Why Experiential Activation Staff Are Vital

Experiential activation staff are the last mile. The final 10%.

Whether it’s a product sampling campaign, an activation or you are hiring a bartender for a brand-led event, getting the staffing right is vital.

Getting this wrong as a drinks brand will affect your customer experience and as a consequence your brand equity efforts.

All brand marketers know that IRL experiential activation, in general, costs big bucks to activate.

They also know the potential for brand building, positive sentiment and return on investment is huge, providing experiential activation delivers on all fronts.

Why The Focus On Experiential Activation Staff?

We have been in the brand activation and events space for decades and have seen the good, the bad and the ugly.

When experiential activation is delivered to a high level, as a consumer, it’s a total joy to experience.

When it’s done badly it becomes forgettable or worse still.

The experiential activation we have experienced over the years, which has fallen short, is more often than not because the final mile is not given its due attention and care – the experiential activation staff.

We can see how it can happen to. Delivering newsworthy experiential activation is a huge project.

Spiralling budgets, out-of-reach KPIs, multiple agencies and challenges with where to show up can all divert attention.

Another big problem comes with the natural instinct marketers have to make things beautiful. Stunning brand assets and a pursuit of perfection can take a huge amount of resources away from decision-makers.

As experiential assets can take many months to come to fruition, not to mention the logistical planning and partnership negotiations, experiential activation staffing is often the last piece of the jigsaw to put in place.

We feel this is where the problem can lie.

With a huge amount of planning already done, marketers can sometimes fall foul of not giving the experiential activation staffing its due attention.

This is a big risk and one we have seen go very wrong out in the wild.

Why Are Experiential Activation Staff So Important?

Experiential activation staff are responsible for creating connections with consumers on the ground.

It’s really important not to underestimate this role.

When executing an experiential brand activation there are a number of jobs to do. Two of the most important are being able to capture consumers attention in a matter of seconds and the second is being able to connect the consumer and the brand being activated.

If your experiential team can achieve these two things it will set you up for success.

Aside from this, extending your brand’s reach can be a real challenge and experiential activation staff are the key to building brand equity in live environments at scale.

Nascent brands are often able to deliver key sampling and activation occasions either at the HQ level, with the RTM, marketing or internal events teams delivering the consumer-facing activity.

However, once drinks brands hit a certain scale and are in an expansion phase to get more market share it becomes hugely important to ensure any third parties are a genuine extension of your brand.

3 Ways To Ensure You Get The Right Experiential Activation Staff

Now we have discussed why experiential activation staff are so important, it’s time to look deeper into actionable steps to get the right people repping your brand.

1. Agency Selection

There are lots of good agencies out there who offer great staffing solutions, each with their own specialism or lane of expertise.

What is important is picking the right agency for the brand and campaign objectives.

Here at Wilde Toast, we specialise in drinks and drinks only. This allows us to optimise for sampling drinks and be genuine experts in getting liquid on lips. We feel this is important, as each product category that has the potential to be sampled at scale will have its nuances, emotional connection of consumer, legislation and consumer need.

For example, sampling wellness products versus alcohol needs a completely different set of expertise, consumer approach and messaging.

2. Get Into The Detail About Recruitment

A key element of due diligence is fully understanding how your agency recruits its sampling teams. You can understand a huge amount about agency approach and methodology by understanding where their people come from.

In the example of our agency, we recruit predominantly from the UK on-trade. We feel there is no one more passionate about drinks than bartenders and it’s our belief that bartenders can connect with consumers about drinks like no other.

Our point is that understanding these steps an agency takes will help you determine the potential people you might have at your activation.

3. The Training Process

Another really, really important piece of the puzzle is how the agency onboards and trains its people to be brand champions. Ask questions on this and be satisfied with the training steps and training methodology that is used.

Brand immersion is a given but ensure you understand exactly how your chosen agency will deliver training and what the content, beyond the brand, will be.

Winning experiential staff need to understand the brand’s target demographic, how data might be captured, what environments they will sample in, key messaging and what goals are being set for the campaign.

Conclusions

Putting the right time and focus into getting the right people to represent your brand is non-negotiable.

The role of experiential activation staff cannot be understated – they are the last mile between your brand and the consumer.

It’s these individuals who have the ability to scale your brand and be a true extension of the team. Getting into the details, fully immersive training and motivating the experiential teams is also of great importance.

As a brand manager or owner, the responsibility is with you to ensure the activation or campaign is maximised.