Tag Archives: celebrity endorsements

by | Monday, May 1, 2017 · 6:52 am

Celebrity and Brand Pairings

A great marketing tactic is to use celebrities to endorse brands or products. Celebrities have a broad reach and can give a face and meaning to a brand. Some recent examples include Jennifer Aniston for EyeLove and Smart Water, Tim McGraw promoting America’s Diabetes Challenge, and Lady Gaga for Tiffany.

Pairing a celebrity with a brand or campaign can be very tricky. It starts with a thorough understanding of the target customer. Marketers need to consider the target customer’s age, gender, lifestyle, behavior, occupation, and more. Then, a celebrity spokesperson has to be chosen, and available, to match with the customer and brand.

The celebrity has to be a person who the target market will identify with, and have personal credibility for representing the brand. In essence, the celebrity becomes the ‘source’ of information about the company. And, any celebrity missteps can be disastrous to a brand. (Remember Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and Jerod the Subway guy?)

Who do you find credible?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the importance that celebrities play in brand endorsements.
  2. Have students list all of the celebrities-brands links they can remember.
  3. Show a few videos of celebrity spokespeople:

Jennifer Aniston: https://youtu.be/Tv4u6aI0aaE

Adam Levine: https://youtu.be/xj7hJipn9K0

Tim McGraw: https://youtu.be/3CupTlT0AXk

  1. What makes these pairings successful?
  2. Divide students into team. Have each team select a product or brand and then find a celebrity who could successfully endorse the brand.
  3. Debrief: Poll students about their opinions about the suggested pairings. Why were the celebrities selected?

Source:  Brandchannel.com, Ad Age Daily

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by | Wednesday, March 8, 2017 · 7:12 am

Please, Blow into the Bag

tostios

In a unique package that can analyze breath, Tostitos is collaborating with Uber, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and Tennessee Titans’ pro football player Delanie Walker. An estimated 70% of accidents on Super Bowl game day are alcohol-related. The social responsibility campaign is aimed at Super Bowl watchers to help them get home safely using a “party safe” Tostitos bag. (Walker’s aunt and uncle were killed in a drunk driving accident when he was playing in the 2013 Super Bowl for the 49ers.)

How does it work? When someone breathes into the bag, it can detect alcohol on their breath and then summon an Uber ride to get the customer home safely. If you’re ok to drive, the bag lights up green. But if you shouldn’t be driving, the bag flashes a red steering wheel with the message “Don’t drink & drive.” The party safe bag also offers a $10 discount on the ride home.

While the package isn’t commercially available for public purchase yet, it should be. As Walker stated in the video, “have a game plan for the big game.”

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss how companies can help promote safety and social responsibilities. What are some of the campaigns that students have seen?
  2. Pose a question to students: Do they have knowledge of someone (perhaps themselves) who should not have been driving at some time? What are the responsibilities of friends, bars, restaurants, and companies to provide safety?
  3. Show the Tostitos site and video: https://www.thatshowweparty.com/#intro
  4. What do students think about this?
  5. Divide students into teams. Have each team brainstorm about other products and brands that could build social responsibility campaigns such as this one.

Source: Brandchannel.com, USA Today    

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by | Tuesday, January 31, 2017 · 8:00 am

Most Marketable Athletes of 2016

athletes

Athletes and sports events play a major role in marketing. An individual celebrity who endorses a product can often be seen as an effective spokesperson.  But not always… Think back on athletes who have been dropped as spokespeople after a fall from grace (Tiger Wood, Lance Armstrong…).

What does it take to make the public view an athlete as a positive role-model, and when do companies employ these people? According to Nielsen Research’s N-Score Talent Tracker, in order for a celebrity to be marketable he or she needs to be likeable, influential, stylish, savvy on social media, and have a strong public following. Not an easy feat to achieve when the athlete is not on their home court.

The following is the list of the top marketable athletes in the U.S. in 2016:

  1. Peyton Manning – for his Super Bowl 50 victory.
  2. Michael Phelps – for his record-breaking Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.
  3. Simone Biles – the world’s top gymnast in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.
  4. Serena Williams – an enduring tennis great and the highest paid female athlete in the world.
  5. LeBron James – who brought Cleveland its first NBA Championship in 2016.

It’s not always easy for any celebrity to become an effective brand ambassador. The celebrity’s built-in fan base usually comes with specific consumer behaviors and purchases.

Who is your preferred athlete to be a brand spokesperson?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the communication process: sender, encoding, message, medium, decoding, and receiver.
  2. What role do celebrity endorsements play in the communications and marketing roles?
  3. What features make an athlete an effective spokesperson for a product or brand?
  4. Divide students into teams. Have each team identify 10 different athletes that they have seen endorse products.
  5. Are these successful, or unsuccessful, spokespeople?
  6. Finally, select a number of industries or products and have students discuss which athletes best fit the product.

Source:  Nielsen Research

 

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