What is the Beverage Brand Ambassador Academy (BBAA)?
We asked industry veteran and renowned Brand Ambassador Elayne Duff about this first of its kind online training program for beverage brands seeking to add professional ambassadors to their sales teams.
“Brand Ambassadors can be a game-changing addition to any sales team,” explains Duff. “They have the potential to bring your brand to life, amplify core messages, and secure placements in accounts that might otherwise seem impossible. The key to maximizing that potential is training and preparation, and that is where the Beverage Brand Ambassador Academy delivers.”
The BBAA is the first official training program for beverage Brand Ambassadors. It is built from practical experience that delivers results. It is designed to be scalable, affordable, and the ideal tool to round out any existing training or onboarding program.
“Every Ambassador deserves the tools they need to be confident in the field and to deliver the results brands expect of them.” says Duff. We asked Duff to tell us more about her portfolio of online training programs used to empower brand ambassadors.
Tell us about your background in the industry.
First, I must say the spirits and cocktail industry is one of the best industries to work within. Over the past 20 years, my career has been a thrilling combination of event planning, strategy, celebrities, cocktails, beer, ambassadorship, and education.
Working with the Diageo Reserve Portfolio, I started my career putting together sponsorship deals and planning elaborate parties for consumers. I moved into the marketing team, creating brand strategy and activations for consumers and the trade, launched Ciroc Vodka across the U.S.A. with PDiddy and his team, and trained celebrities such as Idris Elba & Lil John.
This work led to my passion for spirits and cocktails. After graduating from the grueling B.A.R. 5-Day, I became Diageo U.S.A.’s first Head Mixologist and Luxury Brand Ambassador, creating cocktails for brands, developing bar menus, training Distributors and trade, and representing the brands on T.V. (including Bar Rescue and Watch What Happens Live. From there, I was headhunted by the world’s largest beer firm, AB-InBev, to join their innovation division, Z.X. Ventures. For several years, I got to do some extremely cool stuff across the globe. Among other projects, I helped create the first certified beer sommelier course in the U.K., a groundbreaking sales strategy for selling craft beer within fine dining, and an online training program to train Z.X. Ventures, 1,500 pub employees about beer, brand, and service across three continents.
After that, I was ready to strike out on my own, founding Duff on the Rocks, L.L.C. Within DOTR I work with brands developing on-and off-trade brand strategies, developing cocktails, and consulting on their ambassador programs. This led to me creating the world’s first online training program for brand ambassadors, the Beverage Brand Ambassador Academy, as well as hosting the popular weekly podcast “Celebrating the Brand Ambassador.”
What is your training program like?
“The BBAA is built from practical experience and is designed to be scalable, affordable, and the ideal tool to round out any existing training program.”
The course is entirely online and can be followed at your own pace, any time you have a few moments and a phone to hand. It offers a scalable and efficient training solution for brands needing to create a consistent baseline of shared knowledge, to reduce onboarding time and to focus their often-limited resources on brand-building and R.O.I. This online work is complimented with 1 on 1 mentorship, graded homework, and quizzes.
Depending on the course (there are three; a boot camp, a mastery program, and a workshop program), it can take between twelve to thirty hours to complete. In the end, you are at a level of knowledge and skill that would take a minimum of two -five years to learn on the job if you ever even learned that vital knowledge at all. For the brands, in little more than a week, they can have ambassadors with knowledge and skill levels exponentially higher than those of any other competitive brand in the market, and that’s especially important for brands looking to make a difference quickly in the fast-paced on-trade world. Personally, I’m most proud of how it empowers ambassadors to view their job as an honorable, long-term profession that they can excel at while over-delivering value to the brands that employ them.
Talk to us about the inspiration behind creating this program.
I developed the BBAA because it has always been a position where you need to fake it until you make it. I firmly believe that nobody should have to just to figure it out. The Beverage Brand Ambassador Academy provides 20 years of industry knowledge in one online course. For brands, it’s a scalable and efficient training solution that creates a consistent baseline of shared knowledge and reduces onboarding time. It fills in the gaps, and accelerates the learning curve, giving BAs the skillsets to succeed from day one and continue to thrive throughout their careers.
Tell us some of your most used skills. Which is your specialty?
Some skills that I pride myself on most are time management and organization, selling and closing the deal, presenting with passion, and mentoring others.
Any advice for brand ambassadors who are looking to advance in the field?
- Be proactive in building your brand within your company and the industry.
- Do the job you want before you get the job.
- Every year, set 2-3 career goals and create a plan to achieve them.
- Find a mentor to help guide you on your journey.
- Never stop learning once you identify your goals and knowledge gaps, and take the courses needed to fill them.
Within your BBAA program, what will Ambassadors learn:
- How to develop strategies for the off and on-premise
- The secret to selling and closing the deal
- How to convert stores and bars into viable accounts in less time
- How to take an idea from concept to execution for brand teams
- How to manage schedules and obligations with ease
- Tactics to creating and giving impactful presentations
For more information, please visit: beverageba.com
The BBAA is running a scholarship giveaway in 2022. Click here to learn more.
Elayne Duff is an accomplished 20-year spirits industry veteran. She earned a stellar reputation as Diageo U.S.A.’s first head mixologist and luxury spirits ambassador. Throughout her career, she has frequently appeared as an expert on the T.V. show Bar Rescue and graduated from the grueling W.S.E.T. Level 3 & B.A.R. 5 Day programs before becoming a Global Manager at A.B. InBev’s Craft Beer Division – Z.X. Ventures. At Z.X. Ventures, she helped spearhead many successful programs, including a ground-breaking sales strategy for selling craft beer within the unchartered fine dining territory and an online global training strategy for over 1,500 AB InBev restaurant employees across three continents. Now an entrepreneur, Elayne founded “Duff on the Rocks,” a successful brand strategy consultancy specializing in Brand Ambassadors, trade engagement, and education. She is also the host of the popular Podcast/Live Streaming show “Celebrating the Brand Ambassador.”
The Brand Ambassador Team from Casa Lumbre, students enrolled in the Beverage BA Workshop program.
The post We Ask Elayne Duff—What’s Her Beverage Brand Ambassador Academy? appeared first on Chilled Magazine.
Source: Mixology News