The bond between businesses and colleges has never been stronger with the incorporation of brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are key to the industry sphere, allowing companies to enlist the help of collegiate students to spread word about a project, brand, or service to the university demographic of 18 to 24-year olds. Not only do brand ambassadors create new ways for businesses to expand into a unique population of otherwise unreachable people, they also find that the experience they gain through the process excites them and motivates them to do more. Rebecca Samuelson's experience as a brand ambassador opened her eyes to a business opportunity.
Like Caroline Pugh of VirtualU, Samuelson's startup aspirations and growth have come from her involvement in TechPad and the Entrepreneur Club at Virginia Tech. "TechPad was a lifesaver," she repeated throughout the interview, "I slept at TechPad more than at my own house." Samuelson, running both brandREP and her company Infinite Grind, should be referred to as a superwoman of sorts, an animated entrepreneur with a great vision. Her social life may be nonexistent at times, but she is excited to be a part of something so innovative. "I may be an engineer, but I pride myself on using both sides of my brain."
Understanding how vital brand ambassadors are to the success of a business venture, Samuelson partnered with four of her friends to create an easier and more efficient way for companies to work hand-in-hand with college students. With the introduction of brandREP to the virtual world, Samuelson sees recruitment efforts becoming more accurate and cost-effective.
Currently, the only other way to do what they're doing is "pay a marketing agency anywhere from $2,000 to $12,000," Samuelson said. "It's very costly and not very efficient. They call career centers at universities, put posts up on Craigslist and talk to a couple of students face-to-face." In contrast, their product creates a smoother process while also drastically cutting down on the funds required.
The idea for brandREP came about back in December when Samuelson worked for a collegiate media company based out of Chicago as a brand ambassador. While a brand ambassador herself, Samuelson quickly learned that recruiting students for brand ambassador programs is difficult. She watched as the company she was working for would interview 1,000 kids a year. Out of the 1,000 interviewed, only 200 would be deemed viable candidates, then only 80 would develop into really good representatives. The process was long, laborious, and not worth the effort. No one was doing it efficiently, and she found her in.
Identifying an unmet need, Samuelson met with others who had similar views. With her experience as a college student and two of the other founders' experiences starting their own companies geared towards college kids, Samuelson had set-up her very own business plan without any entrepreneurial background. As a group of five (yes, five co-founders is really unusually, but completely necessary for the multitude of facets to the startup), the young aspiring entrepreneurs worked together to construct their very own version of "eHarmony for brand to find their ideal student," as Samuelson fondly refers to her project.
The site prototype took off at the beginning of February and the beta was then launched towards the end of that same month. According to Samuelson, they will continue in beta until around August or September, but their main priority is to ensure that they are very close with their beta clients and the students working with their site. By maintaining a close relationship, the co-founders will take note of what users wish they were offering and other advice as they proceed to their live launch. Currently their is no cost associated with the platform. "We are focused on providing something that's of value before slapping a price tag on it," Samuelson revealed.
BrandREP consists of Atif Siddiqi, CEO in charge of strategy and partnerships; Charlie Martin, CTO in charge of all technical development, and also a Virginia Tech Alum; Atish Doshi, in charge of marketing, customer insights, user acquisition, and creative content; Jimmy DeBlasio in charge of operations, front-end development, and management of technical resources; Rebecca Samuelson, in charge of client relation, head of business development, and also a Virginia Tech student.
Currently, brandREP has 30 companies signed up for their beta program. The clients are increasing by an average of 1.5 to 2 per day. The Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech is working with brandREP to create connections with 700 other companies. Once they opened up their student portal, 150 signed up and they had their first hire last week. BrandREP is ready to shake up the current relationship between businesses and higher education.
How it works:
- Recruitment: When a student signs up, they input what they are looking for. brandREP then takes the student's social graph, which includes statistics from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, to determine their viralibility. The friends, followers, and likes on posts that they have all play into their social graph. At the same time, clients can post their job descriptions that include different interest tags. For example, If they want a student who has a lot of followers they can add a "greek" tag (since they tend to have more Facebook friends). Based on interest tags and the description provided by the client, the company will be designated a "repability" number, as will the student. From these numbers, brandREP will match businesses with students.
- Quick Tasks: It's just as it seems. They are simple jobs that take little time. Companies give students a certain amount of money to do a viral campaign, hand out swag, etc. It's about getting their brand name out there as fast as possible.
- Blackboard-like Scholar Page: It's in the works, but it will be a new section of the site devoted to management. A brand ambassador will be able to have an open conversation with brand ambassadors from other campuses through the communication management platform. Samuelson said that this feature will hopefully be up by the end of the month.
To reach brandREP, contact Rebecca Samuelson at rebecca@brandrep.me
