Fun is key to engaging with your audience and creating a memorable experience, and nobody knows this better than Bacardi. We caught up with the brilliant Daniella Victoria Robbins, Experiential Manager for Bacardi Iberia, to share her insights and practical tips on creating a high-impact, high-energy, brand activation.
What are your tips on connecting your brand messaging and activation across platforms to continue the customer experience?
To ensure ongoing brand conversations with consumers long after your activation, you must strive to make your experiential marketing part of an integrated marketing plan, with 360-degree amplification and a voice of authenticity. Within a brand activation, there must a call to action and mechanism to capture data, so sustained impacts of your activation can be tracked post-event. It is important for a brand to capture the reaction to the experience, also any attitudinal changes towards the brand as well as behavioural changes including consumption frequency. Encourage brand teams to opt for social listening, surveying, and incentivising consumers to shop across the various sales channels after the first touchpoint activation.
What’s your favourite activation and why?
In 2019, I was drawn to Vueling, a Spanish airline brand activation on festival sites at BBK Live, Bilbao and CRUILLA in Barcelona. It consisted of a pop-up air cabin, operating day and night, as a fun, interactive game. Participants climbed into a sealed, transparent pod and they turned on the airflow. Against the odds, players were instructed to grab as many tickets as they could in a limited time, displayed on high visibility stopwatch. Hidden among the tickets were prize giveaways such as a trip to Disneyland Paris for two or festival merchandise. It was a truly eye-catching experience, perfect for driving user-generated content!
What’s the key to success with Bacardí’s activations?
As the world’s most prized rum, serving high-quality tasting drinks is paramount to continue growing our 150+ year legacy. At festivals and events, it can always be a challenge to deliver consistently, both on presentation and taste, especially when a mass sampling activation or multiple bars may be operating at one time. BACARDÍ believes in training and development of bar staff as well as understanding when to show the right drink to the right people at the right time. In the UK we run a program called Festival Maestros under the BACARDÍ rum brand, where hospitality industry workers can build their skills and learn about efficiency in mixology and speed of service. Across our Benelux region and the UK, we have also collaborated with a company called TAILS who produce a ready-to-serve cocktail range – perfect for “no previous bar experience required – which has proved to be a great solution, made up of Bacardi world-class spirits and 100% natural ingredients.
In your opinion, what is the key element for an activation to capture the imaginations of your audience?
“If it´s a floor, it´s a dancefloor.”
For BACARDÍ, our experiential offering requires dynamic aesthetics, immersive activations and an open plan layout that can transport the consumer to a Global Urban Caribbean-inspired world. We want people to feel free to dance, drink, create and party – even on stage. We live for creating unexpected moments.
Anyone else fancying a mojito after all that? Bacardi have made strides in bringing their community together to experience their BACARDÍ rum brand in a tangible way and, most importantly, have some fun!
We’re very excited to have Daniella on our expert line-up for our Exceptional Experiences content stream this year, so if you enjoyed this be sure to head over to our website and register your interest!