Brand ambassadors are popping up all over campus as students embrace the perks of the job, such as the salary and free products, as well as the responsibilities of the job, including social networking.
A brand ambassador is hired by a company to promote its brand on campus, by displaying its products and promoting them through social networking. One brand currently being promoted at Northwestern University is Superdry, a European based clothing brand that is influenced by Japanese graphics.
Being a brand ambassador for Superdry consists of promoting the brand through social media and word of mouth. Superdry has 26 ambassadors on 13 campuses, and the two ambassadors at Northwestern, Michael Mallazzo and Amanda Oppold, both sophomores, will hold this title until May.
“We posted a little ad around campuses and whoever applied had phone interviews. We wanted to pick one guy and one girl per campus,” said Lindsay Eshelmen, the account director of on campus marketing for Superdry. “What made them get the job is their personality, how many friends they have on Facebook, how well they can use social media and their passion for fashion.”
These two ambassadors must host three events each, on campus, that are sponsored by Superdry.
“For theta’s philanthropy they are doing a male beauty pageant; Superdry is going to be involved with that, and also with Relay for Life. We are getting the brand involved with campus events,” said Mallazzo.
The ambassadors also have to each write two blog posts on Tumblr and collectively have five Facebook, Twitter or Instagram posts a week, in order to spread the word about the brand.
“For Tumblr, we take photos of people wearing Superdry clothes or with the products and then write a kind of a blog about it,” said Mallazzo. “On Facebook and Twitter I try to link to the website, and the key is to make posts creative; if the posts are not funny or amusing they may annoy people.”
As an incentive, the brand ambassador with the most “likes” on his or her posts or the most retweets wins a prize.
Superdry brand ambassadors also spread the company’s recognition by handing out business cards with discount codes. Each discount code is unique so that when customers use these discount codes, Superdry can track the sales that each brand ambassador makes. The brand ambassador who makes the most sales wins a shopping spree at Superdry in New York City.
“Some of our brand ambassadors have brought in a couple of thousand dollars worth of clothes,” said Eshelman.
In return, the ambassadors get $500 in pay and about $1000 in clothes!
“It’s a lot of fun for me; I don’t buy expensive clothes so this is a great way to look stylish and dress nicely,” said Mallazzo. “The opportunity to get clothes for free is kind of cool for me.”
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Time does go into being a brand ambassador, such as planning the events and making posts on social networks, however Mallazzo feels that it is manageable.
“Planning the events can take a lot of time,” as can photo shoots, “but other than that it’s an hour or two a week time commitment,” he said. “It’s a responsibility but it’s a fun way to get involved and we get free stuff.”
Lauren Guiteras, a sophomore in the School of Communication and Weinberg, will be the brand ambassador for Sony beginning in the fall of 2012. She will be promoting Sony’s products on campus and working on making the brand more popular among college students.
“I’ll have to set up tables at Norris and have students try products out for themselves,” said Guiteras. “The products will be everything from headphones to digital MP3 players, camcorders, laptops and electronics across the board.”
She will also have to post pictures and videos and most likely start a blog, as well as post personal product recaps on Facebook and Tumblr, since “a great way for Sony to get visibility is through Facebook,” she said.
Guiteras will have the chance to work with new technologies and attend a conference in San Diego over the summer for free, where ambassadors will receive basic training and an introduction to products.
“I didn’t even know jobs like this existed before I saw the job open on career cat; it seemed like a good opportunity with good pay,” she said. “I’m excited to see how it will all work out and introduce product demos to people on campus.”