USING CELEBRITIES IN ADVERTISING

WHY ARE PEOPLE OBSESSED WITH CELEBRITIES?

Recent years have witnessed a boom in the number of advertising contracts involving people from the entertainment world – brands choosing sports and show business stars as the “ambassadors” for their products.

From a sociological point of view the explanation of why people are so obsessed by celebrity-endorsed advertising can be linked to Kelman's processes of social influence. According to Kelman, there are three processes of social influence which result in an individual adopting the attitude advocated by the communicator: compliance, identification and internalization. These latter two processes are particularly applicable to celebrity-endorsed advertising.

With the social media on the past century, it was easier for people to become celebrities and therefore these processes were more present in consumers' lives, which can explain why people are becoming more and more interested in celebrities.

RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES OF USING CELEBRITIES

As the concept of brands evolves over time, and brands develop their own characters and personality, the idea of using celebrities in order to reinforce brand meaning and experience combined with the public's obsession with celebrities place celebrity “spokespeople” in a highly attractive position.

Celebrities can help brands stand out in the presently cluttered universe of products and advertising.

Celebrities can help shape and communicate a brand's image, values and personality. They can also help build brand attributes for the product and even create aspirational appeal. As well as promoting established brands, celebrities are used to promulgate new brand images or introduce new ones.

Celebrities may also generate extensive PR leverage for brands.

However, the impact and return that a celebrity can bring to a brand varies considerably, not only according to the celebrity's current status but, mainly, due to his or her adequacy to the brand and its strategic goals. Sometimes the choice of a celebrity can have disastrous consequences, but, more often, what needs to be taken into consideration is whether the celebrity chosen is able to bring about returns that justify the costs associated with hiring this spokesperson.

Celebrities can impact the success of an advertisement on various aspects:

Generate Interest

Celebrities can grab attention or generate interest and involvement acting as a famous face. Ads with celebrities are more unique, involving and interesting. Results of our various studies confirm this.

Reinforce Message

A celebrity's 'profession' can instill a sense of authority in promoting the brand, and can also help to communicate the message of the ad. They can also 'represent' the brand and explain the product benefits.

Add Glamour

Celebrities can also be used to add glamour or emotional appeal to the brand, to appeal to target market and to enhance corporate credentials.

Add Humour

Another positive aspect is that celebrities can be a powerful way of bringing humor to the ad. Interesting ads where the celebrity is doing some kind of spoof or parody are more enjoyable, involving and perceived as bringing different information.

An ad can make use of celebrity's TV character or persona to make ads funny. If people like the characters in a TV program this can be exploited in an ad by 'borrowing' the TV persona.

But there are also some risks that have to taken into consideration when thinking on a celebrity.

If it is proved that the use of a celebrity can aid impact it is also true that the celebrity can be so strong that it overshadows the product and the message , and we have seen many examples like that. It is important to produce an ad where the hero is clearly the product/brand and that celebrity is there as a messenger.

It is also important to confirm if celebrity might become a 'promiscuous' advertiser. The lack of exclusivity can be a problem. This is even more important for smaller brands when the mix of brands the celebrity endorses includes larger brands.

Another risk that requires a 'plan B' during the planning phase is when the celebrity is associated to a certain event that will happen in the future. A recent example was the extensive use of football players from Egyptian team that were going to the African Cup of Nations in 2019. After the team lost very early (by Egyptian standards), fans formed a fierce campaign against the national team and the brands which used the team for their ads demonstrating they were prepared for all eventualities.

If a sport celebrity will be used, it is recommended to go beyond simple endorsement based on qualities inherent in the player, ensuring greater independence of events on the field.

Obviously associating the brand to a real person includes the risks that the celebrity does something that can damage the brand's reputation or their fit to the brand. And this is even more important nowadays. Years ago it was very rare that people knew that a certain personality was seen using drugs. Today if something like this is found out, on the following day it is allover social media; Facebook, YouTube, Instagram…etc.

Therefore if the brand decides to use a celebrity on a campaign, apart from planning the campaign it also has to plan how the celebrity will be used and how to deal with possible non predicted events. A very detailed contract with the celebrity is also a way of avoiding surprises.

