Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Seton Hill’s Steelers ambassador story puts setup and fan interaction in focus, with practical lessons for CPG staffing and event measurement.
On October 23, 2026, Seton Hill University reported that business students Ben Myers and Makayla LiVorio had spent a month working behind the scenes at Steelers training camp during the summer.
The university’s account also describes ambassadors arriving early for home-game setup at Acrisure Stadium. For CPG and beverage leaders, the useful detail is the scope of the role: the reported work included preparation and event operations alongside fan interaction.
According to Seton Hill, the students learned about the opportunity the previous spring when a Steelers representative visited a Marketing Principles class. Myers studies sports management. LiVorio studies marketing. Their route into the work began with a classroom introduction and continued into a live event environment.
The university describes Steelers brand ambassadors as supporting fan engagement and event activations from training camp through the football season. Training camp can involve daily attendance for much of the session. After camp, ambassadors work home games during the season.
At those games, Seton Hill reports that ambassadors arrive early to help prepare interactive activities and other parts of the fan experience. LiVorio also described exposure to production and hospitality. Her work included customer service and promotional activities alongside event operations.
This is a report about duties and student experience, not an announcement of a new staffing requirement. Its operational value is specific: the ambassador role described by Seton Hill includes work that happens before the public-facing interaction begins.
The evidence boundary belongs here. Seton Hill’s institutional account concerns two students and does not independently evaluate program effectiveness. It does not document a standardized training curriculum or disclose staffing scale, labor costs or compensation. It also reports no measured sales, conversion or Return on Investment (ROI) outcomes.
Our reaction is simple: keep the welcome warm and make the job clear. Aloha and operational discipline belong together. The value of this story is that it puts preparation and consumer interaction in the same frame without treating them as the same task.
At Makai, our work centers on face-to-face experiences designed to capture attention and generate measurable sales pipeline. Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to drive in-store sales through real conversations and product trials. In that setting, being approachable matters because there is a product conversation to support.
For us, the staffing question is therefore larger than whether someone can greet an audience. It is whether the role serves the experience and its business objective. Setup support and hospitality may belong within that role, but the commercial purpose still needs a clear place in the plan.
Across our history, we have delivered more than 1,000 campaigns in all 50 states for more than 200 brands. That range gives us experience across different products and event settings. Our takeaway is to resist treating “brand ambassador” as a complete job description. The title names the relationship to the brand; it does not define the work.
We build festival zones, premieres and pop-ups while our crews manage execution and track reach and response metrics. From that perspective, we see the Seton Hill account as a useful example of role breadth. The practical lesson is to make that breadth deliberate rather than leave it implied.
The report does not change the rules for another brand’s activation. It gives field leaders a concrete reason to examine how preparation connects with audience-facing work. Our view is that staffing and footprint decisions belong in the same operational conversation as the desired consumer response.
Seton Hill’s description of early setup makes a basic distinction visible: time spent supporting an event is not identical to time spent interacting with attendees. For a CPG marketer, the planning implication is to make both responsibilities visible rather than describe the assignment only as a promotional shift.
That does not mean every ambassador should perform every task. The decision is which duties belong together and where responsibility sits. Setup and hospitality are activities named in the university’s account. They provide useful language for discussing scope without inventing a universal staffing model.
A staffing plan built around the actual assignment keeps that discussion focused on the job. In Makai’s view, clarity about the work is more useful than adding enthusiasm to an incomplete role description.
LiVorio’s account places hospitality and customer service alongside production and promotional activity. That combination matters to our reading of the story. An ambassador can be involved in making an experience function while also helping people feel welcome within it.
For retail demonstrations, Makai’s stated objective is in-store selling through conversations and product trials. That gives the interaction a purpose beyond general friendliness. The relevant operational question is how the assigned work supports that purpose rather than competes with it.
We believe preparation for better consumer conversations belongs alongside logistical clarity. A personable representative and a clearly defined assignment are complementary goals. Neither should be used as a substitute for the other.
According to Seton Hill, the early work at home games includes setting up interactive activities. The report therefore connects preparation with something attendees will use. For trade show leaders, that is a useful way to evaluate the relationship between an exhibit’s physical arrangement and its intended interaction.
Makai plans and manages trade show spaces to attract attention and start conversations that can lead to customers. Our view is that the footprint should serve that sequence. A space designed to be noticed still needs a clear purpose for the conversation it invites.
The practical evaluation is whether the layout and staff responsibilities support the same objective. An area intended for product trial serves a different purpose from a conversation intended to qualify a business lead. The plan should make the intended interaction clear rather than assume that a busy space explains itself.
Freeman’s live-event research page describes its research as examining what drives attendance and shapes experiences. It also examines what influences whether attendees return. Those are useful questions about the audience experience. For Makai, they sit alongside a separate question about the business outcome an activation is designed to pursue.
Our integrated services extend from permitting to CRM reporting. That positioning reflects our focus on connecting execution with measurable pipeline. We believe a report should distinguish the work performed from the outcome being evaluated, rather than treat all activity as evidence of commercial success.
Product trials and qualified leads answer different business questions. The practical response is to define the desired outcome and the reporting approach together. An event measurement plan tied to business goals gives the activation a clearer basis for evaluation than visible activity alone.
This also protects the role of the ambassador. A person assigned to setup and hospitality should be understood in relation to that assignment. A commercial objective needs its own definition rather than being attached loosely to every interaction after the event.
For the next activation, the useful evaluation is the connection between the ambassador’s assignment and the result leadership expects. The Seton Hill story provides concrete duties to discuss. Makai’s perspective adds a commercial test: the work should have a defined relationship to product trial or qualified pipeline when those are the campaign’s objectives.
Warm welcome. Clear responsibilities. Accountability that matches the assignment.
As a CMO or VP of Marketing, how will you connect setup responsibilities and consumer-facing work to the business outcome you expect from your next activation?
Deciding which ambassador duties serve product trial is an operational choice that Makai takes into stores through its retail demonstration service. For CPG marketers working to account for live-event Return on Investment, those demonstrations focus on selling through product trials and conversations led by trained brand ambassadors.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
