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Service pillar · 04 / 04 · BTL
BTL marketing& activation
Since 201565+ in-house team6 cities
BTL marketing and activation for Indian brands that need to meet buyers face to face. That is where purchase decisions actually get made.
A strategist calls you in one working day.
/ 01 BTL marketing
Meet your buyersface to face.
Stalls and dealer meets cost real money, and the names collected often never reach sales. PromotEdge is a BTL marketing agency that plans activations and events, runs dealer programmes and fits shop signage for Indian brands.
Every contact is captured on the spot, so you can count trials and leads, and the orders that follow.
BTL, in plain words. BTL (below the line), also called experiential marketing or brand activation, means meeting buyers face to face in small groups: a mall stall, a demo at a dealer's shop, a distributor meet. Many Indian buyers decide only after they see, touch or try a product.
Who it's for. B2C (consumer) brands and B2B (business) makers whose sale is made at a counter, on a site or at a trade show, and who need dealers and contractors on their side. Corporate groups, listed companies or startups, since 2015.
AI in BTL and activation: today and next
Today
On the ground, AI helps most with talk. Google Translate's live translate launched on 26 August 2025 in India, as well as the US and Mexico. It speaks the translation aloud and shows a transcript for two-way conversation in over 70 languages, Hindi and Tamil among them. Our crew can use it to follow a buyer who speaks another language. A local colleague still checks anything important.
Source: Google blog, 26 August 2025; read 10 October 2026
Next
Our view: AI will speed up the paperwork around BTL, such as crew briefs in local languages and lead sheets sorted by town. The demo and the handshake stay human, and so does the dealer's trust, and that is where BTL earns its cost. Planning a stall or dealer meet? Tell us the date. Follow-ups that run on AI sit in AI and systems.
- 2015working with Indian brands since
- 65+in-house team: strategy, creative, media and tech
- 4pillars under one roof: strategy, advertising, digital, on-ground activation (BTL)
- 6cities: head office in Kolkata, teams in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Guwahati and Bhubaneswar
/ 02 What's included
BTL and activation:what we plan and run.
01
Brand activations
Mall, society and campus activations that capture leads on the spot.
02Events & exhibitions
Stalls and dealer meets, plus launches, with every visitor followed up.
03Trade & channel marketing
Dealers and retailers on your side, through schemes and meets.
04Signage & retail branding
Sign boards and in-store branding, rolled out outlet by outlet.
05Rural marketing
Reach beyond the metros: haats, vans, wall painting.
06Corporate gifting & merchandise
Corporate gifts and branded merchandise for clients and teams.
/ 03 Which BTL do you need?
Match the activityto the problem.
| Your situation | Where we'd start | What it looks like | What we count |
|---|---|---|---|
| People need to try the product before they buy | Brand activations | Stalls in malls and campuses; sampling with data capture; demo or test-ride camps | Contacts, trials, leads, cost per lead |
| You're launching a product or meeting the trade | Events and exhibitions | Launches, dealer meets, trade-show stalls designed and built | Visitors, meetings booked, leads followed up, orders from the event |
| Dealers push a competitor's brand over yours | Trade and channel marketing | Dealer schemes and loyalty programmes; meets for masons, contractors or mechanics | Active dealers, scheme sign-ups, repeat orders |
| Your brand is invisible inside the shop | Signage and retail branding | Sign boards (glow, LED, ACP), in-store displays and POSM (point-of-sale materials), outlet by outlet | Outlets branded, photo proof for each, sell-out where data exists |
| Your buyers live beyond the cities | Rural marketing | Haat and mandi activations, van campaigns, wall painting | Villages and haats covered, contacts, trials, dealer enquiries |
| Nobody has heard of the brand yet | BTL paired with mainline advertising | TV, print or outdoor builds the name; activations turn it into trials | Branded search and enquiries in activation areas |
Most programmes combine two rows, such as a dealer meet before the season and then activations in the dealers' towns, with shop boards after. Not sure which two fit your season? The free growth plan suggests where to start.
Have a stall, dealer meet or launch coming up? Tell us the date and the city, and we will sketch how to count the leads. Get a free growth plan
/ 04 ATL, BTL, TTL
How BTL works with the other three pillars
ATL (above the line) is mass media such as TV and hoardings. BTL meets people face to face. TTL (through the line) uses both, plus digital, under one idea. Most of our BTL runs as TTL, because it is easier to promote and measure.
