When the Art Institute of Chicago wanted to promote a major exhibition dedicated to Vincent van Gogh, the museum decided to go beyond conventional marketing strategies. The museum instead transformed one of van Gogh’s most famous paintings, “The Bedroom,” into a physical space where people could actually spend the night, thanks to a unique partnership with Airbnb.
The experiential brand activation allowed visitors to immerse themselves in van Gogh’s world, connecting them to the artist’s life and work on an intimate level.
The result? An overwhelming response led to the exhibition becoming the museum’s most-visited in 15 years.
This campaign highlights how brand activations can create deeper connections and drive more impactful results than traditional advertising methods ever could. In this post, we’ll explore different types of brand activations and how each method can be strategically used to capture your visitors’ attention.
- What is a brand activation?
- 1. Experiential marketing
- 2. Sponsorship Activation
- 3. Digital Campaigns
- 4. Guerrilla Marketing
- 5. Pop-Up Experiences
- 6. Influencer Partnerships
- 7. In-Store Activations
What is a brand activation?
At its core, brand activation involves bringing a brand to life through experiences, events, or campaigns encouraging participation, interaction, and emotional engagement.
Unlike traditional advertising, which primarily focuses on broadcasting messages to a broad audience, brand activation is a marketing strategy that aims to engage visitors in meaningful, memorable ways. This can be achieved through live events, digital interactions, or experiential marketing tactics.
The primary goal is to generate a strong, positive impression of the brand in your audience’s mind, making existing and potential customers more likely to remember — and book with — you in the future.
Why is brand activation important?
Brand activation allows your attraction to establish a direct and personal connection with your audience. This connection is vital in an age where your visitors are bombarded with advertisements and are becoming increasingly skeptical of traditional marketing methods. By engaging potential customers in an interactive and memorable way, brand activation campaigns can cut through the noise and create a lasting impression on them.
Another important aspect is the emotional engagement this method can foster. When visitors participate in one of your live events or experiences, they start forming or deepening their emotional bond with your brand. These bonds are much stronger and more enduring than those formed through passive advertising.
And, as we’re all aware, emotional connections with travel brands lead to loyalty, word-of-mouth referrals, and repeat bookings.
Lastly, brand activation can generate significant buzz for your attraction. Events and experiences that are unique, fun, and shareable often attract media attention and social media shares. This amplifies the campaign’s reach far beyond the immediate participants, spreading brand awareness to a broader audience.
Overview of different types of brand activation
There are endless ways to promote your brand in a more memorable, hands-on way. Within brand activation, you’ll find several strategies ranging from experiential marketing to influencer campaigns. Below, we provide an overview of each.
- Experiential marketing: A strategy focused on creating memorable, immersive experiences that allow consumers to interact with a brand tangibly.
- Sponsorship activation: Sponsoring an event to drive more brand exposure.
- Digital campaigns: Online campaigns on social media, email, and websites designed to reach your target audience.
- Guerrilla marketing: An unconventional, low-cost marketing strategy to produce maximum impact and engagement through creative, often surprising, interactions in public spaces.
- Pop-up experiences: Temporary retail or brand spaces designed to engage customers, create buzz, and offer unique in-person interactions with the brand.
- Influencer partnerships: Collaborate with social media influencers to promote your attraction, leveraging the influencer’s audience and credibility.
- In-store activations: Marketing activities in a retail environment are designed to engage customers and encourage them to interact with your brand directly while shopping.
Now, let’s delve deeper into each category to see which makes the most sense for your brand.
1. Experiential marketing
You may already be familiar with experiential marketing, as it’s a common tactic used to forge an emotional bond with customers by wowing them with a unique experience. Instead of merely targeting customers with an online ad, experiential marketing plunges your visitors into immersive activities.
For tour and attraction operators, this might look like organizing a live event, setting up pop-up experiences, or creating interactive digital experiences where customers can virtually test an activity themselves.
Experiential marketing example
One standout example of experiential marketing is the “Stranger Things” immersive experience created by Netflix. For this campaign, Netflix transformed The Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn into the fictional town of Hawkins from the hit TV show “Stranger Things.” The event featured a guided adventure through iconic settings from the show, where guests could use their “powers” to help save Hawkins.
