It is no secret for sports brands and social media users, ambassadors are one of the greatest ways to promote a brand to a specific audience. Some of them have more followers than the brand itself, a real opportunity to reach fans.
How do brands use this incredible audience for their marketing activations?
Take a look below at five examples from sports brands which have used their ambassador to get impressions and engagement on social media.
1.Use all of them at the same time
To unveil a new product, some brands use all their ambassadors at the same time with the same message. The aim? Create a huge amount of exposure with different communities and different athletes, and show how effective your ambassador following is. Two examples can illustrate this.
First, to unveil the new PSG black jersey specially created for Champions League fixtures, Nike got all its greatest Parisian ambassadors (Marquinhos, Cavani, Matuidi, Thiago Silva and David Luiz) to create the buzz via a series of photos in black and white, posted mostly on Instagram on each players’ account.
All photos are very premium, the key for success on Instagram to reach fans and all players are wearing the new shirt and armour equipment to support the message “Our new Armour #AlwaysMore”.
Second, simpler but effective as well, Puma.
To unveil its two new football boots, evoPOWER and evoSPEED, the German brand encourages them both in a competition on ambassadors’ social accounts. Either you #CHOOSEPOWER or you #CHOOSESPEED.
When Sergio Aguero hailed Boxing Day with his evoSPEED, Olivier Giroud and others reply with their evoPOWER. Via this campaign, Puma engages their ambassadors and therefore engages their fan community as well.
Ready for Boxing Day with my new boots, Come on City! #CHOOSESPEED @PUMAFootball pic.twitter.com/WBG10oAZvK
— Sergio Kun Aguero (@aguerosergiokun) December 26, 2015
Good game yesterday. We will try to get the 3 points at Stoke and score again in the new @PUMAFootball #evoPOWER. pic.twitter.com/R2YfZewKxA
— Olivier Giroud (@_OlivierGiroud_) January 14, 2016
2. Let ambassadors speak for you
When a brand like Marriot Reward has a “frail” fans community, only 21,400 followers on Twitter, and wants to get engagement on social media for a contest, it can be better to let your ambassadors take the lead.
Partner of the last NBA London Game, Marriot Reward gave fans the opportunity to play on court by retweeting a post. In order to gain a large number of impressions and engagement, the company let its spokesmen Per Mertesacker and Robert Pires introduce the game. In the end, the difference between the Arsenal legend and the current captain, and the brand, in terms of engagement is unchallenged.
RT for a chance to play on court at #NBALondon16 c/o @MarriottRewards #AroundTheWorld #prizedraw #FriendofMR pic.twitter.com/dR0uG4k0XM
— Per Mertesacker (@mertesacker) January 12, 2016
Attn: London Members – RT this to win a chance to play on court at #NBALondon16! #AroundTheWorld #prizedraw pic.twitter.com/KUhOxM3ZQ7
— Marriott Bonvoy (@MarriottBonvoy) January 12, 2016
3. Insert your brand directly on ambassadors’ accounts
To show off the partnership with their ambassador, some brands use the athlete’s profile as a shop front.
Take for example Adidas and Teddy Riner’s long-term sponsorship. The brand has been integrating its brand image on the judoka’s profile for several years. Profile picture as well as cover photo, Adidas is clearly associated with its ambassador.
So, when Teddy Riner’s fans (740 thousand on Facebook) check out his page or see one of his posts, Adidas is also watched.
4. Create a special account
Managing a channel dedicated to one ambassador is another solution to reach fans, the Twitter handle @TeamMessi, powered by Adidas is the perfect example.
On this account, Adidas shares all the latest news about the FC Barcelona superstar, Lionel Messi: stats, awards, new shoes, new training kits, videos… the brand also provides varied content to Argentinian’s fans in English and in Spanish. Naturally, the Adidas’s brand image is always promoted in each post.
However, to create an account dedicated to one ambassador, the star has to be sufficiently famous to find his fans community once again, in addition to his personal account.
A 5th #BallondOr, and a unique platinum #Messi15 boot made exclusively for Leo to celebrate!#BeTheDifference pic.twitter.com/JlhnbFFLkZ
— Team Messi (@TeamMessi) January 12, 2016
Another hat-trick for Leo Messi! ⚽⚽⚽ #BeTheDifference #Messi15 pic.twitter.com/Zr0Nl6d6Un
— Team Messi (@TeamMessi) January 9, 2016
5. Building Anticipation
When a great campaign featuring ambassadors is on its way, atheletes’ accounts can be a good medium to build excitement around it and help the campaign reach success.
Before launching the ad “Bring Your Game” featuring seven of its biggest ambassadors, Nike Basketball spread snippets of the ad on each ambassadors’ Twitter handle, using the hashtag #BringYourGame.
So, the campaign was already known and anticipated by basketball fans. Thanks to who? Ambassadors!
https://twitter.com/KyrieIrving/status/680181695857950721
https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/677238769460887553/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
