How to Advertise Like a Celebrity

The word "Celebrity" comes from the Latin adjective "Celeber" meaning "frequented, populous". Frequency is just the right measurement for the world of marketing and advertising. Why? Because we learn by heart as much as we repeat.

Today's celebrities are not only popular in media and around, but they can be frequently seen on every channel. Thanks to the information flow, we can't imagine our lives without them. People who live as celebrities know exactly what their advantages (and disadvantages) are, and they shape them according to their fans. Properly said, they advertise themselves.

Luckily, people are preoccupied picking in others' lives to be even able to see that almost all the actions celebrities do are intentionally done because of them. On the other hand, celebrities help in creating a new culture, new movement or a trending era. That helps in shaping groups of great consumers. Just like companies hire celebrities to do "celebrity advertising" - situation when a celebrity promotes a product, these same celebrities pick up techniques to advertise themselves.

If we take a deeper look of what celebrities do in order to promote themselves, we can reflect their steps at our own advertising efforts.

Step 1: I do what people feel

Advertising is all about emotions and creation of a positive affection for a product or service. Even better if we can reflect it to our own lives. In this way we feel like we belong to this world or there are other people that feel the same like we do. All in all, we are not alone in that process. By giving ourselves a confirmation of our own feelings, we are relieved. Similar situation happens when we watch a movie: we tend to identify with the story.

Celebrities do the same. By happening to be frequently in media, they make their own lives available to the public. When they are happy, they post a photo. When they are sad, they update their profile status. When they are in love, they show it to the whole world. In this part, people get to know them in private rather than being untouchable immortals from the TV screens.

Step 2: I do what people love

In the era of consumer's rights and freedoms (the same as human rights and freedoms, but this time the hand is raised for consumerism only), you need to advertise in a way people love it, not you. It doesn't matter what I love if it doesn't sell. It also doesn't matter if my product is the best if I didn't get it closer to my target group. It simply doesn't matter. What matters is that you, as advertiser, listen to what people have to say and obey their rules; it is like attaching to their comfort zone as a parasite. Only in this way you can do a quality reproduction.

On the other hand, celebrities sometimes do the same thing without any intentions. They do things they regularly would do, and people love that. They get drunk, divorced, caught in while partying, etc. Again, by identifying, the audience will accept their behaviour as a role model. Or will simply head to do the same. However, there are teams of experts behind every celebrity that carefully monitor what their fans love and, then, instruct celebrities to do these things. All in all, the audience wins. 

Step 3: I do what people are scared of

Fear is one of our biggest enemy. But, fear can also be a motivator to try, change or reflect. Advertising campaigns aim to raise adrenaline and show what consumers are mostly scared of, but at least they will give a try reading / watching. It's the same with bad news in media - they are grouse, but everybody likes to see it. Big campaign's headlines are very helpful to reach the right attention.

The lives of celebrities are no longer private. They also consist of activities that we usually don't like to see. However, picking in others' lives is so interesting even if we look into things we are usually afraid of. Celebrity in hospital is much more fun than watching a tennis match. Jumping from a plane is also so much fun even a lot of us wouldn't do the same. Again, the identification factor results in set of subconscious activities that repress (at least for a moment) our fears.  

Step 4: I do what people just think I'm doing

This is the art of advertising. Making your product necessary for your consumer is the highest level of customer loyalty. Yes, we follow what our audience loves, we respond to their wishes, but... we also want to sell them what we make, in a way we make it. The aim of quality advertising is not the value of the product itself, it's the value of how consumer will react to the message.

If we take celebrity advertising into consideration, there are so many products they actually don't use. They are just paid to use them, or using that product is simply part of a current trend. People think this way: if my favourite actress drinks that beverage, it must be cool. I shall try. Celebrities also do a lot of things to remain popular; many of these things they won't probably be doing if they weren't famous. But, that's the price to pay.

All in all, celebrities exist to promote themselves. Products exist to be promoted by the others (companies, agencies, organizations). Both celebrities and products are on sale. The main difference is - celebrities can always earn, while a product depends on its consumers. When it comes to dependency, advertising jumps in.

Image courtesy: Pop Rewind portal