Brand Activations: What Are They, Why Do They Matter, and How Can Your Brand Use Them?

It’s probably not the first time you’ve heard of brand activations – but even if it is, no problem, we’ll cover everything in detail in this text!

Brand activations (especially interactive activations) are a specialty of the 365 Lab team, and for 12 years we have been happily helping businesses improve their brand marketing, strengthen their relationships with consumers, and raise brand awareness.

In those 12 years, we have truly learned a lot – from how to adapt and improve global trends for our market, how to adjust to extraordinary circumstances, but most importantly – how to constantly improve the quality of our devices and applications. So, let’s begin!

What are brand activations?

Brand activations are strategic business activities that establish a direct connection with consumers in an interactive way and bring the brand closer to the audience.

When we say activations, we primarily mean physical, tangible activations, which mostly consist of two basic components – devices and applications – both of which we create in our lab!

Interactive activations are, as we said, our specialty, and we are proud to be pioneers of this niche in our market. That is why we upgrade our portfolio every year, even several times, to ensure that we always offer something new and fresh to our clients (and their audience).

How to harness the power of a brand activation?

Anyone who has tried to include interactive activities in their marketing strategy knows how much it can improve consumer perception of a brand, especially if done on a larger scale.

The best results, as our clients tell us, come when physical and digital marketing campaigns are combined, and they believe that both aspects are equally important to them.

A stronger and more lasting relationship with consumers

Brand activations can be located in physical stores, high-traffic areas, shopping malls, major landmarks, etc. This decision is always up to our clients, of course in consultation with our team, because businesses know best where their (potential) consumers are located.

Consumers love to be rewarded for their interactions with a brand, whether it’s a small gift, a fun experience, or a loyalty reward, and brand activations successfully cover all these aspects.

When we also consider that it is increasingly difficult to make your brand stand out from the competition, every opportunity where consumers can gain a lasting positive emotion towards your brand should be utilized.

Gamification and positive brand emotions

Gamification is another key factor in building and retaining consumer relationships. The average person sees up to several hundred brands a day, many of which are direct competitors, so gamification is necessary here to keep consumers engaged rather than just being passive observers.

Research shows that as many as 78% of consumers have an improved image of a brand after a positive interaction, and 64% of them will certainly decide to purchase the brand’s products/services again.

All this points to what marketers know well – the time when product features were enough for consumers to decide on a purchase is over. Now much more is needed, and it all starts with the brand image.

365 Lab examples – how do we adapt interactive activations to brand identity?

Now we will show you how universal 365 Lab devices actually are. Although we are constantly coming up with new ones, it is important to us that existing devices have the widest possible application to respond to all the requests our clients may have. Here are some examples!

National Geographic – Drone Race

One of the more fun activations we did was a drone race on an obstacle course, and the client was National Geographic.

Taking into the brand’s audience, as well as the type of event, we proposed this specific activation that inspires an adventurous spirit, is dynamic, different, and requires resourcefulness and good motor skills.

To say that visitors were thrilled with the experience is an understatement; everyone who tried it wanted to try again, even multiple times, and the activation itself attracted a lot of positive attention!

dm – Face Mask Gifts

The device we used for this occasion was Smart Vending, and the application was a memory game. Smart Vending can truly be fully adapted to the brand’s needs – the machine can dispense rewards for, e.g., a successfully completed task or some physical activity.

In this case, event visitors tried their hand at a memory game with Balea face mask icons, and whoever matched all the pairs in time received their favorite face mask as a gift.

Given that the vast majority of visitors were girls and women, the entire activation was adequately designed, as were the rewards that went with it!

Air Serbia – Airbus Cabin Replica

This is also one of our most imaginative activations, or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it an installation. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Air Serbia brand, we designed, built, and installed a replica of an Airbus aircraft cabin that “transported” visitors to the world’s most popular destinations.

The installation was located at TC Ušće, and whoever passed by had to take a photo or video and come closer to see what it was all about!

The correlation between this brand activation and the brand itself needs no further explanation, and we must admit we were proud of ourselves when everything was set up and we saw the positive reactions from both the client and the visitors.

Olympic Committee of Serbia – Simulation of a bicycle race through Paris

We have a wonderful multi-year cooperation with the OKS, and as the Committee was preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris, they organized numerous fantastic events, including the Olympic Promenade in the center of Belgrade.

Here we had several activations, including the Scream Booth (a booth that measures which fan provides the loudest support), but also one special challenge – riding a bike through virtual Paris, 300m in 30 seconds.

Whoever managed to cover this distance in the given time received a gift T-shirt, and the activation was successful both in terms of representing the client’s values and visitor interest!

Old Spice EXIT Festival – Karaoke Shower Cabin

How to combine a music festival and a brand with personal hygiene products? The answer is a karaoke shower cabin!

At this year’s EXIT festival, we had several brand activations, and we would single this one out as a new “invention” from 365 Lab. There was a line for this activation throughout all the nights, and besides the fun experience, visitors also received a video of their performance under the shower.

From idea to implementation, we push the boundaries! Here is why 365 Lab is the best choice of partner for brand activations.

We hope we have successfully illustrated how our interactive activations work, as well as everything we take into account when designing and creating devices and applications.

Although we can freely say that we are leaders in the brand activation niche, even after 12 years we don’t pretend to know everything – we are always learning, growing, progressing, and respecting every comment from our clients. We accept nothing less than perfect when it comes to the activations themselves, technical support, and field operators.

The doors of our lab are always open to all types of clients – corporations, startups, marketing agencies – and we approach every new challenge with pleasure.

Feel free to write to us via the contact form or Instagram page to see what we can do for your brand!