Building Brand Awareness—3 Ideas to Steal Right Now

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How can you build brand awareness while still navigating through the pandemic, and eventually out of it?

COVID has made it especially hard for brands to sell products or services when consumer’s spending habits have really changed.

Here are some really cool ideas I’ve seen from around the world to get you excited about what you could be planning for your brand once we come out of this mess.

Zoom out and see your brand as part of an ecosystem so you can really leverage on partners and also think outside the box.

Strategic product placement

A friend in Australia who rents out a beach cottage for holiday stays on a platform called Riparide (apparently more upmarket than Airbnb, with a focus on escapes to nature) shared this really cool concept with me. He was approached by a sustainable cleaning brand Zero on Instagram and they sent him all these products for free to stock at his place in exchange for some clever placement of leaflets for a discount code for guests.

There are a couple of really great pointers in this example here.

1.They make it SO EASY to say yes

The concept is refillable kitchen, bathroom and laundry products to reduce single use plastics, and they’ve even sent envelopes with a return address already on it to mail back the refill pouches. You literally don’t have to lift a single finger to be part of their affiliate programme.

2. Don’t do EVERYTHING, but be SMART about what you do

Zero has honed in to WHERE their audience already is. They didn’t just find any holiday home but one that’s already on a platform catered to people who want to be around nature, who naturally care for nature and sustainability. They’ve really maximized their efforts by getting crystal clear about who they’re targeting, and where they are.

3.You don’t have to reinvent the wheel!  

Find out where your people are and go THERE. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Brands have been doing this for all of history, with partnerships for toiletries in hotels.

Here they’re creating even bigger impact because they’re in a “home” environment, where you’re tapping into their emotions of the feelings of an aspirational lifestyle. It lowers buyer resistance compared to strategic product placement at a hotel.

This can also be used for things like spa products and kitchen products. As long as it’s done in an authentic way, holiday rentals could literally become a product showroom without the tackiness.

Engage all the senses

During lockdown one of my partner’s and my favourite Afro-Caribbean spots was offering a really cool tasting menu that came with cocktails and a spotify playlist. That’s something we could’ve done ourselves, but ended up being such a fun night to recreate the experience of the bar at home, and music definitely played a big part in it!

For the longest time, Nike has created run playlists but it’s really cool to see other industries pick up on this as well. I recently saw a shampoo brand come out with a playlist to listen to in the shower as well.

Audio is such a powerful medium to connect with people all over the world. Now that I’ve started a podcast, it’s been really lovely to get messages from friends near and far, in different countries saying how they’ve listened in and felt like they were chatting in the same room.

What are some ways that you can transport your audience somewhere else? Curate some really cool experiences for them while using your products? It’s a way to activate our senses and bring a different kind of brand experience to them.

Curate intimate experiences

I recently spoke to a boutique F&B brand, who asked about how to grow their customer base. They’ve tried using paid ads before, but it only really worked during the holiday season. So people were obviously looking for catering ideas for Christmas parties, but other times of the year, they probably wanted what’s most convenient for them and what’s at the top of their heads.

My tip for them is to focus on behaviours rather than demographics. And to focus on depth rather than breadth.

Like-minded people always hang out with like-minded people. Most likely you’re friends with someone because you share something in common like your values, taste, lifestyle. And it might not be limited to age, gender, type of job.

What are some really cool, curated, intimate experiences you can create for some of your most loyal customers, and get them to invite some of their closest friends too? A private cheese tasting event. A private jewellery try-on or styling session before a night out with the girls. Small and intimate is definitely the way to go coming out of this pandemic as people might still have anxiety around being in big crowds.

So, I hope these ideas give you a spark of inspiration somewhere!

So how will your business adapt?

With the ups and downs that the pandemic brings us through, we find that success can no longer be measured just by profit. More and more we’re seeing people wanting businesses that want to bring purposeful change in the world and more importantly, they want them to do it with intention, empathy and compassion. By doing so, you’ll begin to earn trust and build goodwill.

What does your audience value today? What will it take to serve them?

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