Worker Bees- 25 tips for keeping your top event staffers happy and motivated.

It’s 110 degrees in the shade with four hours to go and your brand ambassadors are still working the footprint like their lives depended on it. They’re engaging attendees, they’re flashing their pearly whites and they’re making your brand look good. Real good. Is it the caffeine kicking in? The promise of a paycheck? The free branded polo?

We asked folks from every corner of the biz to tell us straight up, what’s the secret to keeping brand ambassadors happy? Money, of course, helps. But surprisingly, cash wasn’t No. 1 on the list. We believe it is disco diva Donna Summer who sums it up best (feel free to sing along): They work hard for the money, so you’d better treat ’em right!

Pay On Time. Waiting periods between the event and the paycheck are industry standard, but closing the gap can be an effective incentive. Joey Meyer, president of Chicago-based Across the Nation Promo Model and Staffing, offers to pay by PayPal, which can shorten the wait to about a week. “PayPal charges a fee which is nominal, but we give it as an option to say we’re going to try to get you paid more quickly.”

Feed and Water. Meyer says it’s one of the easiest things to do, but many brands still don’t feed their field staff. Meals, snacks and drinks are relatively small line items on the budget but for brand ambassadors, the gesture is invaluable. “Drinking energy drinks helps a lot,” says Jessica Torres, an ATN field staffer with four years of experience under her belt. “Especially during long shifts.”

Staff Up. Spread your staff too thin and you’re wasting money and giving a bad impression. Consider having extra staff on call. “When a client needs 10 people, we’ll send 12,” says Meyer. “They might not have anticipated the need but they’ll have the option.” (The brand ambassador should get paid either way.)

Have Their Back. Offering 24/7 access to someone at the brand who can help a field staffer on a moment’s notice offers emotional payoffs. “It helps a lot knowing that no matter what, the company you’re working with is there to help you out,” says Torres.

Set Low(er) Expectations. ATN tells its talent before they accept the work that the gig may be tough—even downright unpleasant. Staffers that know what they’re getting into go in feeling mentally prepared and in control.

Premiums Pay Off. Once the talent gets on site, give them first crack at the giveaway items. “Those are definitely motivating factors,” Meyer says.
Tie Performance To Pay. Atlanta-based Conventions Models and Talent works with spirits brands to incent its off-premise sampling ambassadors. Hit or exceed the quota, and get a chance at cash prizes and paid vacations. Miss the quota, and get paid half-rate. “Not all events, promos or trade shows are based directly on what they do,” says Shelly Justice, founder of the agency. “But when they are, it’s a huge incentive. And it works.”

Direct Feedback. Justice sends client feedback forms directly to the brand ambassadors. “When they’re criticized, it’s an immediate stab in the heart for them because they recognize that they didn’t get away with something,” Justice says. “Same if they did a great job, we make sure they know it.”

Year-round Work. Reward ambassadors who do great work with first chances at future, higher-paying projects. The possibility of ongoing or year-round work is often enough to get their juices flowing. “Some clients do 50 shows a year,” says Justice. “That talent knows, ‘If I do a good job I have a guaranteed number of shows and can make a certain amount this year.’”

Team Uniforms. Larry Hess, ceo of Redondo Beach, CA-based Encore Nationwide, says outfitting talent in matching uniforms creates an immediate sense of teamwork. “People are less likely to burn out if they feel like they’re part of something bigger,” he says. “It gives you that baseball team mentality: you’re working toward a common cause.”

Immediate Gratification. Quick, inexpensive gestures are often the pick-me-up staff needs. Hess sends out gift cards—his go to Starbucks—to lead staffers to reward the best performer of the day. “It recognizes somebody right on the spot, and that gives them motivation to go on to the next level,” says Hess.

Walk a Mile. Put yourself in their shoes, then adjust your program for maximum comfort, advises Justice. “If a client has them in black pants and it’s July 30 in Atlanta—that’s brutal,” says Justice. “So we might suggest black shorts.”

