5 Brand Activation Ideas For Events

Brand Activation Ideas for Events

Organising and creating an event is a tough task. There are a lot of things you need to care about when it comes to events to ensure all the attendees have an amazing experience. One of the more trickier parts of organizing an event involves coming up with brand activation ideas.

Before we start getting into the latest best activation trends, let us understand what a brand activation actually is.

Brand Activation

A brand activation, in simple words, is basically any activity or experience where the attendees can interact with the brand directly. Ideally, brand activation should have a positive and impactful effect on the attendee.

Experiential marketing is a part of most brand activations these days. Experiential technology solutions have made it easy to create impressive brand activations much quicker and at a lower cost. 

Concepts such as AR VR games or the use of an Instagram hashtag printer are often great ideas when it comes to the best event activation ideas.

But, before we jump into understanding the best activation trends, let’s know why experiential marketing and experiential technology solutions matter so much in today’s marketing zeitgeist. 

Millennials and Gen Z LOVE Experiential Marketing!

Gen Z and millennials, who are in the prime working years of their life and one of the most important segments of the overall population for marketers, have become distrustful of traditional marketing.

The best way to reach this segment (Generation z) is through experiential marketing as most of them value experiences over everything else. 

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best event activation ideas.

#1 – Entice the attendees with a virtual world!

One of the best activation trends these days is virtual reality. There’s something about AR VR games that capture the imagination and attention of the attendees. 

Experiential technology solutions can be used to create a branded VR experience for the attendees to immerse themselves in. The entire objective of experiential marketing is creating highly immersive experiences. It is no wonder that virtual reality is slowly becoming one of the cornerstones of brand activations and experiential marketing.

By using AR VR games in your brand activations, you’re not only increasing the immersive factor of the experience but also are introducing something new to the attendees. This is an excellent way of igniting their curiosity that will make them experience the activation.

And the best thing with virtual reality is that the potential is endless and creating branded experiences become much easier.

#2 – Make your photo booths truly special!

One of the best brand activation ideas is the classic photo booth. Most people in the world love photos and a photo booth is often an attraction at every event. However, the days of the traditional photo booth are gone.

Modern photo booths can come with a lot of features and have become experiential technology solutions. Some of the features of modern photo booth include augmented or/and virtual reality which can make them perfect for brand activations. 

Creating a branded experience using a modern photo booth is pretty simple and is one of the best brand activation ideas for any event.

#3 – Use an Instagram Hashtag Printer!

Another concept that often ranks among the best event activation ideas is the Instagram hashtag printer. How a hashtag printer works is simple – it finds pictures with a specific hashtag on Instagram and then prints them. It is easy to set up and provide several benefits when it comes to marketing.

  • Firstly, hashtag printers create a massive amount of user-generated content for your event. 
  • Secondly, it creates a social media buzz for your event as the pictures have to be posted on Instagram for the printer to work.
  • Lastly, it is easy to create a branded experience using a hashtag printer as the layout of the prints can be branded, and the pictures also serve as a souvenir for the attendees. 

So, this is the impact of hashtag printers when used in events to attract and engage with event attendees.

#4 – Create a food or drinks based brand activation

For events that serve food or drinks to the attendees, there are a lot of options when it comes to brand activation ideas.

One of the best event activation ideas involving creating an experience based around the food and beverages stations of the event. One of the benefits of having a branded experience based on food and drinks is that most people are likely to experience the experience, which makes it more impactful for the audiences.

Many ideas can be explored and given enough creativity. There are a lot of possibilities when it comes to creating brand activations based on the concept of food and drinks. 

The ideas can range from simple things such as providing a free sample of a new food product to changing the entire eating experience for the clients.

#5 – Play with the lighting! 

The lighting of the event plays a vital role in the experience of the attendees. How the event is lighted can vastly alter the quality of experience. An interesting take on brand activation is to use the lighting of the event to create an immersive branded experience.

For example, the use of lasers or other lighting-based technology can be used to create an experience. Read & try these #3 technology trends in experiential marketing that you may use in your next event.

A Brand Activation Based On Your Event

A brand activation needs to match up with the tone of the event for it to be impactful. This is why it is essential to create customised activations for all your occasions. To create a successful brand activation, you have to integrate it with the rest of the event. That can only happen when you’re creating a customized brand activation as different types of activations work better for different kinds of events.  

Conclusion

Brand activations can create massive benefits in events. Useful, well-thought-out brand activations can create great branded experiences for the attendees, which can, in turn, lead to developing a genuine, authentic relationship between the brand and the consumers.