Activation agency for one activation, planned properly from the start

What an activation involves

An activation normally runs through the same stages: understanding the audience and the goal, the creative idea, design, production, the live days, and measurement afterwards. Each stage depends on the one before it, and most problems come from skipping one.

It helps to know early what success looks like. Press coverage, sign-ups, sampling numbers, footfall and dwell time need different designs, and deciding afterwards is too late to measure any of them properly. The usual failures are predictable: no single clear idea, nothing for the press, a site where the wrong people walk past, and no plan for measuring the day. Each is avoidable if it is raised early.

How long it takes

A standard activation is usually planned eight to twelve weeks out, and a large one three to six months. The idea and design take the first part of that. Making and testing the build takes longer than most first-time buyers expect, and packing and transport need the last week or two.

Because you see the activation standing on its site early, the design is agreed faster, and more of the time goes into making it well. If your date is closer than that, say so. Knowing what is fixed and what can move lets us tell you quickly what is possible in the time.

Permissions and insurance

If the idea involves a public street, the council gets a say before anyone else does. Any structure on a street or pavement needs a street works licence or a pavement licence, notice runs from about a week to three months depending on the road, and working without one is an offence. Private sites have their own gatekeepers, from shopping centre management to the landowner.

Whoever grants permission also sets the level of public liability cover they want. We find out what that is at the start and agree it before the design is finished, so the idea is never built around a site you cannot use.

What to send

The launch date, what the product does, who needs to notice, any sites you have in mind, your brand guidelines and a budget range. A range is useful because it lets us design to it from the first sketch. If you have seen an activation you liked, send that too, and say what you liked about it.

Working behind your agency

If you are an agency with the client relationship and the creative, and you need the activation designed in detail, built and installed, we can work behind you. We deal with you, keep to your client's brand and your timings, and only speak to your client if you ask us to.