According to AgencyEA, “One in three brand-side marketers struggles to prove ROI and secure...
In today’s digital-first and data-driven world, marketers are able to leverage a number of digital solutions to increase engagement and drive consumers to action. But with new technology brings new costs, and brands and agencies are under immense pressure to prove the ROI of their on-site activations. The ability to acquire and report on data during and after an activation is now commonplace.
We’re also seeing more and more brands wanting access to data in real-time, ensuring their activations are running according to plan, and make changes where necessary. Given this, it’s important for marketers to know which solutions, and tactics, can enable their brand activations, cut costs, and meet KPIs.
Below we’ll cover 6 solutions for improving your on-site brand activations, and proving the ROI of your campaigns:
Registration/Check-In
If you’ve ever attended an event with a large attendance, you’ve likely waited in a mob-like crowd to gain entrance. You’ll wait for upwards of an hour just to speak with a 1 of the 5 event volunteers who are manually crossing off names. Consumers are no longer carrying around physical tickets, and the days of carrying around clip boards with printed lists should be long gone. It slows down the registration process and makes for a poor event experience. By offering kiosks with digital check-in options elevates a massive burden on attendees and event co-ordinators, thus leaving the event registration tables only for support and troubleshooting when absolutely necessary.
Real-time Reporting
Access to real-time data is extremely important for on-site brand activations. The ability to see whether data is being collected correctly, gives event marketers peace of mind, and also allows them to course correct when necessary. It’s difficult to know whether an event is running smoothly, and if your activations are being tracked and recorded. Real-time reporting helps to ensure that not only is the technology operating properly, but that your event staff is leveraging the experience to its full potential. Additionally, these real-time reports provide insight that can completely alter the way you deliver an experience. Rather than recognizing after the activation is complete, you’ll be able to make in the moment decisions that can drastically improve the way your campaign runs.
Engagement Mechanics
Gamifying your on-site activations has never been easier as it is today. By incorporating a digital solution on-site, you can captivate consumers and keep them coming back with unique engagement mechanics. SPRY enables you to power your brand activations, on any device, with exciting front end engagement mechanics. Anything you can do on a smartphone you can now build into a digital experience. By incorporating engagement mechanics into your event experience, you’ll be sure to drive engagement resulting in more successful activations.
For an examples of how to use engagement mechanics for on-site brand activations, check out this successful in-arena activation with Sport Chek and the Edmonton Oilers.
Data Capture
It’s possible to securely acquire customer information and gain insights into their ongoing activity. Data capture is typically when a user enters data, be it a check-in or any other digital form. But marketers can now take it one step further. As soon as someone enters their information on a form, the database stores it and tracks sessions for each user. From there, anything the user does if they win a prize (contest site) or if they want chicken or fish for their dinner (check-in/registration site) is available to event organizers. This insight ensures your experiences meet the expectations of each guest, and allows you to manage each expectation
CRM Integration
Each brand activation is part of a bigger marketing picture. The ability to capture real-time leads, churn data, and deploy targeted campaigns with CRM integration is integral to maximizing your ROI. Think about how many activations your company or agency does annually. How do you process the information from each? How is the data used to offer better experiences the next time? Experiential marketing is only growing in popularity for boosting engagement and activating consumers. However, an integrated solution is important for businesses looking to activate the data from their on-site activations quickly and easily.
SMS
There is a huge opportunity to leverage SMS to attract and activate consumers on-site. Plus, with geo-location advancements, marketers can now attract those passing by to activate them at the right place and time. Let’s face it, there are a lot of activities going at events. It’s possible to use text messaging as a gateway tool and communication mechanic. For instance, if you want conference attendees to see the keynote presentation, you can push out an SMS message to let them know when it’s starting. This is only one example of many tactics you can employ to activate on-site attendees to perform a desired action.
The point is: nowadays everyone is connected via mobile device. Therefore, this communication is arguably the most effective way of driving crowds to your on-site activation.
What are you currently doing to enable on-site activations? Are you looking for a technology partner to bring your brand activations to life? If so, be sure to connect with one of our engagement experts today.
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