Creating Brand Loyalty Through Ambassador Programs

Key Takeaways

Ambassador Program Target Audience  — Professional Athletes & Loyalists: Nuun created their ambassador program to raise brand awareness, focusing on 2 cohorts of ambassadors: professional athletes and loyalists. Loyalists are regular consumers who have a love for fitness and sports. They are not necessarily influencers, rather, they typically have between 400 - 2000 followers. These ambassadors give out free Nuun samples to their friends and family, promoting through word of mouth. Professional athletes publish posts about Nuun products and leverage their follower base to reach a wider and larger group of consumers. Another upside to working with athletes is the added credibility that comes with their endorsement due to the nature of their roles.

Ambassador Tactic  — Creating an Exclusive Community: Consumers are motivated to join the ambassador program due to its exclusive benefits and networking opportunities. Nuun created a separate website that is accessible only to ambassadors, which allows Nuun ambassadors to create their own profile and connect with others in this exclusive community. Ambassadors can login and join Nuun sports teams and take part in Nuun events that are exclusive to the ambassador program.‍

Organic Social Tactic  — Branded Hashtags: Ambassadors are encouraged to share their fitness journey and love for Nuun products by using branded hashtags (#teamnuun and #nuunlife). These branded hashtags have generated over 585K posts so far on the Instagram platform. ‍

Influencer Tactic  — Evaluating An Influencer’s Authenticity: When working with influencers or ambassadors it is important to determine the authenticity of an influencer’s follower base. Consider the following tips:

• Audit Tools: check how many of their followers are bots using tools such as Analisa
• Comment Audit: check their Instagram posts to see if there are a lot of spam comments from bots
• Engagement Rate: check to see if their engagement rate is between 1.5% - 3.0%
• Following Audit: Do a quick spot check of their follower list to see if the majority of their followers have empty profiles
• Demographic Data: Ask for their audience demographic data to verify that their followers reside in your relevant country

Nuun has built a community of loyal consumers through their ambassador program, which is made up of athletes who share a life passion for being active and healthy. By being a Nuun ambassador, these members also receive discounts on Nuun products and early access to new product launches.

Nuun used their ambassador program to raise brand awareness, focusing on 2 cohorts of ambassadors: professional athletes and loyalists

Compared to working with professional athletes and influencers with larger followings, there is lower reach achieved with this group. However, they can also be more valuable as they are recommending products to their close families and friends and providing an actual product sample.

For professional athlete influencers, they can leverage their follower base and reach a wider and larger group of consumers. Another upside to working with athletes is the added credibility that comes with their endorsement due to the nature of their roles.

Nuun has created an exclusive community of athletes who take part in their product seeding strategy as they receive free Nuun samples to give away to friends and family.

In 2021, over 2,000 new ambassadors were admitted to the program and posted their badges on Instagram and in total the ambassador website has generated 67K total site visits since 2019.

The ambassador community is made up of thousands of regular consumers who are not influencers. There is no social follower requirement to be accepted into the program. Majority of ambassadors have less than 1,000 followers and are not influencers, just regular people who are passionate about fitness.

Nuun also partners up with professional athletes, such as Alysia Montano, to be a part of their ambassador program. Alysia is a 2012 Olympian and 7-time USA national track & field champion.

Alysia, with her 67K following on Instagram, falls into the micro-influencer cohort. She shares her love for Nuun life products on her Instagram, tagging the brand in her photos and writing lengthy captions about Nuun.

Ambassadors are encouraged to share their fitness journey by using branded hashtags (#teamnuun and #nuunlife) which has generated over 585K posts so far.

Within the Nuun ambassadors, there are several popular athlete groups, including:

What perks does Nuun offer for their ambassadors? Why do they want to join?

• Discounts & Samples! Ambassadors get discounts on Nuun products as well as free samples to share with family, friends, and potentially followers
• Exclusives! Ambassadors get the “early scoop” on product releases as well as exclusive Nuun-hosted events
• Community! Become a part of an exclusive fitness community with the ability to network with other athletes and join local teams

What are the benefits for Nuun?

Free! Aside from giving out samples to ambassadors and hosting athletic events, Nuun does not have to pay for any sponsored posts
Bot-free! Since most of their ambassadors are not influencers, there is a lower chance of inflated follower numbers due to bots
Brand Awareness! By building this ambassador program, they provide them with incentive to post on social increasing brand awareness of the product

What are some ways to determine the authenticity of an influencer’s follower base?