Cash Incentive. Offer an hourly rate but increase it if they do a rock star job, suggests Jessica Browder, founder and ceo of Phoenix-based Eventpro Strategies. “Incentive pay for talent that are on time, with great attitudes and that exceed expectations works wonders,” she says. “Everyone wins.”

Truth and Consequences. Ramifications for lackluster performance are good motivators. EventPro has a zero tolerance rule: Let them down once and get automatically inactivated from the database. CMT has a two-strikes-you’re-out policy. Tardiness can also result in an immediate pay deduction.

Send Upbeat Insiders. Ambassadors feed off the full-time staff’s energy, so send your best people out into the field. “You already go with good intentions to do a good job,” says Torres. “But the environment and the way everyone makes you feel, that gives you more energy. That’s the key.”

Get Personal. Talent agencies maintain expansive databases that include personal data to help them filter and align the talent’s interests, so take advantage of it. Or do it yourself. The American Legacy Foundation ran its own recruiting campaign by advertising for 14 summer tour ambassadors on its truth.com website. “The people we chose to bring out are clearly passionate about making a change in society,” says Mary Sullivan, brand manager-youth prevention at the American Legacy Foundation.

Mix It Up. Mobile teams spend a lot of time together, so pay attention to creating a balance of personalities. “Make sure it’s a good mix of leaders, but not all strong personalities,” suggests Sullivan.

Two-Way Training. Geico invites its ambassadors to participate in pre-, during- and post-show meetings and opens the floor to feedback, ideas and challenges. When people see that their opinion counts, says Mercedita Roxas-Murray, vp-client services at Alexandria, VA-based RedPeg Marketing, which handles, it makes a difference.

Team Building. The truth tour takes the pre-show lovefest one step further by inviting ambassadors to show their stuff in fun training exercises, like an American Idol-themed talent show. “They bring out the enthusiasm and the personalities of the people,” says Sullivan.

Empowerment and Creativity. Truth tour staffers this summer noticed that kids were digging stenciled tattoos, so they put a call into headquarters and quickly got the stuff to incorporate it into their program. Giving staffers creative freedom to develop on-the-fly marketing ideas and then providing the tools to make it happen is a definite morale booster.

Leverage Star Status. If your brand is on board as sponsor of a touring band or show, use the star appeal to motivate field staff performance. “They work twice as hard the rest of the day if they know they get to go watch their favorite band,” says Scotty Batson of Atlanta-based agency GTM.

Surprise Attack. Care packages full of socks and candy, and surprise visits from headquarters go a long way towards showing you care, especially during the dog days of an extended tour or long stint at a trade show. “Every once in awhile we send people from our in-house team who will show up and say, okay you have the day off,” says Roxas-Murray.

Work the Integration. Strong tie-ins to ad campaigns enhance face-to-face experiences and make the brand ambassador’s job even easier. Geico and truth use the Gecko and the powerful TV ads (respectively) to engage attendees walking by their footprint. “One of the icebreakers we use is, have you ever seen a truth commercial?” says Batson, who is also the truth tour field manager. “Ninety-nine percent say, ‘Of course!’.”

Get Dirty. Hess encourages clients to go out and work alongside the staff. “If they see the big boss getting involved, handing out samples or loading up boxes, it goes a long way,” he says.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Find out what it means to your brand ambassadors. “Treat brand ambassadors how you would like to be treated,” says Justice.
Finally, remember, word-of-mouth is just as powerful among the talent as it is among consumers. “If you say you’re going to do something, back it up and do it,” says Carlton Abernathy, a Houston-based promo model with 40 events to his name. “Those companies out there that honor their word, it goes a lot further than what they think. Your models, all of them, talk—and word spreads around about which company is better to work for than the others.”
—Jessica Heasley.

EVENT STAFFING 2006 OVERVIEW

Friday, April 07, 2006 (Published in Event Marketer Magazine)

The feet on the street are now your eyes and ears as well.

When Continental Airlines talks to business fliers at events these days, it’s now through college-educated field staffers. Before Starbucks launched a fleet of street teams last month for its new Chantico beverage, crew members spent three days inside its stores. Apple Computer teaches trade show reps how to operate Macs, whether they’ll use them during the show or not. And if on-premise crews don’t drink Ketel One vodka, they can’t work for Ketel One.

