By following these five key steps, you can help your staffing agency deliver the best possible results and maximise the ROI of your experiential marketing campaigns even in a highly time-sensitive environment:
1. Foster a Peer-to-Peer Partnership
Involve your staffing agency in the pitch phase, and use their insight to help shape your approach and anticipated results. The best staffing agencies will have a knowledge bank of the most effective sites, hours, and locations based on working with similar brand types and objectives. Ask for their input on KPIs, and consider the agency's recommendations to achieve your objectives. Treat your staffing agency like your peers, and build a deep relationship of trust and transparency. Feedback on their performance regularly, and be open to receiving their feedback too. Share your business critical goals, budget and long term potential to partner together – looking at things long term and agreeing effective ways of working together will improve results on site and profitability.
2. Share your Forecast
Engage your staffing agency early to allow them to plan ahead proactively for both their internal and external resources. This will ensure they have the most effective teams in the right locations with the right skill set and passion points at the right time. By sharing your event calendar forecast, your staffing agency can align their recruitment program with your potential opportunities proactively. If the opportunities you hoped to land do not convert, that’s ok. Your staffing agency would rather be prepared and would have been recruiting anyhow.
3. Increase your Leadtime
The best staff are usually booked up to two months in advance, so the longer your lead-time, the larger the pool of available and suitable staff your agency will have to select from. Give your staffing agency plenty of lead-time wherever possible to identify, cast and train the ideal team for your campaign. This will help ensure that you get the best solution rather than just the first solution. And remember lead-time starts at the point at which you sign off, not from when you first sent the request for a quotation and runs up until the training day which is often a week before going live.
4. Invest in Immersive Brand Training
Brands who invest in immersive training (ideally face to face) get better results on site. Immersive training with inclusion from the brand will lead to a more empowered and inspired team. It helps them feel part of something bigger. Share with them your wider campaign objectives and role play scenarios with your teams. Your staffing agency can lead on housekeeping, reporting and objectives but the brand story must come from someone brand side; you tell your own story far better than anyone else could. And finally don’t forget to record your training session as a record for all parties involved.
5. Feedback on Sales Results & Celebrate Success
It’s imperative for a staffing agency to be able to demonstrate impact and results. Your staffing agency will be able to report on many things live at a brand activation; quantitative and qualitative data, variable conditions, peak hours, anecdotal feedback, imagery and sign ups / samples. However they rely heavily on the brand, client, store etc. for actual sales results. For well-rounded actionable insights that can help improve your future brand experiences, share your results. All too often the unsung hero of the event industry, it’s time to let your staffing agency shine - award wins and case studies of your collaboration together will help your agency grow together with you which in turn helps your partner to reinvest and innovate their services.
By following these five key steps, you can build a successful partnership with your experiential staffing agency and improve results on site. Remember to maximise lead-time, foster a peer-to-peer partnership, align your event calendar forecast, invest in training and share your sales results!
If you would like to discuss how Kru Live can maximise your results and brand experience on site please contact sj@krulive.com and sarahporter@krulive.com.
We are proudly still working with some of the same clients we onboarded some 18 years ago; testament we think to our great reputation.
