When Is It Time to Let a Brand Ambassador Go?
Unless you’re a monster, letting people go is probably not your favorite part of the job. For many, the idea of letting a team member go gives them a nauseous feeling. But, ultimately, it’s important to your company and your team that every person gives 100%, including your brand ambassadors. In my experience, there’s no […]
How to Measure the ROI of Retail Demos
When clients come to us for retail demos, they often want to know how they can measure their ROI. It’s a valid and important question. At HFA, it’s imperative that our clients see a high ROI on their retail demo programs and experiential marketing activations. Our primary growth strategy is built on retaining long-term clients […]
Experiential Marketing: The #1 Key to Success
Location, location, location. It’s the most important factor in a real estate purchase and it’s just as important in experiential marketing. Choosing the location for your next experiential marketing event is the single most important factor that will lead to your event’s success…or lack thereof. To find the best location for an experiential marketing activation, […]
Benefits of Spot-Check Calls
One aspect of the experiential marketing industry that draws independently-minded individuals is the fact they get to operate as their own agents. Brand ambassadors choose their shifts, and often work without management on site. It takes a very dependable and trustworthy person to work in this kind of environment. Unfortunately, not everyone is cut […]
The Lesson We’ve Learned Twice
A few years ago, we implemented an unpopular policy with our demo clients. We began requiring a minimum number of visits per store – 6 to be exact. This means if a client wanted to add a store to their store list, we required them to complete 6 demos at that store within the first […]
5 Ways to Increase the ROI of Your Experiential Marketing Campaign
Before launching any kind of experiential marketing program, almost all our potential clients ask us how we measure their ROI. Usually, the question behind the question is, “Are you going to help me grow enough to offset the cost of the activation?” The ROI on experiential marketing campaigns is notoriously difficult to measure. However, with […]
The Origin of HFA
“Who are these people and why are they at my event?” I was 26 years old, touring with the largest sponsors of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon. Each of our clients invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into their activations. It was my job to make sure that investment produced the highest returns possible. My […]
When Should You Start Planning Your 2024 Demos?
While our friends and family are planning their New Year’s Resolutions, those of us in the health and fitness industry are working hard to make sure those goal-setters are set up for success! We’re filling orders to stock the shelves, setting up promotions for retailers, and when January 1 comes, we’ll be out there passing […]
Remember – It’s Not About You: Putting Customers First in Experiential Marketing
We may be biased, but we believe in today’s marketing landscape, there is nothing as exciting as putting together an innovative, engaging experiential marketing campaign. When done well, creating unforgettable brand experiences is a win/win for the brand and the consumer. But here’s the thing: to truly connect with consumers, you need to put them […]
7 Tips for Brands Launching Retail Demo Programs
We work with brands of all sizes – from startups to category leaders. We love watching brands grow and evolve. Most emerging brands get into a smaller retailer, hoping to create a data story there that will compel larger retailers to bring in their products. In these cases, building a high ROI demo program is […]
Are Higher Traffic Events Always the Right Fit?
When we meet with an experiential marketing client about a new campaign, we always start by asking them what their goals are for the program. They almost always focus on a high number of engagements – handing out pallets of samples, capturing thousands of email addresses, or having an entire music festival walk through their […]
How to Make Your Experiential Marketing Earth-Friendly
In today’s world, where environmental concerns are at the forefront, businesses and marketers have a responsibility to make sustainable choices. Experiential marketing is no exception. By incorporating sustainability into experiential marketing campaigns, brands can demonstrate their commitment to environmental responsibility while engaging and connecting with their target audience. In this blog post, we will explore […]
Experiential Marketing: When More is More
The saying less is more is true…sometimes. But sometimes, you have to toss aside that old adage and go big! At large-scale events, where dozens, or even hundreds, of brands are competing for attention, if you don’t stand out, you’ll be lost in the shuffle, and you can expect your ROI on the event to […]
How to Find the Right Brand Partner for Retail Demos
If you’ve read many of our blogs, you’ve probably seen that one of our recommendations for cutting down the cost for experiential marketing activations is to find a like-minded brand to go in on it with you. We’ve seen beautiful partnerships grow over the years, but we’ve also seen some…well… “irreconcilable differences.” If you’re not […]
How to Get the Best Brand Ambassadors at Big Events
Large experiential marketing events take months of work. Budgeting, negotiating, applying for permits, tracking shipments – it’s enough to drive anyone bonkers. And even if you nail all those logistics leading up to your event, there’s one piece of the puzzle that will make or break your event day: your staff. Today we’re sharing […]
Why Do Costco Roadshows? … and how to knock them out of the park
If your products are in Costco, you know velocity matters. If you want to stay on the shelves, your product needs to move…fast. You’ve got to consistently outpace your competition or risk losing your coveted spot. So, how do you move your products? We recommend Costco roadshows. Costco roadshows combine the benefits of experiential marketing […]
Events or Retail Demos – Which is Right for Your CPG brand?
I’ve become a lifetime purchaser of several products I first tried at a product sampling. Beet Elite (now Superbeets) has been part of my running supplement regimen for years, after being educated about its effect on endurance at an event at my running group. Lupini Beans introduced themselves to my salads when I tried them […]
Pura Vida: HFA style
Ziplines, rainforests, thermal spas, and a hike to a waterfall – a different team retreat for a different kind of experiential marketing agency. This year’s HFA Costa Rican adventure was the first time the entire HFA team was in the same place at the same time. It was beautiful. It was exciting. It was…magical. Our […]
These Communication Tips Will Increase the ROI of Your Experiential Marketing Activation
We call ourselves an experiential marketing agency. Really, we are communicators – master communicators. When you work with 1,000 brand ambassadors, hundreds of stores, dozens of clients, and an internal team, you have a lot of opportunities to sharpen your communication skills. Based on feedback from brand ambassadors and clients, we’ve realized that our communication […]
How to Leverage Your Demo Program at Your Next Category Review Meeting
We are going to be (perhaps too) transparent. We’ve done thousands of demos all over the country. We’ve worked with health and fitness brands of all kinds – everything from crackers to protein powders to chicken-less chicken. Across every program, we have seen sales increase due to demos. But we have never seen a program […]
Four Ways to Activate at SXSW
“Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.” – Elton John If there’s one week that cements Austin’s title as the “Live Music of the World” it’s the second week of March, when South by Southwest, or SXSW as it’s more commonly known, descends on […]
Should Demo Reps be W-2?
The question, “Should Demo Reps and Brand Ambassadors be W-2 employees or 1099 contractors?” comes up often in the experiential marketing world. The answer to this question depends on who you ask. If you ask the state of California, it’s almost always W-2. If you ask a demo rep who doesn’t want to have taxes […]
8 Ideas to Spruce Up Your Demo Display
One thing we’ve learned by helping companies launch their retail demo programs is that brands almost always underestimate the importance of having a first-rate demo display. Product sampling is almost always the goal, but that can’t happen if customers are unwilling to approach your table. So, how do you make your demo display inviting and […]
3 Cost-Effective Ways to Engage at Music Festivals
The positive energy of the crowd, the tunes in the air, and the massive amounts of people – music festivals offer a unique and fun opportunity for experiential marketing. But with sponsorship price tags in the 5, 6, or even 7 figure range, where does a smaller brand even begin? The good news is that […]
