Menu

Brand Activation

branch-food-photo-web

The Power of a Brand Activation Strategy

, , , , , , ,

In today’s highly competitive business environment, it is essential for companies to have a strong marketing strategy that is distinguishable and enables effective connection with a target audience. One powerful method to enhance visibility is through the implementation of a brand activation strategy. In this blog post, we will delve into the concept of a brand activation strategy, its components, and the multitude of advantages it offers to companies.

What is a Brand Activation Strategy?

A brand activation strategy entails the creation of captivating experiences and interactions that deeply engage consumers, leaving a lasting impression and nurturing brand loyalty. Notably, brand activations transcend traditional marketing approaches, actively involving consumers in a brand’s narrative, values, and product offerings.

Building Brand Awareness

Brand activation strategies are highly effective at capturing attention and generating awareness. By crafting innovative and memorable experiences, companies can break through the noise and establish a powerful presence in the minds of their target audience. This, in turn, cultivates brand awareness, fosters deeper customer engagement, and propels businesses to new heights. Whether through experiential events, interactive campaigns, or strategic partnerships, brand activations empower companies to stand out from the competition and create a buzz.

Engaging with the Target Audience

Brand activation offers a significant advantage: the ability to directly engage with the target audience. By providing interactive experiences, companies can effectively foster meaningful connections and emotional bonds with consumers. In this way, direct engagement allows for obtaining valuable insights into consumer preferences, behaviors, and desires, enabling companies to tailor their offerings accordingly.

Driving Customer Loyalty

Brand activations play a vital role in building and enhancing customer loyalty. By creating positive experiences and emotional connections, companies can establish a strong bond with consumers, consequently increasing their likelihood of repeat purchases and advocacy. In fact, a recent study found that over 91% of consumers reported being more inclined to purchase a brand’s product or service after participating in a brand activation (Major, 2022). Moreover, when consumers feel a personal connection to a brand, loyalty is increased and consumers are more likely to become brand ambassadors, spreading positive word-of-mouth.

Differentiation and Competitive Advantage

In a crowded marketplace, standing out from competitors is vital. Brand activations offer companies an excellent opportunity to showcase their unique value proposition and differentiate themselves from the competition. By creating distinct experiences aligned with their brand identity and values, companies can carve out a niche and establish a competitive advantage. However, it’s important to note that effective brand activations require meticulous planning, strategic execution, and continuous adaptation to evolving consumer preferences and market trends. In this case, working with experienced companies like Motus Experiential can provide valuable insights to achieve success.

Generating Word-of-Mouth and Social Media Buzz

Brand activations aim to be shareable and buzz-worthy, leading to increased word-of-mouth and social media exposure. When consumers have memorable experiences, they naturally share them with friends, family, and followers. This organic promotion expands the reach of brand activations, extending their impact beyond the immediate audience and generating valuable social media buzz. For example, Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign exemplified a brilliant brand activation that effectively leveraged social media, encouraging user-generated content through personalized named bottles. At its peak, almost 12% of all online conversations revolved around the Share a Coke campaign, highlighting the remarkable effects of brand activations (Chauhan, 2020).

Increasing Sales and Conversions

An effective brand activation strategy drives tangible business results, such as increased sales and conversions. By creating a positive brand experience, companies can influence consumers’ purchasing decisions and motivate action. For instance, in 2022, over 65% of businesses directly correlated sales with brand activation efforts (Anthony, 2023). Therefore, engaging consumers emotionally through activations enhances brand recall, making them more likely to choose the brand when making purchasing decisions.

Building Brand Equity and Long-Term Value

Creating positive brand experiences through activations contributes to the overall brand equity and long-term value of a company. Companies can build a strong foundation for brand equity, representing the intangible assets and reputation that contribute to a brand’s worth. When consumers have positive experiences with a brand, they are more likely to perceive it as trustworthy, reliable, and valuable, ultimately increasing its long-term value.

Measuring and Analyzing Results

Brand activation strategies offer the key advantage of measuring and analyzing results. By effectively tracking various metrics, such as event attendance, engagement levels, social media mentions, and sales uplift, companies can assess the effectiveness of their activations. This data-driven approach facilitates continuous improvement and optimization of future brand activation initiatives.

Overall, a brand activation strategy offers significant benefits for companies seeking meaningful connections with their target audience and business growth. By surpassing traditional marketing methods and providing immersive experiences, companies can achieve multiple advantages: building brand awareness, engaging directly with their audience, fostering customer loyalty, differentiating from competitors, generating word-of-mouth, increasing sales, and enhancing long-term brand value. Embracing brand activation as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy can yield remarkable results in today’s dynamic and competitive business landscape.

Motus Experiential has over 20+ years of experience in creating and managing brand activations for organizations like yours.

Case Studies

Citizens: Motus Experiential manages all on-site brand activations from Pittsburg to West Palm Beach.

