Brand Activations & Corporate Community Engagement: Design Your Own Experience
Organizations partner with Rebel Nell to give their people a one-of-a-kind experience. Some companies have meaningful materials in mind for unique keepsake pieces.
Others want to bring their audience into the event itself and craft the personalized elements together. Either way, our Design Your Own Experience combines art, impact, and sustainability into a brand activation your audience will actually remember, and wear.
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What Is an Experiential Brand Activation with Rebel Nell?
Most brand activations hand people a tote bag and hope for the best. Our Design Your Own Experience activation puts something in their hands to make. We work with you to design a custom solution and custom keepsakes built around your brand, then bring our team on site, whether it's a pop-up brand activation at a conference or an interactive experience for a group of 10 or 10,000, to help your visitors, clients, or employees assemble and make their own piece. It's hands-on, interactive, and the kind of moment that gets people talking to each other and to you.
Guests craft personalized keepsakes from meaningful materials: repurposed graffiti, remnants from a custom mural, or materials sourced from your own organization. People pull out their phones to take photos and share the experience with their own audience, extending your activation well past the event itself.
The result is a custom brand activation that tells your story and goes home with someone, in their pocket, on their wrist, or pinned to their jacket, something they made themselves and actually care about.
Brand Activations in Detroit, Grand Rapids & Everywhere Else
Rebel Nell is Detroit born and raised. We produce brand activation events across Detroit, Grand Rapids, and all of Michigan, and we travel. SXSW in Austin, conferences on either coast, wherever your audience is. If there's an event, we'll bring the activation to it.
How It Works
Tell Us About Your Event
Reach out with the basics: your event, your audience, and your goals. We'll hop on a call, dream up the design together, and send you a custom quote built around your group size and budget. No cookie-cutter packages, because no two brands are the same.
Choose Your Meaningful Materials
Work with the Rebel Nell team to determine the meaningful materials for your organization's custom pieces. It can be anything from our signature repurposed graffiti to grass from a golf course. The options are endless.
Company Material
We will incorporate meaningful material from your organization and preserve it in your custom pieces, like material from a historic building, fabric from seats, or wood from floors.
Mural Making
We will create an immersive mural-making, team building experience with your team. The mural reveals a hidden message at the end and can be repurposed into the gift itself.
In-House Materials
Our specialty is repurposing materials into wearable art, and we have a library of materials you can choose from. We can incorporate your company colors from reclaimed materials, like graffiti, wallpaper, fabric, and more to tell your brand story.
Pick Your Keepsakes
You choose the items you want from our robust catalog. Golf divot tools, keychains, lapel pins, wine bottle stoppers, jewelry, pens, journals, and much more.
We Make the Magic Happen
On the day of your event, our team is on site turning materials into keepsakes in real time. It's part demonstration, part activity, part gift, and all your brand.
Ready to Activate Your Brand?
Let's design a brand activation your audience will actually remember, and wear.
Inquire NowBrand Activation Ideas for Every Kind of Event
There's no one way to do this. Here's how organizations put our in-person brand activations to work.
Pop-Up Brand Activations
A pop-up activation drops the full Rebel Nell experience into your event, conference, festival, launch party, anywhere. Our team sets up, your guests create, and everyone leaves with something they made. It's the booth people line up for.
Retail & In-Store Activations
Bring your foot traffic something to do, not just something to buy. A retail brand activation turns shoppers into participants and your store into the place people talk about after they leave.
Fan Activations at Games & Stadiums
From the NFL Draft to Pistons games, we've turned fan energy into keepsakes fans keep forever. A fan activation gives your sponsors a way to connect with attendees that a logo on a jumbotron never will.
Community Activations & Nonprofit Events
Corporate and community engagement shouldn't feel corporate. Whether you're marking a milestone, honoring a program, or bringing neighbors together, a community activation creates something shared, and every Rebel Nell piece supports our mission of employing and empowering women in Detroit.
