Brand Activation in Malaysia
Modern marketers are generally certain to be skeptical of terms like “brand activation.” Marketers have the issue of distinguishing between flash-in-the-pan trends and actually beneficial business techniques in an age of information overload. But we’re here to inform you that brand activation is much more than a term in the business.
Previously, it was considered a benefit if a brand connected with its audience on a personal level. Personal ties are now critical to modern corporate success. In fact, when it comes to B2B purchasing choices, personal value has twice the influence of corporate value (source). Marketers are always seeking new methods to foster deeper, more intimate relationships between their brand and their target audience. Here comes brand activation.
Today, we’ll go over the notion of brand activation, why it’s a worthwhile branding strategy, and provide various pointers and examples to help you succeed with brand activations. Let’s get started!
What Exactly Is Brand Activation?
Brand activation is a campaign, event, or encounter that raises brand awareness and fosters long-term relationships with your target audience. The majority of brand activations are engaging, permitting audiences to connect with a brand and its products directly.
Brand activation is sometimes misunderstood or conflated with more generic branding techniques. The misconception is understandable: most branding and marketing operations are focused on raising awareness and interacting with an audience.
But, rather than the general, continuing process of branding, brand activation refers to a unique campaign or event, a unique experience with the sole objective of enhancing your brand.
Why Is Brand Activation Necessary?
Assume your firm was newly launched yesterday. You know your target demographic, but they don’t know who you are – and the few people that are aware of your brand have no meaningful relationship with it. You must make a splash in order to get your brand off the ground. You must develop interest. You must provide your target audience with a cause to be enthusiastic about your company. In a nutshell, you must activate your brand.
Brand activations, according to HubSpot, are one-time, in-person events, experiences, and encounters that establish long-lasting emotional connections between a brand and its target audience.
There are 4 Types of Brand Activation.
True, brand activation needs a significant amount of planning, maybe more than the average marketing activation campaign or event. The good news is that modern marketers who want to engage their brand have a wide range of solutions available to them.
Let’s take a look at some of the most efficient marketing and brand activation techniques available right now.
1. Experiential Marketing
Experiential marketing, also known as engagement marketing, is an engagement technique in which a company provides an immersive, real-world experience in order to engage its audience. These experiences include not just a company’s unique goods, but also the values that the business believes in and the feelings that it aims to convey to its audience.
Assume you wish to advertise a picture editing program through experiential marketing. You set up a pop-up photo booth where individuals may take photos with their friends and then obtain stylistic edits of their photos to take home with them. This campaign raises brand recognition and develops an interest in your product while offering your audience a pleasant and engaging experience.
The majority of experiential marketing efforts require live involvement, which is frequently part of a bigger event or presentation. Virtual and augmented reality technology, on the other hand, has opened the way for digital experience marketing. Virtual tours, games, and interactive content allow your audience to interact with your business without leaving their homes.
2. Free trial and sample advertising
A test campaign is a tried-and-true method of brand activation. The idea is straightforward: you give individuals the opportunity to test a product for free in the hopes that they will enjoy it and want to spend money on it or comparable products from your company.
Keep in mind that there is a correct and wrong approach to conducting a sample campaign. Consider how many times you’ve tried to resist an overzealous shopping mall seller who attempts to shove a complimentary energy drink, food, or weird trinket into your hands. It’s not nice, and it doesn’t make you want to check out or remember the brand in question.
Rather than approaching folks in less-than-ideal situations, pick your surroundings deliberately. Consider upcoming events that your target demographic is likely to attend if you want to carry off an in-person sample campaign.
Fortunately, orchestrating a sample campaign online is considerably simpler. Simply compile a list of consumer addresses and surprise them with a sample of one of your products. Include a note requesting that the receiver post a photo of the free sample on social media. Alternatively, if your firm provides intangible things such as software and technical solutions, you might create an email campaign that offers a free trial of your product.
3. Brand activation in-store
The goal of brand activation is to create strong bonds between your brand and your target audience. Naturally, there is no better place for a brand activation than a company’s headquarters.
This strategy is most commonly used by retailers and other B2C firms. They arrange events in their stores, provide amenities such as food and beverages, and allow customers to view and sample things in person. People should leave with a renewed appreciation for these businesses and how they handle their customers.