Which is better? It depends on whether your problem is awareness or trial. ATL reaches many people cheaply but is hard to trace to a sale. BTL reaches fewer, but each one can try the product and be counted. Social media is usually counted as digital.
With the other pillars. Our strategy work decides which towns and dealers matter most, and our founder and CEO, Saurav Agarwal, leads strategy. The stall carries the same idea as the film and press ad from our advertising team, with a radio spot or hoarding near the venue.
Social posts and local ads promote the event, and QR codes and WhatsApp capture leads at the stall. Every lead lands in the same CRM as your online leads, and our digital team follows up with ads.
Why it matters in India. In building materials (cement, pipes), paints, two-wheelers and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods, such as soap and biscuits), the sale is made at a dealer counter, on a site or at a weekly market. A mason, mechanic or shopkeeper often recommends the brand. BTL earns that.
From pushing stock to pulling buyers. Dealer schemes push stock into shops. Good activation makes buyers ask for your brand at the counter, worth more to a dealer than any scheme. We count that pull in trials, leads, then orders.
One team on the ground. Everything on the ground, from events to sign boards and merchandise, is delivered within the PromotEdge group, with our in-house team, plus industry consultants and partner agencies where a job needs them.
Numbers agreed before day one. Targets: contacts, trials or leads, and cost per lead. Crews record every lead on a tablet, QR code or WhatsApp with date and place, and sales gets it the same day.
Sales marks the good leads, and we count the orders that follow. One monthly report holds leads from activations and online, with dealer leads alongside, so you can compare a weekend of stalls with search or social cost per lead. Our senior account manager, Rima Shaw, is your day-to-day contact, with weekly reports.
How we'd start, and what we check. We ask your sales team and two or three dealers where buyers hesitate, run a few days in one or two towns, and check which leads sales closed. Only then do we add towns.
We don't have a stand-alone activation or event case study to show yet, so judge us on the process. Before the day we check permissions, stock, the crew briefing and the lead form. After it, the report shows each lead's date, place and cost, with photos and counts for every day and outlet.
On the day. Promoters are briefed on the product and offer, and on buyers' questions, and told what to capture. The stall is set up before the crowd, details are taken with consent, and a supervisor sends a lead count during the day.
Rules and season. Roadshows and van campaigns often need local police or municipal permission; malls, societies or colleges have their own rules and fees. Durga Puja, Diwali, harvest festivals, the wedding season and trade shows decide when buyers are out, and good slots go early, so the plan starts well before.
The honest part. BTL costs more per person reached than mass media. But the person at the stall can hold the product, ask a question and leave a number. Use it where that conversation is worth the cost: considered purchases and new categories, and dealer-driven sales.
Planning dealer meets for next season? Talk it through with us before you book a venue. Talk to us
/ 05 Industries
Where this works best.
01
Construction equipment
Contractors trust the machine their peers run on site more than any brochure.
02Building materials
The person who pays for the cement is rarely the one who picks the brand.
03Industrial & manufacturing
Procurement checks you out long before your sales team is invited to talk.
04Automotive
A buyer's interest fades fast when the enquiry reaches the right showroom late.
05Real estate
Enquiries are easy to buy, but the sale is won or lost at the site visit.
06FMCG
Your ad works for a rival if your product is missing from the shelf.
07Healthcare
Patients trust calm, clear information more than any discount, and the desk seals it.
/ 06 Cost
What affects the cost of BTL.
BTL is costed by the unit: per activation day, event, outlet or village. Every quote lists crew, materials, venue, travel and our fee as separate lines. We don't publish a price list. The smallest first step is a free 30-minute call with a strategist and a one-page plan, for projects we think we can help; we take a limited number.
What affects the cost
- Days and towns. A one-city weekend costs far less than a roadshow across three states.
- Venue and space. Mall atriums and exhibition halls charge for space; societies and colleges may need permissions and fees.
- Crew size and skills. Promoters, demonstrators, anchors and supervisors, and the local languages they need.
- Fabrication and materials. Stalls, kiosks, standees, sign boards and sampling packs. Custom builds cost more than modular ones.
- Travel and logistics. Vans, moving materials between towns, and crew stay outside the big cities.
