The Real ROI of Your Brand Activations Isn’t Measured in Followers — Here’s How to Calculate It with Sales Data
- Claire Brunaud
- Oct 17
- 2 min read
Brand activations are multiplying across bars, festivals, and summer terraces.
Social media lights up, cocktail photos flood in, and marketing dashboards display thousands of views and interactions.
But behind the buzz, one key question remains:
👉 Did it actually drive sales?
The Trap of “Like Marketing”
For a long time, activation success was measured through the most visible indicators:the number of venues activated, participants, stories posted, or followers gained.
These metrics create a feeling of performance — but they say nothing about real consumption.
For a foodservice brand, the goal isn’t to be seen, it’s to be served.
Without sales tracking, it’s impossible to know:
if the product was ordered more often,
if volumes actually increased,
or if visibility translated into market share.
In other words, we often celebrate awareness… without knowing if it moved the cash register.
The Real ROI: The One You Can Read in Sales Tickets
A truly profitable activation is one that makes people buy more, buy better, or buy longer.And only sales data can prove that.
Let’s take a concrete example:
A beer brand launches a contest in 200 bars.Goal: boost sales for one month.
With Fyre, the brand can compare activated bars with a non-activated control group:
+18% in volume sold during the campaign,
+6% in average ticket,
and a 2-week lasting effect after the operation ended.
That’s real ROI: measurable, comparable, and actionable.
How to Measure the Impact of a Brand Activation
At Fyre, we help brands put sales data at the heart of their activations through Fyre Activation Monitor.
Here’s how to effectively measure ROI:
Connect Points of Sale:Data flows directly from partner POS systems in real time.
Create a Control Group:Compare activated bars to non-activated ones to isolate the real campaign effect.
Analyze Key Indicators:Track volume growth, incidence rate, average basket, price impact, and post-activation effects.
Adjust Continuously:Test different mechanics (POS materials, offers, pricing) and double down on what works — thanks to instant on-trade insights.
This loop — activate, measure, optimize — is what turns a campaign into a truly profitable strategy.
Data: The New Compass for On-Trade Marketing
The biggest brands have already realized it: the goal isn’t just to run activations, but to know which ones work.
Coca-Cola, for example, used Fyre during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to track real-time sales across 7,000 bars, test multiple field strategies, and focus efforts on the highest-performing hotspots.
The result: faster decisions, measurable impact, and proven ROI.
Visibility Is the Beginning. Profitability Is the Goal.
The success of an activation isn’t measured in hashtags —it’s measured by how fast products move out of the fridge.
With reliable sales data, every euro invested can be tied to a tangible result.
At Fyre, we help brands turn their activations into measurable business decisions: Insights, not impressions.
The real ROI isn’t measured in followers — it’s measured in drinks served.And with Fyre Activation Monitor, brands finally have the data they need to prove — and improve — the real impact of their actions in bars.
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