I had a interesting conversation last night at Ad Lounge about a company I used to consult for. A friend mentioned that this company is trying to build buzz by getting paparazzi pictures of celebs wearing their company t-shirts.
Disclosure: I love Celebrities and one of my guilty pleasures are Celebrity Gossip sites like TMZ so I am not poo pooing the idea of Celebrity endorsements just saying you need to think about who you use!
I am not going to out the company in question because they are good folks but I will comment about the idea of creating buzz in this way. In the case of this company they got Paris Hilton and you would think that is a BIG DEAL but (and I have written about this before) if you are going to go down the road of having a celebrity "speak" for your company you should choose a celeb that fits into your demo (I know that is probably not possible since Celbrities live in another world) or at least may seem like they would/could use your product.
The company that I am carefully blogging about is a company that boasts economic value and heavily promotes cost savings over their competitors.........this kinda screams "everyman/everywoman" and not a child of privilege that would probably be embarrassed to actually support such an initiative.
For a small to medium sized company, (and this company is) spokespeople should somehow resemble the target market if you are looking to create a feeling of community and acceptance. The thrill of a celebrity pretending to use your favorite product wears off pretty quick if it isn't authentic.
just my .02!
-saul
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Celebrities can kill a brand.........
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2 comments:
ha! Yes indeed. When I got my newsletter this week from "company X" I had a chuckle and rolled my eyes whilst exhaling a big "as IF Paris Hilton even knows what the company is...or would ever use the product/service"
How about targeting someone in each local that would make sense. Someone that preaches/lives a "green" life.
Someone you could actually picture using said product/service as you do.
I see many CDN celebs on the TTC, at Whole Foods, shopping at Roots etc... who would cause way more of a "wow" factor for company X than Paris "DUI charges" Hilton. (note the irony there)
I had forgotten all about the DUI :)
saul
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