Added: 17th June 2015

Brand ambassadors have come a long way from a pretty girl draped across the bonnet of a car or a friendly face in a supermarket aisle.  Today’s brand ambassadors are the living face of the brand and one of the keys to driving the brand activation. Their role in the success of an experiential campaign is pivotal and selection is now not just on the look of the candidates but also on their lifestyles.

They not only embody the brand but drive the experience, this is why there are key traits to what makes the perfect brand ambassador.  The ability to communicate with the public, to step into the brands world and encompass the spirit of it, but also to be a living advocate for it.

The importance of social reach in brand activations has become increasingly important and the brand ambassador has a key role to play, that’s why just as models are now getting booked because of the number of Instagram or Twitter followers they have, so are brand ambassadors.  Matching the social profile of the staff to the brand is something we pay attention to and informs who we select for a client.

For a recent #WeAreUs activation in London for online fashion retailer boohoo.com we selected brand ambassadors who had their own social presence which supported the brand values.  One brand ambassador blogger Pippa Jageurs (https://instagram.com/pippajageurs) and accessories designer Megan Horscraft (http://www.tigerclublondon.com) have become advocates by creating fun viral videos of their activations, supporting the spirit of the campaign and delivering extended social reach through their own channels.

Social sharing and pushing the messages across various platforms is as important to activations as the live experience itself.  This means that the selection of staff who can raise the profile of the experience is key and with the emergence of instant video streaming such as Periscope, this will only become more important.

Obviously there can be pitfalls to brand ambassadors actively contributing to the social reach of an activation, but that's why it is key to have an experiential staffing agency who screen their staff both in the flesh and online. The brand ambassador not only needs to be auditioned and their personality needs to match, but a social search needs to be undertaken to ensure that any possible negative profiles are weaned out.

Our team not only meet and audition our staff but we now screen their social profile and train all of our brand ambassadors in social media practices as part of their activation toolkit before we engage them in any activation.  So when we send them into the field to tweet for clients’ accounts or from their personal accounts they have the understanding of how to represent the brand.  Whether that’s for a public awareness campaign or an online retailer they understand the tone and pitch for each client and how to generate maximum social reach.

We found that our clients are gaining the benefit of this 360° approach to promotional staffing and getting added value to their activations, which link to the social media objectives as well as their activation goals.

Are you getting the maximum social reach from your experiential activations? Give us a call to see how we can help your brand create 360° experiences.

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