What Is Brand Activation & What Can It Do for Your Business This Holiday Season

With the holidays around the corner, you’ve probably noticed that the streets, malls, plazas, and parking lots are starting to feel crowded. The holidays are the busiest time for retailers, and it’s critical that they capitalize on the influx of shoppers.

Retailers are dealing with plenty this holiday season, from supply chain delays to staffing shortages to consumer anxiety. But it’s not all bad news for retailers. Consumers are quickly coming back to in-person shopping, which reduces return rates and alleviates the cost and pressures on staff to fulfill online orders and get them shipped.

The return of brick-and-mortar shopping and the sense of renewal makes this holiday season the perfect time to roll out fresh brand activations and reconnect with shoppers who are eager to get outside and offline.

What Is Brand Activation?

A brand activation is a campaign or event designed to create connections with your target audiences and raise brand awareness. They’re often interactive and give audiences the opportunity to engage with a brand, which is what makes it a unique strategy compared to other marketing campaigns.

It’s not the ongoing process of branding but a specific, isolated campaign that can elevate your brand. The goal is to increase visibility and help your brand stay relevant or reinvent itself.

What Is the Process of Brand Activation?

The process of brand activation begins with defining your goals. Common brand activation goals include:

• Customer acquisition
• Social media engagement
• User sign ups
• Increased brand awareness and engagement

Activations can take place in-person, online, at events and trade shows, in public places, and in-store or at the storefront window to draw in passing foot traffic. Depending on the event and venue, it might include brand ambassadors, sales staff, social media influencers, or rely on a pop up digital signage solution.

What Is an Example of Brand Activation?

Brand activations include experiential marketing, samples and free trial campaigns, trade shows and industry events, and in-store activations. For retailers, in-store activations are some of the most effective for forging better connections with your customers. They draw people in off the street and target an audience that’s already interested in what you do.

Why Is Brand Activation Important?

You know who your target audience is, but do they know you? Brand activation is about familiarizing those target audiences with who you are. Even more established brands use activations to reach out to new audiences, launch new products, or reinvent themselves for a changing market.

How Can Digital Signage Activate Your Brand?

One of the easiest and most effective ways to roll out an in-store activation is through digital signage. Whether it’s inside the store or at the storefront, digital signage engages, informs, and interacts with audiences.

#1 Storefront Signage

The holiday season means more crowds, but it also means more distractions. Whether you’re located in a mall, shopping plaza, or a busy shopping street, sometimes standing out can be a challenge, especially in the crush of holiday shoppers.

Retail is one of the industries that benefit most from digital signage because digital signage is one of the most effective ways to get attention in physical environments. Storefront digital signs allow you to:

• Create content that’s more relevant, engaging, and interactive. Unlike printed signs, you have more content flexibility and a way to stay more relevant, updating content to reflect upcoming holidays, changing seasons, and new inventory.
• Create interactive displays that will make people stop and pay attention to your store. Integrating social media into your displays can also be an effective way to stay up-to-date and relevant.
• Advertise yourself on your own terms. Billboard advertising can be expensive, but your own digital billboard helps you make the most of your location.

#2 Projection Mapping

Projection mapping is a visually stunning way to enhance a physical location. Projection mapping involves video projecting onto 3D surfaces. From art installations to massive outdoor advertising campaigns, projection mapping can draw eyeballs to your store and your brand. Projection mapping installations can be fit to any location size.

#3 Custom Solutions

There are many different types of digital billboards that can prove useful for your next in-store activation. BIG Digital’s turnkey solutions can be deployed in any number of ways to meet your campaign objectives. Take advantage of touchscreen engagement, Augmented Reality features, Lift & Learn displays, photo kiosks, and many of our plug-and-play digital billboards. Whether you’re looking for rental billboards for one-off campaigns or permanent installations, we streamline the process. All you have to worry about is plugging it in.

Can Digital Signage Improve Commercial Properties for the Holidays?

After nearly two years of pandemic regulations deterring consumers from in-person holiday shopping, shopping malls and plazas are expecting a return to the holiday rush this year. With the influx of crowds returning to retail environments during the holiday rush, commercial property managers can leverage digital signage to keep crowds moving freely and ease the anxiety of coming back.

Wayfinding Solutions

Successful commercial properties put the shopper first, giving them the information and tools that they need to create an efficient shopping route while also creating wayfinding solutions and designs that reduce congestion.

Digital wayfinding includes touchscreen maps and clear, eye-catching directional signage that will encourage optimal flow and give shoppers the optimal routes to their destinations.

Public Health Messaging

Depending on where your property is located, you may still be required to enforce certain restrictions, or property managers may want to continue to encourage behaviors such as keeping six feet apart and masking. One study found that the majority of consumers continue to feel more comfortable in retail environments where staff and other shoppers are masking.

Digital signage can help you convey public health messaging and recommendations to a wide audience without getting lost in the noise.

Whether you’re a retailer or a commercial property manager gearing up for the holiday season, digital signage can take your brand activation campaigns to the next level. Give us a call to talk about digital signage solutions for your holiday season campaigns.