With the warmer just around the corner, marketing teams are planning brand activations to take advantage of the spring/summer season and its increased foot traffic! So, to properly prepare your brand to hit the streets, here’s our absolute must-haves for travelling activations based on our experience.
- Experienced coordination team
There’s a reason why this is number one. It’s easy to miscalculate the simplicity of an activation – we’ll take it as a compliment that we make it seem easy! The amount of processes, on-going coordination, logistics, third-party management and even legal requirements makes it best left in the hands of an experienced brand activation agency. The business ends up saving time, money, stress and avoids stress and fires that can’t be put out.
- Top tier brand ambassadors
Did we mention top tier? We’re talking crème de la crème of shiny, happy people because first impressions, questions and concerns will be cast straight to these people. Allow time to find the perfect people along with the right training and briefing tools. We normally take the management of this process on as an agency. This is an area brands simply cannot skim over.
- Season and location
Time and place affect foot traffic, type of audience present (tourists, locals, certain age groups), even the design of uniforms and build of the activation. There’s always a spike in the summer seasons for this exact reason, but always do your research because area demographics, seasonal holidays, certain days of the week and times of the day can affect how well your activation goes. For example of recent H&R Block pop-up was during tax-time!
- Durable and simple builds
Any type of travel comes with nicks and knocks. You can minimize these challenges by designing builds that are durable and easy to pack up and down. The exposure to harsh effects of the weather and potentially dealing with new staff or suppliers along the way is another reason why this is so important.
- Expect ‘OOPS’
Expect things to not go to plan – it’s the norm when you’re outside of a controlled environment! There’s plenty of things you can do to minimize challenges by making sure your armed with options, a back-up plan and providing on-going support and check-ins with your street team to give them quick solutions if they need.
- Maximise your presence
Opportunities to gain the most exposure both physically and digitally. Think about branding on activation vehicles, uniforms and props as well as inviting local influencers or, digital and social media advertising to let locals know you’re coming.
Remember, just because it’s good idea, it doesn’t always mean that translates into the physical activation. ROI is a big factor when considering travelling activation. Simple things like storage and ‘off season’ down time can make these activations costly. Make sure there is a strategic need for the investment, that it’s done well and exposure is maximised.
There’s plenty of bells and whistles to make your activation amazing but it’s important to tick these must-haves for travelling activations. Learn more about what brand activations is here. To make sure you’re in the perfect position to take your brand on the streets, drop us a line at [email protected]
