It takes 5-7 impressions for people to remember a brand. With branding, the goal is to continue to generate those positive impressions on an ongoing basis. One way to do this is through brand activations.
Next, we’ll dive into what brand activations are and how to strategically plan a brand activation.
What is brand activation?
Brand activations are events, experiences, and interactions that forge lasting emotional connections between a brand and its target audience. These activations are usually a specific campaign or event that aims to generate brand awareness and interactivity with the audience.
While brand activation is a singular event or campaign that is meant to elevate the brand, it should not be confused with ongoing brand strategy. So what does the brand activation strategy look like? Let’s dive in.
Brand Activation Strategy
Before you start planning different brand activation events, it’s important to understand the goal of each separate campaign.
The best way to plan a strategy is to identify your goals. It could be customer acquisition, user registrations, social media engagement, etc. Ultimately, you should increase brand awareness, however, reducing your goal even more will make it measurable and achievable (SMART goals).
Once you know your goals, you can start brainstorming various events or brand activation campaigns you can do to achieve them.
For example, let’s say your goal is user registration. A brand activation for that goal could be going to a trade show. There you can talk to potential customers and then hopefully sign up users (based on your offers).
Once you have a list of ideas, goals, and metrics, it’s time to start your brand activation plan. You need to decide on a campaign or event to move forward with, plan the logistics of that event, and use your brand playbook (with a clear vision, value propositions for key goals, brand personality, character, voice, and experiences). . Keep in mind that brand activations don’t necessarily have to be events, but can be demo campaigns, social media contests, or other digital marketing campaigns.
Now, let’s go over some ideas to help you create your own brand activation plan. Next, we’ll have the ideas separated by objective to give you an idea of how to strategically brainstorm brand activations.
Objective: user registration
- Experiential marketing event.
- Feria.
- Digital marketing campaigns.
Goal: Increase impressions/brand awareness
- Sampling campaign (gifts).
- Virtual/in-store events.
- Digital marketing campaigns.
- Marketing de influencers.
Objective: customer acquisition
- Digital marketing campaigns such as PPC, display advertising, etc.
- Interactive events.
- Live demos.
Objective: participation in social networks
- Social media contest.
- Social media movement.
- Behind the scenes series.
- Marketing de influencers.
Hosting a brand activation event or campaign can help you increase brand awareness, impressions, and ultimately attract new customers. With tactics like experiential marketing, digital campaigns, influencer marketing, and virtual or in-person events, you can engage with your audience in a personal way.
To be successful with brand activation, it’s important to focus on your audience, make your experiences shareable, and be creative.