Fashion companies, like many other companies around the world, are focusing on a new method of marketing. Instead of spending budget on traditional advertising, which is becoming less and less effective, pioneering brands are investing in their own customers to spread their brands’ messages.
Brand ambassadors, for example, help promote their favorite brands and build hype around new products. Moreover, they humanize your brand and extend your outreach.
This article breaks down programs for the following brands:
A brand ambassador is someone who is formally recognised by the brand as a representative, and helps spread the word of the brand. Fashion brand ambassadors are brand ambassadors of fashion brands and retailers. These brand ambassadors are encouraged to create content for the brands and help spread the message.
Fashion brand ambassadors need to be passionate about fashion and their social media needs to represent that passion. Therefore, their social media accounts need to maintain a ‘fashion feel.’ A large following is no longer necessary to become a brand ambassador, instead what is necessary is a very high engagement rate.
Revolve is a one-stop shop eCommerce brand, founded in 2003 by two friends Michael Karanikolas and Michael Mente. It describes itself as the “next generation fashion retailer” that partners with suppliers, vendors and owned brands to sell tailored fashion and beauty products to its Millennial and Generation Z audience.
Ambassadors include @bynicolevoz with 29.2K followers, @ashleyrachel with 33K followers and @soukenya with 289K followers. They all post lifestyle and fashion content, including outfit inspiration videos, and makeup tutorials. You can find ambassadors with larger followings highlighted on the official Revolve website.
The REVOLVE community was established on the principles of sustainability, supply chain management, and diversity and inclusion. It utilizes its social influencers to promote its values and assist brand recognition.
Revolve ambassadors shop eligible products and promote their favorite pieces on social media with unique product links. This is in exchange for commissions, store credit, gifted items, and exclusive invitations to ambassador events.
Just Strong is an athletic brand whose goal is to empower women. They sell everything from leggings to t-shirts and crop tops to sweats. Their symbol is the squat. Just Strong explains, “The squat is the perfect analogy for life - it's about standing back up after something heavy gets you down and what better way to present this analogy by using it in our branding.” Just Strong wants to empower and motivate women to stay strong and continue to work hard in and outside of the gym. “Just like the squat, our clothing is a symbol of standing back up, fighting against any resistance life throws at you and becoming stronger.” Overall, they want women to embrace their strength.
Some of their brand ambassadors include @hgracy95 and @maddienuyts. Like BANGS Shoes, the ambassadors have a wide range of followers. Some have around 2,000 followers, and some have around 24K. Their brand ambassadors have Instagram pages that are focused around fitness.
Just Strong wants to empower other women to be strong and represent their brand. The first quality they look for in choosing brand ambassadors is passion. They mention they want women to empower each other through support, friendship, sharing, growing, building a community, and kicking ass!
The program allows ambassadors to connect with a community of 13,000 women who support each other and who may even become friends. Some of the tasks include posting a high quality piece of content every month on Instagram, supporting other ambassadors by communicating with each other and sharing their feedback.
Dia & Co. is a mid-size and plus-size womens clothing company that was founded by Nadia Boujarwah in 2015. Nadia is a mid-size woman who struggled to find clothing that both properly fit her body, and accurately represented her personality. She decided to launch her brand to solve the same struggles for other women, and to create an inclusive environment that promotes confidence and individuality.
@katiesturino is one of its most prominent ambassadors. Author of “Body Talk” and founder of beauty brand MEGABABE, she is an entrepreneur and body positivity advocate with 808K followers on Instagram.
The brand's mission statement is “style isn't a set of rules. It's a way to celebrate who you are.”
Ambassadors reflect this statement by showing off their unique styles on Tiktok, Instagram, and Youtube.
Dia & Co.’s ambassador program is focused on gifting. According to its applicant page, ambassadors are “the first to learn about the newest arrivals, brand partnerships, product drops, social campaigns, events, and behind the scenes at Dia.” Ambassadors also receive commissions for social posts that they can use towards future purchases.
Dia & Co. currently only accepts US based applicants, and prefers that applicants have high engagement rates, and at least 5K followers.
Outdoor Voices is an athleisure brand that is representative of everyday people. Founder Tyler Henry wished to create a brand that focused on the positive feelings from exercise, rather than the intensity of the workout. Its website promotes spending quality time with loved ones, and enjoying leisurely activities.
Outdoor Voices repost recreationalists that use its hashtag #DoingThings on its website (that you can access here). It highlights a wide range of people with varying numbers of followers, but they are all unified in their values of exercising for pleasure, and exploring the outdoors. Other hashtags the program uses are #OVOffical and #OVAmbassador.
Outdoor Voices is on a mission to “Building a community of vibrant and varied recreationalists who believe in the power of doing things. If you like having fun, we'll get along.”
