Here’s How You Can Get Paid $16/Hour or More to Party (Seriously!)

Are you the life of the party? Can you smile and be friendly with strangers for hours at a time? Do you get excited about new products?

If so, you probably have what it takes to make $16 per hour or more as a part-time brand ambassador.

What exactly is a brand ambassador? GC Marketing Services explains it like this:

A Brand Ambassador is someone who, at the most basic level, represents a brand in a positive way. It is the duty of a Brand Ambassador to express the message of a company to consumers or people who would gain something from learning about the brand being advertised.

If sharing the message of a company whose products you enjoy sounds like fun, read on to learn how to get started with this potentially lucrative side job.

What Do Brand Ambassadors Do?

Brand ambassadors promote a company’s products at events and online. Here are some of the specific tasks you might be doing:

• Handing out shots for a liquor promotion
• Answering questions at an information booth
• Handing out food samples
• Dressing up as a character
• Dancing around in a costume
• Demonstrating new technologies
• Greeting people at an event
• Educating customers
• Handing out flyers
• Helping with set-up of displays
• Using Twitter and Facebook to tell people about a new product

You’ll probably work at busy events and venues — basically anywhere there are a lot of people. For example, bars and nightclubs, concerts, festivals and fairs, beaches, college campuses, sports games, or conventions and trade shows.

Normally you don’t work directly for the companies whose products you represent; they contract with event-staffing businesses, and these companies hire you.

These part-time gigs typically come and go. When you sign up as a brand ambassador or for a “street team,” you fill out a profile and the company calls you for assignments in your area, or you watch for postings on their website or Facebook page. You might work 40 hours one week and then have no work for a month.

This work is not the same as being a buzz-marketing agent, which involves promoting products without people knowing you represent the company. As a brand ambassador, you’re clearly and openly working to promote a brand.

Are You Qualified?

“The only requirements are a great attitude, enthusiasm and a solid work ethic,” says the staffing company Across the Nation. They prefer to hire people who have worked at events before, but they’ll overlook a lack of experience if you’re excited to do what needs to be done and can show up on time.

In general, these companies are looking for younger people. From the photos on their websites, it seems that brand ambassadors are rarely older than 35. At least one company appears to hire only college students.

How Much Can You Make as a Brand Ambassador?

Rates vary from one employer to the next, as well as for each event.

In my research, pay is $15 per hour or higher. Looking through the companies mentioned below, most pay ranged from $15-$18 per hour.

A local job search for brand ambassadors had gigs that paid upwards of $25 per hour.

Across the Nation’s Facebook page advertises tons of different opportunities in a variety of states.

A racing event in Pittsburgh paid $15 per hour for a 12-hour day to assist with an on-site bike racing event for children. Another post for an event in Memphis requires “outgoing promo models to assist with a super fun BBQ event” representing a major auto brand. The pay is $459 for 4 days of work.

Who’s Hiring?

Here are some of the companies looking for brand ambassadors, with a few notes about each. The links are mostly to the companies’ Facebook pages, so you can see what kind of work they do. Find the links to apply for a job by clicking the “About” tab on each page.

Victory Marketing Agency

This agency provides a variety of services, including “models, brand ambassadors, costume characters and dancers.”

My Street Team

They work on marketing campaigns in areas such as film, music, sports, food, festivals and trade shows. A few posts from their Facebook page show brand ambassadors repping Beats by Dre, and another post advertising Popeyes chicken in the middle of Times Square.  

Across the Nation

Recent jobs include an event in Lincoln, NE that paid $15 per hour, and eight hours at $17 per hour for being a promo model at a festival in Kansas City. Gigs for Bilingual brand ambassadors pay $18 per hour.

Attack!

Some of their clients include Nike, Microsoft, AMC and Fox. Past projects: Hosting “The World’s Best Brunch” for Tequila AVION and a social media scavenger hunt for T-Mobile.

Fusion Event Staffing

Recent assignments included hiring over 100 “women with great hair” to promote beauty products in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina for $17 per hour. A food sampling event in San Antonio paid $18 per hour for brand ambassadors to cook and sample food.

Bigger Markets

They have “street teams” on 250 college campuses, and members can “Earn $100 or more for as little as one day’s work,” according to their website.

Check the large job websites regularly to find more postings. Searching “brand ambassador jobs” on Indeed.com just now, for example, turned up positions promoting craft beer that pays $15-$25 per hour for “reliable and responsible individuals with great personalities.”

Steve Gillman is the author of “101 Weird Ways to Make Money” and creator of EveryWayToMakeMoney.com. He’s been a repo-man, walking stick carver, search engine evaluator, house flipper, tram driver, process server, mock juror, and roulette croupier, but of more than 100 ways he has made money, writing is his favorite (so far).