When looking to connect with your target demographic or break into the industry, brand activations are a great method to introduce your company and products or services to your audience. Successful brand activations can increase online engagement, boost your sales, and bring in new customers.
Though brand activations can be very effective for marketing, they can also be challenging to execute on your own if your company isn’t experienced with this type of marketing. That’s where brand activation agencies can help you out! In this article we’ll cover all the things you need to consider when choosing the right agency for your needs:
- What is a brand activation agency & what do they do?
- 6 things to consider in a brand activation agency before choosing one
Let’s begin by covering what brand activation agencies are and the types of things they usually handle.
What is a brand activation agency & what do they do?
A brand activation agency is an organization that helps brands create and run brand activation marketing campaigns to create buzz around their brand and its products or services. These agencies specialize in running brand activations and can execute your brand’s vision for a campaign very effectively.
Brand activation agencies will generally have a lot of experience in various industries, and can handle a wide range of brand activation tools and tasks to help out a brand’s marketing efforts. Here are some examples of things brand activation companies could manage for you:
- Help define a brand’s voice and key messaging
- Planning, organizing, and executing branded activations and campaigns
- Identify and set targets for a brand’s marketing objectives
- Outline and monitor progress towards key performance indicators
- Facilitate connections between brands and sponsors
6 things to consider in a brand activation agency
Before you move forward with selecting an agency to help with your brand activation needs, there are a few key components that should be considered to help you select an agency that’s right for you and your brand.
1. Services Offered
One of the most important things to consider when looking to hire a brand activation agency is to compare the types of services you’re looking for with the types of services they offer. It’s important that their offerings align with your brand’s needs. Many agencies will have a wide range of services offered but some smaller agencies may have more limited options.
2. Level of Expertise
Another important factor to consider is how much experience the agency has with managing brand activation marketing and their level of expertise with the services they offer. The more experience the agency has, especially within your brand’s niche, the better.
3. Size of the Agency
The size of an agency has the potential to impact many areas of your brand activation project, such as whether you’ll have a dedicated point of contact, how frequently you’ll receive communication from them, and how quickly the work can get done.
4. Portfolio and Past Work
Asking to see some examples of past projects the agency has completed is a great way to get a feel for their style and what they do, as well as their success rate. If the agency has completed past projects that are similar to what you’re looking to do for your own brand, then you can have better peace of mind that they’ll do a great job with your brand activations as well.
5. Level of involvement
Whether you’re looking to have the agency handle everything to do with your campaign, or want them to help out with some areas and have your in-house team(s) work with them on other tasks, the agency you choose should align with the level of involvement you’d like them to have.
6. Budget and Cost
Your brand’s marketing or campaign budget will determine what types of services your chosen agency will be able to provide and the level of help you can afford to bring on. Get some quotes to see what the agencies you are interested in would charge for the types of services you’re looking for, and find a brand activation marketing agency that aligns with your goals and your budget.
Typical services of a brand activation agency
When you hire a brand activation company to help with or handle your brand’s marketing campaigns, there are several different components that you could be paying for, depending on the specific types of services you’re receiving from the agency. Here are some different factors you may want to consider getting help with.
- Brand activations – Your brand activation consulting firm may plan and host branded events as part of your activation strategy. These events and experiences can be online or in-person and vary in cost depending on the scope and quality of brand experience you wish to create.
- Experiential marketing – Similar to branded event activations, experiential marketing involves any type of experience you might provide to potential customers to attract them to your brand.
- Social media – Social media is an important part of any marketing strategy and having posts published relating to any events, experiences, or other campaign efforts could also be handled by the agency.
- Strategy and planning – One of the most important things that an agency should handle for your activation campaign is the strategy and planning of the campaign. It sets the tone for the rest of the campaign and ensures that you’re set up for success.
- Analytics and measurement – Going hand-in-hand with the strategy and planning aspect, figuring out the quantitative and qualitative objectives for your campaign will also help determine what needs to be done to reach those goals. Agencies may also handle the tracking and monitoring of progress towards those key performance indicators.
- Design and creative – The design and creation of branding materials is something that some agencies will also handle for you. They might design designated website landing pages for your campaign, social media posts, images for paid advertising, and other creative tasks.
- Content creation – Creating content for your website, social media pages, or advertising to go along with your brand activation campaign is another service some agencies offer. This can save a lot of time for your in-house marketing team and ensure consistent brand voice across all messaging related to your campaign.
Choose Impact-XM for your brand activations
Now that you know all the factors to take into consideration when selecting a global brand activation agency, you can move ahead with finding the right agency for your needs. Impact XM is a top recommended agency for brand activations, events and conferences, digital engagements, and so much more. To learn how Impact XM can assist in your brand’s marketing efforts, get in touch today!