- Permissions and season. Local permissions, peak-season venue rates, and sampling packs or prizes budgeted apart.
How we quote
- We talk about the goal: trials, leads, dealer orders or footfall, and the towns that matter.
- We look at your past activations and dealer network, and the season you plan for.
- We write the plan by unit: days, towns, outlets or villages, with crew, materials and permissions listed.
- You get the quote within 2 working days, each line shown, with venue, permissions and outside costs at actuals.
What you get in the quote
- The days, towns and venues, and the crew for each, with skills and languages.
- Fabrication and materials, and travel, transport and stay for crew and materials.
- Lead capture and follow-up: tablets, QR codes or WhatsApp, linked to your CRM.
- Venue and permission costs at actuals, and the reward pool shown separately.
Sign boards, in-store branding and wall painting are quoted per outlet or per sq ft by format and size. Dealer loyalty programmes carry a programme fee over months, with the reward pool shown apart. Compare quotes that show crew, materials, venue and permissions as their own lines.
Wondering how BTL work is priced and quoted? Read how we do it before you ask. How we price
/ 07 What happens next
What happensafter you ask.
For projects we think we can help, this is how it goes.
- 01
A strategist calls you
In one working day: a 30-minute call with one of our strategists about your business and what is not working.
- 02
You get a 1-page plan
A short, honest plan: what to fix first and what we would do. It is free.
- 03
A quote, if you want one
If you want to go ahead, we send a quote within 2 working days.
We confirm the timeline in the quote. Contracts start at 3 months, with 30 days' notice to stop.
Keep exploring
Related pages.
The same work in your city and your industry, and the services that go with it.
Industries
Proof and reading
Tell us what’s not working. We’ll send you an honest one-page growth plan, free.
What people say
In their own words
“Hi, my name is Hitesh Malhotra. I'm working in FIVB. We are working with PromoteEdge (with Team Sayantan). I would like to give you a brief detail. …”
Hitesh MalhotraSports Development at Fédération Internationale de Volleyball - FIVB“I really want to thank Sayantan and his team from PromotEdge because what I find good in them is that, the team. When the team is wonderful, the outcome will definitely be wonderful. …”
Abhijit BhattacharyaFormer Captain Indian VolleyBall Team; and Founder of Brahmaputra Volleyball League“The PromotEdge Agency stay with us all these 3 days, since when we arrived..more, more than 3 days. Since in the airport, they stayed together with us (FIVB team). …”
GibaBrazilian Former Volleyball Player
No pressure. No sales pitch.
Put your productin people's hands.
Straight answers.
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Brand activation is an on-ground event where people try or experience a product: a sampling stall, a test-ride camp or a stall at a college fest. It turns "I've heard of it" into "I've tried it". Experiential marketing is mostly the same idea; BTL also covers shop signage and wall painting, and dealer schemes.
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Against targets agreed before it starts: contacts, trials, leads, cost per lead and, where sales data exists, orders. Every lead is captured digitally on the spot, so it can be followed up and traced, and the results sit in your monthly report.
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We plan BTL for brands across India with a servicing team based in cities across India. We stay in touch daily, meet you in your city at least every three months, and place our team at your site if a job needs it.
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Yes. Events, merchandising, retail branding and on-ground execution are delivered within the PromotEdge group, using our in-house team, with industry consultants and partner agencies where a job needs them. Permissions go into the timeline from the first plan, so a missing licence never delays the day.
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Yes. Leads are captured on the spot through tablets, QR codes or WhatsApp. They go to your CRM or lead sheet with the event, location and date attached, so sales can follow up the same day. Every contact can be traced back to the activation that produced it.
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Not yet as stand-alone published case studies. We share relevant work when we talk, and we are glad to walk you through a sample plan, the checks we run on the day and the report you would receive. Our process and reporting are on this page, so you can judge the method first.
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BTL (below the line) is face-to-face marketing: mall stalls, sampling, dealer meets, trade-show stalls, shop signage and wall painting, and rural vans. ATL (above the line) is mass media such as TV and outdoor. TTL uses both, plus digital. Neither is better everywhere; it depends on whether your problem is awareness or trial.
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Often more than mass media. Industrial and B2B buyers meet suppliers at trade shows and dealer meets, on plant visits and at site demos. Meets for contractors, masons or mechanics build recommendations that decide many orders. Each lead goes into your CRM that day.