However, this type of brand activation is less popular among B2B firms. We get why – workstations and cubicles don’t have the same allure as a physical store. A company office, on the other hand, might be rich soil for an on-site activation. For example, to celebrate the start of summer, you may invite your target audience to a picnic outside your workplace. Customers get the opportunity to connect directly with the individuals that manufacture, advertise, and sell your products as they enjoy their complimentary hot dogs and hamburgers.
4. Trade Exhibitions and Industry Events
Finally, trade fairs and industry events give several opportunities to engage your brand. Whether you hire a branded booth on the trade show floor or offer a live seminar or lecture, these events increase brand authority and expose your brand to new audiences. Furthermore, an industry event is an ideal location for experimenting with additional brand activation strategies such as experiential marketing and sample handouts.
We’ve already covered a number of event marketing strategies, so we’ll move on.
4 Tips for Successful Brand Activation
Before we get into some inspiring examples, let’s go over a few key points to remember for your next brand activation. Whatever approach and setting you use, these recommendations will assist you in creating the most gratifying experience for your audience.
1. Be considerate to your audience.
Brand activations are frequently referred to as “publicity stunts.” These are the over-the-top, irritating, and obvious attempts to draw attention to your brand at any cost. To put it another way, a customer will remember an unpleasant engagement with a brand, but not in a way that will lead to additional business for the brand. In fact, when brand activation goes awry, the results may be disastrous. Poor brand activation is intrusive, irritating, and breaches personal boundaries. As a result, prospects and consumers will go out of their way to avoid your organization.
Plan and organize your brand activation with your target audience in mind. These ads should be entertaining and engaging, but any action that is off-brand, improper, or obnoxious should be avoided. When in doubt, we recommend discussing your concept with some of your most important clients to evaluate their reactions.
2. Make your brand more human.
The quickest approach to establishing lasting relationships with your target audience is through human engagement. Whatever kind of brand activation you pick, it is critical to include genuine people who represent your business.
A large billboard on a major highway, for example, might bring attention to your brand. A pop-up booth manned by three of your actual workers, on the other hand, is a far more personable and effective approach to promoting your brand. Human engagement gives your firm a face, humanizing it and making it look more accessible and trusted
3. Surprising your audience without frightening them.
Great brand activation is a fine line to walk: it must be on-brand and respectful of your audience while simultaneously surprising and delighting them. Any brand may benefit from the element of surprise. When your audience does not expect a joyful and engaging experience, it becomes much more delightful.
Get innovative and take risks with your brand activation while remaining true to your company’s basic principles. Consider a brand activation to be an opportunity to color outside the lines a little bit – just make sure you’re on the same page as your customers.
4. Pay attention to feedback
Brand activations revolve around interacting with your target audience. However, in order to be effective, that interaction must be two-way. Your audience should leave with better knowledge and appreciation for your brand and vice versa.
Make a point of gathering feedback before, during, and after a marketing activation. Use social listening to evaluate the tone of public discussion about the campaign. Record both good and negative interactions that occur throughout the activation, whether it is a digital campaign or a real event. We also propose conducting a post-campaign survey with your target audience. Then, utilize their comments to decide whether your brand activation was successful.
What is the Ultimate Goal?
Brand activation, like all sorts of experiential marketing, should not necessarily be judged just in terms of incremental sales. Of course, the eventual aim of anything marketers do is to earn income, but a brand activation campaign is more directly about generating awareness and engaging potential consumers in a two-way discourse about your brand.
It is all about establishing an emotional bond between them and your business so that it lingers in their minds and they are more inclined to engage with it and become long-term clients.
Final Thoughts
Building a successful brand is a time-consuming and diverse process. Don’t anticipate a single campaign or event to make your brand an overnight sensation or to quickly increase your audience.
However, when combined with your current branding endeavors, brand activations might deliver the extra push you want. They aid in increasing awareness, endearing your audience to your brand, and reshaping your consumers’ perceptions of your organization and items. In an era where perception and human connection are so important to corporate success, brand activations should be a key component of your branding strategy.
Contact DBS ASIA now for further assistance in developing your B2B brand. We are a top B2B contact database with the tools you need to expand your marketing activities and build your business.
