, exhibition - etc.

Based on my experience, in many ways, many people would simply call it "Marketing". Luckily, now the term "Brand Activation" is getting rather popular than 10 years ago, though unfortunately not a lot of agency awards have this category listed -

What is it really?

Personally, I kinda like this definition:

"A brand activation is any campaign, event, or experience that enables your brand to engage directly with consumers and build a loyal brand community around your product or service. Activation, often inclusive and interactive, ignite the fire that will light the way for people to find your product and align with your purpose". (cramer.com)

In my current line of work, we do a lot of different types of brand activation, all end up with sales conversions and target number of trials (sampling).

We do see that when people actually see and try the product, the more likely they are going to consider to purchase, vs the older method, having someone stand by the supermarket aisle promoting the product for people to buy, without any trial.

According to The Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, 75% of B2B marketers listed “in-person events” as their top marketing tactic, above even blogging and social media. That makes “in-person events” as rated the most effective tactic for six consecutive years, and up 6% from last year.

There has been projects, where trial was not needed and hard selling was the strategy - this would definitely work for more established brands and products people have already seen on televisions, or have tried the product in the past.

How do you ‘activate’ a brand? 

With an increasing number of channels and touch points comes a growing number of ways to introduce your brand to people.

Let’s take a look at some of those methods.

1. Experiential marketing: Perhaps the best way to activate your brand in people’s minds is by allowing them to experience it first-hand. One of the industry that has been using this method, is the automotive business. Whenever they have a new model being launched, a gathering event followed by a series of test drive take place. It's very rarely that someone would buy a car without trying it first. Once the customer enjoy the feeling & have the experience with the car, then the sales team would pitch in with their flexible payments, low down payment fees, and further extras.

Marketing is not a one time thing. Things are always connected, one way or the other. That's why Sales & Marketing should work hand in hand in order to obtain new customers. Afterwards, add good customer service experience.

A happy customer will be your loyal brand follower and ambassador.

2. Sampling campaigns: It could simply mean giving people the opportunity to try your products. Giving out free samples of a new product can be a great way to introduce people to your brand and get them to enjoy it and it's more likely that they will be talking about the experience afterwards. This method is commonly used by F&B industries, allowing people to try their product during an event, or having a pop up exhibition offering free products in a heavy traffic areas so people can stop and try their products.

3. In-store brand activation: Another opportunity to activate a brand is through in-store promotions or events. We see this a lot in supermarkets and hypermarkets, where there is usually a gondola (special design product display) with a salesperson standing nearby talking to people, or just simply putting a salesperson there to explain the product.

A brand activation could also be a combination of different strategies, it could be from as simple as a trial/sampling activity, to a multi channel exhibition & supported with a direct house-to-house initiative. Each brand should have a unique activation approach, making their consumer experience with the brand = unique.

Aside from these 3 types of popular methods, there are many other unique channels and other ways to reach your potential customers.

When doing activation, your imagination is the limit. An experienced brand activation agency would understand your product & expectations first, and then suggest ways on how to achieve KPI.

The function of the creative partner or brand activation agency, should be like a compass, giving you direction and strategy of what to do, and how to get there, in order for your brand to reach higher places.

What is the end goal?

As with all types of experiential marketing, brand activation should not always be measured simply in terms of additional sales. 

Of course the end goal in everything marketers do is to increase revenue, but more directly a brand activation campaign is about raising awareness and opening a two-way dialogue with potential customers about your brand.

In reality, events are a cost effective way to roll out new products or services. You can get buy-in on a new product much quicker when you have a live, captive audience to showcase it to. And it can come in at a much lower cost than going through traditional media.

During an event, you can generate feedback almost immediately about your product or service. That means you can get valuable feedback much faster, and allow you to address any potential questions or issues. Not only will this make your business more flexible and adaptable, but your customer satisfaction is likely to improve.

Wanna give it a try?