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Have you been invited to a Tupperware party lately? OK, probably not. But think back to the heyday of these parties… They were almost always hosted by the most popular domestic divas, since you had to secure an impressive invite list to score the free goods. Dozens of women would talk about, touch, and share tips about a product. Long before the invention of the mommy blogger, Tupperware was on to the magic of creating brand ambassadors.
Social media is basically the world’s biggest Tupperware party. So, while we’re all bedazzled by the new and shiny, let’s not forget the great old-school tactics that can be applied to modern day brand advocacy programs. For example:
1. Indentify The Influentials
2. Arm Your Advocates (with product, information, encouragement, megaphones)
3. Provide An Outlet or Encourage Use Of Existing Outlets
4. Reward Appropriately (who doesn’t like swag? Remember all that free Tupperware the host got?)
Do these old-school approaches still work in today’s social media landscape of real-time news streams, instant feedback, hands-on consumer interaction, and lightning fast word of mouth? You betcha. Just remember that the key to maximizing results is in laying out a strategy that takes a campaign from conception to activation and on through it’s full life span via ongoing community and messaging management.
Building an advocacy program requires just as much, if not more, work from the brand as it does from the advocates they hope to unleash. Credibility, for one thing, is a key signifier for both brand and advocate and you can’t simply order your agency to whip some up for you. To get it, a brand must establish itself through emotional appeal, performance, and social responsibility; an advocate’s credibility is generated via authenticity, audience, and weight they carry in their community.
When searching out appropriate ambassadors, the number of followers/friends/fans they reach is only one measure, and not necessarily the most important. Consider the level of influence they carry within their friend group or online community, as well as how they, and their audience, relate to the product. Allow sufficient time to listen, follow, and document the conversations of potential advocates before engagement.
Having a roster of rock-star brand ambassadors is important but what transforms a campaign into a brilliant advocacy program is carefully thought out content and access management. Be transparent and allow your advocates access to your company, through direct communication with key players, new/beta products, insider “secrets,” first looks, unique assets, and similar relationship builders. The content feed should be laid out as part of the overall campaign strategy and integrated with all other media in order to maximize the propagation, durability, and velocity of messaging. The goal is to ensure a sustainable build in buzz rather than a one-day Twitter spike, whether the effort is supporting a new product launch or ongoing branding work.
The days of Tupperware simply throwing a party, doling out some product, and then tallying up the sales may be gone. But lessons remain for brands seeking to nurture true long-term advocates.
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