While no two promo events are ever the same, creating a cheat sheet of the most common things to do will help ensure a quality experience.
Whether you’re starting out in in the world of promotional work or you’re a seasoned professional, preparing in advance for the most common issues and problems you’ll face will continually make you a better brand ambassador. While these issues and problem may not be the fault of your agency or their client, you can come out the hero by saving a promotion that may have otherwise needed to be rescheduled or cancelled due to a minor problem that wasn’t realized until it was too late.
1. What To Wear While many promotional events will provide a branded shirt, as an independent contractor you’ll be responsible for supplying the remainder of your attire. Compile a list of the basics that you should have ready for your desired promotions, such as a black button-down shirt, dark pants and closed toed shoes for off-premise tastings or khakis and comfy sneakers for street teams.
2. Taking Out The Trash Depending on the promo, you may be left with a pile of unwanted materials at the end of your shift. Whether it’s packaging for promotional giveaways or used sample cups from a tasting event, trash is not only unsightly for consumers but will take up additional disposal time at the end of your shift. Always bring along a large trash bag as well as a small trash can, depending upon the type of activation.
3. Spare Cash and Credit Cards You’ll never know when you need additional cash for things such as parking, product purchase or the last-minute emergency. Be sure to always bring some extra cash and have enough room on your credit card to take on any unexpected expenses. Oh, and don’t forget to save all receipt for reimbursement!
4. Workarounds to “I Don’t Know” No matter how well prepared you are about the brand you’re representing, it’s impossible to be able to answer every question a consumer, client or end user will have about the product or service. The key is to know where to find the answers to these inquiries, such as a website, product reference guide or customer support number.
5. Technical Difficulties Whether it’s your cell phone or the client’s computer assets, technology can and will break down. Always be prepared with workarounds to the most common problems that arise, such as a portable charging battery or a pen and paper to take notes if your phone fails.
6. Confirm With The Account While the brand’s company is often responsible for scheduling the promotional activation and the staffing agency is responsible for confirming the details, it never hurts to reach out on your own. Call the account or venue a few days prior to confirm the date, time, address and if you’ll need to bring any supplies such as a table or tablecloth. You don’t want to miss out on income because someone mixed up the day or time.7. Memorize Your Elevator Pitch As the name suggests, an elevator pitch is a brief description of the product or service; something that you can say in the average time it takes to ride the elevator. Turn one to three key facts about your brand into a sentence that you can share with consumers and clients to quickly describe the product or service.
8. Stock Up On Supplies As brand ambassadors, you may be called upon to purchase basic supplies for your demo, such as sampling cups for tastings. As you never know what you’ll need to have on-site as unexpected duties arise, carry around additional supplies for unexpected needs, such as tape for hanging signage and scissors for opening boxes or packaging.
9. Contact Information The two most important people you’ll need to be in touch with during your activation are your agency’s staffing manager and your account or venue’s on-site representative, whether that’s a team lead, store manager or sales rep. Always be sure to keep these numbers with you for every activation to report any problems or issues.
10. Recaps and Reporting Always be sure to submit your recap in a timely manner; it’s not only one less thing to have to remember to do but it will also make your staffing agency happy. Even after you submit your recap report, be sure to hang on to your recap data and pics for a month or so, or at least until after your agency has paid you. Even after submission, the agency or their client may not receive your data due to technical issues or it may get lost in processing.
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