By transforming a physical space into a beloved TV show setting, Netflix created a unique, memorable experience that attracted significant attention and buzz. Photo-friendly setups also encouraged guests to snap pictures and share them on social media, further amplifying the campaign’s reach.
When to use experiential marketing
Experiential marketing is particularly effective for product launches and seasonal campaigns. When introducing a new ride, for example, an immersive experiential campaign allows visitors to try it out firsthand. In your campaign, you can highlight the ride’s most exciting features, making your audience extra excited to try the real thing. Particular times of the year, such as holidays or significant cultural events, also provide an opportunity to tie in thematic experiences that resonate with a broad audience.
Why experiential marketing is effective
An immersive and interactive experience has the potential to stay in a customer’s mind long after they’ve gone home. While your competitors invest in digital channels — like growing a following on Instagram — you can double down your efforts with experiential marketing.
While every travel brand should invest time and money in their digital footprints, there’s no denying that in-person experiences are more memorable than traditional ads. When your visitors participate in an engaging event, they will likely remember the brand and share their experiences with others.
And that brings us to another critical benefit of experiential marketing campaigns: They are often designed to be shareable. By encouraging participants to post about their experiences on social media, your brand can heighten its reach to participants’ circle of friends and family. When others see your experience being shared by someone they know and trust, they might feel FOMO, or the fear of missing out, and come check it out themselves.
2. Sponsorship Activation
This is when a brand leverages its sponsorship of an event, team, or property to create meaningful interactions with its target audience. Yet, it goes beyond merely placing a logo on a banner or uniform. In this case, your brand makes an interactive experience that enhances the value of the sponsorship and fosters a deeper connection with the audience.
Sponsorship activation example
Delta was the official airline partner of SXSW this year — and to take its sponsorship a step further, it created a VIP lounge experience for members of its frequent flier program. The pop-up Delta Lounge featured free Wi-Fi, drinks from Starbucks, branded merchandise, and complimentary snacks from a well-known local chef.
The airline made their customers feel special during a massive event that can be downright overwhelming. Aside from giving them a respite from the chaos in the comfortable lounge, the extra perks like free food and merch were the cherries on top of the genius sponsorship activation.
When to use sponsorship activation
The best use for a sponsorship activation is when you’re sponsoring large-scale events — like sports tournaments, music festivals, or cultural fairs. On a local level, sponsoring community events can introduce your brand to the businesses and neighbors around you.
Why sponsorship activation is effective
A sponsorship activation ensures that your attraction stands out in a crowded event. An effective sponsorship campaign that goes beyond placing your logo on a banner can significantly boost your return on investment. Whatever activity or pop-up you create will elevate your brand exposure, translating it directly into customer engagement.
3. Digital Campaigns
Digital campaigns are strategic online marketing efforts designed to reach a specific audience through various digital channels, including social media, email, websites, and search engines.
Digital campaign example
An example is Air New Zealand’s “The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made” campaign. Tied to the release of the final film in The Hobbit trilogy, the video turned a mundane in-flight safety demonstration into a cinematic journey through the landscape where the movie takes place. Featuring cast members like Elijah Wood and cameos from director Sir Peter Jackson, the video went viral, amassing over 25 million views on YouTube.
When to use digital campaigns
Digital campaigns can be used year-round as part of your online marketing strategy. These more in-depth campaigns that engage your audience can be influential for launching new products or targeting specific audience segments with personalized content. They are ideal when your goal is to achieve widespread reach and quick engagement across various online channels.
Why digital campaigns are effective for brand engagement
These campaigns deliver highly targeted content in real-time, precisely track audience behavior, and create interactive experiences that resonate with your audience — making them ideal for brand engagement. The success of Air New Zealand’s campaign illustrates how a well-crafted digital campaign can transcend traditional advertising, turning it into a shareable, memorable experience that strengthens brand loyalty.
4. Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional and often low-cost marketing strategy that relies on surprise, creativity, and high-impact tactics to engage audiences in public spaces. Think flash mobs.
Guerrilla marketing example
Before the Paris Zoo opened, the attraction wanted to spread the word in a creative way. So, large, open animal crates were placed in strategic locations around the city, giving the illusion that animals like giraffes, lions, and jaguars were on the loose. These installations were placed near famous landmarks and included information about the zoo, creating a buzz and drawing attention to the event in a memorable way.
