Holiday Ambassador Marketing: How to Create Fun, Seasonal Tasks for Brand Ambassadors

Is the holiday season “the most wonderful time of year” for your company? With a strong brand ambassador program, it can be.

In 2020, online holiday shopping in the United States skyrocketed 32.2% to $188.2 billion, with 26% of people saying social media would assist them in the process. Those stats are expected to grow this year, meaning your brand needs to shine online when consumers are scouring the web for holiday purchases. 

As your biggest fans, brand ambassadors are ideal for hyping up social commerce companies. So, it’s time to ho-ho-hop on the ambassador marketing bandwagon while you still can! 

If you are struggling with your seasonal brand ambassador marketing strategy, we’ve got you covered. Below we’ll share ideas for how apparel brands, food and beverage brands, and wellness brands can all activate brand ambassadors to boost brand awareness and drive revenue during the holidays. 

Bring Your Brand to Holiday Gatherings

The people who love your products the most, your brand ambassadors, will likely spend time with family, friends, and coworkers over the holidays. Those gatherings are opportunities for authentic, word-of-mouth recommendations — far more valuable than any traditional advertisement. 

You should absolutely reward ambassadors for bringing your brand to the party and make it fun for them to share your products or services with their inner circle. Keep reading for some ideas on how to do just that.

Apparel Brands

At first, the prompt here seems obvious: Ambassadors, please share photos or videos of yourself rocking our apparel at holiday gatherings!

That’s not bad. But, we encourage you to really think about who your customers are and why they’re wearing your products. How can they share your sweatpants, high heels, or button-up shirts authentically? Does your prompt encourage content that represents your company’s values and encourages ambassadors to be themselves? When you dig deeper, you’ll be able to craft Tasks that result in more interesting user-generated content from your ambassadors.

Hopefully, some examples will help. An office apparel brand with a sense of humor can ask ambassadors to “share a moment from your office holiday party, featuring one of our ties, that you won’t get fired for.” 😉 A family-friendly outerwear brand might prompt ambassadors to “bundle up in our winter jackets and share a snowball fight with your neighbors.” The brand would then be associated with wholesome, seasonal fun. If you want more help with Tasks, get in touch!

Food and Beverage Brands

Food and drink are focal points of holiday gatherings. But how can your brand stand out from the competition? Ask ambassadors to make your product the star of their holiday gatherings.

You can request that they include your tomato sauce as the key ingredient in a holiday potluck dish, then share a video of the foodie fun on social media. 

Recipes are going viral lately on platforms like TikTok, so you could offer up a delicious dessert recipe featuring your signature chocolate bar and ask ambassadors to document themselves making it and serving it to their loved ones. 

Festive beverages — both boozy and nonalcoholic — both have considerable opportunities to shine at holiday gatherings. 

Viewing parties for sporting events are also popular get-togethers during the holiday season. Does your product make a great game-day snack? Your ambassadors could be sharing proof of that with the world!

If you’re thoughtful about planning Tasks, your brand ambassadors will create delicious content that brings a feast of attention your way. 

Wellness Brands

Holiday gatherings can be associated with indulgence. With that in mind, wellness brands might focus on the time before or after a get-together. We recommend brainstorming ambassador Tasks that position your product as a welcome balance to the excess of the holidays.

Does a CBD gummy take the edge off before a holiday brunch with the in-laws? Does a probiotic smoothie soothe the digestive tract after a weekend of debauchery with those crazy cousins? 

People are especially conscious of nutrition and fitness this time of year, so strategically creating opportunities to be top-of-mind (like assigning awareness-boosting Tasks to your ambassadors) is essential. 

Ask ambassadors to share how your products support their wellness during the holiday season — through reviews or social media posts — and they’ll generate a stream of positive content on your behalf. The best part is, the results of your ambassadors’ holiday engagement will last for seasons to come. 

Give Your Products as Holiday Gifts

Make the most of “the season of giving” by incentivizing ambassadors to gift your products. Rewards not only engage your ambassadors but involve their loved ones with your brand! Of course, your Tasks will depend on what you sell, but they should include documenting some part of the gifting process. Let’s explore some ideas for the industries we introduced above:

Apparel Brands

Everyone loves a good unboxing video. With a holiday twist on the idea, “unwrapping” videos make engaging ambassador Tasks. For example, an ambassador might share a video of Grandma pulling out a pair of your fuzzy slippers from her stocking. Or they could capture the moment a little boy rips through wrapping paper to reveal a coveted superhero T-shirt made by you.

What comes next after unwrapping? A fashion show, of course! People of all ages, in any style niche, will have a blast modeling their new clothes. You could enlist ambassadors to share videos or photos of their loved ones rocking their gifts — aka your products. Bonus points if ambassadors gift your products to multiple people and share a group shot of everyone suited up in your brand together.

Food and Beverage Brands

As we mentioned earlier, food and drink are the heart of the holidays in many ways. Gifting is an integral part of that. So you can ask ambassadors to get personal and dedicate a social media post to who they’re gifting your product to — and why. Not only do heartfelt testimonials build brand trust, but they tie your brand to all sorts of positive feelings.

You can also partner with like-minded brands and create gift baskets for brand ambassadors to send to loved ones. Collaborations effectively get your product in front of new audiences, and involving brand ambassadors only amplifies that exposure.

One last holiday foodie idea is a pay-it-forward holiday gifting contest where *you* give your products to ambassadors for completing brand-boosting, holiday-themed Tasks.

Wellness Brands

What’s a kinder gift than wellness? That’s a concept we encourage any wellness brand to explore this holiday season. Whether you sell protein powder, eco-friendly water bottles, or organic vitamins, your brand has a myriad of ways to stand out from the competition. And your brand ambassadors, like Santa’s elves, are here to help.

Ask ambassadors to document how your product factors into their wellness-focused giving. Encourage ambassadors to treat themselves to the gift of wellness and share what that means to them. Request that they use your mission statement or tagline as holiday inspiration and post the results.

Giving your products as gifts and documenting the process is a tried and true Task, but open your mind to other options. Tasks that encourage authenticity, engagement, and creativity from brand ambassadors will resonate the most.

In Summary

If prompted with fun and festive Tasks, ambassadors won’t just be singing carols — they’ll also be singing your praises on social media. If you’re thoughtful about crafting Tasks, the result will be creative, authentic user-generated content.

Don’t have a brand ambassador marketing program or want to level up an existing program? We can help.