AT&T: Motus Experiential created an interactive activation at a B2B event leveraging technology and social media.

About Us

Motus Experiential is an Experiential and Event Marketing Agency with over 20 years of experience based in Boston, Massachusetts. Our company takes pride in being at the forefront of event and experiential marketing with ideas that work across platforms. Equally important is the craftsmanship that surrounds every execution. We believe that the creative decisions we make — from the initial concept to the staffing and production companies we hire, down to the venues we recommend — all matter.

Connect

Bringing your brand to life with engaging and impactful brand activations is our specialty. Visit our website or email us at info@motusexp.com to learn more.

Guerilla-Marketing-Marketing-Your-Brand

Guerrilla Marketing: The Innovative and Effective Ways in Which Businesses Market Their Brand

, , , , , , , ,

What is Guerrilla Marketing

When people hear the term guerrilla marketing, they may misinterpret the phrase and even believe that a swarm of marketers will attack them with posters and billboards. What most people don’t know is that guerrilla marketing is just an alternative form of marketing that uses unconventional ways to reach large groups of people and make them feel shocked, amazed, or surprised.

History of Guerrilla Marketing

The phrase was coined in the early 1980s by business writer Jay Conrad Levinson. He wrote multiple books detailing how to use guerrilla tactics in different types of businesses. The marketing business has changed a lot since he first wrote about it, but the technique is still widely used today.

Guerrilla marketing is comparable in style to some of the guerrilla methods used in combat. Consider it a marketing campaign with ambushes, raids, and unexpected tactics. guerrilla marketing concentrates on surprising the consumer, and it is this implementation and focus that results in these out-of-the-ordinary campaigns, which are able to catch people off guard as they go about their daily activities.

The Four Main Types

1. Outdoor Guerrilla Marketing

Outdoor guerrilla marketing is when something unusual is put in a natural outdoor setting. This is usually done in cities where a lot of people walk around. Outdoor guerrilla marketing includes efforts like putting something on a statue, placing a big version of something small (like a cupcake) in a park, or putting things in the street. A great example of this occurred back in 2017 when Ikea created model living rooms at bus stops in Sydney and Perth, Australia to celebrate the launch of their new catalog.

2. Indoor Guerrilla Marketing

Indoor guerrilla marketing uses public spaces that are closed off from the outside world to create buzz. This could be on college campuses, at train stations, or in museums. In 2009, T-Mobile paid for a flash mob at Liverpool Street Station. The video has over 40 million views on YouTube and won TV commercial of the year at the British Television Advertising Awards.

3. Event Ambush Guerilla Marketing

Event ambush guerrilla marketing promotes a product or service at a concert, sporting event, or festival that is already going on, sometimes without permission. This kind of marketing throws people at an event for a loop when something unusual happens. An example of this is the Golden Globes of Fiji Water photobomb. As usual, paparazzi took pictures of celebrities posing on the red carpet at the 2019 Golden Globes. Behind the movie stars, who didn’t know it, a model in a dark blue dress holding a tray of Fiji Water appeared in almost every shot. She stared right into the camera, which made people feel uneasy. The photos went viral on the Internet and even inspired a parody account on Twitter.

4. Experiential Guerrilla Marketing

Experience-based guerrilla marketing can happen anywhere (outdoors, indoors, at an event) and gets people to interact with the brand. This can be anything from a free sample of beer to a slide into a pit of branded pillows or subway stairs that look and sound like piano keys. An example of a big company using this type of marketing happened back in 2009. In Odenplan, Stockholm, Volkswagen created a piano staircase in one of the subway stations.

Major Benefits

  1. Guerrilla campaigns are cost-effective and use unique ways to reach the consumer. Utilizing these strategies is a low-cost way to raise awareness about a brand. With this kind of marketing plan, creativity is more important than money.
  2. Guerrilla marketing is hyper-targeted, allowing the brand to market to its audience where they live, work, and play.
  3. In today’s world, where there is a lot of technology and more people have access to the internet and social media, consumers can take a memorable impression and spread it all over the world. It’s easy for marketing campaigns to go viral and reach millions of people.
  4. Guerrilla marketing campaigns stand out because they are unusual and unique, and they show that with the right strategies, businesses can leave a lasting impression on consumers. When a guerrilla campaign works, buyers are amazed, impressed, and want to know more about the product or service. This marketing strategy makes the brand more memorable to consumers.

Our Guerrilla Marketing and Street Team Experiences

Motus Experiential has extensive experience using these methods. Recently, the Blue Man Group asked for our assistance while attending the Fisherman’s Feast in The North End in Boston, Massachusetts. Before, during, and after The Blue Man Group’s performance, our street teams distributed fliers, goods, and memorabilia. The staff ensured that all questions were answered and that all interested parties received the necessary information. RCN hired Motus Experiential to promote their services to new college students during move-in week. You can see more examples of our work by viewing more of our case studies on our website portfolio page.

