Brand activation and below-the-line marketing are the most essential tools that marketers have today to execute their plans and achieve desired results. Today’s consumers are fussy and discerning; they need only something special to gain their attention, now more than ever. Brand activation is a marketing strategy that creates trust and generates memories beyond the transaction but yet has the power to do so. In this post, we discuss the reasons why brand activation matters, how it differs from experiential marketing, and some of the most creative BTL activities you can try.

Brand Activation Fosters Engagement

With the barrage of marketing messages, it seems that consumers have become selective. The customers would rather prefer having real experiences rather than pitches for sales. Brand activation is an interactive way of engaging people so they can personally live within the brand. It goes beyond sell-buy relationships because it builds emotional ties.

• Building Trust: Brand activation gives brands the opportunity to gain the trust of the target group through direct contact and keeps the brand in their minds.
• Creating Emotional Bridges: Brand activation comes into action to work out positive, meaningful emotional bonds with customers through a series of activities and campaigns that eventually help them like the brand.
• Tactual Experience: Direct contact, feeling, and touching the brand can have a far deeper and longer-lasting impact on the consumer’s psyche than messages through regular media.
• Rapid Results: Because brand activation is an experience creation, the result is likely to be fast and measurable – such as higher sales or more engagement.
• Noise-cutting: Brand activation enables brands to stand out from the backdrop white noise of digital and print marketing messages by creating multi-sensory experiences for a high-value audience.

Brand Activation vs. Experiential Marketing

Although brand activation and experiential marketing are often used interchangeably, they have distinct roles to play in the marketing canvas. Both leave behind valuable experiences, but the core objective is different.

• Brand Activation vs. Experiential Marketing: Brand activation aims to ‘activate’ the trust of the consumer’s mind by involving them through involvement and emotional engagement. On the other hand, experiential marketing is more about offering a delightful experience with excellent remembrance of the brand.
• Goal-Oriented Approach: Brand activation always focuses on loyalty over time while integrating communication into a creative platform, whereas experiential marketing delivers experiences and provides instant engagements.
• Audience Involvement: Consumer involvement is a must in brand activation, whereas experiential marketing relies more on the impression by the experience.
• Holistic Experience: Brand activation always puts forward the combination of digital, physical and sensory elements of a strategy. Experiential marketing is event-based, and consumption is mostly one-time.
• Emotional vs. Sensory Focus: Brand activation concentrates on emotional experiences, whereas experiential marketing will do their best to keep customers’ senses alive.

Best Creative BTL Activities/Brand Activation Ideas

BTL marketing activities help brands interact with consumers in unique ways. Let’s explore some of the best creative ideas companies can use to execute effective brand activation campaigns.

Free Product Sampling

Free sampling of products is perhaps the best way to ensure that product reaches into the pocket of the consumer. It makes customers experience the brand intimately and thereby enhances the probability of a purchase

• Helps Build Trust: Free samples build the trust of consumers as they get a feel of the product before it is purchased.
• Instant Feedback: A consumer can give instant feedback that helps in making the product right and know its preference.
• Publicity through Word of Mouth: Sampling builds awareness and provokes referrals through word-of-mouth.
• Impulse Purchase: Among consumers, sampling enhances the impulse to buy by raising the buying propensity.
• Customer Return Boosts: Good experiences through free samples turn consumers into returning customers.

Event Games

The inclusion of games in BTL activities makes it exciting and compels consumers to interact with the engagement process by making it more interesting.

• Advertisement Break: Games break the feeling of a typical advertisement, thus making involvement with the brand more attractive.
• Increases Engagement: Gamification keeps consumers entertained and interested, increasing brand recall.
• Creates Memorable Experiences: Fun experiences leave an impression, making consumers more likely to associate with the brand.
• Involves Active Participation: Games encourage active participation, expanding brand activation reach.
• Flexibility for Integration: Brands can integrate their product or service creatively into games, embedding marketing messages effortlessly.

AR Photo Booths

AR may make photo booths more engaging. It gives consumers an opportunity to generate personal interactive content that they can share on social media, amplifying brand visibility.

• Interactive Layer: It enables an interactive experience, allowing the use of AR technology to take a new dimension in the way consumers interact with the brand.
• Share on Social Media: Consumers upload AR photos on social media, capturing larger audiences and generating user-generated content.
• Personalized Marketing: The AR booths can be displayed in an arc according to the user’s preference and create a dynamic connection with the brand.
• Memorable Moments: Customers take home an unforgettable experience and increase brand recall.
• Versatile Use: The AR photo booth can be utilized in mall events, in-store promotions, and trade show activation.

Cup Branding

Cup branding is an innovative BTL promotional activity wherein brands imprint their identity on paper cups in offices, colleges, and public areas, exposing the relevant audience to the brand repeatedly.

• Direct Exposure: The consumer has the cup for a few minutes, which implies dedicated, full-time exposure to the brand.
• Repeated Exposure: Every use of the cup during the day ensures that the brand name is remembered.
• Organic Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Interaction through cup branding will evoke conversation about the brand, which is organic word-of-mouth marketing.
• Cost-Effective: Cup branding is low-cost yet effective advertising.
• Eco-Friendly Appeal: The eco-friendly paper cups align the brand with sustainability and attract conscious consumers.

Flash Mobs

Flash mobs are a fun, exciting way to involve consumers in public spaces. They consist of entertainment and brand activation all put into one activity.

• Surprises and Delights: Flash mobs surprise bystanders with performances that are unforgettable.
• Viral Flare: Flash mobs can go viral with the help of social media, spreading the brand’s message far beyond the live audience.
• Audience Participation: Most flash mobs promote audience participation; therefore, an instant emotional connection is established with the brand.
• Buzz and Excitement: If executed properly, a flash mob is sure to create excitement and raise brand awareness.
• Versatile Applications: Flash mobs can be applied to any industry from food and beverages to technology, making them a versatile brand activation tool.

Final Thoughts

Brand activation and BTL marketing provide brands with excellent opportunities to reach out to their target audience at different levels. They help build enduring bonds of trust and emotional attachment between the brand and consumers, enhancing higher brand loyalty.

• Create Emotional Attachments: Brand activation allows consumers to develop deeper emotional bonds with the brands.
• Encourage Immediate Gratification: Most BTL activities induce instantaneous consumer action, such as buying or engaging with social media.
• Cutting Through the Clutter: BTL strategies represent a human interface cutting through the clutter of digital marketing.
• Meaningful Loyalty Over Time: Consumers will be more loyal to brands if they have any interaction with them.
• Flexible Across Industries: BTL activities can be tailored for any industry, whether FMCG or technology, making them highly practical.

Utilizing these top BTL activities and brand activation ideas will surely help brands attract their targeted audience, enable meaningful interaction with them, and consequently create high brand loyalty.