The online and offline world is becoming increasingly oversaturated with a cocktail of content, news, ads and products. Beverage brands are focusing more on the element of interactive brand-consumer experiences to stand out in these highly competitive spots. In this environment, the age of static messages is losing its effect. Under the term interactive marketing, much is being done to prompt consumer-brand interactions.

The question for trade marketers and brand builders is how this interactive trend can be successfully translated and integrated with brand visibility products and POS materials to active brands at competitive and crowded spots.

Here are three opportunities of offline interactive brand activation to turn static branded products into interactive interfaces that proactively engage and connect consumers to your brand.

Main image photo credits: @DVPHOTOVIDEO shooting for @aLiveCoverage

Why is interactive brand activation winning? 

1. Brands need to stand out and find ways for customers to engage with their products to elevate the total brand experience. Interactive brand activation (online or offline) has proactive customer engagement at the core.
2. The goal involves prompting potential customers to initiate an action-reaction connection with your brand, engraining the memory deeper through a pleasurable and slightly surprising experience.
3. Today, people are less prone to be persuaded in the traditional sense of passive content sharing or advertising. The brand should seamlessly integrate with the experience and empower them to have the choice to interact and make it a part of their own experience if they please.

The main benefit of this type of interaction is that when consumers actively engage with an item, your brand or product will inevitably become more memorable and relevant for them. Let's move on to existing examples of products to realize these benefits. 

#1 Subtle triggered movement: Signum© technology connects branded products to the consumer

Imagine a tap handle triggering a leaderboard with a realtime beer volume counter at sports events. Or a consumer walking past a motion sensor at their favourite bar only to be lit up step by step synchronized with your large illuminated brand signage. Or groups of friends at their favourite bar getting greeted by a digital painting as they take their spot. Thanks to the compact motion-triggered technology of Signum©, two (or more items) can easily be connected in busy locations linked to a consumer's action.

The Signum© innovation offers triggered movement instead of constant movement, ensuring a subtle draw of attention. It results in a pleasant brand experience with no intrusions. Find out more here. 

This type of subtle triggered movement is non-intrusive, self-managed by the consumer and built on the element of pleasurable surprise to attract attention. These are crucial elements to engrain your brand more profoundly into the memory of your target group without being perceived as intrusive in their experience. 

#2 Playful interactive marketing offline: prompting product engagement with The Can Tower

Interactive brand activation can also be translated to specific products or occasions. By adapting what was once a static branded product to contain an element that prompts consumers to take action, you inevitably raise the engagement component of the total brand experience. These interactive elements don't always have to have a digital (touch screen) component. They can be actual physical actions requiring the consumer to perform some type of movement. 

Concept 'The Can Tower' for the Desperados brand.

The touch element can be as simple as creating a fun self-service way of consuming products or a pull-a-lever way to access drinks. Let consumers and partygoers take matters into their own hands. This allows your brand to become a dynamic component of the total experience and probably the centre of attention in groups of friends.

The Can Tower, for example, is a high-quality product experience for events and busy locations with an action-focused grab-n-drink functionality that builds onto the interactive brand-consumer connection through physical movement. The grabbable cans are easily accessible through an illuminated display, and once a can is withdrawn, a zigzag motion comes into play with a new can ready to be grabbed. This type of physical movement prompts repeated action. Read more about the latest product development of The Can Tower here. 

#3 Interactive content marketing:

The Digital Tap Lens 

The newest beer branding innovation combines two essential brand needs in today's world. First, it allows you to switch from passive to dynamic content sharing. Having a digital lens connected to an interface where content is easily changed with a click of a button allows for varied content at an eye-level spot: on the tap lens itself.

Furthermore, it gives marketeers and brand builders more variation in their messaging without the additional costs of changing a physical product or promotional item. 

From an interactive perspective, the dynamic content on the tap lens can be linked to online marketing campaigns. For example, it can prompt consumers to track down the tap lens content as a continuation of the digital activation to specific hospitality spots.

Integrated with a QR code or other call-to-action on the tap lens allows you to complete the omnichannel experience and provide consumers with engaging promotional content across their journey. 

The Digital Tap Lens can be integrated to receive realtime data to track volumes which can be further used to improve the tap lens content. Together with the previously discussed triggered movement technology of Signum, the possibilities of creating an interactive brand journey at physical locations are endless. 

Let your creativity loose for your next brand activation! Want to map out your brand's interactive consumer journey to create more engaging experiences? Get in touch with the team - no strings attached.