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Nowadays, more and more brands are developing their own virtual ambassadors for interactive communication and marketing with consumers. Exploring the interactive effectiveness of virtual brand ambassadors on consumer behavior is crucial to understanding the interactions between brands, virtual ambassadors and consumers as well as further increasing consumer engagement in AI-mediated interactive marketing.

This study investigated different interactive effects of virtual ambassadors on consumer behavior in terms of virtual ambassadors’ anthropomorphism, virtual experience and consumer behavior through a mixed method of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.

The results indicate that consumers’ sharing, reviewing and purchasing behavior is significantly and positively influenced by virtual ambassadors’ anthropomorphism and virtual experience. In addition, specific anthropomorphic features and virtual experiences were discussed in detail.

This study helps brands develop and manage their virtual ambassadors and consumers in AI-mediated interactive marketing and communication.

The aim of this chapter is to shed light on a growing phenomenon in communication practice: employees speaking voluntarily for, about or on behalf of their organization, hereafter labelled as corporate ambassadors. The goal of this qualitative study is to analyze the role of corporate ambassadors within an organization and explore the perceived benefits and risks from three perspectives: the communication department, other departments such as marketing or human resources, and corporate ambassadors themselves. The research is based on an interdisciplinary literature review and 25 qualitative in-depth interviews with employees in one large, internationally operating German organization. By combining the theoretical and empirical insights, a conceptual framework that depicts the benefits (e.g., joy, increased trust, positive impact on reputation) and risks (e.g., work stress, lack of integration, loss of quality) of integrating corporate ambassadors into the overall communication of the organization was developed. In addition, this chapter suggests two typologies that help to distinguish between different roles of communication professionals and of corporate ambassadors. The contribution of this study is to lay a groundwork for further discussions about corporate ambassadors in the field of corporate communications. The chapter outlines directions for future research and implications for practice on how the framework can be applied in organizations.

This paper aims to identify how integrated marketing communications (IMC) was applied to a major multi-cultural sporting event, the Asian Cup 2015, through event ambassadors integrating the Kliatchko (2008) four-pillars model of IMC.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 people involved with the event, with questions designed to ascertain ways in which the multicultural communication occurred.

The four-pillars model is applicable in this case. Interviews identified that while the cultural and football issues being faced by the organisers introduced many challenges, ambassador communication proved to be an extremely effective process of IMC. The integration of ambassador communications overcame many cultural barriers with respect to language, ticketing and communication, enabling engagement of communication channels.

This research addressed a specific multicultural event in one specific market. While providing insights into how this event managed its IMC programme, investigation into other events is required to identify whether similar results would apply.

The way in which the event incorporated community members into the IMC programme provides a strong opportunity to examine whether this approach could be applied by marketing managers more broadly.

An examination of the IMC conducted in conjunction with a major event has not featured previously, and the original way in which this event conducted its communications highlights aspects that are relevant to marketers in all organisations.

The purpose of this study was to develop an initial understanding of sport brand ambassador participants' experiences in sponsored user generated branding (UGB) programs to assist sport organizations in developing the most mutually beneficial brand ambassador programs possible.

Semi-structured interviews were held with six individuals who serve as brand ambassadors for various sport brands. Data were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis.

Participants were intrinsically motivated to serve in brand ambassador roles. Their experiences were impacted by whether their personal expectations were met, perceived relationship with the brand, perceived value to the brand, and perceived amount of work involved. They reported the best aspects of participation were a sense of community and free products and/or discounts. The most challenging aspects included not wanting to come across as a marketer, self-inflicted pressure to perform a certain way for the brand, pressure to purchase products, and lack of clear communication from the brand.

As this study was qualitative, the findings are unique to the participants and the brands they represent. Therefore, the findings may be used to guide other research and brands but are not generalizable.

Sport brands wishing to employ sponsored UGB strategies such as brand ambassador programs must set clear expectations for ambassadors, communicate regularly, and develop a sense of community with and among ambassadors.

This study contributes to the limited sport management research on sponsored UGB and offers theoretical and practical implications in the areas of sport marketing and branding.

To provide an employee perspective on ambassadorship in the context of corporate communication, the purpose of this paper is to explore how employees relate to and experience ambassadorship.

The study has a qualitative approach, and the empirical material consists of semi-structured interviews with, and focus groups of, employees of seven organizations in both the public and private sectors. The paper draws on a contemporary understanding of identity where identity is perceived as an ongoing reflexive process in which employees negotiate and construct of their selves through relating to role expectations and interacting with others. Therefore, ambassadorship is understood as a social-identity, or persona, that is referenced by employees in their identity work.

The findings indicate that employees embrace this persona as they imagine that external stakeholders, colleagues and managers expect it of them. However, the ambassador persona also gives rise to identity-tensions both during work and off work.

The paper contributes a novel way to understand ambassadorship as well as highlighting some of the more problematic aspects of it and furthering the understanding of the concept.

The findings highlight that ambassadorship can have problematic consequences that needs to be addressed. They suggest that the employee perspective should be taken into consideration in internal communication education and training.

The paper contributes a novel employee perspective on ambassadorship.

The use of brand ambassadors is a quite recent phenomenon, even in the business world. This paper aims to explore the employment of ambassador networks as a place marketing and place development tool. This is done by identifying various kinds of networks, understanding how networks are governed, and pinning down the motivations and expectations of network members.

The study used interviews and a survey to collect empirical material. The research process employed an approach with many inductive elements, deemed appropriate given that research into the topic is scant.

