my company is looking at building a brand ambassador program to promote our product. i’ve seen a few small companies start up in the endurance space that have done similar things.
if you are on the corporate side, or the ambassador side, i’d love to hear your thoughts on what worked, and what didn’t. i’ll share some swag if i can.
ive been a brand ambassador for several brands in the past 10 years or so. From my experiance it was great, free schwag and product. However i must admit i dont think i added much value to the brands program. The thing is you want REALLY social people with large networks of people they can actually influence. Just focusing on someone who is really good or who races alot is not what you want (although you do want some of these). your number one goal is not neccesarily exposure but to get trial and people that are influencers are how this is done. In fact, in a case study i looked at in grad school last year showed that even people that dont know a lot about your product but who are very very social can be the best thing for these programs as they are the ones who will tend to give away your product to their networks and influence others to try it themsleves. People (like me) that know a lot about your product can be informative but tend to keep most the product for themselves and dont take the extra time to educate and induce trial in your target market.
you can use things this facebook, twitter, instagram etc to get an idea how big peoples networks are AND how much they post and how many responces they get (i.e whats a better? a person with 1000 friends who posts once a month and gets 10 engaging responces or someone with 500 friends who posts 1x a week and gets 5 engaging responces?)
also from experiance i always thought it would be better to have people do some of the same races and race in the same areas. 1 person wearing brand x kit doesnt stand out much . .but 50 people wearing it can be much more noticeable. programs i have been in didn’t do a good job of this and im not sure the brand name on my kit really got noticed by the crowds.
just be claer on what your goals are for the program and then every tactic should be a means to acheive that. i.e. do you want penetration in a particualr area or just awarenes over a large area? those two things would have very different tactics associated with them.
I’d be happy to chat.
Hey, Buzz. Just PMd you.
I was a brand ambassador for a few years for a running company and enjoyed the experience. I’m roughly a top 25-30the percentile kind of runner, and totally newbie triathlete, but I have a blog and am active on Instagram and Facebook, which I think is the kind of thing you should be looking for in your ambassadors. Above all, you want people that are enthusiastic about your product and happy to spread the word about it. Moreover, even though I may not be the fastest person people know, they do know that I put time into researching my gear and wouldn’t use something that I felt hurt my performance. It’s better to be slower and a trusted voice than faster and seen as a shill. In the previous program I was in, most of the ambassadors were just everyday runners who happened to be very passionate about the product they were endorsing. That enthusiasm counts for a lot among peers. I hope that’s slightly helpful, please let me know if you’d like to follow up!
I have been a brand ambassador for about 4 years now. I think it really helps promote products/services plus I am active on FB as well. I try to wear the t-shirt, etc whenever I can and I don’t limit promoting the product to just races. I promote it at my gym, pool, training group, extracurricular (non-triathlon) activities, etc.
Thanks to everyone, some really good points here. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
The point about critical mass is interesting, and one I didn’t think of. Having a mass of people in one space might get more return than those same numbers distributed over a bunch of events.
I’m sort of intrigued that you all mentioned social media. I see the ambassador program as a way to reach out beyond social channels and become visible on the ground, but I guess social media is still a big part of that, in that users need to spread the message through their own circles.
Our team is discussing this next week, and I will update this thread.
Thanks!!
yeah dont discount social media but also dont over weight it . .social media is the tip of the iceberg in that OFF-line convesations still account for the majority of conversations and engagements (something around 80% offline 20% online).
also be sure to target which social media outlet works with your product/service and is represented and engaging with your target customer base. much better to have 1-2 outlets that work really wel than 5-6 that are just mediocre …and it may be that facebook is not always the best avenue. (for example, if your target is teens than it may be better to have ambassadors that text a lot and use things like snapchat that are more widely utilized than facebook with that segment).