5 Brand Activation Strategies That Worked for Bobbi Brown

One of the hottest fashion and beauty trends for 2024 is customization and personalization — offering consumers an array of choices that lets them find the solution that’s just right for them. That’s the right vibe for beauty brand Bobbi Brown, whose emphasis on emphasizing natural features made the brand an industry leader. For more than 40 years, Bobbi Brown has helped customers find the products and shades that most enhance their unique, individual beauty. Working with Promobile Marketing, the brand created an activation/pop-up that combined multiple experiential marketing strategies to create a positive connection with visitors.

Strategy #1: A Custom Vehicle

For this activation, Bobbi Brown used a fully customized, fully wrapped glass box truck. Eye-catching and multipurpose, glass box trucks are a perfect fit for beauty brands, allowing the brand to create a mobile makeup salon inside the truck that’s visible from the outside.

Within the confines of the truck, a brand can promote makeup products by giving away samples, leading tutorials, and teaching customers how to use them. The truck’s footprint — the parking spaces or sidewalks immediately next to the truck — creates another opportunity to build a fun, attention-grabbing platform to further attract visitors.

In the case of the Bobbi Brown activation, the glass-walled truck let the activation’s staff, a team of makeup artists and brand ambassadors, show consumers the beauty of their own skin through a makeup experience that catered to everyone of every skin shade while teaching them how to use the products.

Strategy #2: The Right Location

For the Bobbi Brown activation, the target audience was makeup users of all ages and skin tones, ideally while they’re in the mood to try and buy new products. The perfect spot: a premium parking place right outside beauty superstore Sephora.

Positioning the truck outside Sephora guaranteed a flow of passers-by interested in beauty products, even if some of them were there to shop for other products. “Being located really close to your competitors can be a good thing, as you are able to tap into the customers of the competitors and take advantage of all the advertising and marketing they have carried out to drive business to their door,” explains TJ Carroll in a recent LinkedIn article.

Strategy #3: Free Coffee

The Bobbi Brown activation offered free iced coffee, served by professional baristas, to guests. This aspect of the event served two purposes: drawing a crowd, and making a positive impression.

Offering refreshments at an activation is a solid strategy regardless of whether your brand sells snacks or skincare. “Free food is one of the best ways to draw a crowd,” notes a recent Promobile article, “so lots of brands incorporate culinary creativity into pop-up shops and brand activations.”

Providing refreshments to visitors adds sensory elements to the experiential event. This creates positive associations with the event and therefore the brand, regardless of industry or product. “Consider the example of salons and spas,” says a recent blog post. “Many wellness service providers offer their customers coffee, tea, flavored water, or even small bites.”

Strategy #4: Sampling

Where cosmetics are concerned, firsthand experience is everything. Most consumers prefer to shop in-person, at least with their initial purchase, so they can see, smell, feel, and sample the products for themselves. Another, perhaps surprising reason: shopping for makeup is an event in itself, says an article by Dalziel & Pow. “It’s a leisure activity for many, especially for those who like to visit beauty stores with friends.”

On the brand’s fully customized, fully-wrapped glass box truck, makeup experts color matched each guest with their proper palette and gave them a glow up at stations on the truck. This created an opportunity for the consumers to not only learn which Bobbi Brown products best suited their skin tone and how the products felt on their skin (a very important characteristic in foundation products especially), but also have an initial positive experience that sets them up for success with the product going forward. Ultimately, the Bobbi Brown activation distributed more than 2,000 makeup kits to over a thousand guests and passers-by.

Strategy #5: Interactivity

Positive affirmations were a running theme of the #InMySkin campaign, and part of the activation, too. A mirror with a digital text overlay selfie station generated unique, positive messages for each guest that approached it. And as they enjoyed treats in the activation’s footprint, visitors were invited and encouraged to write their own beauty affirmations on a mirror finish on the side of the truck. This elevated the truck’s value as a social media photo opportunity, contributing heavily to the more than 7,500 social media impressions the event drew.

Promobile Marketing is a dynamic experiential marketing agency based in New York City. For over a decade, Promobile Marketing has collaborated with a range of brands—from budding startups to major CPG brands—on immersive marketing campaigns. Get in touch to discuss your next project.