Brand activations have quickly become a staple in the marketing category. This increase in popularity is due to the ability of a brand activation to generate return on investment in numerous ways, including; increasing overall campaign reach, building meaningful consumer connections and providing great opportunities for content creation too.
Established brands and challengers are all jumping on this fast moving train. But is it a one-way ticket to the promised lands? With this short article, we’re going to show you exactly why brand activations ARE worth the investment.
ROI
When spending budget on a brand activation, you need to have confidence that the outcome will yield a worthy return on investment. There are a number of quantifiable ways in which your brand activation can achieve this for you. Let’s break down three of the most impactful ones – and show you some great examples of how these work too.
Campaign Reach
Brand activations are a great tool to generate reach for your campaign, both online and IRL! Building reach for your campaign increases the visibility and awareness of your brand and the message you’re looking to portray. If, for example, you’re launching a new product – the more people there are that know about it, the more people there are who might buy it. It’s that simple!
When executed well, brand activations are almost guaranteed to generate press interest. Providing the campaign with an impactful picture story is a sure fire way to maximise the press reach of your brand activation and getting your campaign into press outlets is one of the most effective ways to expand the overall reach. Take ‘Mount Recyclemore’ for example;
We activated the Mount Recyclemore campaign alongside FanClub PR and Mutoid Waste. The purpose was to highlight the growing global issue of e-waste and alert the world to put pressure on making a meaningful change. The results of this campaign were staggering!
Generating over 789 pieces of print coverage and in excess of 500 broadcast mentions (including The Jimmy Fallon Show and many more), Mount Recyclemore quickly became a global sensation through high-volume and high-profile press coverage, reaching millions upon millions of people around the world!
Consumer Connections
As well as getting your brand and campaign seen by the big, wide world, brand activations are arguably the most effective way to create and strengthen the connection between your brand and its consumers.
An experiential brand activation is an opportunity for existing and potential consumers to directly engage and interact with your brand in a physical, real-life setting. Providing guests with a positive and memorable experience is key to building brand affinity and inducing an emotional connection between those consumers and the brand. This is the first step to achieving brand loyalty, which will result in repeat purchases, preferential treatment over competitors and word-of-mouth recommendations (all of which are key to gaining the edge within your industry).
With the cost of living on the rise, it is vital for both parties that brands are willing to give their consumers an opportunity to experience something positive, as a gesture of goodwill. Consumers will, in turn, reward brands by being more likely to spend money on a product or service from the brand(s) they feel the strongest towards.
This is something we’ve done for Little Moons, with the ‘Billboard From Another World’. During the height of summer, with temperatures soaring, Little Moons sought to give back to their fans and consumers by sampling free ice cream and merchandise (such as caps, water bottles and more!) to help Londoners cope with the sweltering heat.
The activation was incredibly well-received generating massive queues of people, along Tottenham Court Road, giving existing customers an opportunity to engage with the brand and providing new consumers with a positive first impression. The activation quickly became a TikTok sensation, driving positive sentiment across all social media platforms.
Content Opportunities
The last topic we wanted to cover was the opportunity, that stems from a brand activation, to create and share content with your audience.
In a content-heavy world where social media platforms have become one of the biggest tools for any brand in any industry to leverage, having quality content to share is the best way of engaging and expanding your online audience.
With brand activations typically being IRL events, experiences, installations or similar, there is always the opportunity to create valuable content – whether it’s as simple as taking a few photographs and making a short instagram reel, or as complex as producing a full aftermovie and inviting influencers to the activation for collaborative content.
Stats like; “55% of consumers find new brands on social” and “78% of consumers are more willing to purchase from a brand after having a positive experience on social with them” are proof that getting quality content out to a wide audience is a great way to amplify your brand and campaigns… and you can do this all as a bi-product of your brand activation! Our nhow Hotels launch stunt is a great example of this;
The primary aim of this nhow Hotels campaign was to maximise awareness, within the local area, of the hotel launch. However, the social edit we produced from this gained over 100 million views online and the hotel’s instagram page saw a whopping 91% increase in overall followers from the first to last day of the campaign!
Bringing Your Brand Activation to Life
Hopefully this article has shown you the return on investment value of brand activations and how they can help your brand grow. If you’re looking for an agency to help bring your brand activation to life, we are the experts in creating, producing and measuring them.. You can reach out to us via our contact page. We’d love to hear from you!
