Brand activation seems to have become a buzz word in the marketing industry with many companies and agencies offering ‘brand activation’ in their profiles. BAM (Brand Activation Management), a division of ADreach, uses ‘interactivity’, social media, digital media and AR to create memorable launches.
‘Bam’ is: 1) a verb – to make a loud noise; 2) a noun – a loud noise; and 3) an interjection – used to indicate sudden impact. Trivial information? Perhaps. However, all three language uses tie in nicely with brand activation company’s name in its attempt to attract, engage and retain consumers for its clients.
“We will do anything to make a brand top-of-mind in a fun, exciting and engaging way,” BAM CEO Mark Castel says. So while not necessarily the loud noise as alluded to above; indicating a sudden impact does come into play. Of course noise is an attention-grabber on its own, so the simile is not lost.
Digital and social
The company, a division of ADreach, specialises in brand activation, promotions and field services. “We aim to do things differently by always tying our projects in with strong creatives, digital aspects and social media,” Mark says. He emphasises the fact that absolutely everything must have some form of digital aspect tied in to it!
The aim is to create a platform allowing the company to reach and gauge more consumers than before. The ultimate goal – driving up sales! Mark points out that to execute a brand activation campaign in a ‘fun and exciting’ way it is imperative that a viral component be added to the campaign.
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SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE – CASE STUDY
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Interactivity 
Paramount to the success of most brand activations is point-of-sale staff buy-in, is Mark’s opinion. “It’s important that there be continuation from an initial activation,” he says, “and employees understanding of brand/product and the ability to carry a message are imperative to the continued success of a campaign.”
With this in mind he and his creative team were (at the time of writing) in the process of designing an interactive game to train one of their client’s personnel at point-of-sale. “Well-trained staff increases customers’ shopping brand experience,” Mark says. Competitions are included in the training and at the end of the day the client’s staff are not only knowledgeable in the brand/product but can, in some cases, be rather ‘patriotic’.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is yet another area that BAM is looking into to add to its brand activation offering. While Mark is reluctant to comment too much more in this regard, except for “watch this space,” he does add: “Anything new and exciting contributes to branding. Anything to grow the media landscape is awe-inspiring.
“The nice thing about being involved in the brand activation industry,” he concludes, “is there are so many new technologies springing up which leads to an exciting and fast-paced industry. Unlike traditional media, current brand activation offers something new and exciting each time.”
Creative spin
Mark says that BAM is “extremely creatively driven. So much so that 50% of our staff are creative so not only our conceptualising, but everything we do is creatively-driven. We think differently, in a fun and exciting way, and this assists our planning when it comes the WOW (or rather BAM) factor.”
Eventing
As far as events are concerned Marc says that anyone is capable of hosting or putting together an event! “It’s certainly not rocket science,” he points out. “However, to stage an event in a creative engaging way making use of social and digital media tie in are BAM’s strengths.”
There is no doubt that the ‘creatively-driven, fun and exciting thinking his team is capable of play no small role in the success of the company’s events.
Reducing costs through co-branding
“What makes us stand out is the creative way we conceptualise an event or activation and the way we execute it,” Marc reiterates, “and to do this in a memorable and creative way is what separates us from the rest.”
He adds, though, that in order to achieve activations of this nature general costs are very high. In order to overcome these costs so companies with limited marketing budgets can make use of BAM’s services, the brand activation company assists in finding sponsors to co-brand events or brand activations.
Called Partnerships with Co-branding, it is still in it in its infancy as the company experiments, but they have concluded several co-branded events and activations to date.
“Co-branding opportunities not only reduce costs as far as the original client is concerned,” Mark comments, “but the publicity, or even just general awareness, potential available through co-branding are almost endless.”
A new age
Mark says that by holding conversations with relevant individuals he discovered that most people are tired of traditional media and want more than just print, or TV/radio, or outdoor.
“We found consumers don’t feel these are engaging or exciting. And this brings us exactly to where BAM is and wants to remain! We are different, fun and creative; we’re also in consumers’ faces and we create the most memorable experience for various brands clients’.
*Mark can be contacted on tel: 011 0861 222 123; 082 969 9129 or via e-mail to mark@adreach.co.za
