Brand Ambassador, Promotional Model, Live Marketer? These are just three of the dozens of variations of a job title that uses friendly, knowledgeable, and interactive staff to subtlety or blatantly promote a product or brand to increase sales, not just a particular day but on a whole, by presenting the products brand with a powerful memory.
Live Marketing as opposed to the standard print, radio, and television ads reaches a smaller overall audience but leaves those interactions with a much more forceful and lasting impact than the commercials the market has learned to mostly tune out. By interacting directly with the community, a spokesperson for the brand can not only answer every question asked but also make small talk and have a memorable positive social interaction. Being presented a product you are told tastes good, by someone attractive, and as a free gift, often is such a positive experience that it enhances the customers perception of the qualities of the product.
Think of how many ads you've heard on the radio, and how little those words mean to you unless they manage to catch your attention and amuse you in a memorable way. How many do you recall?
Now recall any time you've ever been given a free sample of a product, that instantly catches your attention. Often grocery stores set up sampling or entertain a stop at a wine sampling cart with a young attractive bartender offering free samples, who are very experienced and hold your attention. Large companies have models handing out samples of products and various swag, which then later recalls your attention (although some things like poorly designed t shirts, sticker, key chains, and other junk handed out are often discarded immediately and a waste of money) at big events like football tailgating, holiday shopping days, and other events that draw a large crowd.
Word of mouth is the most effective advertising and the most acted upon. When your friend stops in to tell you about how he met a bartender at the liquor store who gave him free shots it might sound fun to go check out that store, or when that same friend raves about a new store or restaurant that review may shoot it to the top of your list. When your friend met the bartender or the brand promoter in public, even though they may have been stranger the promoter being there in person still has some feel of the word of mouth, a person is more trustworthy than a commercial, and when that friend then goes to you, you actually know them and may care about their opinion.
Now the jobs you are able to get in this field of entertainment and advertising are quite varied, and they do range on a sliding scale from setup and labor, certain customers interactions, and modeling. Some jobs require setting up a display and product placement at a store and then leaving, and I would classify that as mostly labor, if under certain specs and guidelines. There are jobs that find staff to work alone or fill a team, often dressing to certain codes (typically black pants, button shirt, dress shoes, or any variation of color scheme particular to each event or client desires) and demand a friendly outgoing attitude for gaining and holding customer attention. Many sampling events require certain certifications or licenses by law such as a state certified bartending licenese, food service certifications, or other requirements particular to the event. A CDL may or may not be required based on the vehicle being used on mobile advertising tours which often take a company branded truck to events across the country following sporting events or any sort of events allowing vendors. The scale slides into promotional modeling as some promotions demand pictures of the staff working the event for later publication, and it is commonly know that being attractive is a positive and desired trait. To complete the scale, many promotional models also do true modeling work, and even acting or work in the entertainment business.
What a Brand Ambassador really is:
Now above I have been discussing briefly what a brand ambassador is an a financially compensated promoter. A true brand ambassador is a customer unaffiliated with a company except for through their passion and support of a product.
An easy correlation would be sports fans, a packer fan is often a very passionate brand ambassador for their local sports team. Take it a step farther into beverages, many people define themselves as Budweiser drinkers, but some drink miller and passionately declare why their preferred beer is better and why. You can be a brand ambassador for any product though, and then even show your support for a company or corporation you support beyond an individual product. I would consider myself a true (if minimally motivated) ambassador for Google. I respect the innovations Google has made and find myself using their browser Chrome instead of any other merely because Google made it and I trust that their product is aligned with what I want.
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