Marketing Communications

406 CHAPTER 12 BRAND ACTIVATION

Feel/Relate

Th e power of emotions has already been described (see Chapter 3 ). Experiential marketing

builds on this power but goes one step further than emotional advertising does. It tries to bring

the brand to life by brand interactions. For example, a brand activation programme oft en

makes use of a website that enables consumers to contact the company easily and exchange

information with other consumers.^105 Moreover, eff ective brand activation campaigns stimulate

not only brand–consumer interactions, but also consumer–consumer interactions, to have

joint brand experiences. Th e Rugbeer campaign of Salta Cerveza (see below) is a good example

of how friends interact together with the brand. Th is way, a deeper emotional engagement

can be reached making brand loyalty more likely.

a moustache, on others only a beard or both a moustache and beard. When the hairdressers brought a drink (as

usual), the Taiwanese men were surprised by seeing in the mirror how they looked like with facial hair. Besides

advice, the hairdressers also distributed coupons for the Philips grooming kit (50% off). Of all Taiwanese men

visiting a hairdresser during the campaign, 95% changed their minds about facial hair, and 25% redeemed the

coupon. With a simple campaign, built on the ‘sight’ sense, Philips proved its ‘sense and simplicity’ slogan for a cost

of per $2 contact.^104

Argentina is the country with the most soccer fans in the world, but in the Salta Province people are more into rugby.

To tap into these feelings and give the rugby fans a special experience, Salta Cerveza came up with a Rugbeer vend-

ing machine that needed to be ‘tackled’ to get a beer. The Rugbeer vending machine was equipped with a so-called

‘pussy meter’, going from ‘chicken’ to ‘bull’. Only if the machine were tackled hard enough would a can of beer come

out. On the first night, the vending machine was tackled 332 times. People interacted not only with the brand, but

also with each other. Indeed, many youngsters made a kind of game out of it: who could tackle the machine the

hardest? Next, the machine went on tour around several pubs. Besides delivering funny and painful brand interac-

tions, the campaign also increased sales of Salta Cerveza by 25%.^106

BUSINESS INSIGHT

Rugbeer

As also outlined earlier (see Chapter 2 ), going a step further in emotional engagement

stimulates brand communities. For instance, during the Jeep jamborees, Harley-Davidson

brand fests and the Vespa community rides, really strong emotional experiences can be

jointly built in a group of very passionate brand lovers. Also members of online communities

• such as those of Nutella, Nike, Audi and Ducati – exchange all kinds of strong brand expe-
  riences. Importantly, research has shown that brand communities strengthen loyalty and
  long-term brand relations.^107

Think

Brand experiences can also be built by having consumers think. Th ink campaigns are com-

mon for new technology products and have been used for such product categories for ages.

Examples are Apple’s ‘Th ink Diff erently’ campaign or Microsoft ’s ‘Where Do You Want to Go

Today?’ campaign.^108 However, in other industries experiences can also be built on the think

M12_PELS3221_05_SE_C12.indd 406M12_PELS3221_05_SE_C12.indd 406 5/6/13 2:58 PM5/6/13 2:58 PM