Guest blog: 10 steps to quality staffing

Purity’s talent manager, Emma Burden reveals her preferred route to successful brand ambassador performance

1. Be crystal clear – Have a vision for how you would like your campaign to look, sound & feel. Incorporate your brand values; Brand Ambassadors are a key source of brand communication & engagement so it’s extremely important that your agency gets the right individuals for the job. The stronger the brand image and message the more successful your campaign will be.

2. Maximise your potential – Brand Ambassadors are like a blank canvas; how they look and communicate are like the foundations of a house. Build on that brick by brick; what key messages do you need them to duplicate? What tone and emotions should the BAs employ? What mechanics can be used by the BAs to reinforce your messages? How can you ensure that a customer has an experience that they remember 30 minutes later?

3. Cut the fuzz – Decide on your top line key messages and ensure your agency ingrains those into their BAs. Individuals take just 7 seconds to gain a first impression so you want to ensure that the BAs brand engagement sends all the correct messages.

4. Ensure transparency – As the client it is your role to do the majority of the talking, you know more about your business and brand than anyone else. An agency is there to listen intently and ask questions where they need clarification.

5. Utilise your agency’s expertise – Bounce ideas off your agency. You have recruited an agency for their expertise in the field of Promotional Staff. You may not have all the logistics finalised but the more you can paint a picture for your agency the more that can be replicated on live day. Your agency will be able to either explain the logistics of how an idea can be executed or will suggest workable alternatives.

6. Adopt their system for specialist recruiting – Your agency will have a system for success. They may require you to complete a campaign brief. Use as much detail as possible to really paint the picture of the brand message and how you want that delivered. Ask about their system and understand how they ensure a personality fit and not just the right face.

7. Ensure your agency graces you with the same transparency – Ask to see profiles and/or video blogs if the nature of the campaign warrants it.

8. Plan and then plan again – Once you have decided on the logistics for a campaign revisit the planning. Set your goal time for a live day & then work backwards with your agency. Your agency should be able to advise on timelines for selection, recruitment & training. Use these to fit around your current marketing plan to ensure live day coincides with other relevant activity. Build in contingencies for venue availability for training etc.. The more you can plan the more confident you and your agency will be; this in turn feeds into the Brand Ambassador’s confidence ensuring a confident execution of your campaign.

9. Feedback throughout the campaign – If you get a chance to visit your campaign, on live day, keep your vision in mind. Are the BAs meeting your expectations? How would you like to see things done differently? What are you finding particularly positive. Feeding this back to your agency will ensure consistency. Ideally, on larger campaigns especially, there will be an agency representative onsite that can action your requests straight away.

10. Evaluate – Always have a meeting after the event to review any feedback that has been gathered and ensure that your agency has been made aware of any improvements that can be made. Remember these improvements can be used to improve all your future events.