Operating within the framework of the Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC), BeAmbassador is a pioneering solution that allows employees to become brand ambassadors for their company by enhancing marketing, sales and human resource strategies on social networks, thereby achieving greater impact or reach. In this way, they project an image of the company far beyond what it would have done itself, and they generate among their contacts great confidence in the company. In turn, companies can acquire customers directly through campaigns involving their employees. At the same time, the company’s team gains in professional branding in networks as important as LinkedIn, plus, this team has access to a system of rewards for their involvement with the strategy and the platform.
What is BeAmbassador?
BeAmbassador arose from the need that companies currently have to increase their recognition among the public, while creating effective and low-cost SEM campaigns. It therefore saw the day as a technological solution to create a link between the brand and the employees, through this platform. We make what was impossible before technically and economically feasible now. Employees are the key. According to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer study, a company’s employees have more credibility and they generate more trust for the public than the company itself. That is why their social media messages are a key part of the strategy known as employee branding.
BeAmbassador develops marketing tools for a company’s employees to become brand ambassadors. How does this work?
BeAmbassador enables companies to turn their employees, partners or fans into brand ambassadors. It is a complete technology solution, which enables administrators to upload content to the platform for their network of ambassadors. This content can be read and shared by them to their social networks. The process of adding employees is as follows. They receive an invitation from their company to join the program, where they also explain the advantages of participating in it. They register on the platform through a personalized link and connect to the social networks suggested by the company. They can then access content that adds value and can also be shared on their social networks. The ambassadors add points for the use of the tool, they position themselves in a ranking, and access an incentive program.
How long has this entity been operating within the framework of the Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC)?
All the conditions to access the ZEC have been met since February 2019.
Do you think this has had a positive influence on the development of your activity?
Of course, the idea of a 4% rate on corporate tax instead of 25% is key to attracting investment to our startup. Jobs have been created and we believe that it all adds up tremendously to business development.
Since its inception, has BeAmbassador experienced growth in employment and investment? What is its current workforce? What is the profile of its team?
We currently have a very committed team of eight people, including marketing, sales, software development and technical support personnel. The management, formed by senior founders, enables this challenging project to be carried out.
What possibilities does the tool offer?
Administrators, co-administrators and brand ambassadors all have their own web platform. In addition, the ambassadors can also access and share the content published by the brand from a mobile app. In the content repository, the brand shares with its ambassadors pieces of content based on its strategy. These can be global or targeted (per department, workplace, etc.) for the network of ambassadors, and they receive and share them voluntarily on their social networks.
In addition, the ambassadors can also see in the repository pieces of internal communication of the company, where they can even download files that the company has wanted to share internally with them. One of the most important benefits is that the content suggested by the brand helps the ambassadors to build their professional brand, expand their communities, increase opportunities, as well as keep themselves informed and trained. Their involvement and efforts are now measurable and recognized by the brand through its incentive program.
Finally, regarding the administrator’s management, it is important to highlight that the company defines the contents and the strategy to be followed according to its objectives. The company also establishes how the ambassadors’ actions score for the ranking and the policies for the employees’ access to the tool. With a good strategy design, companies can focus on increasing brand reputation, attracting employer branding talent and/or increasing sales through social selling techniques with brand ambassadors.
What is the origin of BeAmbassador? Where did the initiative come from?
It is the result of a process initiated in 2017, which led us to present the basis of the entire project to Reale Seguros, which was also involved in a digital transformation project to ensure that its agencies were also relevant in the online environment. The main objective was to ensure that Reale’s agents had easy access to the brand’s content and that, with just one click, they could share it on their local social networks. Based on a series of conversations, a number of features have been drawn and will be integrated into our BeAmbassador solution from 2018.
How many members are part of BeAmbassador? Where does the capital come from?
The initial capital came from the dedication and time in the development base of the platform in 2014 by the founding partners. A participative loan from Sodecan was incorporated in 2016 and, from 2018, with the BeAmbassador product, interest has been obtained from private investors. For the time being, we are carrying out a first round in which we have raised nearly 200,000 euros of investment. The activity of BeAmbassador allows us to generate income from licenses and specialized services in marketing and consulting associated with the process of implementation and preparation of the client to the strategy.
BeAmbassador is a dynamic solution, will it leave room for improvement?
Yes, the product cycle is really wide. New functionalities are constantly being developed and adapted to the evolution of the product and customer needs.
How is the company’s commercial policy strategy developed?
Initially through a good organic positioning on the Internet. For this purpose, we have several portals such as employeebranding.net and the product portal be-ambassador.com itself, the latter having remarkable areas. This allows us to acquire not only clients, but also partners who are interested in having the best tool for brand ambassadors and offering it to their clients.
This is our expansion strategy in Spain and Latin America.
What business sectors are included in this solution?
It is multi-sectorial. It is true that sectors such as higher education, insurance and banking are especially ahead, but other activities are gradually being incorporated.
Is it a specific tool for large corporations?
Not really, the tool can be used from a minimum network of 10 brand ambassadors. It is important that the company has a digital culture, policies that favor the adoption of technology and, of course, that it already has experience in corporate communication through social networks. Currently, we target companies with more than 200 employees, although we insist that they can be smaller companies as well.
What technological development does a company require to incorporate this service into its brand positioning strategy?
Actually, the BeAmbassador onboarding process in a company does not require any technological development. The entity must have experience in social media and the working conditions and policies must be favorable. Normally, the implementation goes through a small consultancy, training and a three-month pilot service, accompanied by our marketing people, who help guide the strategy according to the results. The initial work of the implementation can take 1 or 2 weeks and depends on each company.
Are there any outstanding firms among your clients? What are the main business areas?
The most notable are Reale Seguros and Catalana Occidente in the insurance business. IE, CUNEF and FGULL in the field of universities and higher education. There is also a high level of interest in other sectors of activity such as sports, institutions, associations and even political parties.
What are the markets on which the company currently operates?
Spain mainly, although there is a lot of interest in Latin American companies (LATAM), mainly countries like Mexico, Colombia or Argentina where we have different negotiations open at the moment.