A few years ago, the Yellow Pages in New Zealand selected an accordion player from a group of more than 200 applicants to build a restaurant on a tree in the middle of a forest. The selected candidate built the restaurant in 66 days with the help of 65 businesses listed in the Yellow Pages. The whole activity, from selecting the candidate to constructing the restaurant, with its agonies and ecstasies, became part of a multimedia campaign. The activation proved anyone could get any job done using the Yellow Pages.
In keeping with its promise of serving personalised burgers, Burger King had hidden cameras and printers in some of its outlets. When a customer ordered a burger, she was surprised to get one wrapped with her face on it - much to her delight!
Dove got an FBI-trained forensic artist to sketch a woman based on her own description. The artist would then draw a portrait of the same woman based on someone else's description of her. The results revealed that a woman looks more beautiful when others describe her than when she describes herself - the point is that every woman is more beautiful than she thinks. This studio experiment was then rolled out as a campaign on social media and traditional media and as a television commercial.
To make consumers aware that the information they share online is available to everyone, Febelfin, a Belgian company, did an interesting activation. It got a mind reader to reveal intimate details of a few consumers, including recent tattoos and withdrawals, only to later disclose to startled consumers that the information was obtained from the Web.
Hutch organised street theatre in 25 locations across Bangalore with the aim of promoting the theatre festival Ranga Shankara. The drama unfolded as though it was real life - only to later reveal to onlookers that to see more such drama, one would have to visit the theatre festival.
At the Kumbh Mela this year, 2.5 million devotees were surprised to be served hot rotis stamped with the message: "Lifebuoy se haath dhoya kya?" ("Have you washed your hands with Lifebuoy?"). The experiment created chatter among the diners. The episode was captured on camera and shared across digital media.
These are all great brand activation ideas. What is common to all these strategies is that they go beyond traditional activation thinking, which involves promotion, sampling or event sponsorships. They are stories scripted to include drama, with varying levels of consumer involvement. The brand is both the director and the hero of the drama.
The Yellow Pages Treehouse, the most daring in execution and scale, is a case of improv theatre. Burger King directly involves the consumer - with hints of street theatre. Dove, Febelfin and Hutch Ranga Shankara are classic platform theatre scripted with finesse. Hutch Ranga Shankara is unusual because the stage consists of real-life locations, not an auditorium. And Lifebuoy's "roti" is a simple story told on a large scale in a charming, experiential way.
These examples illustrate both the future and the power of brand activation. Clearly, activation can go beyond just driving purchase and building brand associations. Well-thought-of activation can influence a consumer right through her buying process. It can create awareness, build affinity, drive conviction and stimulate loyalty and advocacy. In today's world, where consumers seek experiences, brand activation is communication's experience arm. Further, in an economy that is crowded with service brands, intermediaries, such as salespeople, agents and traders, are critical in driving both sales and brand experiences. Brand activation gives marketers an opportunity to influence brand stakeholders beyond consumers. Moreover, activation can be the core of an idea to give it differentiation in a crowded brand space. The key is to look at products or services as dramas and conceptualise them as stories staged before the relevant stakeholder.
One can draw inspiration from the book The Experience Economy, authored by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore. Theatre dictates script and performance: right from platform, where script and performance are fixed, to improv, where both are dynamic. Experience realms could define the outcome delivered: it could be in the form of entertainment, which is about passive absorption, or escapism, which is about active immersion.
But there are challenges. The first challenge pertains to reach. The Burger King and Lifebuoy experiments had high reach; others were more limited in direct reach. However, digital and traditional media can provide the magnifier effect for good activation ideas. The activation could involve one directly, have nine to view them in real life, and then another 90 to see them virtually. The second challenge is measurement. This needs to be recalibrated in the minds of marketers. If the objective is final sale, activation ideas will be limited. However, if one accepts that activation has a role in other stages of the consumer's decision-making process, new metrics of measurement should be devised. Impact, affinity and loyalty building could and should be strong measures. Finally, the biggest challenge is to think of big ideas such as the ones mentioned earlier in piece. This needs a shift of orientation from execution to ideas, which will help break out of the clutter in the marketplace and help the brand get noticed. The marketplace is becoming as cluttered as the media space, and the challenge to get consumer attention on the ground is as difficult as it is on traditional media. Measurement and ideas will enable activation agencies to charge premiums for their services.
In sum, activation is theatre staged by a brand on the ground. Whether it's a media conference or a salesman meet or a consumer activity, it is worthwhile to think about drama and experiences and deliver ideas. That will be the future for value creation.
Let me conclude by seeking inspiration from a modern guru of ideas, Steve Jobs. Even though he designed breakthrough products, he always created theatre to launch his products with the clear intention to dramatise the "let there be light" moment when the product was revealed - much to the delight of his audience. If Jobs felt the need to do it, mere "mortal" brands need to work much harder. Something worth thinking about.
The writer is vice chairman, Ogilvy India.
These views are his own.
madhukar.sabnavis@ogilvy.com
These views are his own.
madhukar.sabnavis@ogilvy.com
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