Corporate Events, Conferences & Expos
From corporate events to industry conferences and trade show expos, a Rebel Nell activation gives your booth or breakout session a reason for people to stop, make something, and remember your brand long after the swag bags are forgotten.
Product Launches & Grand Openings
Mark the moment with something guests actually take home. Whether you're unveiling a new product or opening a new location, a hands-on activation turns launch-day excitement into a keepsake that keeps your brand top of mind.
Custom Keepsakes Your Audience Will Actually Keep
Sample items to choose for your custom brand activation, each one made from your meaningful materials and finished with your branding. Need some inspiration? Here are some example custom keepsakes we've made.
Don't see the item you're looking for listed below? Reach out! We can create almost any custom item imaginable.
Golf divot tools
Custom brand activation keepsake made from reclaimed graffiti in the Rocket Mortgage Classic's colors.
Lapel pins
Made from materials from Comerica Park's dugout for the Detroit Tiger's 25th Anniversary celebration.
Keychains
Made from Reclaimed vinyl from Team Penske race cars at the Grand Prixe.
Bracelets
Wearable keepsake, finished with BasBlue's branding.
Coasters
Made from materials from Blue Cross Blue Shield's Thanksgiving Day Parade's floats for BCBS's CEO's retirement party.
Holiday ornaments
Made from reclaimed graffiti from Detroit in the Downtown Detroit Partnership's brand colors.
Notebooks
Made from team-painted murals at a JP Morgan Chase activation.
ID or dog tags
Made from the Detroit Roller Derby's jerseys.
Wine bottle stoppers
Made from reclaimed Detroit graffiti in the brand's colors.
Design Your Own Jewelry Activation Example: On-Site Activation at SXSW
Check out the activation we did with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation at Midwest House during SXSW 2025.
Brand Activation Ideas in Action
Real activations, real brands, real keepsakes.
Detroit Homecoming at the site of JL Hudson's original store
At the 2025 Detroit Homecoming, held at the historic site of the original J.L. Hudson’s store, Rebel Nell honored Detroit’s legacy by repurposing vintage Hudson’s shopping bags and reclaimed city graffiti into materials for a “design-your-own” pin experience.
A homecoming attendee with her finished pin.
Attendees choosing their materials and designing their pieces.
An attendee punching out material for her piece.
A finished Detroit Homecoming pin with custom Detroit Homecoming x Rebel Nell packaging.
More attendees showing up their Detroit Homecoming pins.
Albion College Graduation
The senior class created commemorative college jewelry made from either the campus rock or the senior sheet that all seniors contribute to during the year, sharing their memories of the experience at Albion.
The senior class creating jewelry during the activation.
A graduate assembling their signet ring made of the senior sheet.
A finished signet ring made out of the senior sheet.
A graduating senior holding his finished keepsake.
Finished cufflinks made at the activation.
Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park
We hosted a hands-on activation at Comerica Park during the Detroit Tigers’ 25th Anniversary Celebration, giving fans the chance to design custom jewelry and limited edition pins using material from the team’s dugout. The three-day event drove high engagement, blended sports and local culture, and showcased Rebel Nell’s mission to create meaningful, Detroit-made keepsakes.
A fan with her handmade pin.
A finished Detroit Tigers pin made at the event.
The Rebel Nell booth on the Comerica Park concourse.
Fans creating custom Tigers jewelry at the Rebel Nell booth.
More Tigers fans with their finished jewelry!
Team Penske at the Detroit Grand Prix
Rebel Nell partnered with Team Penske during the Detroit Grand Prix to create one-of-a-kind keepsakes from the actual vinyl used on the Team Penske race cars that competed in the Indianapolis 500 just one week earlier. Through a Design Your Own experience, guests selected pieces of race-worn material and transformed them into meaningful jewelry and accessories.
Grand Prix fans with their finished Team Penske keepsakes.
A fan with her finished Team Penske bracelet and a custom Team Penske x Rebel Nell product card with the bracelet's story.
