Brand Activation: Why the World Needs Active Brands- Cre8 Exhibits & Events Pty

    In a world that is full of noise and cluttered with meaningless content, marketers need to be more tactful, now more than ever, if they are to win in the game of creating memorable brand experiences. Just take a look online you will most certainly engage with hundreds of brands every minute. How are you even supposed to remember all of them? This is the dilemma that brands are currently facing. There’s a need to engage all of a consumer’s senses, that is, seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. Now that’s an active brand.

The Individual, Not the Crowd

Brand activations are a clever means of cutting through all the noise. With the online hype companies have forgotten that consumers are individuals who consider themselves to be people with individual values and preferential needs. Consumers are demanding to have their individual needs met but they keep being bombarded with ‘crowd’ messages.

With brand activation a company is able to drive consumer action by giving consumers the chance to interact with its brand through face to face engagements, thus building consumer trust in the brand which then leads to customer loyalty. You give your consumers the chance to see, touch, hear, smell and touch your brand, bringing it to life and leaving it forever etched in their mind. Giving them a reason to choose your brand over competition. Loyalty leads to re-purchase and recommendation making your campaign a winner and ultimately your marketing effort will have a huge return on investment.

Brand activation can be used in many different ways, from Point Of Sales-techniques to in the field activation through consumer promotions, sampling campaigns, experimental marketing or even digital campaigns.

 

What to Activate

An active brand has a story to tell. A story that everyone wants to keep telling. Before you activate, define your brand. Look for the core features and let that be your story. This could be, as it is with most brands, promised consumer benefit. It could also be the values of the company or the strengths of its people. Once you’ve created your brand message, deliver it in a positive memorable experience!

Cre8 Top Dos and Don’ts for Brand Activation

We have learnt what works and what doesn’t. So here is our advice:

1. Have a well-defined brand. If you as a company cannot understand what your brand stands for, the consumer will also not get it no matter which marketing tactics you use. So remember to define your brand before you activate it.
2. Do not abandon your other marketing strategies for brand activation. Brand activation is not a standalone marketing campaign. Its success is pegged on seamlessly integrating it with multiple marketing approaches.
3. Different brand activation tactics will work differently for different brands. For instance, a company that manufactures cookies would benefit more from a free sample campaign where shoppers are given the cookies for free. However, on the other hand a car company would not benefit giving free cars. Pick the most appropriate tactic for your brand, one that will have the soundest return on investment.
4. Remember brand activation is not all about the money generated. It can also be used for creating brand awareness especially for new brands. At the end of the day you want your brand to be at the top of your customers’ minds over a long period of time. This can easily be achieved through brand activation.
5. Get a great agency company to assist you with brand activation. You don’t necessarily have to do all the work by yourself and more so if you are not fully aware of what brand activation entails. Companies such as Cre8 that have years of experience in design, building and executing your displays for brand activation, ensuring you achieve maximum success.

Don’t waste any more money on activities that don’t benefit your brand. Talk to us and we’ll help your campaign scale the heights by turning it from a noisy brand to an active brand! Check out our Cre8 Experiential Marketing Brochure for more details.