Photo: Business Wire
Why Does Celebrity Advertising Work?
Actor/comedian Jim Gaffigan is starring in new commercials supporting Walmart’s Straight Talk Wireless family plans, actress Emma Roberts fronted Saks’ spring campaign, and hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg recently signed on as the face of Petco’s pet care campaign.
Kanye West’s fallout from both Adidas and Gap last fall after the rapper spouted antisemitic remarks demonstrates how celebrity endorsements can backfire.
Celebrity marketing also generally doesn’t fare well in consumer surveys.
A survey of U.S. consumers from advocacy marketing company ExpertVoice, for instance, found only 4% trust celebrity endorsements, while 83% trust recommendations from friends and family. According to 57% of respondents, the greatest concern for consumers regarding celebrity recommendations is the monetary compensation they receive from the brand they’re promoting.
Nonetheless, retailers continue to use celebrities, particularly to draw attention to holiday campaigns. Last holiday, celebrity partnerships included Selma Blair with Gap, Jennifer Coolidge with Old Navy, Christina Ricci and Leslie Odom Jr. with Nordstrom, and Chloë Sevigny with H&M.
A celebrity endorsement increases a company’s sales by an average of 4% relative to its competition, according to research led by Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse.
Elberse, in a column for CNN, stated that celebrities enable brands to tap into the star’s fan base while reassuring consumers of the quality of the endorsed brand. She wrote, “Consumers often cannot easily assess the true quality of products, at least not before they consume them. But seeing a celebrity attaching his or her name and good reputation to a product may help alleviate some of their uncertainty.”
In a column for USA Today, Jeff Stibel, a neuroscientist and entrepreneur, said the reason celebrity endorsements work is that minds are challenged when “differentiating between real and make-believe,” so celebrities become familiar. He wrote, “When a familiar face promotes a product, it makes it seem as if the product itself is familiar, which makes people more likely to buy it. Even though we’ve never met them, the brain regards familiar celebrities the same way it does people who are actually familiar and trustworthy to us in real life.”
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What are the obvious and less obvious reasons celebrity-backed campaigns often work in raising brand awareness and driving purchase consideration? Are you a fan of celebrity-driven campaigns for retailers?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
David Spear
VP, Professional Services, Retail, NCR
Kenneth Leung
Retail and Customer Experience Expert
Celebrities have reach and influence so endorsement of a product via advertising is helpful for sales. This is especially so when there is a natural link between the celebrity and the product: for example, someone in fashion, or known for fashion, advertising clothing or beauty products. For some consumers the desire to buy is about trying to emulate those they look up to, for others it is because celebrity association throws a halo around the product endorsing its quality or effectiveness. But brands have to be careful who they work with. Just ask Adidas or Gap about their partnerships with Kanye / Ye!
Like the article says, it’s an attention grabbing moment. But for me, it’s also an immediate positive or negative. I’ll either pause and satisfy my curiosity, or I will instantly ignore or move past it. It’s also about humor and perceived truth-telling. Am I learning about some feature or benefit that I would have otherwise missed? The benefit is not because the celebrity says so. It’s because I paused and learned something I may have missed.
It comes down to emotional connection. We feel like we know celebrities and admire them because we see them frequently on TV or social media. We relate to them almost on the same level as family, trusting that they are telling us the truth, and that we can have a small piece of their lifestyle if we buy the things they recommend.
I think it has worked and always will. The difference now is brands have to be careful to look at the total picture of the celebrity, not just the fame and exposure level. With social media now fame is fleeting compared with the previous generations of celebrities that takes years of media exposure through traditional media for their fame. Brands need to be highly selective and vet the pros and cons of the celebrities with and how it fits with their brand image and business.
Celebrities offer brands a shortcut to sales. Brands benefit from the halo effect of collaborating with stars.
Super Bowl ads in particular have made me a fan of celebrity-driven campaigns.
Brands have been using celebrities and sports stars for a long time. Obviously, the closer the celebrity can emulate the brand’s values, the better the fit and success rate, and this is where the due diligence is so important. Brands should scrutinize and vet personalities with incredible detail or they place their billion-dollar products in a precarious position. I’d also call on senior leadership to take an active role in the review of these campaigns.
It really depends on the celebrity. If it is someone like Jim Gaffigan, who most people know that he is a Dad who loves and adores his family, despite the jokes, than yes it would help to make one buy or at least consider buying the product if, of course, its in a category that the consumer buys anyway. Same thing goes tor George Clooney. If you’re a tequila drinker, and you know the story behind Casamigos, you may want to buy and try it, partially because he has a reputation for being a really good guy, that took care of his friends when he became a celebrity. Obviously, you hope that nice guys like Jim Gaffigan and George Clooney continue to be good guys.
The effectiveness of celebrity campaigns depends on the endorsers’ recognizability, likeability and trust factor. Not every celebrity endorser satisfies all of these criteria, and not every product is naturally aligned to the endorser. (Case in point: Jennifer Coolidge was suddenly hot because of her “White Lotus” gig, but does anybody believe she shops at Old Navy?) It’s also important for the celebrity’s own credibility to avoid overexposure…the biggest stars use their aura sparingly and a few of them (Tom Hanks, maybe?) not at all.
Just a few days ago, the BrainTrust pretty well trashed paid endorsers. I guess celebrity endorsements are the next step up. Consider Charlize Theron’s deal is worth $55 million, with Dior. Athletes get upwards of $100 million. Would that level of pay make me say nice things? It certainly would.
