Seeking new ways to resonate with your target audience? Let your brand ambassadors speak for you.
Influence marketing often means borrowing short-term influence from as many creators as possible. Such transactional, one-off collaborations work best if your goal is to get the word out about your product or service, with no strings attached. But what happens next when your audience starts to really look into your brand?
This is where brand ambassadors come in. Acting as an extension of your brand and its values, these long-term partners make your brand authentic and relatable – Gen Z’s favorite combo – both online and offline, at social events, conferences and why not, business meetings. Read on to discover how we helped JOBY kickstart a successful brand ambassador program, enabling talented creators to have fun and … well, create.
The ABCs of a Brand Ambassador Program
Before we jump into JOBY’s success story, let’s clarify what a brand ambassador program is and why it could be a great move for your brand. A brand ambassador program means partnering with creators who genuinely love your brand and are not afraid to say so, time after time.
Setting up a brand ambassador program is a great way to optimize your brand’s influencer collaborations by capitalizing on existing creator relationships at 360°. In fact, you can go beyond promotion or performance and rely on creators for content creation, events, product research, and even recruitment.
For creators, contributing to a brand ambassador program means more cohesive communication with their hard-won community and a more consistent, albeit slightly smaller, paycheck. In most cases, it also means more creative freedom as the brand starts trusting the creator’s knowledge of its offerings. No wonder, 84% of creators prefer long-term collaborations, according to the ‘Ask The Creators’ survey report.
Case in point: JOBY
JOBY is a perfect example of a brand that puts its money where its mouth is. With 99% of its content produced by influencers, JOBY is truly made for creators, by creators. In 2023, tBS was brought in to help the brand take one step further and kickstart its pilot brand ambassadorship program – JOBY Creator Crew.
From scouting to contracting, onboarding, and management, tBS cultivated existing relationships to create something entirely novel: a new kind of collaboration built on brand love and unhindered creator insights. Today, JOBY Creator Crew supports the brand’s new product launches, Amazon lives, in-person events, and more, with each crew member having graduated from a customer to a creator to a brand ambassador.
Thanks to its brand ambassadors, JOBY can quickly jump on trends and produce fun or educational snack content, building the brand’s entertainment value and relatability.
No time like the present
If you’re looking to connect with and retain digital natives, you might need more than a mere mention of your brand on an influencer channel. To win the trust of these digital-savvy customers, you need social proof and lots of it – even better if it comes from passionate creators, sharing real stories and advocating for your brand as human-first.
Want to spot your brand’s everyday creators? Drop us a line!