If the growing number of marketers getting more involved in the selection, training, and execution of their event staffs is any indication, companies are indeed beginning to take their brand ambassadors more seriously. “First impressions are lasting impressions,” says Marcia Bauman, president of Framingham, MA-based staffing company The Bauman Group.

Some say the push to foster a higher-quality conversation with the target is driving the increased attention to staffing. “We can no longer successfully deliver our message through an $8-an-hour college student,” says Wes Reese, Continental’s director of sports marketing. “A quality interaction requires a quality interactor.”

Others argue that it’s a matter of brands protecting their event-marketing investments. “As event spends grow, involvement with the customer grows,” says Dennis Murray, president of Seattle-based agency Passage Events. “As involvement increases, marketers are realizing they have to ensure they are stepping up their brand ambassadors.”

Whatever the reason, some say the increased scrutiny is long overdue. “The importance of the brand ambassador isn’t growing,” says Brad Wirz, senior vp-experiential marketing with New York City-based event shop Euro RSCG. “Marketers are simply now realizing the importance.”

Quality Quotient

Brand marketers who are upgrading the quality of field staffs are replacing some of the typical eye candy with personable people who can “actually have a conversation,” says Shelly Justice, president of Atlanta-based Convention Models & Talent.

Not only are events now used to push a message in addition to a product, but the products associated with the messages are more sophisticated. When AOL launched 9.0 Optimized, they needed Web-savvy staffers who could talk up the service, Web surfing, and answer not only Internet questions (does it have a pop-up blocker?) but computer questions as well (will this run on XP?).

“It’s about more than a pretty face these days,” says Tim Ridgeway, a director of business development at Pepsi-Cola Co., who handles many of the soda giant’s trade show programs. “At the end of the day, we want people to walk away not knowing whether they just interacted with a PepsiCo employee or a contract worker.”

On street campaigns and mobile tours, trade shows and grassroots fan fests, and everything in between, field staffers have grown up. They are more intelligent—because staffing agencies are aggressively screening the piles of applicants who come in each week—more personable, and able to do more. “Staffers must now be able to understand our company and our phones, explain how to use picture messaging, and help with logistics,” says Lucie Pathmann, Alltel’s director of sponsorships and publicity. “They cannot be shy, and they have to be at ease going into a crowd and talking us up.”

Marketers in general are getting “more refined and specific about who represents them,” says Larry Hess, president of Redondo Beach, CA-based staffing agency Encore Nationwide. “They are putting less pressure on price and more pressure on having the right people.”

The reasoning? The more relevant a brand ambassador is to the target audience, the more authentic the interaction will be. The Home Depot’s credit card acquisition teams in San Francisco are primarily Asian; in Miami, they’re mostly Hispanic. Samplers on SoBe’s Love Bus don’t just look like the target—with tattoos, earrings in places you don’t tell gramma about, and iPods. “They are the target,” says Verna Cooper, director of marketing with St. Louis staffing house Market Partners.

Staff requests are getting more particular by the day as brands look to create armies of staffers their targets can’t help but engage. “One minute we can be sourcing motorcycle-licensed hotties for a p.r. event in New York City, the next we’re [sending] half-naked street teams of 20 male actors sporting body paint into several markets, and the next we’re finding females within a two-inch height requirement,” says Jessica Browder, president of EventPro Strategies, an Asheville, NC-based staffing agency. “Every single day is different.”

In addition to getting more specific about who their agencies hire, marketers are getting more involved in the actual selection process. Those who used to simply flip through headshots now are getting applicants in the door. When Snapple Beverage Group’s Nantucket Nectars was planning a pair of mobile tours, Stamford, CT-based J. Brown Events came up with the list of staffing contenders. “I then went myself to meet with the proposed hires,” says Nantucket director of marketing Jim Crook. “Only when I was satisfied with them were they accepted as brand ambassadors.”