The study identified four main dimensions of networks and, on this basis, we outline a typology with four main categories of networks. One major finding is that ambassador networks are seen not only as a communication channel, but also as a development resource. That means they are seen as enhancing the general competitiveness of the place involved. The networks are also seen as a resource for mobilising local citizen pride. Another finding was that ambassadors value getting access to first‐hand information about the place much more than the opportunity of taking part in meetings and events and forming new relationships.

The findings are in line with the perspective of the place brand as a “relational brand network”, extending place branding beyond a matter of just one‐way communication. It is somewhat surprising that ambassadors value getting access to information more than interaction, given that other research puts such a high value on interaction and dialogue as value‐creating factors.

Based on the observations in the study, it is argued that ambassador networks have the potential to constitute an integral component of place brand management.

Research on the application of ambassador networks in place marketing seems to be scant, not to say non‐existent. The present study relates to the implementation of place branding, and can hopefully contribute to a more efficient practice as well as a better theoretical understanding.

This paper presents a case study for the pilot of a peer-led service model that is centered on fostering student leadership, collaboration and advocacy. The authors, who serve as advisors to the program, discuss the Library's transition to this peer-led model for reference support, outreach, programming and campus engagement.

This case study examines the development and implementation of a new peer-led service at a mid-size public university aimed at centering student success, belonging and empowerment. Authors share practices, strategies and goals for training, onboarding and professional development with emphasis on student advocacy, leadership and retention in the program.

The authors found that developing the structures and opportunities to foster student-led initiatives and efforts for student success, belonging and engagement has helped the library better connect and engage with diverse student communities on campus.

Findings of this study may be limited at the time this case study is written due to it being a new and developing library student program for reference, outreach and programming.

The peer-led service model for reference and student engagement presented in this article serves as a case study that may be applicable for those who wish to imagine and develop a student-centered library program at their institution.

This case study may provide an alternative approach useful to those who wish to reimagine and innovate library student programs at their institutions.

Although there are many peer-led initiatives in academic libraries for outreach and programming, this program explores the approach of fostering student leadership and advocacy within library student roles to lead and facilitate library efforts for campus engagement with structured guidance and support from librarian advisors.

To inform and optimize frontline service interactions associated with higher education recruitment, the linguistic content and context of online posts by brand ambassadors and prospective students in a brand community are examined.

Using Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) with content analysis, the authors examine over 20,000 online communication posts to identify prospects’ needs and communication styles that may inform brand ambassadors’ outreach efforts.

Analysis reveals linguistic differences between brand ambassadors’ and prospective students’ posts across public and private spaces, suggesting gaps in exchange efficacy. Publicly, prospects express more positive emotion, affiliation and authenticity than in private posts, where posting engagement is the highest. Prospects overall low clout language, combined with brand ambassadors’ low authenticity scores, suggest limited influence in exchange efforts. Theoretically, findings suggest that given the hedonic nature of public exchanges, this is where brand ambassadors may be more influential than in private, utilitarian informational exchanges. An integrated influencer marketing servicescape model is developed to guide future research.

Findings extend and integrate the online servicescape and influencer marketing literatures by revealing the importance of service interaction context and linguistic styles in enhancing frontline informational exchanges. Aligning linguistic language such as analytical thought, clout, authenticity, emotional tone, temporal focus and affiliation between public and private contexts may enhance authenticity in frontline service interactions, thereby enhancing communication effectiveness.

Health ambassadors are co-workers assigned to facilitate healthy choices amongst the ambassadors'' colleagues and are increasingly used in workplace health promotion. In a municipality in the southern region of Denmark, occupational health and safety (OHS) representatives were appointed as health ambassadors to facilitate the development of healthy lifestyle initiatives at the ambassadors' workplace and the uptake of various health offers from the municipality's workplace health programme amongst the ambassadors' colleagues. The aim of this study was to understand how employees and managers from the municipality experienced the health ambassador-facilitated implementation of the health programme.

The study was designed as an interview study with (n = 13) semi-structured interviews. Using purposeful sampling, the authors invited participants who held different positions (e.g. managers and regular employees) on two different work teams in the municipality. The work teams (a construction team and a healthcare team) differed in gender profile and work tasks but were both categorised as physically heavy work. Malterud's systematic text condensation was used to devise the strategy for the analysis.

The authors' findings show that the employees considered health a private matter that the workplace should not interfere with, and this challenged the implementation of the health programme. Secondly, the health ambassadors were not properly trained to facilitate health initiatives amongst the ambassadors' colleagues; instead, the managers were the driving force in the implementation of health initiatives.

The study provides useful insights into the processes of implementing health in the workplace and emphasises the importance of involving employees in design and planning of initiatives for workplace health promotion.

Creating and maintaining a consistent ethics program is a challenge for multinational organizations and establishing a network of ethics ambassadors is one way to help meet this challenge. This paper aims to summarize the role of HR in encouraging an ethical culture; looks at how to recruit ambassadors and establish a network; and examines some of the challenges.

The report upon which this paper is based draws on the experience of one of the authors as an ethics practitioner in a large multinational company, and an Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) survey of large companies taken in 2010, compiled from 12 responses from companies across different sectors, of which six are headquartered in the UK, four are headquartered in continental Europe, one in the USA and one unknown.

An ethics ambassador network is a cost‐effective way of ensuring that ethical values are embedded throughout an organization. An effective network can help mitigate integrity risks and encourage a culture that is supportive of high ethical standards and legal requirements.

This paper provides HR practitioners within multinational organizations with an insight into how they can facilitate the use of ethics ambassadors. A more in‐depth examination of the subject is published in the IBE's good practice guide, Ethics Ambassadors, available from www.ibe.org.uk