RULES TO THE SUCCESSFUL USE OF CELEBRITIES IN ADVERTISING

The first rule is obviously fame. The term celebrity refers to “an individual who is known to the public for his or her achievements in their specialist areas and not simply for product class endorsement”.

Fame

If a brand decides to use a personality, we should first of all discover whether anyone recognizes them or knows who they are. Otherwise it is better to use an actor to suggest the type of character the brand is trying to portrait. We know that among those who recognize the celebrity the results on impact and persuasion are better.

Fit to Brand

All knowledge proves that one of the most important aspects when using celebrities is the link that person has with the brand, product and/or message that will be communicated.

According to an article from the Journal of Advertising Research written by Roobina Ohanian, “for celebrities to be truly effective, they need to have direct connections with their endorsed products and who are perceived to be experts by target respondents.”

The 'right fit celebrity' can enhance communication and can give credibility to the brand. When the celebrity and the brand share the same values, the benefits are maximized both for the brand and the celebrity.

Likeability

Likeability is another aspect to be considered when choosing the right celebrity to be the sponsor of a brand. An important question to be asked is if they are emotionally congruent and culturally relevant to the target market, in order to find out who the celebrities are appealing to as well as whom they are 'switching off'.

Consistent Use

But when the brand decides to use a celebrity it has to be sure that this is the right celebrity and invest during a certain time in order to build the link between the celebrity and the brand. When the celebrity appears in several subsequent ads, results on branding are significantly better.

This consistency can transform the celebrity into an icon of the brand. Many good examples globally; Messi and CR7 who have been representing ‘Pepsi’ and ‘Clear’ for many years and have associate their names with both brands.

HOW CAN WE MAXIMIZE SUCCESS?

Up to this point in time a great deal of the selection process of brands' spokespeople has been based on intuition and the popularity of the celebrities considered. There is need for more rigorous criteria that can help the understanding of celebrities' appeal, as well as of the relationship of consumers with the brand itself, its image, personality and values – so that we are confident in selecting a combination that will work well for both the brand and the celebrity chosen.

A better understanding of the use of celebrities in advertising, associated with proper research, can aid the marketing team in the decision of which celebrity is the best choice for the brand.

Understanding the Brand

But the first step to maximize the success is the deep understanding of the brand. Without a clear scenario of the brand positioning, who the consumers are, how the brand compares to the competition, its strengths and weaknesses, it is difficult to find a celebrity that has a good connection to the brand, or even know if the investment in a celebrity is an efficient investment.

Advertising Objectives

After this first step it is important to define why the brand is considering to contract a celebrity as spokes-person:

·       To catch attention,

·       To bring prestige to the brand,

·       Because if the celebrity is speaking, people will pay more attention to the message,

·       To use the celebrity as a testimony of the message,

·       To convince the audience through aspirational aspects,

·       To bring an interesting personality to the brand.

Based on all of these answers it will be easier to define if a celebrity is needed and to choose a celebrity that is adequate.

Brands many times think that if the celebrity does not bring positive results to the brand it does not bring negative results either. Without a good fit and a clear role, the celebrity can bring some negative aspect to the brand in terms of

impact and response.

SUMMARIZING

Celebrity endorsers are powerful aids for brand communications and positioning efforts. However fit and relevance with category consumers will have a bearing on how well the celebrity supports the brand.

Promiscuous endorsement of brands by celebrities makes it difficult for consumers to connect the specific celebrity to the brand.

Celebrity status can overshadow a relatively less known brand, so it is important to select the right celebrity 'partner' and to effectively consolidate that partnership.

A deep knowledge of why the celebrity will be used and if it fits to the target can make the difference between success and failure.

And finally, simply featuring a celebrity in a TVC does not automatically guarantee an effective execution. The same rules that apply to TV advertising in general also apply to making the most effective and featuring celebrities:

·       Enjoyment and engagement that create a memorable execution are important;

·       Branding must be visible and linked to the memorable elements of the creative idea;

·       Celebrity as a 'branding device' must be visible and may require consistent use to create a more recognized connection.