And just as marketers are getting more involved with their event crews, crews are being asked to get more involved with the marketers. Brand ambassadors once signed out after they finished working an event; now, they’re being asked to provide insight about the programs they’re conducting. After hundreds or thousands of conversations at an event, they’re the perfect people to ask about whether the target is receptive to the message, what’s working, and what’s not. “The feedback from these people may be more valuable than anything else they do,” says Reese. “It’s that good.”

Carolyn Pollock, eBay’s senior manager of consumer marketing, agrees. “It gives us an interesting perspective because the staffers are not as close to the brand,” she says. “These brand ambassadors work for different companies all the time. They usually have an opinion worth listening to.”

Naturally, higher quality ambassadors cost more. Pay ranges for general staffers are $17 to $25 per hour, and $30 to $45 per for regional managers and touring crews, but many say it’s worth it. “We’ll pay more for someone who can have an intelligent conversation,” says Michael Hammer, senior manager in charge of Aquafina at Pepsi.

One other tidbit: The event staff has traditionally been comprised mostly of women, but it’s getting more male. Companies are making more of an effort to better match the target base’s gender split. (And quite honestly, as event programs become more labor-intensive the guys are typically more willing to sign on for heavy lifting during setup and breakdown.)

Ready for Action

A deeper involvement on the front lines requires more upfront preparation for field crews. Brand managers, as a result, are slowly beginning to embrace more staff training.

Some are treating event staffers as they would corporate employees, putting crews through immersion training to equip them with not only corporate and product information, but also a taste of the brand and corporate culture. Starbucks’ Chantico crews spent three days in stores watching customers, learning the menus, and helping baristas. “If the customer encounters our street team at an event, that conversation has to be consistent with what goes on in our stores,” says Brad Davis, the company’s vp-advertising and promotions. “We want our temporary staffers to be as knowledgeable as our employees.”

Other companies make training more social than educational, taking crews out for team dinners and playing brand games after dessert. On the final night of their seven-day training at Lego’s headquarters, for instance, mobile crews head over to event manager Vince Rubino’s house for a barbecue. In cases when bringing the staff to corporate isn’t an option, companies are bringing the training to the staff. Cadillac, for example, flew product specialists out to train field staffers in each market during its recent STS tour.

But much of today’s staff training is still not face to face. Phone training is getting somewhat better, with companies investing in multiple tele-education sessions, instead of just one. The Hain-Celestial Group’s Terra Chips, for example, used a combination of phone and email training to prep street teams for a 16-market tour rolling out now. “Not every event program requires immersion training,” reasons Marc Bessinger, president of New York City-based field shop YES, Inc.

Others are leaning on technology to help enhance and streamline training. Web-based programs can take users through a campaign and then administer a test they must pass to get hired. Famous Footwear recently mailed CD-ROM training kits to field staffers working a grand opening tour. The discs included instructions for setting up stores and talking to shoppers, then took recipients through a 75-question quiz. “We looked at the scores to determine who was ready for the program and who needed a follow-up phone call with more training,” says Heather Gaecke, director of QuickStrike, the New Berlin, WI staffing unit of Omnicom’s Radiate Group.

But training still has a long way to go, according to staffing companies. The process varies by brand, by program, by budget, and by the amount of time available. “It’s still the most overlooked piece of staffing. Nobody is putting a line item in the budget for training,” says Hess. “Many clients are content with quick phone training or a 15-minute on-site training session. They shouldn’t be.”

Mixed Bag

As temporary brand ambassadors have found more permanent assignments, more marketers are sending corporate employees to events as volunteer staffers. Crook says Nantucket Nectars will have employees, agency staff, and distributors’ staff work events this year. “We want to see which delivers the most in the end.”

And after years of being asked, marketers are finally starting to get out of the office and visit their events and staffs in person. In addition to scheduled, announced stops, they’re mystery shopping their own events in an effort to get unvarnished pictures of their brand presence.

