What was the last item you purchased this week? Can you recall the factors that influenced you to make that decision? It could have been an Instagram advertisement that popped up on your screen or an experience at a physical retail store that fuelled your purchase decision. Regardless of which factor it was, these are just some of the many ways businesses use to build relationships with their customers. Known as brand activations, businesses aim to attract and eventually motivate customers to make a purchase from their brand.
(Source: The Smart Local)
Keeping pace with new technological advancements and changes in society, brand activations have significantly evolved over the years. In the past, traditional brand activations relied on methods such as roadshows, events or guerilla marketing techniques to reach out to their customers. Today, with the rise of the Internet and online experiences, brand activations are now going digital.
What is a Digital Brand Activation?
Leveraging on audience micro-targeting and an intent-based strategy, a digital brand activation aims to raise brand awareness and drive sales. Compared to brand activations of the past, these digital experiences are faster, less expensive and more measurable. Given the Internet age we live in today, it is necessary for brands to use digital activations to reach out to their digitally savvy customers who are spending more time on their mobile devices. Furthermore, in times of a pandemic where digital transformation has been accelerated like never before, there is no better time for your business to embark on a journey to digital activations.
Example of a Digital Brand Activation: Snickers
(Source: Marketing Management Blog)
A great example of an effective digital brand activation would be none other than Snickers. Taking a novel approach to marketing their chocolate bars, Snickers worked with Google to identify the top 500 commonly misspelt words among users. Next, Snickers bought Google Ads around these misspelt search terms to promote their latest campaign. Whenever a user misspelt one of these selected words, they would be presented with a Snickers advertisement that goes “you’re not you when you’re hungry.” By reminding users that they were prone to making mistakes when they were hungry, Snickers cleverly presented itself as the solution to satiate their hunger. With Snickers’ innovative use of a digital platform commonly used by people, their campaign reached more than 500,000 people within the first three days of their launch.
Top 3 Features of a Successful Digital Brand Activation
How do you create a successful digital brand activation that keeps your customers coming back for more? Here are the top three features of a successful digital brand activation:
1. Get to know your users with the help of data
With digital brand activations, businesses are now more well equipped to track and analyse data to better understand their customers. By collecting relevant data, businesses can learn more about their customers and adjust their strategies accordingly to cater to their needs. With a more in-depth understanding of their customers, brands are better positioned to accurately create experiences that customers truly desire.
(Kohler Virtual Customer Experience Centre, developed by Trinax)
To increase awareness and generate interest in Kohler Power’s range of products, Trinax collaborated with them to develop a Virtual Customer Experience Center. Users were free to explore the various features in this virtual platform such as the Milestone Wall, Product Showcase or view on-demand content. However, the most important feature of this virtual experience was the Content Management System where data collected on this platform such as page visits and user interactions could be analysed. With this data, Kohler Power could gain valuable insights of their customers which could help to inform their future strategies.
2. Actively engage the user
User engagement plays an important role in creating a successful digital brand activation. By entertaining customers with a range of interactive activities, users can spend more time learning about your brand in an exciting way.
(Kiehl’s Virtual Green Festival, developed by Trinax)
Sustainability can be a difficult issue to educate the public on but Kiehl’s proved that they could do it by actively engaging their users. Working with Trinax to develop a virtual green festival “Future Made Better”, Kiehl’s aimed to raise awareness of the brand’s sustainability practices and encourage customers to support their green initiatives. With meaningful games and incentives to win attractive prizes, users were actively engaged in learning about sustainability. Besides, the virtual festival featured an Instant Skin Reader, where customers could gain personalised feedback on their skin condition by taking a selfie and completing a quiz. By engaging users and providing a personal touch, Kiehl’s was well on its way to creating a positive impact on the environment with the support of their customers.
(Shiseido Ultimune 3.0 Digital Activation, developed by Trinax)
An upcoming collaboration between Trinax and Shiseido featured the development of a microsite that could be easily accessed from various mobile devices. This digital activation was a seamless way for Shiseido to build connections with their customers through a series of specially curated activities. With unique features such as an Ultimune Defender Adventure game and an Instagram Augmented Reality filter that challenged users to complete face yoga exercises, users were thoroughly engaged in this exciting digital experience.
3. Appeal to your target audience with strong visuals and a clear call to action
With the many options available to consumers today, it can be difficult for brands to stand out amidst the fierce competition. To develop a successful digital brand activation, businesses need to make the experience one that resonates well with the target audience. Furthermore, such activations need to grab the attention of users with appealing visuals and clear communication. To top it off, a strong call to action must be present to drive users to take action.
(Gamified Instagram Filter, developed by Trinax)
To appeal to social media savvy visitors, Trinax collaborated with Marina Bay Link Mall to develop a gamified Instagram filter for their latest digital marketing campaign. Upon following MBLM’s Instagram page, visitors were challenged to sway their head left and right as quickly and accurately as possible to dodge obstacles and collect hearts to earn points. Furthermore, with the opportunity to win prizes, users were all the more motivated to keep playing the game in hopes of earning a higher score. With attractive visual elements such as firecracker obstacles and lanterns, this gamified filter surely added to the Chinese New Year festivities at the time of its launch. This fun Instagram filter that uses Augmented Reality saw an increase in the mall’s social media following and a rise in positive word-of-mouth. By requiring users to first follow MBLM’s Instagram page before playing with the gamified filter, MBLM successfully achieved its goals of raising awareness of their social media platforms.
Get Started on Digital Brand Activations Today
In the world today, brands need to start engaging and connecting with their customers using digital activations. At Trinax, we specialise in creating immersive digital experiences catered to the needs of your business and customers. If you are interested in developing a digital brand activation for your businesses, please feel free to reach out to us for a collaboration.