I don’t think many folks really beleive that it is all about the brand and not the money. Would Beyoncé move from Pepsi to Coke for an extra $50 million?
That said, Jonathan Winters did wonders for Hefty bags back in the day. I can easily say he made Hefty a household name. Not that he really endorsed the product, but because the ads were so entertaining.
Celebrities grab attention. You are viewing the TV, about to leave the room during the ads, when Julia Roberts’ face is suddenly on the screen. You stop and look. No matter what she says or doesn’t say, you pay attention.
As a side note: I have been seeing Charlize Theron’s face for years while waiting at a bus stop here in the city. Today for the first time, I learned the brand she was promoting was Dior. Maybe I am not the target?
Every time I see Tom Selleck describing his research into Reverse Mortgages, I ask myself “why, why, why does he need a reverse mortgage?” There’s one other caveat regarding celebrity endorsers. Over the years I’ve conducted research into potential celebrity endorsers. And one finding I didn’t expect is that not every candidate is recognized by the target audience. For example, at the time (so not to insult the living) the marketing team presented Brigitte Bardot for a cosmetic product. Go know that few knew who she was. Therefore, she wasn’t going to be effective in attracting attention and influencing sales.
Joan, Tom really cares about seniors.
Celebrities and influencers can be a boon or a bust for brands. It’s essential to make sure spokespeople reflect the brand values and are relevant to targeted consumers.
This topic is one of many where the right answer is not all one way or another…
It seems key that brands and retailers conduct the right amount of due diligence on the shared values and consumer credibility of the potential partner. Kanye was known to have mental health issues and was seen as likely to spew questionable views on a number of topics.
On the other hand, Michael Jordan “made” Nike into the powerhouse it is today. Research and an agreement with clear conduct guidelines seems like the way to go here.
Working right now on recruiting well-known personalities for a capital campaign at the nonprofit where I volunteer – several names I came up with off the top of my head from historic association have already gone into my “not on my life” pile due to committing securities fraud and other shady deals back in the 1980s/90s. Those transgressions might be forgotten by most now – but “a bad apple spoils the bunch”…
In most cases why would anybody believe a paid endorser of a product I think there has to be a better way of convincing the public that a product is good and is the right for them
While I think the headline here is one work too long – i.e. should read “Does Celebrity Advertising Work?” – there’s little mystery why it’s done: people trust “friends and family”…well isn’t a celebrity a “friend”?? They are, at least, someone you recognize and, hopefully, like.
The potential pitfall, of course, is selecting someone who isn’t widely recognized or – worst of all – disliked and/or recognized for the wrong reasons. I don’t think I would say I’m a “fan”, exactly, but for the most part they work. Now if we can just do something about those Lume ads…
Immediately identifiable celebrities help get attention, for sure. But celebrities can be very polarizing, ranging from love, like, dislike, or meh. The more the celebrity is admired, well-liked, respected, the better chances for alignment with your brand. But I’d argue in most cases that celebrities will have more negative impact on retailer brands, first, because it’s hard for most customers to believe the celebrity actually likes or uses the product, service. Second because consumers want to feel they own their brands, not someone who isn’t believable.
Celebrities offer instant recognition to a brand. In addition to this, they offer quick familiarity, a feeling of safety, and reach unique audiences through target market differentiation.
My experience includes promoting the brands of my clients through celebrities, as well as helping celebrities market their own brands. I have worked with hundreds of celebrities including movie and television stars, rock stars, radio talk show hosts, athletes, authors, and more.
Having a famous person advertise a product or brand can be a powerful tool for marketing. It can also be your brand’s demise. Celebrity-selection and then celebrity management is much more critical than you might believe. Any given celebrity’s reputation or pull, can vary even day to day.
Although, I do work with celebrities in their primes, I do a lot more work with “B-level” celebrities who might once have been “A-level” or who might be that in the future (or again.) As one example, I worked with Rihanna before her first big hit, but also Chuck Woolery 20 or so years after his last game show.
Some celebrities have very short shelf lives. For instance, I worked with a reality “star” from “Survivor” who had great appeal for a few weeks after she was on, then again after she was on for a second season. But fast forward, today, she might have zero appeal. I had a similar scenario with a very popular bachelorette. Today, she would have a very small audience.
And these days, more than ever before, you need to be extra conservative about using celebrities who are associated with politics or ideology. Ask Bud Light. Ask Subway. I constantly beg young marketers to lay off making “statements” because our society if loaded with hate from all sides.
Celebrities are like stocks. Some are “Evergreens,” while others might be speculative, risky, very hot for the moment due to a current movie, book, event, news item, concert tour, etc. But shelf life might be very short so do not over-commit or overpay.
You must do tremendous diligence to know who, and what, you are engaging, and how that celebrity (or license) fits into your brand message. And, my advice is to get expert help, and be careful with contracts! – Db
Although I personally don’t prefer celebrity endorsements, it’s hard to deny their undeniable success. After all, customers are unlikely to be drawn to a brand they are unfamiliar with. As humans, we naturally consume various forms of information that come our way. In this regard, celebrity endorsements work incredibly well to lure customers and generate buzz for the brand.
On the contrary, celebrity endorsements might backfire on the brand. Customers may react unfavorably to a celebrity’s personal opinions, political affiliation, or comments, leading to a potential backlash. This is precisely why corporations establish stringent contracts with celebrities, clearly laying out the boundaries to prevent any type of scandal. However, when executed effectively by companies, celebrity advertisements can be a terrific way to stand out among competitors and maintain popularity.