Mars brand Snickers has come up with some great campaigns that showcase the brand’s personality.  Here are two nice ideas from Snickers that put a smile on our faces and got us talking this week.

Snikkers Googel

Snickers Foosball

This week, Target unveiled a life-size dolls house in Grand Central station that was “designed for exploration”.  The two-story show home was only up for two-days and was packed full of around 4,000 products from Target’s new Threshold collection.  It featured décor, homewares and furnishings.  Alongside products there were activities such as makeovers in the bathrooms and a small army of brand ambassadors on hand to encourage people to interact with the products.  Visitors could also have photos taken using iPads placed around the dolls house, which would then appear on digital photo frames in the rooms – an activity designed to encourage people to feel that the place was their own.  Key items could also be bought from mobile devices, using digital tags.

This reminds us of the IKEA experience that Joss Davidge, Business Director here at BEcause, discussed in one of his Talking Points blogs for The Marketing Society last year.   

Last week we helped Yorkshire Tea stage its first piece of major experiential activity with a press event aboard the Orient Express, designed to allow journalists, bloggers and loyal brand fans to celebrate the joys of a proper brew together.

“The Yorkshire Tea Train” (#TeaOnTheTrain) is part of a wider promotional campaign for Yorkshire Tea, building on the celebratory tone of the brand’s latest TV ads.

Two hundred key influencers, journalists, bloggers and Friends of Yorkshire Tea were invited to the party.  Festivities began with tea and live music in the Orient Express lounge at Victoria Station, which had been transformed into the Yorkshire Tea Train lounge. 

Guests were then welcomed on board the historic train for a fun-filled, three-and-a-half hour journey through the countryside that celebrated “a proper brew” with a host of tea-related activities including making tea-cocktails and talks from tea sommeliers. Attendees were also able to dance the length of the train with an on board marching band.

Using RFID tagged tickets, each attendee was then given a personalised mock broadsheet newspaper that featured a photograph of them at the event and contained content that fortified the brand message.

Sharon Richey, CEO at BEcause comments:

“Yorkshire Tea has been a brilliant, fun brand to work with. The Yorkshire Tea Train allowed guests to experience the brand’s refreshing ethos first hand.  It was specifically designed to bring guests into Yorkshire Tea’s world and to thank them for their continued support for the brand.”

Yorkshire Tea’s marketing director, Simon Eyles also comments:

“This event is the first piece of major experiential activity for Yorkshire Tea and we are thrilled to be able to share it with so many of our loyal fans, some of whom go to extraordinary lengths to show us how much they love a proper brew. By including them alongside bloggers, journalists and key influencers, we were able to provide genuine, feel-good insight into the world of Yorkshire Tea.”

We are fast approaching the launch of the Yorkshire Tea Train, an experiential campaign we have created with Yorkshire Tea, which will celebrate “a proper brew” aboard the historic Orient Express. 

On the 24^th of April two hundred key influencers, journalists, bloggers and Friends of Yorkshire Tea will come aboard for the #TeaOnTheTrain experience, a fun-filled three-and-a-half hour experiential journey.

Guests will be invited to take part in a host of activities such as creating tea-infused cocktails and dancing to a live marching band as the iconic train makes its way through the countryside.

The Yorkshire Tea Train is part of a wider promotional campaign for Yorkshire Tea, building on the celebratory tone of the brand’s latest TV ads.

Keep tabs on the event by following the #TeaOnTheTrain hashtag on Twitter and check out the Yorkshire Tea blog.

When planning a campaign that uses brand ambassadors to encourage consumers to try a product or trust a service, we make sure we are working with the very best.  Charlie Kneen, BEcause Field Services Executive, looks at why it’s important to hire the right people to do the talking.

At BEcause we see the recruitment and retention of effective brand ambassadors as essential to delivering great brand experiences.  When preparing a brand experience all the ideas, planning and training comes down to one moment; the moment a brand ambassador engages with a consumer.  So it is imperative we make that moment count.

What are the key attributes we look for in brand ambassadors?

Proactive

Every passing consumer matters.  Our brand ambassadors are selected based on their willingness to approach people and ability to deliver the key brand messages.  There is a fine line between being proactive and being a nuisance.  We look for engagement, not bombardment and brand ambassadors who are proactive but also find a way to connect with each consumer individually will help build trust and drive consumer engagement.

Professional

We are very aware that brand ambassadors are representing the brand so they need to handle themselves professionally at all times. Recruiting brand ambassadors who take real pride in every job and are professional, yet approachable, will enable them to contribute fully to a live campaign.

Plugged-in

It is important that brand ambassadors fully understand the key messages, the product and the broader campaign so they can promote the brand through conversation.  We arm brand ambassadors with the confidence to deal with varied positive and negative questions from consumers by making sure they know the product or service inside out. Beyond training we profile brand ambassadors on every campaign to ensure that they have the right background, experience and passion for the brand they are working for. 

Personable

Our brand ambassadors have to be able make a strong positive impression and this is achieved by saying the right things clearly and concisely.  Brand ambassadors should be natural communicators who understand how to build rapport quickly with each consumer they encounter.  Selecting brand ambassadors who, quite simply, know how to talk and when to listen will help ensure that consumers walk away from the experience with a positive feeling.  This in turn will massage the desire to purchase and potentially lead to the consumer being a true advocate of the brand and product.

A recent survey from Keller Fay suggested that 92% of respondents would trust a brand recommendation from a friend.  We think it is important to tap into that by recruiting and training personable, professional, proactive and plugged-in brand ambassadors who will create real connections with consumers in order to drive trust and advocacy.