Brand activation campaigns are major efforts, and it can be bad for business (and your career) when you don’t get the results you were hoping for. Before you embark on a brand activation, you need a strategy for making your activation a hit. These tips can help you form a slam dunk strategy before you get started.
#1 Timing: The Best Time for Your Activation
Timing is everything when it comes to your activation, and it all depends on what kind of activation you’re trying to run. Do you want to do a giveaway at a busy downtown transit hub? The evening rush hour will give you a chance to catch the highest number of people.
If you want to do an outdoor activation, you’re not limited just to the summer, but you have to be strategic. In the cold, you need to capitalize on holidays, weekends, and winter festivals.
#2 Location: Find Your People
The audiences you want to target depend on the aims of your activation. If you’re trying to test out a new geographic market, you want to find a neighborhood or event that attracts people who are like your usual customers, just in a new location.
On the other hand, if you’re introducing a new product to old customers, the perfect location might be in-store. Major brands with national name recognition might want to target big events like concerts or live sports, while big players in niche industries can benefit from targeting conferences and trade shows. According to Accenture, 91% of consumers are more willing to engage with a campaign that’s personalized to speak to them. Make sure you do thorough demographics research before an activation campaign.
#3 Support: How to Get Noticed
You’ve chosen the right time and the right place to reach the audiences you want to target. Portable digital billboards are the communication tool your brand activations have been missing. Not only can they be installed anywhere, including outdoors, but they have more power and potential for creating interactive and innovative experiences.
One company, BIG Digital, has created battery-enabled portable digital billboards that can be installed anywhere – no power outlets or scaffolding needed. BIG Digital billboard rentals aren’t just easy ways to make sure your activation gets noticed; they can also drive the experience. With touch and gesture control, Augmented Reality, and gamification marketing, they can drive your next campaign.
#4 Back It Up: Make a Plan for Evaluating Your ROI
Before you start investing in your campaign, make a plan for evaluating and defining your ROI, and decide how you intend to capture it. Counting impressions is much easier to do online, but that kind of information is still critical when you do an event in person. You’ll need to capture metrics such as:
- Number of impressions or engagements
- The duration of engagements
- Anonymized demographic data of participants
- Number of new leads
There are a number of ways to count these. New sign-ups or contest entries are an easy one, but you may also want to look into data collection methods that can gauge dwell times and foot traffic. When calculating ROI, make sure you take a more holistic approach that considers brand building, not just the impact of your event on sales. At the end of the day, that’s the goal of a brand activation.