5 Types of Outdoor Brand Activations to Raise Brand Awareness in 2024

Complementing traditional Out-of-Home campaigns with bespoke interactive outdoor brand activations is a clever strategy that allows you to reach your target audiences and truly engage them.

One of the most important goals of OOH campaigns is to increase brand awareness.

In a recent consumer survey on the best forms of media for driving brand awareness across all demographics and age groups, OOH advertising came out on top. 49% of Gen X, 45% of millennials, and 42% of Gen Z said OOH campaigns made them ‘more aware of brands’, ahead of social media, TV, website, radio, and online video advertising.

Raise your target audience’s engagement with your brand by adding outdoor brand activations to your campaigns in urban areas. 

Here, we take a look into 5 different types of outdoor brand activations to raise brand awareness in 2024.

1. Taxi Swarms

The wonder of transit media campaigns in busy cities for advertisers is that they spread your brand messaging and increase brand awareness while moving along with outdoor audiences. 

One important element driving heightened brand awareness in outdoor campaigns is their memorability for audiences. Drovo’s full taxi wraps are certainly memorable, turning heads with custom creative in vivid colours. 

Our taxis, available in 13 UK cities, are highly visual and vibrant transit media assets. In a consumer survey on brand recognition, 81% of consumers were more likely to remember a brand’s colour before its name.

At Drovo, we offer taxi swarms that include:

• A coordinated fleet of branded taxis, driving along a bespoke route for maximum, concentrated visual impact
• Opportunity to include brand ambassadors to facilitate product sampling
• PR moments with staged taxis in front of iconic London landmarks 

The goal of your taxi swarms will be to create brand awareness amongst audiences and promote a product, or convince people to visit an important location related to your brand, e.g. a new store. 

At Drovo, our experienced ops team are on hand to help deliver first in class taxi swarms that will do wonders for your brand awareness and keep your visibility high.

We have previously run impactful taxi storms for brands such as 

• Hyatt Hotels (totalled just under 13 million impressions with near to a Hyatt Hotel in London)
• Rustlers
• Global ETF

2. Pop-up Stands As Outdoor Brand Activations

You often find pop-up stands and displays in and around shopping centres. The benefit of pop-ups is outdoor customers physically being able to view and touch your product/s in the flesh. 

For example, not all consumers want to buy mobile phones from online vendors, but when they are able to see one in person and a pop-up brand ambassador shows them how the phone works, they will be more inclined to buy one. 

Have you got a certain promotion or a discount for a particular product at the moment that you want more consumers to be aware of? Connecting with audiences at pop-ups is one outdoor brand activation avenue to attract more sales.

3. Product Sampling

What better way to bring your products to consumers than handing out free product samples? Not only will the busy brand ambassadors on the streets attract attention to your brand, but outdoor audiences will also be able to make sensory connections to your products through the samples. 

Perfume is a typical product that consumers prefer to see and smell themselves before buying a bottle, hence product sampling brand activations for perfume products are highly effective. 

A perfect example of an effective product sampling outdoor brand activation to enhance a taxi media campaign was when we at Drovo used a brand ambassador to hand out 5,000 perfume product samples for the new Fame fragrance launched by Paco Rabanne in London. 

What was so effective about our Paco Rabanne outdoor activation and how did it raise brand awareness? Well, the branded Paco Rabanne taxis we organised coupled with the brand ambassador handing out thousands of product samples created palpable on-street awareness and visibility for Paco Rabanne’s latest perfume. 

It was an ideal time for a product sampling outdoor brand activation since it was during the world-famous London Fashion Week and took place in the fashion iconic shopping district of Oxford Street, hence the luxury perfume product samples were able to attract the attention of highly interested street-level audiences. 

4. Community-Focussed Outdoor Brand Activation Events 

Community-focussed activities such as charity events, family days, or any social events can serve as positive outdoor brand activations. 

Never underestimate the power of community events and people coming together to contribute towards good causes. At the same time, community-focussed events also do wonders for spreading good messaging about your brand and its social responsibility and positive impact on communities.

5. VIP Experience Activations 

Another way to create excitement amongst outdoor audiences and raise brand awareness is through VIP experience activations.

Influential people including celebrities, musicians, sports stars, social media influencers, or leaders in their field (such as CEOs), typically get audiences talking about your brand. A research study found that celebrity endorsements are associated with a 20-40% increase in sales and trust. 

At Drovo, we provide a VIP outdoor brand activation experience whereby a VIP guest/s travels to an event, such as a film premier or a sponsored club night, in your branded taxi. 

This way, not only do you get the amazing PR and brand exposure of a VIP travelling in a taxi with your branding, but your branded taxi will also be shown in the photographs as your VIP gets in and out of the taxi.