Capturing people when they are open and relaxed at a local or ‘niche’ event can be a great opportunity to reach them through brand experience.
Here are 6 tips for making an effective and lasting impression on customers using local and immediate activations.
Add value to the host event
Successful experiences will bring to life a brand and its communications in a way that is relevant for the event, as opposed to just shouting advertising messages at people. To do this it’s important to understand the mindset of the consumer at that particular time and place. Brand activations should be themed around the interests of the audience and designed to complement but not compete with the main attraction.
Know your audience
A good agency will accurately profile an event’s audience and match it to a brand’s target customers. Armed with this intelligence you can achieve some excellent saturation levels at a smaller gathering, delivering a higher number of interactions and a lower cost per engagement than you might see at broader events.
Invest in Brand Ambassadors
As ever, the quality and training of the brand ambassador – their enthusiasm for the brand story and their passion for the experience – will be pivotal to its success. A BA should not only be a good fit for the brand but also the location and the event. If you’re targeting a cycling event or a music festival then the BAs will build a genuine and authentic connection with the audience if they too have a passion for bikes or bands. 
Make the most of social media
Local and social pre-promotion should be an integral part of your planning model. Many niche events are designed to be ‘status makers’ and the secondary reach through social media can be as powerful as that of larger, more traditional consumer events.
Make the national local
There are many benefits for a national brand prepared to support local communities and events. Enabling brands to showcase their local credentials and bring to life a human and personal business front. Brands that are seen to open their arms to embrace this age of transparency and to create conversations with consumers are able to build long term, genuine relationships.
Continue the conversation
Remember to give people the opportunity, either through local infrastructure or via Social Media to continue talking with you. It can also be cost effective to tune events regionally or even town by town if the experience is right for the target audience and local mindset. Clever design of a campaign should include re-brandable assets that can be used at a number of locations for repeat delivery at a string of events.