Street teams will help you interact with a large number of consumers but be sure to develop a plan to ensure a great experience and the best results.
Whether you’re canvassing a city street for a public event or lead generating at a sports tailgate, street teams are an excellent way to introduce your brand to large numbers of consumers while maintaining that personal connection that print and digital can’t provide. Developing a solid plan before your team activates will not only create a better experience for the consumer and your brand ambassadors but will also help you generate greater return on your promotional investment.
1. Keep The Pitch Simple It’s hard enough to retain consumer attention while they’re stationary, but in a moving crowd you have around a second or two to share your brand information and any promotional giveaway items. You’ll quickly lose the consumer’s attention by needing to explain a promotional signup or giveaway with multiple steps and tasks, especially when they are in a rush to get to their destination.
2. Dress For The Elements The weather plays a major factor in any outdoor activations. Provide lighter color shirts in the summer so your team will stay cool in the sun and provide hoodies and warmer clothes for the fall and winter. Additional items such as sunscreen, bottled water and handwarmers will also contribute to your team’s comfort. By ensuring your promo team’s comfort, they will be more focused on engaging with consumers.
3. Maximizing Consumer Engagement You’ll never be able to capture 100% of the leads at a large event, so your goal is to reach the most consumers as possible. Pair your brand ambassadors up so that one person can carry supplies and assist with signup while another can answer questions and continue to crowd gather nearby individuals.
4. Ensure Your Team is Agile Understanding crowd flow is incredibly important and, while it’s vital to the proper operation of the venue, you and your team may be in the dark when you arrive on-site. If you can’t scope out the venue in advance or your location is assigned for you by the venue, establish a plan to move team members around on the fly as traffic flow and consumer congregation points change. For instance, your team should be spread out evenly during a tailgate but should move closer to walking paths closer to the start of the game.
5. Keep Your Signup Simple A confusing and lengthy sign-up form will quickly dissuade consumers from completion. If you have an online form, be sure to only include the minimum number of fields necessary. Also, be sure to have paper backups in case of technical difficulties such as software issues and poor wi-fi. You only have a minimum amount of time during the activation to generate leads but an ample amount of time to perform follow-up after the activation.
6. Create FOMO Fear of missing out can be one of the most compelling draws to capture consumer attention. If you’re running a contest, be sure to set a deadline for entry near to the date of the activation. If you’re giving out free items, be sure they can only be claimed that day. The longer you give a consumer to act upon an incentive, the more likely it will be that it will lose importance and priority to them.7. Supply Distribution and Logistics Managing your supplies before, during and after your supplies can be an overwhelming task for even the most seasoned promotional veteran! Create a logistics checklist for all supplies from before the activation to the end, covering such issues as load-in and load-out, ensuring that your team can safely carry around their supply allocation as well as purchasing and distributing additional event supplies that may be needed such as pens, tape and scissors.
8. Pick A Team Lead Depending on the size of your activation team, you’ll need assistance getting your team set up to execute and managing them while they’re in the field. Hire team leads to either manage a set number of team members or organize teams by task and assign a leader for each. Don’t forget, your team leads should be working the activation while also managing the team members as necessary.
9. Encourage Enthusiasm It goes without saying that your brand ambassador team should be friendly and engaging with all consumers. Be sure to emphasize this during training and when your team arrives on-site. In addition, think up fun icebreaker comments or questions that brand ambassadors can share with consumers to develop immediate rapport.
10. Obtain Team Feedback While your team is executing the activation and engaging with consumers, they’re gathering valuable information as to what works great, what isn’t so successful and what could and should be done differently in the future. Be sure to ask detailed questions on your recap form to get a feel of what could be done better at future activations. Also, you may want to perform a quick debrief with your team immediately after to get their feedback while it’s fresh in their minds.
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