Zara Hickey, Managing Director and Head of EMEA at Elevate Staffing, shares key strategies to effectively execute an international experiential campaign.
As the world’s largest global brands seek to engage with consumers across markets, languages, and cultures, they need to ensure their experiential campaigns are consistent. But, when it comes to making a local impact, brands need to prove they are relevant and resonate with each audience. Which means you need the best of both worlds – consistent content paired with a delivery that is based on local preferences, needs, and worldviews.
If you are tasked with executing a multi-market or international campaign, you can’t conduct business as usual – especially when it comes to choosing and managing your brand ambassadors. These people are your first line of defense, charged with bringing your brand to life. They are the individuals that consumers will remember and, for those they engage with, it is those interactions that will define your brand for years to come. Your event staff should be a part of their local communities, but also embody your brand and leave attendees both surprised and delighted.
Below are key strategies in event staff recruitment, selection, and training that can be of use for any large-scale experiential campaign, whether it spans several markets within one country or multiple locations across the world. These approaches ensure brand integrity is maintained and your brand message is memorable. We will also discuss how event staff can play a critical role in data capture and proving brand activation ROI.
How to Find the Best Event Staff for a Multi-Market or International Experiential Campaign
Scalable and effective event staff recruitment and selection is the first step in building cross-market event staff teams that are a perfect match for your brand. It will also ensure your teams are tuned in to their local markets.
Use a tiered screening process to ensure the best staff for each role and market. The first step – choose staff that are a part of or identify with your campaign’s target demographic. If your consumer can see themselves in your event staff, there will be a heightened sense of trust and the staff member will better communicate your brand messaging in a relatable way.
Next, include strategic, market-specific questions in each interview. Better yet, ask the staff member to record their answers on video. Video interviews show you exactly how the person looks and behaves in real life. You can hear the excitement in their voice and get a feel for their personality. Plus, videos can be distributed amongst teams across the globe for improved transparency and collaboration.
And remember – protect your company through compliance in hiring. In the US, event staff should be classified as W-2 employees, not 1099 contractors. In Canada, they are considered T4 employees. Understanding international employment law and abiding by those rules and regulations is critical in executing a successful, compliant global activation.
Key Tips for Event Staff Training and Ensuring Retention
Now that you have identified the best event staff for each market and ensured local compliance, you need to turn your attention to preparing them for the activation. When it comes to delivering consistent training across markets, using an online platform is the best solution. Even better, they provide cost and time efficiencies across teams, from the office to the field.
Online learning management systems allow brands and agencies to create training programs that are scalable and deliver consistent messaging. They offer traditional and interactive testing to prove that event staff were thoroughly engaged in their training session and retained key messaging.
Remember to follow your digital training with local coaching. Use in-market experts to help “translate” the global message for the local audience. Consider cultural points, role-playing, and other tactics to help the message resonate. This can be done in person or on the phone but should be conducted in real-time to allow plenty of room for dialogue and questions between trainers and event staff.
Using Event Staff to Gather Campaign Data and Show ROI
Now it’s “go time.” But remember – your hand-picked, locally-immersed brand ambassadors can impact and boost your ROI. They build trust between your brand and attendees, which makes consumers more comfortable and more likely to part with their personal information.
In addition, consider the following:
- Hire staff with backgrounds in surveying and data capture to ensure each interaction with consumers is valuable and the correct content is captured.
- Use reporting technology to scale data capture across markets and deliver real-time metrics to show a range of data, from testimonials to top-line sales reports.
- Provide event staff with in-depth recap questions to tap their unique market knowledge and insights related to the activation results.
Having the right people in place goes a long way into ensuring your multi-country experiential campaign is scalable and delivered with excellence. By incorporating these event staffing strategies, you are best equipped for multi-market success.
If you’d like to find out more about Elevate Staffing, get in touch with zara.hickey@elevate-staffing.com
