Creating Memorable Holiday Brand Activations with Interactive Kiosks

With the holidays in focus, brands are amping up their marketing campaigns to take advantage of the busiest time of the year. It’s the perfect season to activate in-store locations, malls, and busy public places, or to go outdoors. There are more people out shopping and on the streets and more opportunities to connect with consumers through your campaign.

This time of year, creating an emotional connection with consumers can be more important than ever. You want them to know that you’re more than just a brand. Sentiment is high among consumers, and there’s a strong desire to cut through the bombardment of holiday advertising. It’s not just brands themselves that want to find another, more meaningful way to connect. Consumers are overwhelmed by traditional advertising this time of year, and they want to feel a more authentic relationship with the brands they’re interacting with. Holiday brand activations let you tap into that sentiment and do something different. Forming that bond can create consumer loyalty and high-value conversions.

BIG Digital displays support brand activations of all kinds. Leverage innovative technologies to take your campaign to the next level. Our interactive kiosks let you integrate Augmented Reality, gamification experiences, AI avatars, Point-of-Sale transactions, and more into your activations.

In-Store Activations During the Holidays

The holidays are a high-value time for putting on in-store activations. The lead-up to the holidays is always a busy time for retailers. Foot traffic in malls, plazas, commercial streets, and retail stores usually hits a low around Labour Day and rises throughout the fall months, peaking between November and December.

All 10 of the busiest days for retail traffic take place in November and December. People are out in full force this time of year, and smart brands take advantage of that.

BIG Digital indoor kiosks support in-store activations with a broad range of capabilities:

• Installable anywhere in minutes.
• Touch and gesture interactivity.
• Gamification.
• Lead generation.
• Online and in-store integration.
• Sales and revenue generation.
  

The rise in foot traffic alone won’t carry your campaign. The most successful activations blend shopping with entertainment. Successful retailers carve out a space in their stores to create a fun, calming, or Instagram-worthy experience that will bring consumers in and persuade them to stop for a while.

Create an environment where consumers can step away from the hustle and bustle for a moment and immerse themselves in an experience. Consumer engagement connects with people by giving them something of value.

How to Connect with Consumers In-Store

Successful in-store activations enhance the consumer experience. During the holidays, you want to plan activations that will draw interest from exploratory shoppers, deliver value to consumers who are already familiar with your brand, and not disrupt consumers who already have their gift lists ready.

Interactivity can elevate the experience and get consumers on board with the experience. Whether you’re introducing a contest or promotion, driving social media buzz, or creating a festive atmosphere that will enhance the in-store experience, interactive kiosks can get the job done. Whatever your vision, talk to us about how you can leverage the power of interactive kiosks.

Outdoor Events: How to Embrace the Elements

In-store activations can transform your retail environments, but they target consumers who are already there. Either they’re familiar with you, intended to purchase something from you, or they were curious and drawn in. Sometimes, when you want to expand your audience, you need to extend your reach.

When you go outdoors, you have a chance to go big. The holidays are a time of wonder. If you can tap into the magic and imagination that comes with the festive season, you’ll attract an audience.

If you’re planning an outdoor activation, don’t forget to make it bright. When the evenings get darker and start earlier and earlier, it’s a tradition to light up the night and create a magical experience. Lighting up your activation will draw people in and help you create a festive fantasy.

One of the challenges of planning a holiday brand activation can be the weather. Some of the most successful activations take place in the open. Activating a public park, square, or street helps increase your exposure to the broader public, and it enables a whole new set of engagements and interactions with people. However, it may not be easy getting outdoors in December. You have to contend with the potential for snow, wind, and cold weather.

BIG Digital’s outdoor kiosks are weather-rated and ready to stand up to all kinds of conditions. They’re purpose-built to go where you need them, helping you activate and monetize environments that used to be unreachable with the kind of technology you need for a modern-day activation.

Great Holiday Campaigns

One great example of an outdoor activation from 2023 was Sephora’s City Game in the cities of Warsaw and Cracow. With the Sephora City Game, consumers were invited to take part by spotting the Sephora bus around town and creating Sephora-related social media content to win gifts and prizes. The campaign leveraged the increase in shoppers and foot traffic around town during the holidays and made themselves visible with a well-known campaign, all while leveraging interactivity and a contest made to boost their social media.

In New York City last year, Anthropologie created a pop-up gift shop in SoHo that gave consumers a chance to explore self-care products, holiday decorations, cold-weather accessories, and more. The campaign capitalized on the popularity of holiday markets and that serendipitous feeling of chancing on something by accident.

Jo Malone, a London-based fragrance retailer, brought out a gingerbread-house pop-up at Battersea Power Station, a major shopping destination on the south side of the Thames that also happens to have the perfect ice rink for the holidays. The pop-up created an immersive shopping experience inside a gingerbread house with music, interactive displays, and gifts.

BIG Digital displays are more than just portable billboards. They let you take the technology you need to leverage for your holiday brand activation anywhere you need, whether that’s Augmented Reality, AI avatars, gamification experiences, Point-of-Sales, or lead capture. Talk to us about getting the right tools for the job and take your holiday campaign anywhere.