How can brands create loyal customer communities? To start, they can look to sports teams for inspiration. According to football team marketing manager Briana Rossi, her team grew its following by listening, learning, and employing a brand activation strategy that celebrates and weaves fan experiences into the fabric of the team's identity.
Brands can try similar tactics to engage and solidify their customer bases for ongoing brand loyalty.
Creating Loyal Fans With Brand Activation
Brand activations can range from awe-inspiring stunts like Red Bull's Stratos jump to intimate social campaigns like Chewy's #ChewyBoxLove. These brand loyalty strategies can break through the clutter of advertising, creating personal connections with audiences. You can highlight your brand in endless ways.
At the beginning of any brand activation work at my marketing studio, Tote + Pears, we ask clients three questions:
- What's the business goal?
- What's your budget?
- Is anything off-limits?
After a milestone win for her team, Rossi's marketing team tapped into nostalgia to reignite excitement. They collaborated with beverage company Molson Coors to recreate an iconic image of fans celebrating in a hot tub outside the stadium. Then, their interactive campaign challenged fans to recreate the image for a chance to win game tickets – and their own hot tub tailgate experience.
"The entries were hysterical, and the winners had a great time splashing in a hot tub despite the frigid temps," Rossi says.
Rossi said she and her team use test-and-learn strategies and constantly evolve their tactics to reach fans across different categories.
"Data is king for us, so we're always working to grow our digital audience to better understand who's following us, engaging with us, coming to games, buying jerseys, buying tickets, etc.,” she says. “We pull all the levers with social, email, and app notifications to dive deep into who our fans are. We tailor specifically to them with activations that feel authentic and enhance our brand presence."
What Is Activation Marketing?
An effective brand activation relies on creating experiences that resonate deeply with individuals, turning them into loyal fans. By listening to their audience, developing data-driven strategies, and constantly evolving their tactics, marketers are able to create personal connections that transform casual fans into die-hard brand ambassadors.
"The number of followers, likes, or views an influencer has is not as important as whether they're the right fit for your brand collaboration." —Fritz Colcol, CEO, Simply Thalia Inc.
Successful brand activations touch the hearts and minds of your audience. Here are two more campaigns that may inspire you.
Shipt: Celebrating Employees
Out of the campaigns my business worked on last year, one of my favorites was with Shipt, the grocery delivery service. Shipt’s People and Culture team reached out to us to help them craft an experience for their employees. They wanted to demonstrate how employees’ differences make Shipt the place to be. We created a campaign centered around “Same but Different" and invited their employees to share photos and videos doing the same things, in their own way, throughout the year. Entries included birthday celebrations from different cultures, routes to work, morning workouts, and time with the kids.
"The 'Same But Different' campaign concept for our annual culture report is a direct reflection of our company's purpose that 'every person counts,'" says Jenna Britton, senior content manager at Shipt. "It celebrates the individual traits that make us distinctly human, while also highlighting our shared experiences and the significant impact we can make when we come together as a team."
Fritz Colcol: Relief and Resilience During the Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fritz Colcol, a social media influencer and CEO of Chicago restaurant Simply Thalia Inc., participated in one of his most memorable brand activations. He teamed up with Comcast, along with other business owners and influencers, to activate the Comcast RISE campaign, a nationwide initiative that provided grants to small businesses, with a particular focus on the BIPOC communities that were significantly affected during the pandemic.
The activation sought to forge partnerships with business owners and entrepreneurs with a large social media presence. Colcol says the campaign succeeded by selecting targeted entrepreneurs across various cities.
Through strategic, location-driven, targeted social media efforts designed around local influencers, the campaign garnered interest from over 35,000 small businesses and awarded over $135 million in grants nationwide, according to Colcol.
Colcol focused on getting support to entrepreneurs in the food sector, and he learned throughout the process that picking the right influencers is key.
"The lesson I learned from this experience is that the number of followers, likes, or views an influencer has is not as important as whether they're the right fit for your brand collaboration," Colcol says.
The Takeaway
In a landscape where consumers are inundated with endless streams of advertising, the real challenge can be forging genuine connections that turn passive onlookers into active brand evangelists. Brand activations can be an effective way to do just that.
Photo: Getty Images