The Rebel Nell booth setup at the Grand Prix.
A Team Penske fan with the three finished pins on his collar.
A close up of the finished Team Penske keychain and Team Penske x Rebel Nell product card.
Michigan Economic Development Corporation at Midwest House at SXSW
Attendees created their own pins from repurposed Detroit graffiti, which was a hands-on experience that connected them to Michigan’s creativity, sustainability, and spirit.
A SWSX attendee with their finished pin.
A fan creating their custom SXSW jewelry.
A set of finished lapel pins.
A SXSW attendee punching out a piece of material.
Another smiling SXSW attendee with their finished piece!
From Our Customers
At SXSW, we wanted to showcase Michigan’s creator economy in a way that was interactive and unforgettable. Rebel Nell’s activation delivered exactly that. Attendees created their own pins from repurposed Detroit graffiti — a hands-on experience that connected them to Michigan’s creativity, sustainability, and spirit. The feedback was incredible, and the activation stood out as one of the most engaging at Midwest House
Rebel Nell was an incredible partner for Detroit Homecoming—their creativity, collaboration, and eagerness to customize the experience made their activation a true highlight. Guests loved creating their own pins from reclaimed Detroit materials, sparking conversations about the city’s artistry and resilience. It was such a hit that every pin was gone by the end of the night.
We brought in Rebel Nell to create a fan experience for International Women's Day at the Detroit Pistons. Hundreds of fans added their voices to the mural experience and what resulted was an amazing work of art. We turned the remnants into collectible pins which ensured the message kept living long after the game. For us at Ally, that’s impact you can measure in both numbers and smiles. Thanks Team Rebel Nell.”
We’ve had the absolute joy of partnering with Rebel Nell time and again to create truly special offerings for our events and partners. They have this incredible ability for turning our vision into something tangible, every piece is thoughtfully designed to reflect our goals and tell a story. The craftsmanship, creativity, and attention to detail make each project not just meaningful, but unforgettable.And yes, while their mission is inspiring, the pieces themselves are one of a kind - sustainable, beautifully made, and always a conversation starter long after the piece has been received.
At the Rocket Classic, our goal is to connect golf to the spirit of Detroit. Partnering with Rebel Nell brought that mission to life — every item told a story of resilience, creativity and community. Guests didn’t just receive a keepsake, they carried home a piece of Detroit’s heart and a piece of the classic itself.
Rebel Nell is so fun and easy to work with. I always look forward to our collaboration meetings because I know I will walk away inspired, excited for our next project, and with ideas for 10 more projects! Their products are top-notch, and the collaboration process, from idea to physical product, is effortless. Working with Rebel Nell, who is doing so much good in the Detroit community, has been a great partnership for us.
Let's Build Your Activation
Tell us about your event and audience, and we'll build a custom quote around your group size and budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a brand activation?
A brand activation is an interactive experience designed to create a real connection between your brand and your audience, which means it's something people participate in, not just look at. Ours center on making custom keepsakes from meaningful materials, so the connection literally goes home with them.
How much does a corporate brand activation cost?
Pricing depends on group size, the keepsakes you choose, and whether our team is on site. Reach out and we'll build a quote around your event and budget.
Can you do a pop-up brand activation at our conference or festival?
Yes, pop-ups are our specialty. We handle setup, materials, and on-site production. You give us the space and the people.
Do you travel outside of Michigan for brand activation events?
All the time. We're based in Detroit and love working in Grand Rapids and across Michigan, but we've activated everywhere from SXSW in Austin to national conferences. If your audience is there, we'll be there.
What makes this different from other experiential brand activations?
Three things. Your audience makes something, not just watches something. The keepsakes are built from materials that mean something to your organization. And every piece supports Rebel Nell's mission of employing and empowering women in Detroit, so your activation does good beyond the event.
Can the keepsakes double as corporate gifts?
Absolutely. Many partners order additional pieces from their activation materials to use as corporate gifts, employee recognition, or donor thank-yous long after the event ends.
