An ambassador is a person who constantly promotes a brand, its services and products for a fee. Translated from English, this word is a brand ambassador means “ambassador”. In simple terms, an ambassador acts as a messenger of the company and a representative of its values. To obtain the status of an ambassador, you need to special lead be an influencer (opinion leader). Some companies offer partnerships to famous pop singers or bloggers whose audiences number in the millions.
A relatively small audience their ambassadors
This is due to the fact that during the heyday of WOMM marketing, is a brand ambassador reach faded into the background. Now, audience engagement, their trust in the influencer, and their ability to properly present goods and services are valued more. Therefore, for example, the Love Republic brand is represented by celebrities, aspiring actors, and microbloggers. Such people have different audience reach, ranging from the messaging platform owned by meta 10 thousand people for young actors to millions of fans for celebrities. The peculiarity of ambassadorship is that the influencer does not advertise the products directly. He shows how he uses the brand’s products in his videos and photos. So, if a blogger advertises clothes, he can post a photo in a new image.
The ambassador shows the brand’s products in his videos and photographs
Ambassadors also represent brands in other ways, such as appearing in commercials, participating in branded events, and launching competitions with prizes from a particular company.
Svetlana Bondarchuk and Eva Osipova represent the Love Republic brand on the VKontakte social network
To formally agree on the terms of the partnership, the company and the influencer sign a contract. It specifies what work, how and when the representative does it, and what remuneration he receives. The contract may also contain other conditions, for example, that the brand ambassador will earn a reward only after achieving certain results. For example, if publications on a social network mentioning the brand get at least 1 million views in a month. However, in practice, this rarely happens. The company has the right to have many ambassadors. The latter can also work with several brands, but from different industries. That is, the influencer does not have the right to advertise a competitor of the company with which he cooperates.
Why brands need ambassadorship
The main goal of cooperation with ambassadors is to increase sales. A brand representative increases the loyalty of the audience to it, forming a trusting relationship. This increases the number of sales. Ambassadorship is more effective than classic advertising. ByresultsAccording to research conducted by Trinity and Ipsos, consumers are more likely to trust real people who use a brand’s services or products. Companies benefit from working with influencers because of the high return on investment. The fact is that companies spend less on partnerships with ambassadors than they earn. In addition, content received from representatives can be reused. And this also saves on creating new advertising.
What are the pros and cons of cooperation between brands and ambassadors?
The advantage for the brand is that ambassadorship significantly improves marketing results. Subscribers trust the opinion leader, so they buy more of the brand’s products. The costs of attracting new customers decrease, and revenue increases. However, the brand begins to partially depend on the representative. The business loses buy lead full control over the types and content of advertising materials. In addition, the ambassador can post content that will cause a negative reaction from subscribers. To reduce risks, brands need to choose representatives whose ideas and values do not diverge from the business concept. It is important that the company is confident in its ambassadors, and vice versa.
Ambassadors’ values must be consistent with the business concept
The advantage of being an ambassador for an opinion leader is a stable income stream. The brand pays a reward for cooperation and provides other privileges that help the ambassador save money. The disadvantage of partnership for a brand representative is the restrictions: he does not have the right to promote competitors of the company whose interests he represents. And sometimes the business makes demands on the presentation and format of content, its color scheme, etc.
What are the ambassador formats?
According to the form of payment for the partnership, ambassadorship can be:
- commercial – when a brand pays money to an influencer;
- non-commercial – when a company sends its products to a representative free of charge, provides him with services or promotes him;
- hybrid – when a brand ambassador receives both money and privileges from the brand, for example, big discounts once every six months.
