Last June, in partnership with Whalar, the Ad Council’s Creators for Good team–our premier in-house talent engagement arm–launched an Ambassador Pilot Program to foster deeper connection with multi-hyphenate content creators passionate about social impact.
The program started with the rigorous selection of ten handpicked Ambassadors from Whalar’s talent roster. Many were already vocal or personally connected to social issues related to the Ad Council’s focus areas, ranging from mental health and youth fentanyl awareness to combating hate and bias.
For the first time, creators were brought into the development process and asked to share their insights, lived experiences and opinions in the early stages of an influencer brief. As the Ambassadors gave their input on the strategies of campaign activations, we equipped them with issue expertise, research-backed messaging and social impact best practices to optimize their work speaking out on causes they care about. By inviting creators to serve as a true sounding board for Ad Council campaigns, we were able to create an open space for creators to share what would resonate in their content feeds and with their audiences. This partnership offered a true ‘seat at the table’ for creators to weigh in on how they’d prefer to approach campaign briefs and content prompts around social impact messaging.
The Ambassador program brought in a diverse array of creators:
- Ambassador and former Ru Paul’s Drag Race contestant Kahmora Hall, known for make-up tutorials and transformations both in and out of drag, was tapped to join both our “Love, Your Mind” and “Love Has No Labels” campaign activations. When asked about their experience Kahmora said, “I really enjoyed sharing my stories and opening up about my struggles with anxiety. And I thought it was meaningful being able to hear the other creators share their stories in these campaigns as well.”
- Disability advocate, author, entrepreneur and content creator Tiffany Yu also joined our “Love, Your Mind” campaign. Tiffany recalls “One of the highlights was getting to advise on the ‘Love,Your Mind’ campaign. Getting to connect with other creators through that. I'd be interested in connecting with the other Creators for Good and seeing the content that they are putting together for other campaigns.”
- Dr. Sasha Hamdani lent her platform as a clinical subject matter expert. Dr. Hamdani spoke on her participation in the “Love, Your Mind” campaign “Through this campaign, we can foster empathy, reduce stigma and promote a culture of compassion. By raising awareness about the prevalence and diversity of mental health conditions, we empower individuals to seek help without shame or fear.”
In less than a year, the Ambassador program has produced meaningful content that resonated well with audiences. To date, the program has generated a 4.8% average engagement rate—exceeding the platform average benchmarks by 20%. As the creator economy evolves, we’re committed to making more impactful initiatives that illuminate the multifaceted value creators bring to campaigns.
As the Ambassador program evolves, we are committed to working with Whalar to continue developing impactful collaborations with creators. For more on Creators for Good and how we work with creators to create meaningful change, please reach out directly at CreatorsForGood@adcouncil.org.
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