True story – A kombucha company owner stops by a sampling event to secret shop a program he’d paid thousands of dollars to execute. The brand ambassador grimly asks if he’d like a sample. He says, ‘Sure.’ She pours the sample while explaining she doesn’t really like the product. She believes it tastes sour and is too expensive. Oof.
We heard this story when the kombucha owner approached us about managing his experiential marketing program. He’d been living his worst nightmare – spending thousands of precious marketing dollars that did more harm than good.
When planning a marketing strategy, teams often focus so much on the strategy, the messaging, and the design. The people come almost as an afterthought. But no matter how great your booth, your giveaways, and your messaging are, your experiential marketing event will fail without the right people in place.
What traits are you looking for in your next brand ambassador?
1. Passion
This is our number one core value at Health and Fitness Activations for a reason. Passion is the fuel that makes you wake up in the morning excited to go to work. It’s what makes you give that little extra when others are doing the bare minimum. To put it simply, it’s gold. This is a must-have for every brand ambassador.
2. Personality
The way passion comes out is important. If someone is passionate about your product and they purchase it regularly, but their face says, “I really don’t enjoy talking to people” the passion they feel inside is never going to reach your consumer. You want passion to come out in a way that’s warm and welcoming, that gets others excited about your brand.
3. Experience 
…doesn’t matter as much as you think. Sometimes the most experienced brand ambassadors aren’t the best ones. Why? In this gig economy, it can be easy to rack up experience by jumping from one agency to another. What we look at closer than surface-level “experience” on a resume is tenure. Did a brand enjoy working with them so much that they kept them on the program for a year? Did an agency book them for multiple brands? This shows they consistently showed up to get the job done.
4. Clarity
Your next candidate must have a clear picture of what they’ll be doing in the field. While we don’t believe experience is as crucial as some think, you don’t want someone to be hazy on the job, only to realize halfway through their first day that it’s not what they expected. Especially if you’re hiring someone without field-marketing experience, it’s important to very clearly outline what a day in the life looks like.
If you’re wondering what happened with the kombucha company we mentioned above, HFA worked with him for many years. We created a program that fueled his company’s growth through product trial and brand education. Seven years later, he sold the business. Rumors has it, the sales tag was just shy of $8 million.
When you find the right brand ambassadors, everything clicks. Your KPIs improve because you’ve got go-getters ready to crush it. Engagement skyrockets. And let’s not forget that everyone has a blast – consumers and team members alike, which makes the event so much more memorable.
At HFA, we know people power experiences. We hope these tips help you find the right person for your next experiential marketing activation. If you need help turning your next experiential marketing activation into an unforgettable, ROI-positive, loyalty-building event, let’s talk.
