Brands are always looking to create an elite roster of ambassadors who will help them reach their brand goals, such as reaching new audiences, increasing brand awareness and more. This usually means having a good balance of both male and female influencers. With increasing interest in women’s sports, brands are now looking for stellar female promoters who can help brands reach a whole new audience as well as better market their products to them. 

Hookit analyzed 3 such brands who’s female ambassadors were highly effective than others at promoting their sponsor brands. For this, the top 5 female ambassadors with the highest promotional effectiveness score (PE score) for each of these brands were examined. A small comparison was also made between the top 5 female and top 5 male ambassadors of the brand based on PE score as well as Maximum Ad Value (MAV). Time period for MAV: Past 90 days

Note on terminology

  • Promotional Effectiveness Score (PE Score): is a composite score out of 100 that looks at how effective a brand’s ambassador is at promoting the brand, regardless of their follower count. 
  • Maximum Ad Value (MAV): is the total value the brand COULD earn from that particular social post. This MAV is then scored against the post’s quality of promotion to arrive at the Adjusted Ad Value (AAV).

An ideal brand ambassador would be one who could drive a large AAV and have a high PE score. To learn more about these key sponsorship metrics and others, contact us.

Billabong – the iconic surf brand

Billabong, one of the major snow and surf clothing retailers, is arguably the best brand at leveraging their female partners. 6 of Billabong’s top 10 promoters, as measured by Hookit’s Promotional Effectiveness Score (PE Score) are female. South African surfer Tanika Hoffman is Billabong’s top promoter with a PE score of 99. This means that she is exceptionally good at promoting Billabong on her social channels – she posts frequently about Billabong and does not overcrowd her posts mentioning Billabong with other sponsor brands. Many of her casual posts also feature the Billabong logo, making it a more authentic promotion.

Rounding out Billabong’s top 5 female promoters are surfers Isabella Nichols, Alessa Quizon, Felicity Palmateer, and Laura Enever, all of them earning a PE score above 90.

Billabong markets to the surf culture that surrounds these impressive women.  This evokes interest from all and isn’t gender specific. Through their posts featuring how the brand is prevalent in their lives, these brand ambassadors bring the brand in front of their followers, enabling the brand to reach a wide audience. Most of their promotions are on Instagram, a visual heavy social platform. This is beneficial to an apparel brand like Billabong, as they are able to display the product in action. 

On comparison with top 5 male counterparts 

By PE Score: It can be seen that female ambassadors of Billabong are more effective and have higher or equal PE scores as the brand’s male ambassadors.

By Maximum Ad Value (MAV): The combined MAV of Billabong’s top 5 women ambassadors was nearly 5 times more than the brand’s male ambassadors, in the time period considered. 

What we learnt from female ambassadors of Billabong

By following best practices for posting on social media, male athletes of Billabong can improve their promotion effectiveness as well as value earned.  

Rockstar Energy Drink – the brand for active lifestyles

The top non-apparel brand at leveraging their female ambassadors is Rockstar Energy, an energy drink quite prominent in the extreme sports world. The extreme sports world is filled with talented athletes and promoters and Rockstar’s female ambassadors are some of their best. Canadian snowboarder Spencer O’Brien is Rockstar Energy’s female ambassador with the highest PE score of 98. However other female brand ambassadors Johanne Killi, Cheryl Maas, Arielle Gold, and Silje Norendal are not far behind. 

Norwegian snowboarder Silje Norendal does an exceptional job displaying Rockstar’s product on her Instagram feed. Whether she is taking a casual photo at home or performing in a snowboard competition, the Rockstar logo is seldom absent from her posts. For example, the post below is a paid partnership with the brand and clearly shows the beverage, without anything else to distract from the promotion.

In addition to just posting about the brand, whenever she competes, the Rockstar logo is front and center on her equipment.

On comparison with top 5 male counterparts 

By PE Score: Male ambassadors of Rockstar Energy are more effective at promoting the brand on their social channels. 

By Maximum Ad Value (MAV): The combined MAV of Rockstar Energy’s male ambassadors was 2 times more than their female counterparts, in the time period considered.    

What we learnt from female ambassadors of Rockstar Energy

Posts that feature clear images of the sponsor brand logos and products, without overcrowding or overlapping with other logos, drive more value. 

Roxy – the lifestyle brand for active women

Women’s swim and snow apparel brand Roxy, is almost as fierce of a competitor at leveraging their female influencers as the influencers are at their sports. Roxy’s best promoter is surfer Bianca Buitendag who’s promotion of Roxy has earned her a PE score of 100. (Her overall PE score for all brands is 98, but when considering her promotion effectiveness for Roxy she scores a perfect 100).  Buitendag has over 300k total social media followers and is constantly producing high-quality posts about Roxy and their products. 

Following her are surfers Monyca Eleogram and Justine Mauvin, and Olympic snowboarders Aimee Fuller and Torah Bright, all of whom have PE scores above 95. They are also the top 5 overall promoters for Roxy. 

Like Buitendag, Eleogram and Mauvin have social media pages flooded with photos and videos of the surfing lifestyle, which is a huge draw for potential customers, while Fuller and Bright, with audiences who follow snowboarding, help Roxy reach an entirely different audience base. Through these athletes who are promoting Roxy in their respective sports, the brand can extend its reach, leading to a more valuable sponsorship portfolio.

On comparison with top 5 male counterparts of Quiksilver

By PE Score: It can be seen that female ambassadors of Roxy are more effective and have higher PE scores than the brand’s male ambassadors.  

By Maximum Ad Value (MAV): The combined MAV of Quiksilver’s male ambassadors is 1.6 times higher than that of the brand’s female ambassadors. 

What we learnt from female ambassadors of Roxy

Aimee Fuller and Torah Bright with their high MAV and high PE scores can be considered two of the most ideal promoters for Roxy. 

Wrap Up

It is important to have a diverse roster of promoters, both male and female. If brands are able to properly leverage all of their ambassadors, they can be more successful and enjoy a higher return on investment. The brands examined above are some of the best at effectively marketing their female athletes. They have managed to identify elite-level ambassadors who excel at promoting the brand. 


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