Companies with the Best Ambassador Programs

By Harrison Kratz on November 23, 2011
Loyal customers can be the best advocates for a brand. Since companies are always looking for more creative ways to engage with consumers and grow their brands, cultivating these loyal customers with brand ambassador programs is an effective way to reward them and simultaneously build a marketing program at the ground level. These programs take many forms and exist in companies ranging from software giant Microsoft to energy drink maker Redbull, but they all use the power of regular people to build their brands.Here are some of the best brand ambassador programs:

Photo by D.H. Parks on flickr.com

Red Bull University
Specifically targeted at college students, Red Bull University is a paid program in which students promote the Red Bull energy drink on their campuses. They help by throwing parties, by giving away Red Bull around finals week and by representing the Red Bull brand on campus. They also coordinate with the Wiiings team to bring the Red Bull cars with a giant can on the back to campus to hand out drinks to students. Ambassadors are rewarded for their time with a Red Bull fridge for their dormitory rooms as well as pay. Creative marketing efforts like Red Bull University have allowed Red Bull to go from obscurity more than a decade ago to become the well-known brand it is today.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals
What began as a way to recognize and reward the most active and helpful contributors to Usenet forums, the Microsoft MVP program has grown into a formal award recognized around the world. MVPs must earn the award again each year, but when they do, they can display it on resumes, business cards, websites and elsewhere to display their technical expertise. Microsoft throws a weeklong retreat at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington for the MVPs, complete with technical speakers, parties and visits with top executives, like chairman Steve Ballmer. MVPs are less concerned with active marketing than helping people with technical problems and making the most of Microsoft products. They also provide valuable feedback from the technical community back to Microsoft about ways to improve products.

Maker’s Mark Ambassadors
The Maker’s Mark Ambassadors program is built on passion for bourbon and the Maker’s Mark brand. Ambassadors receive business cards to hand out in bars and at tastings where they speak passionately about the product and brand to get others excited about it. Maker’s Mark rewards its ambassadors with access to events like VIP tastings, special offers and Maker’s Mark gear. The company has a few staff people dedicated to managing the ambassadors, which gives them access to the company and even Bill Samuels Jr., the president of the company.

Google’s Campus Ambassadors
Google’s program is different from the others in that it targets a specific group of people: engineers. It started as the Google Pizza Program, where the company funded pizza study breaks for engineers on college campuses. This was a way for Google to show that they identified with the engineering lifestyle and got engineers thinking about Google as a prospective place to work. It has since grown into a more formal program that is open by nomination only. Campus ambassadors still throw study breaks and give out Google swag at top engineering departments around exams and other critical times during the year. The beauty of the Google program is that it is cheap and effective at connecting with the engineers who would be ideal candidates to work for Google after graduation.

About Harrison:
This blog post was contributed by Harrison Kratz. Harrison is the Community Manager at MBA@UNC, the new distance learning MBA program offered through the University of North Carolina. Students from around the world now have the opportunity to earn their MBA degree online from a top ranked business school. Harrison also sticks to his entrepreneurial roots as the founder of the global social good campaign, TweetDrive.

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