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 […]
How to Avoid Out of Stocks at Your Retail Demos
There’s nothing more defeating than having a demo scheduled, showing up, and then there’s not enough product. It’s a bummer for everyone involved. The retailer wishes they had product for you to sell. The brand, obviously, wants to sell product to increase velocity in that retailer. And the brand ambassador goes home without having made […]
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 […]
Incorporating Your Brand Story into Your Experiential Marketing
We all know it’s important to have a brand story, right? All founders have a reason why they started their businesses, but unless you share this with people, they’ll never know it! That’s a huge miss because consumers today want to connect with your “why.” The brand story is what makes people connect with your […]
Major Trends in Experiential Marketing
If you want to connect with your target consumers on a deeper and more personal level, experiential marketing is a powerful tool. This has been true for decades. But with developments in technology, changes in consumer preferences, and the deep desire for connection, the way brands are successfully building these relationships is changing. In today’s […]
The Secret to Success with Dry Demos
One of the most interesting things we learned during the pandemic was some of our brands didn’t find a decrease in sales at retail demos when they pivoted from product sampling to dry (non-sampling) demos. To us, this seemed counterintuitive. We had always believed that tasting or experiencing the product was imperative to closing the […]
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 […]
6 Ways to Ensure High-Quality Events
We pride ourselves in executing high-ROI experiential marketing events and retail demos. As much as we’d love to say ongoing, high-performing execution comes naturally to us, that wouldn’t be truthful. It actually takes a lot of work to deliver consistent results. A LOT of work. We spend hours each week poring through data, both quantitative […]
Is Guerrilla Marketing Right for Your Business?
If you want to get a lot of samples out fast in a cost-effective way – you’re probably considering guerrilla marketing. The planning is relatively simple compared to other styles of experiential marketing. 1. Assemble a street team. 2. Load them up with thousands of samples. 3. Send them into the oncoming traffic at a […]
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 […]
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 […]
How to Find the Perfect Brand Ambassador
One of the many questions I’m asked during new business meetings is “how does HFA find their brand ambassadors?” This is such a great question because how exactly do we find the “perfect” candidate for your unique brand when we work with a variety of brands? Let me tell you, it’s not a one size […]
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 […]
Recommended Reading for a Promotion
If you have your heart set on a promotion at your workplace, you’re probably doing everything in your power to show up as a star employee. You’re meeting your deadlines, going above and beyond for your team, and showing up early. You’re filled to the brim with ideas to take the company to the next […]
How to Improve Brand Ambassador Retention
Turnover in the experiential marketing industry is high – very high. Most brand ambassadors have other primary commitments, like school, a full-time job, or auditioning for acting or dancing roles. When the demands of one of those roles increases, they’ll usually drop their side hustle like a hot potato. And this turnover is costly for […]
The Role That Saves Our Events…and Our Sanity
If you’ve worked in experiential marketing for more than a couple of minutes, you know it’s a wild ride. Inclement weather, shipping challenges, and brand ambassador callouts are always a possibility. And who are the brand ambassadors going to call when they need help figuring out what to do? Ghostbusters. No – at most experiential […]
2022: Our Best Year Yet
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that you never know what’s just around the bend. Going into 2022, we honestly had almost no idea what to expect. We had some strong client partnerships and some big dreams, but the pandemic was still looming, and we didn’t have a crystal ball to know when […]
Top 5 Tips for a Successful Retail Demo Program
Part of almost every CPG’s go-to-market strategy includes some sort of field marketing, most often product sampling at in-store demos. It’s a great way to show the retailer you are invested in making sure your product makes it at their store, and unlike many kinds of experiential marketing, demos provide at least a part of […]
Should You Demo Health-Minded Products During the Holidays?
While many experiential marketing agencies are busy during the holidays, the end of year is usually a slower time for us. Many health-minded CPG brands slow down their demo programs during the holidays. We understand – more people are buying pumpkin pie than protein shakes. They figure they’ll reserve their cash for January when people […]
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 […]
Tips for Acing your Brand Ambassador Interview
Between all of our programs, our team probably interviews 30-50 brand ambassadors each week. We’ve seen it all. We had a woman who wouldn’t answer our interview questions because the FBI was listening in. We had an interviewee who answered every question with a single-word answer, and then would burst out laughing every couple of […]
How to Make Guerrilla Marketing Work for You
Guerrilla marketing, or street teams, can offer a cost-effective way to introduce hundreds, or even thousands of consumers to your product. But if you’re not planning properly, you may find yourself underwhelmed with the results of this style of experiential marketing. Today we’re going to give you insights on how guerrilla marketing can work for […]
The Devil’s in the Details
When you work in the experiential marketing world, there’s never a dull moment. Sometimes a hurricane rolls in on the day of your outdoor activation. Sometimes you use hay to soak up the water left behind by the hurricane rains, only to discover your tour manager is severely allergic to hay. Sometimes you are trying […]
5 Tips to Make the Most of Your Sponsorship Activation
Whether it’s a major event like the Boston Marathon or your local weenie dog race, when you sponsor an event, your hope is to get an ROI on your investment. But how do you make sure your sponsorship is successful? Today we are sharing some tips on how you can make the most of the […]
How to Select Your Product Sampling Store List
When we get a new client, one of the first things we help them with is finalizing a store list. Which stores will receive product sampling demos and how often? This may sound like a simple task but it’s actually quite nuanced. Usually, our clients start off with a wish list – a list of […]
Lessons We’ve Learned in 10 Years
This year, Health and Fitness Activations is celebrating our 10-year anniversary! 10 years! We’ve gone from a one-person venture to a team of 9, and our company is the strongest it’s ever been. During the last decade we’ve learned some things – some the easy way, and some the hard way! Today we’re sharing our […]
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 […]
The Key to a Successful Experiential Marketing Event
Diving into experiential marketing can be scary. Often, the price tags are large and at big events, you don’t have time for a learning curve – you’ve got one shot to nail it. So, how can you ensure your activation will be successful? It really all comes down to one question, “What’s in it for […]
How to Make Sure Your Application Stands Out
We hire 200-300 brand ambassadors every year. So, we’ve become very efficient at reviewing resumes and applications. Sometimes we get over 100 applications for a single position. Most only get a first glance before we dismiss them. How can you make sure your application makes it to the short stack? Here are some tips! 1. […]
3 Keys to Successful Recruiting: Pandemic Style
Recruiting reliable, passionate BAs can be difficult during any season, but the one we are in takes the cake. If you decide to recruit your own brand ambassadors during this pandemic, here are a few challenges you may not have thought through: 1. Fewer applicants If you’re used to recruiting through Facebook groups, Trusted Herd, […]
“Into the Unknown:” HFA’s 2021 Goals
When I look at our goals for 2020, I can’t help but chuckle (ok – maybe also cry a little) at my naïve 2019 self. Of course, no one saw the freight train of 2020 coming, right? Just for good humor, let’s recap the goals we shared last year as we rang in the new […]
7 Important Things to Think About When Launching a Brand
When we updated our website, I got a few questions about the new services we’ve added, mainly the Go-To-Market Strategy Consulting. I think it might have come as a surprise to some of our followers, who are made up of about half brand ambassadors and half health food brands (and a few agencies who spy […]