Brands-that-do-Experiential-Well

Brands that do Experiential Well

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The concept behind experiential marketing for a brand is to create a close connection between brand and consumer by immersing them in an exciting and ultimately memorable experience. If a brand succeeds and executes a brand activation well, the outcome will evoke a positive emotional feeling linking consumers and brand hopefully for years to come. Experiential marketing is highly effective, more so than any other form of marketing. And consumers seem to see value in experiential marketing as well with 74% of them saying that live events and product demonstrations helped them fully understand a product better than any commercial or other methods could. Here are some well-known brands that excel when it comes to executing experiential marketing campaigns.


Nike


Nike has nearly always been a brand leader when it comes to producing engaging experiences that help grow its massive brand. In early 2018 they created ‘House of Go,’ a pop-up house that celebrated the brand’s recent launch of their new ‘Epic React’ running shoe. The experience popped up in cities like Chicago, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, and other cities around the world and featured a giant sponge area mimicking the shoe’s cushioning as well as a digital interactive art installation.
Nike Live, a members-only concept store that first launched in the summer of 2018 in LA marries physical presence with digital-savvy. Consumers can use their Nike retail app to check sizes, colors and product stock for the store. Customers can also pre-reserve shoes to try on through the app which they pick up in-store via lockers that can be opened with their phones. If you don’t have time to come into the store, you can make your purchase through the app and pick it up curbside. After the first Nike Live store proved successful, the brand incorporated elements of Nike Live into its Flagship NY store. The brand has plans to open a Nike Live store in Tokyo as well. Of the future of retail, Nike VP of Global Stores Cathy Sparks says, “At Nike what we talk a lot about is that retail is not dead, but boring retail is dead.”


IKEA


Any consumer who has been to an IKEA store knows that their in-store experience is a memorable one. Their ability to engage consumers of all ages visually, emotionally and tangibly is unique to the Scandinavian brand that’s been around for over 75 years. But the brand often relies on experiences outside the walls of its stores, and boy do they execute them well. Earlier this year, in order to promote the opening of IKEA’s new Greenwich store in the UK, the company created two life-sized boats modeled after the brand’s infamous Smakryp bath toy. Onlookers were able to maneuver the boats via remote control along 2 of London’s rivers to collect plastic and trash which was then upcycled into a sculpture in front of the new storefront.


JEEP


Auto brands are no stranger to experiential activations as a necessary means to show-off their vehicle’s capabilities. For the Jeep brand, ’Camp Jeep’ began as a solution to a less than exciting placement at the New York Auto Show in 2003. Today, the experience has grown into an exciting meeting place for Jeep fans at auto shows around the world and has turned up in 15 countries on five continents. Camp Jeep has brought together millions of consumers by immersing them in interactive off-road experiences that demonstrate the Jeep lineup’s four-wheel-drive capabilities. Professional drivers take passengers through an indoor adventure course that show-off a vehicle’s capability, scaling various obstacles, and even a flight of stairs. Each ride is approximately 5 minutes long.


Recently Jeep partnered with Wanderlust, a world leader in lifestyle yoga, for the world’s only “mindful” triathlon with legs of the race that included running, yoga, and meditation. Jeep created a lounge that was set up at Wanderlust triathlon events across 7 major European cities, offering surfset yoga, as well as test drives of the entire Jeep lineup of vehicles. The partnership helped to target women, one of the fastest-growing customer bases for Jeep.


Adidas


For Adidas, experiential marketing has also become a huge marketing tool for the brand over the last few years. Last year at ComplexCon, Adidas utilized a staff-less augmented reality app to drop new products that eliminated physical lines and claimed to be the “most fluid and democratic point-of-purchasing to date,” according to a company press release. To participate in the shopping experience, ComplexCon attendees installed the app to gain access to Adidas Originals’ augmented reality store and receive notifications on how to ‘unlock the drop.’ New products were released throughout the weekend via illuminated beacons placed throughout the venue and consumers accessed inventory in augmented reality by holding their device over the beacons to make purchases. Products were picked up via convenient self-service digital lockers that were unlocked by the app.
Another buzz-worthy product drop event in LA that Adidas sponsored was the 747 Warehouse St. event which was an immersive experience for sneaker enthusiasts. Using RFID bracelets, 18,000 attendees earned points by visiting every inch of the brand activation, which featured pro athletes like James Harden, Damian Lillard and JuJu Smith-Schuster. In an effort to eliminate lines, event-goers used points to enter a lottery for the opportunity to buy the latest sneakers being released. During the weekend Adidas surpassed Nike in social mentions over the two-day period.


