What Are Brand Ambassadors & Why Are They Important?
Brand ambassadors are hired by a company to represent their brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales.
In some contexts, ‘brand ambassadors’ can refer to celebrities or influencers who endorse a certain company on social media platforms, but in terms of experiential marketing, a brand representative is someone who puts a personal touch to a specific pop up, product launch, or brand activation.
In other words, they don’t need to be a famous celebrity, blogger, or have a large social media presence at all because their role is based on forging relationships with consumers at in-person events. Think of your brand ambassador as a regular, friendly face who adds a human element to your brand name.
5 Traits all Great Brand Ambassadors Have
With that being said, all great brand ambassadors share five main qualities that help elevate a brand experience.
1. Great interpersonal skills
Above anything else, all great brand ambassadors display excellent communication skills. Initiating conversations with strangers is no easy feat, and yet, the overall success of your marketing activation relies on your brand representatives being able to do this with confidence and ease.
To be clear, the job entails a lot more than just waving people down. A great brand ambassador knows how to be enticing without being pushy and how to be informative without rambling— and all the while, they have the social awareness to identify passerbyers who are a part of your target audience.
Let’s paint a picture to help you better understand what this skill looks like in practice. Say you’re a makeup brand opening a pop-up in front of a mall, and you’re looking to hand out free samples of your new blush. A brand ambassador will stand near your activation and welcome guests with a friendly face and quick explanation of what’s being given out and by who.
Once a guest is ‘hooked,’ they’ll try to walk them through the pop-up (perhaps guiding them to scan a QR code or grab a flier) and build rapport that adds a personal touch to the overall brand experience. As small as the interaction may seem, this moment of communication is extremely important to your brand image.
2. Knowledgeable about your brand
However, it’s not enough just to be charismatic; since they are in the ultimate customer-facing role, effective brand ambassadors should be extremely knowledgeable about your company’s products and/or services.
This may sound obvious, but it’s not as easy as it seems to find representatives that show a genuine interest in your company— and on top of that, people who can then effectively communicate what’s unique or noteworthy about your company to others.
When you’re selecting from potential candidates, it helps when ambassadors show a previous interest in your company, but it’s not a requirement. Many great ambassadors can work across all industries and become knowledgeable and enthusiastic about your brand with the right training.
As long as your brand ambassador can one, do their own company research, and two, convey the key talking points you want to hit, then they will prove to be a useful component to your marketing initiative.
3. Open to feedback
Being open to feedback is important in any professional setting, and it’s no exception in the world of experiential marketing.
Typically, there’s a full-time company employee overseeing a brand activation, and it’s not unusual that these managers will have notes for their brand reps. This makes it extremely important for brand ambassadors to receive feedback well and to actually improve upon whatever notes they were given.
Especially because small tweaks to the activation flow can double, or even triple, the amount of impressions a pop-up gets, the ability to take pointers is a crucial part of being an effective brand ambassador.
4. Exceptional work ethic
Brand ambassadors work long, consecutive days. Especially when they’re a part of an on-going campaign, it’s really important that they have a strong work ethic that keeps them motivated. Punctuality, reliability, and the overall ability to stay positive and enthusiastic day-in and day-out is invaluable for people in this position.
Also, a lot of the time, ambassadors work without direct supervision. You want to make sure your brand ambassadors are people you trust to take initiative and be proactive without you explicitly instructing them at all times.
5. Creativity
Creativity may not be the first quality you think of for brand ambassadors, but it’s so, so important. In this context, creativity refers to the ability to innovate and find new approaches with each new guest. Because the whole point of experiential marketing is to give your brand the opportunity to connect one-on-one with consumers, you need brand ambassadors to be able to capitalize on this face-to-face time.
In many cases, this means they need to learn how to adapt to new audiences. While brand ambassadors are provided a basic brand message, they should use their best judgment to decide whether a specific approach will work better with a certain audience or demographic.
Thinking About Becoming a Brand Ambassador?
If you made it to the end of this blog and think that you’d make a great brand ambassador, then we encourage you to apply here!
Food Truck Promotions is always on the look-out for friendly, enthusiastic hard workers who can elevate our mobile pop up experiences, so we look forward to hearing from you!
Final Notes
Brand ambassadors can make or break experiential marketing events. If you want to communicate your brand image in a way that really resonates with your target audience, selecting the right brand representatives should be a top priority.
We hope you use the five traits we just outlined to weed out and select the best brand ambassadors to represent you at your next marketing event!
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