With high satisfaction levels in so many categories, product trial is often the only way to get customers to switch brands. But motivating trial isn’t easy.

People don’t enjoy physical retail shopping like they did before Amazon came along. So what should marketers do?

Post pandemic, people want to socialize in-person and create fun, social content. This is what’s driving interest in “eatertainment” spaces with updated, physical games like pickleball, darts, skeeball, shuffleboard, etc.

Chicken N Pickle. Flight Club. AceBounce. The commercial real estate industry classifies these businesses as “Competitive Socializing.”

Now sports and enthusiast brands are taking advantage of competitive socializing, to create fun trial experiences.  Here are 3 examples...

As US states allow EV startups to sell directly to consumers, brand activations like pop-up retail, road shows and local showrooms are building momentum. 

In a KPMG study released last year, nearly half of global automotive executives think that most of new-vehicle sales worldwide will be directly to consumers from the manufacturer, by 2030.

So automakers will need to connect directly with consumers.  And local brand activations are looking like a great solution.