To understand the importance of Brand Activation, let’s know what a Marketer calls ‘BRAND MARKETING’, which as we know, is all about waging war against competitive forces to win market share. For this purpose, marketers create warriors which win the perceptual battle for them, and these warriors are called BRANDS.

Brands have proved their worth by earning premiums, decimating competition and even beating out the time factor (as many brands are still leaders as they were a century ago).

Today, the marketplace is replete with competition. The opening up of the economy led to the entry of numerous foreign brands in the marketplace. These brands are also adding to the chorus. Advertising has always been seen as the main weapon to build brands by brand managers. Excessive reliance on this form of communication has resulted in ‘over communication’. Ad clutter has been increasing gradually and the future shows no sign of relief. People have choices more than ever before. They can get the products anywhere and can compare products and services down to the minutest detail. This requires a more intelligent manner of communication by companies. Advertising can be used effectively to defend a market position in many cases, however, this creates no leeway for growth. And that is the aim after all. The successful marketer then has to leave the safe haven of advertising and start activating. Therefore, marketers are exploring new ways of supporting their brand. One such method is called Brand Activation. Activation is giving the Power to the People. This is the best way to describe the turnaround in marketing communication during the last 30 years.

What is brand activation?

The definition: Brand Activation is the seamless integration of all available communication means in a creative platform in order to activate consumers. Another definition for Brand activation can be a marketing process of bringing a brand to life through creating the brand experience.

Activation means stimulating:

1. Interest
2. Trial
3. Loyalty

The basic Brand Activation principles are:

• Winning attention and involvement
• Bringing the spirit of the brand to life in a distinctive way
• Delivering ideas that genuinely motivate consumers
• Creating ideas that are accountable and deliver

Why Brand Activation?

Activation shifts the focus to the core of marketing ie: stimulating the buying process.

There are various reasons why this focus is so important and why advertisers opt for Brand Activation instead of Traditional campaigns. Brand activation addresses the key issues in marketing.

• Information Selection - People filter the communication means they are confronted with. They simply ignore the majority of it.
• Relevance - Informing becomes communicating as soon as the message is relevant to the recipient.
• Experiences - Experiences are convincing. Also the experiences of others. Active reference on account of a positive experience with the brand is the most powerful instrument to activate people.

Brand activation: deliver the proof

The claims ‘washes whiter than white’, ‘always at hand’, etc. are all really well-known, but it is still advertising. People think advertising is unbelievable, so these claims remain unbelievable. Until proven. A Brand activation programme provides a window to get that proof of the claim across to the consumer. It not only helps to make the message credible, it also makes it distinctive.

Brand Activation = Interaction

This New Media has caused a revolution in communication based on the simplicity of the interaction. A wonderful opportunity to offer an experience that ultimately influences the buying process.

Next question: now what is to be activated?

Generally, the core features or brand values of a brand are used for activation.

Consider a hypothetical epilator brand “X”. Further assume that there are 5 other brands in this category. All brands are touting themselves as provider of smooth skin in their respective ads. But you are the smoothest one but how will you make your Target Audience believe it. Brand Activation comes handy in such a case scenario. Create such a platform where you can meet your Target Audience and offer them a free epilating experience so that they can feel the ‘smoothness’. Allow them to interact with your brands as much as possible. You can do so with the help of road shows and exhibitions. Once you have done that, customers will be able to validate your claim. Also, they will relate to your ads and trust your brand.

Brand Activation – The Toast of Tomorrow...

Having talked about Brand Activation and its importance in today’s markets, let’s see what the markets trends are when it comes to the marketing spend. ATL or Above-The-Line media and Traditional Media have till now been the predominant consumer of these Marketing spends. However, several leading global agency networks have forecasted that their current revenue split between marketing services and advertising of 55:45 is likely to become 70:30 in a few years down the line.

A new direction is being taken by marketers in allocating funds which has been highlighted through the significant jump in investments in Below-The-Line (BTL) Marketing. Across the board, marketers are spending anywhere between 20% to 50% of their total budgets on Direct Marketing, Events, Activation and other BTL activities depending on the nature of the product, service and choice of market.

The average BTL spends across categories was close to 40% as against 15% three years ago. One reason of course is mass media fragmentation and therefore fewer bangs for the Above-The-Line (ATL) spend. The other more important reason however is the pressure on Brand Managers to deliver a better Return on marketing Investments (ROI) made.

Thus it’s all about experience and interaction. Brand Activation brains do things differently as they bring brands alive which consumers can experience, thereby delivering proof of the brand promise.