Ambassadors for Outdoor Voices are action-oriented “recreationalists” that represent the brand through their values of movement and exercise in their everyday lives. When they post content of them “doing things” with the official hashtag, they are benefited with exclusive discounts, insight on product launches, and access to team OV.
Sand Cloud was founded in 2014 by 3 friends (Brandon Leibel, Steven Ford, and Bruno Aschidamini) in San Diego, California. They wanted to educate people about the severity of ocean pollution. They are huge supporters of marine life preservation. Sand Cloud make various products including beach blankets, clothing, and accessories. From the sales of those items, they donate 10% of their earnings back to nonprofits that support their cause.
Sand Cloud has a lot of ambassadors in their program. Some of their ambassadors include @amanda_r_s who has over 8K followers and @taganvaz who has 13K followers. While these two ambassadors have a lot of followers, there are plenty of other ambassadors with less than 1,000 followers as well. Sand Cloud’s ambassadors have Instagrams that focus on fashion. While these accounts are influencers, micro or nano-influencers are becoming more common in helping market a brand.
Their mission is to save marine life and they want their ambassadors to help.
Sand Cloud has an ambassador program and has three main parts to their ambassador promise. First, help spread their mission to friends using social media. Second, get the chance to be featured on the official instagram. Third, discounts are offered on all products.
Two college graduate students started Pura Vida after they went on a trip to Costa Rica. While they were in Costa Rica, they met two artisans that were dealing with poverty. They decided to create a partnership with the two artists from Costa Rica and create Pura Vida. Pura Vida sells jewelry, specifically bracelets, and accessories.
Now 350+ artists have had a steady income thanks to Pura Vida. Not only do they help artists, they have partnered with over 174 different charities around the world. They explain, “At Pura Vida, we dream to do more, which is why we’re always on the lookout for new charities that can benefit from this collection.” Charities they donate to include cancer awareness, animal awareness, conditions, education & children, enviro-causes, memorial causes, and service/military.
There are a lot of brand ambassadors for Pura Vida because so many people love to support the amazing charities. Some of their ambassadors include @pvrep_charli with around 2,000 followers, @gratefullylauren with 105K followers, and @jasminmanzano with around 2,000 followers. These ambassadors tend to focus on fashion and adventure.
Pura Vida wants their bracelets to serve as a reminder to slow down and live in the moment. They also want to help various charities and ambassadors help this effort.
Like many other ambassador programs, Pura Vida wants outgoing individuals that are active in their communities, involved in extracurriculars, and motivated to make the world a better place. Pura Vida wants their ambassadors to be kind and respectful, and, once hired, to use their code to help generate sales. Ambassadors also must be active on Facebook and Instagram and post photos with Pura Vida products. Benefits include commission on sales that use ambassador’s discount code, free bracelets, and sneak peeks at new collections.
Filip Tysander founded Daniel Wellington. He based the watch company off of a British man he once met who loved wearing vintage watches with old NATO straps. The British man’s name was Daniel Wellington.
Some of their brand ambassadors include @theresejsmith with around 3K followers, @juliatillman with around 5K followers, and @cameronwesleyw with around 1,500 followers. While most ambassadors have over 1,000 followers, there are no specific requirements for the number of followers you must have! The ambassadors typically post pictures relating to fashion and tend to post pictures about their everyday life.
Daniel Wellington’s mission is to provide watches with a timeless style and interchangeable straps.
Tysander described his brand ambassadors as enthusiastic people who are up to date with trends and love a challenge. It is expected that they thoroughly understand social media platforms, like Instagram, and continuously share their love of the brand and help grow the community. Ambassadors earn points by completing tasks. These points can later be cashed out for gift cards, concert tickets, events, etc. Ambassadors also get the chance to be featured on the official Instagram.
Meaning “lifestyle” in Latin, Vitae represents the functionality, flexibility, and personal growth that CEO Selene Dior wished to offer her customers. Her primary goal of her brand was to create a community of women that uplifted each other, which has resulted in its ever-growing ambassador program that includes over 5,000 women.
Some ambassadors include @keegandele with 3K followers, @ebonyjepson with 27.9K followers, and @kritstinlinkletter with 102K followers. Their content is fashion and beauty based.
The Vitae Apparel ambassador program encourages female empowerment, body positivity, and self-love. Its ambassadors are of various ethnicities, and wear a wide range of sizes.
Its application page reads “Let’s change what it means to be a woman and make a difference in society.”
Ambassadors receive exclusive benefits from the program, including a lifetime discount, early access to new releases, participation in photoshoots, travel opportunities for business events and many more. But the biggest benefit is joining an empowering community of strong women.
Brand ambassadors help promote brands and get the hype up. Fashion companies, like many other companies, are taking on a new form of marketing by using brand ambassadors. Ambassadors are a great help in humanizing your brand and extending your outreach. The eight brands mentioned in this blog have great ambassador programs, and those looking to be a brand ambassador should look into applying to represent these companies.