Staffing companies have been quick to capitalize on the surge in business. Most have upgraded their databases and are screening more candidates. The smarter ones are investing in additional back-end systems and devising electronic reporting offerings, ROI tracking, and e-communications. The next trend? Look for field agencies to introduce Web-based sourcing software that will allow clients to request, screen, and book their staff at the click of a button. Once those systems are up and running, the evolution of today’s event staffer will march on. “As event marketing grows, marketers will look for more ways to get more our of their brand ambassadors,” says Dominique Bonavita, manager of strategic alliances and promotions at Royal Caribbean.

Experiential Marketing on the move.

From the Blog / Submitted by Elizabeth_Toledo on Thu, 01/17/2008 - 17:20.

Yesterday I wrote about how hard it is for women business owners to get a piece of the massive multi-billion dollar federal contracting work. Today I look at how non-profits can get a piece of the $1.4 billion corporate "cause" marketing industry fueled by the "Experiential Marketing" craze.

In a nutshell -- old-style advertising that simply encourages consumers to buy your product is on the decline. New marketing that promotes direct consumer engagement at events and online is on the rise. And tying in a cause to that new marketing significantly improves a campaign's success.

“Experiential Marketing” has been building in popularity among corporate advertisers; everyone from Weight Watchers to Hilton Hotels to Tampax has embraced the strategy. Some experts estimate that this approach has grown into a $50 billion industry, and that about $1.4 billion of those dollars are directed to “cause” marketing. In fact, most people in the United States (84%) are willing to switch brands to support a cause and the public support for cause marketing has measurably increased since September 11, 2001.

Co-branding with corporations is a dicey prospect for some non profits. But if it’s a strategic direction that works for you, here are some tips from marketing experts in the non-profit field:
- Understand the value of your non profit brand before negotiating (Kurt Aschermann, Boys & Girls Clubs of America)
- “Date” your prospective partners before marrying them. Let them see you in action, and get to know their operations. It creates more successful, long-term marketing relationships. (Darell Hammond, KaBOOM)
- Talk through obstacles honestly, which can include differences in language, culture, status, world views, and bottom lines. (Shirley Sagawa, National Service)

Hair Today…Gone Tomorrow

ASHEVILLE, NC (May 2, 2008) – Ananda Hair Studio and EventPro Strategies join together to host a charity hair donation event Monday, June 2. The event will include live music, door prizes, beverages, appetizers and hors d’ oeuvres.

The event will benefit Locks of Love: a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children suffering from long-term medical hair loss.
Three EventPro Strategies employees, including Emery Rosansky, have committed to donating their hair at the event. To date, 15 others have signed up to donate their hair in exchange for a free haircut at Ananda.

“We are so excited to partner with Ananda Hair Studio for such an important cause,” says Rosansky. She adds that while her event staffing employer does most of its business in large markets, EventPro Strategies prides itself on local community service initiatives and is committed to giving back to the Asheville community through charitable efforts.
Ananda Hair Studio will donate the space for the event. Ten Ananda stylists, including owner Larry Hopkins, have all agreed to volunteer their time and skills to provide all hair donors with a new haircut completely free of charge.

“Ananda is always looking for opportunities to give back to our community,” say’s Larry Hopkins, owner of Ananda Hair Studio. “Locks of Love is a great organization with a perfectly aligned cause that we are proud to support.”

If you are interested in participating in this event and/or donating your hair to Locks of Love, please contact Emery Rosansky at (828) 254-5261 ex. 314 or Erosansky@eventprostrategies.com. All donors must have at least 10 inches of hair measured tip to tip, and the hair must not be bleached. Colored or permed hair is acceptable.
The event is Monday, June 2 from 5:30pm – 8:30pm at Ananda Hair Studio, 22 Broadway in downtown Asheville. Parking is available along the street and also in adjacent parking decks and lots.

Ananda Hair Studio specializes in hair cuts, coloring and styling. It is located on 22 Broadway in downtown Asheville, near the BB&T bank building and the Mellow Mushroom Restaurant. Salon hours are Tuesday-Friday 9am to 6pm and Saturday from 10am to 6pm. For more information or to schedule an appointment call (828) 232-1017 or e-mail ananda@anandahair.com.

EventPro Strategies, founded in Asheville, NC in 1999, is a multi-million dollar national full-service staffing agency specializing in event marketing.