Using events to promote your brand and its products or services is the perfect way to showcase your personality and connect with your audience on a deeper level. Anything from a conference and exhibition, to a networking event, or even bringing together a panel of experts to discuss your brand, can be a powerful way to engage your audience and get your message out there!
What does Brand Activation mean?
Brand activation is more than just a buzzword! It refers to an event or campaign to generate awareness with your target audience. Most brand activations are interactive, allowing audiences to engage directly with a brand and its products. This could be a stunt in a town centre, giving away free branded merchandise, exhibiting at a trade show or organising an instore trial, just to name a few.
I’m sure we can all agree that the power of experience is an extremely effective way to directly engage your audience, creating unforgettable memories that build long lasting connections.
Not only can events help you to introduce your new products and services, but they allow you to position yourself in a way that you want your brand to be perceived, all the while giving you the opportunity to reach those brand-new audiences that you haven’t yet tapped in to! So why wouldn’t you make events a part of your marketing strategy?
Here’s why you should seriously consider using events in your marketing strategy:
1. Events Generate New Leads and Sales
Being able to experience something before making a purchasing decision massively increases the likelihood of a person going ahead and buying that product or paying for that service, therefore events are the perfect way to convince someone to do so!
Check out these stats from EventTrack’s 2018 study:
- An astounding 91% of consumers say they have more positive feelings about brands after attending events and experiences.
- 85% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product or service after attending a live marketing event.
- 84% of brand marketers say events and experiences are a key part of integrated marketing campaigns.
2. Increase Brand and Customer Loyalty
As well as attracting new customers and generating new leads, events have the ability to create and strengthen genuine relationships between a brand and its customers.
Creating an opportunity for your audience to connect with your brand through an experience leaves lasting impressions – and who wouldn’t want to be recognised as a brand that hosts memorable and engaging events for their audience to remember forever?
Standing out from your competitors and utilising events as a means of getting our message across to the world naturally humanises your brand in a unique way, immediately setting you apart from the rest and ultimately creating a sense of consumer loyalty towards your brand.
3. Events Encourage Word-of-Mouth Marketing
What a better way to increase your brand exposure and awareness than everybody raving about you to their friends and family?
It can sometimes be difficult to get people talking about your brand, but memorable events are sure to get them talking! Providing your audience with an unforgettable experience will without a doubt create a conversation piece, which is more than likely to turn into recommendations, furthermore, bringing in new leads and sales!
You’re more likely to use a product or service recommended by a friend, right? Well, if you encourage your audience to share their event experiences on social media, then BOOM! You’ve hit a whole new audience right there!
We hope these three points have opened your eyes to how powerful brand activation events can be, it’s time to start thinking about how you should integrate events into your wider strategy for the year ahead!
Not all events are the same and, depending on your audience and your goals, some will be more effective than others. Check out our blog on ‘How To Create An Events Strategy’ to help you to understanding what type of event will work best for your audience and your brand and help you to create a well-defined strategy for the year ahead.
If you’d like to have a chat with us about what kind of brand activation events you should be planning to meet your goals and how we can help you, get in touch today!
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