Jetblue


JetBlue is well-known for transforming its terminal at New York’s JFK International Airport into a live experience for customers. This past summer during Pride week, the airline teamed up with hit VH1 show ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ to take over Terminal T5 at New York’s JFK airport. The brand activation featured photos from the show, a hair and makeup station, quotes from RuPaul and various visual displays. JetBlue went so far as to name their newest Airbus A320 “Shantay Blue Stay” after a famous line RuPaul is known for saying on the show.


Another memorable stunt from the brand a few years back deemed the “Icebreaker” challenge helped to promote JetBlue’s latest offering of a direct flight from NY to Palm Spring during the chillier months on the streets of NY. The brand introduced the “Icebreaker” challenge to celebrate the idea of going from a cold climate to a balmy one, and set up a gigantic block of ice dropped in Washington Square Park and Flatiron Plaza with fun vacation-themed prizes inside including flip flops, snorkel gear, even free plane tickets.


Experiential marketing has the unique ability to optimize the connections that brands establish with their consumers, something that’s become crucial as consumers call for marketing that leads to higher levels of personalization. The above brands are no stranger to the value of experiential marketing, and the successful activations described have helped to build brand awareness and interactive engagement for each brand.

Is-Your-Brand-Ready-Experiential

Is Your Brand Ready for Experiential?

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Clients come to us all the time wanting to really make an impact and connect with consumers. Experiential marketing is our bread and butter at Motus Experiential and we have a passion for creating campaigns that are truly and utterly customizable. Unlike TV, print, OOH, etc, experiential marketing allows you to take a business problem for a client and custom tailor a solution to meet a specific need with control over how a consumer will engage with it and the means by which you will reach them. You can target a particular audience and reach them in a way that will really capture their attention. In addition, experiential marketing is the best marketing strategy in 2022 (FinancesOnline).

Experiential marketing connects with consumers on an emotional level, which is extremely effective long-term. It stops people on street corners and allows for brands and their offerings to be touched, consumed, measured and discussed. But you shouldn’t just jump full force into an experiential campaign without first taking into consideration some key factors. First and foremost, ask yourself — are you ready for your brand activation?


Make Sure your Timing is Right


Incorporating activations into your marketing schedule strategically is key. Make sure to give ideas some breathing room by allowing time for planning, event production, promotion, permitting, etc. Rushing to get to a brand activation off the ground that you don’t have time to promote via the proper channels isn’t going to reach its full attendance potential, for example. Similarly, themes for your events should align with the product/service you are promoting as well as the season. So even though you may not want to sit on an idea that feels oh so good, timing really has a whole lot to do with the success of an experiential campaign.


Do you Have the Budget for It?


Thankfully, dollars go pretty far with an experiential marketing campaign in comparison to TV or print. Unlike other forms of marketing, with experiential marketing, it’s more about the quality and depth of an experience than the amount of impressions you get. So take the time to really plan, and partner with someone who will get it right. A marketer should also have a clear grasp on what their client is comfortable investing in a campaign. A big idea often times goes hand-in-hand with larger budgets. Selling in a campaign with all the bells and whistles, on-site staff, premiums, promotion, etc. is certainly attractive, but stick to a smaller more targeted activation if money is too tight for a higher-level investment. Or, you may want to wait until you have the right budget for that big idea.


Event Strategy and Brand Value Align


Other factors that will lead to success include a activation strategy that closely aligns with a brand’s current marketing strategy. A buzz-worthy experiential activation is ultimately the end goal, but if the content doesn’t align with a brand’s mission statement, at the end of the day you aren’t going to truly unlock the full potential of a brand activation.


Defining Success


The most important piece of the puzzle is your Return On Investment, so setting a goal upfront is key. What does success look like? How will you measure? Even the most impressive brand activations don’t always translate to the bottom line. So while astounding your audience is wonderful, making a profitable investment is most important.


Finding the Right Partner


Finally, the success of an experiential marketing campaign (or any marketing strategy) relies both on a willing client, as well as a skilled event marketer. A brand (or even marketer at that brand) that has a history of successful brand activations is going to see the value in the investment. Which certainly makes things easier — i.e. giving the agency more leighway creatively for the event production. That’s not to say that a brand shouldn’t hop on the experiential marketing bandwagon for the first time, certainly, it has to start somewhere! We’ve guided many clients down that path. But just make sure the partnership feels right. A brand that doesn’t trust their partner agency’s leadership and expertise should walk away.

Bottom line? Before you invest financially, and allocate the manpower to launch an experiential marketing campaign, you really need to ensure you have the right plan in place in order to successfully execute. A cohesive partnership between a client brand and their experiential agency is the first step, in addition to a clear understanding of event strategy, and budgets. The right timing is also important to ensure a truly impactful experiential marketing campaign. When you get it right, there’s nothing like a tangible brand experience to create a lasting memorable impression for a consumer, in addition to a stellar ROI.

Back To Top