Three ideas for fully-online digital brand activation campaigns

Like virtual corporate events, it's more and more common to run hybrid and fully-online campaigns. Although these lack the physical element of in-person activations they can be exceptionally effective when used in conjunction with a solid social media and marketing campaign to drive visitors. The beauty of these activations is that they are uniquely virtual—you can do things here that you couldn't do in person.

Idea #1 - Live polls

An exceptional core mechanic is the live-poll experience. Customers are encouraged to visit a website through a promotion. There they are asked to vote for their favorite __ and to share the poll on social media with the promise of reward. It's a simple concept that can be used in multiple configurations.

Some examples include:

-“What's your favourite soft drink?” -“To what charity should our donation go?”

• “Choose the best podcast episode this year”

Add a twist to this idea:

• Let customers double their vote if they share with a friend
• Add live updates to the website so customers can see the scores shift in realtime
• Eliminate the loser every day and reset the score until you reach a final winner

Idea #2 - Collaborative challenges

Another great way to engage a brand's audience is with a collaborative goal-based game. A customer visits the campaign page to take part in a quiz or game. Their score contributes to a global high score. When that score reaches a particular limit, a reward is unlocked for everyone involved. This could be a giveaway, a digital download, a charity donation of the brand's behalf—the options are limitless.

Some examples of this idea:

• “We'll donate €1,000 for every 10,000 won”
• “Get over 1 million points to receive a special gift”

Some twists on this idea:

• Mix it with the live-poll and make it competitive and team-oriented. Participants choose their side and face-off against one another to pull “their” side across the line first.
• Add multipliers for sharing with friends or followers

Idea #3 - Geolocated challenges

Finally, when your campaign is fully online, a novel way to involve people is to deliver the challenge directly to them. Here you can have participants use their location to interact with your activation.

• Challenge users to get the highest score in their town or city with an online arcade game.
• Run a clean up the street campaign and have participants claim their street once they've completed a local cleanup.
• Host a remote marathon where participants submit their regular 5km run. The goal can be to collectively run the distance of an entire city or country.

These are just a few simple suggestion, but adding a location-based dimension to your activations can breath new life into old ideas.