When to use guerrilla marketing
This is the strategy to use to create a robust and memorable impact—without a huge budget. Guerilla campaigns can successfully generate word-of-mouth and buzz in a specific geographic location or during a special event without breaking the bank.
How effective are guerrilla marketing techniques
Guerrilla essentially relies on creativity and surprise. The unconventional approach captures the attention of the public. However, it’s important to note that the effectiveness of your campaign depends on your ability to connect with the audience in a relevant and meaningful way. If done right, guerrilla marketing can deliver strong ROI, especially regarding brand awareness and public engagement.
5. Pop-Up Experiences
Pop-up experiences are temporary, branded spaces or events designed to create a unique and immersive customer interaction — similar to the Delta lounge we discussed earlier.
Pop-up experiences example
The tourism board for Savannah, Georgia, created a pop-up experience in NYC to draw attention to the destination. Dubbed “Surprisingly Savannah,” the installation featured lush greenery, food and beverage samples, live music, and interactions with locals to give New Yorkers a taste of what Savannah has to offer. The event attracted thousands of attendees and set a single-day pedestrian foot traffic record at the venue.
When to use pop-up experiences
Pop-up experiences are ideal when launching a new product, entering a new market, or trying to create buzz around your brand in a specific location. They’re also effective when you want to introduce your attraction to an audience that wouldn’t typically encounter your brand in their day-to-day life.
Why pop-up experiences resonate with audiences
Pop-up experiences offer a sensory-rich interaction with brands, which helps to forge a deeper connection with the audience. The temporary nature of every pop-up helps generate buzz and excitement, often leading to increased social media sharing and word-of-mouth promotion.
6. Influencer Partnerships
Influencer partnerships involve collaborating with social media influencers or public figures with a significant following. These partnerships leverage the influencer’s reach and credibility to bring more visitors to your attraction.
Influencer partnerships example
A prime example is the collaboration between Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia and Canada’s top adventure photographer and influencer, Callum Snape. To boost awareness of their winter attractions, the resort invited the influencer to create beautiful visual content for Instagram. The campaign included daily Instagram stories and short Facebook videos that painted Sun Peaks as an “insider secret” getaway and drove a ton of interest (including over 200,000 article views).
The role of influencers in brand activations
Influencers bring credibility to your campaign and make the experience feel more related. When Snape’s followers saw him having a magical time on his winter escape, their interest in Sun Peaks Resort also peaked.
An influencer’s established trust with their audience allows them to introduce the brand in an organic way. By sharing personal experiences, influencers can captivate their followers and create a buzz around the brand, making the activation more impactful.
Why influencer partnerships are effective in brand activations
Working with influencers means tapping into their loyal audience. In other words, you’re able to reach potential customers authentically via someone they already know and trust. Moreover, influencers typically highlight a brand’s unique selling points that resonate with their audience, as seen in Sun Peaks Resort’s campaign, where the influencer’s portrayal of the resort as an exclusive and crowd-free destination drew significant attention and interest.
7. In-Store Activations
In-store activations involve creating engaging and interactive experiences within a retail environment to promote a brand, product, or service. For an attraction, this might include hands-on activities, themed exhibits, special performances, or other interactive elements that allow visitors to connect more deeply with your brand.
In-store activations example
Every year, the New York Botanical Garden creates a unique “Holiday Train Show” activation, where model trains travel through a replica of NYC made entirely from plant materials. Visitors can walk through the exhibit, interact with the train engineers, and even participate in themed workshops where they can create their miniature plant-based models. This activation offers guests an immersive and memorable experience, drawing in new visitors and repeat customers.
When to use in-store activations
Attraction-based activations are significant during peak tourist seasons, special events, or the launching of a new exhibit or tour. For example, a historic site could use activation to celebrate an anniversary by offering interactive reenactments highlighting a significant historical moment.
Why in-store activations are effective
Activations make a visit more engaging and encourage guests to share their experiences on social media. This, in turn, further amplifies your attraction’s reach. Brand activations can also increase dwell time—and the more extended guests hang out at your attraction, the likelier they are to purchase merchandise, food, and beverages.
Key Takeaways
Brand activation strategies are powerful tools that go beyond mere promotion—they create opportunities for meaningful consumer engagement. By choosing the right activation type, whether it’s a pop-up experience, an in-store activation, or a digital campaign, your attraction can craft unique experiences that resonate with your target audience.
