Celebrity Marketing Campaigns for Your Brand

Celebrity endorsement is a type of advertisement in which a public figure validates a brand. In this advertising model, a famous person acts as a spokesperson for the brand to raise awareness by publicly promoting a product or service.

An endorsement campaign can include several collaborations between the company and the celebrity. While famous actors and musicians usually have millions of followers, this doesn't mean that endorsements will result in a dialogue. Their main goal is to attract attention to the brand.

The main driver of endorsements is the popularity and fame of the person who's doing the ad. They are not expected to be experts on the products or services they promote. For example, if a famous actress appears in a skincare ad, this doesn't mean she's an expert on the skincare routine.

This is why despite endorsements being good for increasing awareness and sales, many companies choose to partner with influencers instead.

Influencer campaigns involve a collaboration of three parties:

• A creator;
• A target audience;
• And an advertiser.

In influencer marketing, creators have more control over the content and the advertising message that they add to their channels.

Contrary to an endorsement, collaborations with influencers require an equal partnership between the brand and the creator. For example, content creators work closely with the company to make sure that it'll be relevant to the influencer's audience.

While not all of them have multi-million followership, they usually have a loyal audience, and they interact with their community on a regular basis. Besides, they are acknowledged experts on a particular topic, be it video games, healthcare, or perfume.

If you are thinking about whether you need to get partnerships with influencers or an endorsement from a famous person, keep in mind the few differences that we listed above. But recently the line between these two promotion methods has become blurrier.

An increasing number of companies combine both tactics. This is how celebrity influencer marketing emerged. To put it simply, it is a campaign with big-size creators.

In the past, the main difference between a celebrity and an influencer was in their followership. For example, celebrities had fans who followed them because they liked their art or personality. On the contrary, social media creators were considered experts in a specific field or area.

With the rise of the creator economy, this distinction is no longer that strict. There are multiple entertainment content creators who are as big as Hollywood movie stars and have millions of followers. For example, Brent Rivera.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your campaign:

Do you run it to increase awareness or drive engagement? What type of engagement do you want? How will you measure success? Before investing in a campaign, make sure that you understand what you want to get in the end.

A collaboration with a celebrity is not cheap. There should be a reason why your brand is doing this. Even if you outlined your goals and have the plan ready, have a second look at what you're trying to achieve. Create a list of pros and cons, alternatives, forecasts, and desired outcomes.

Even if your budget allows you to partner with any famous person in the world, this doesn't mean that you should do this.

Pay attention to your overarching strategy and keep in mind the goals when selecting famous people to partner with. It can be easier to build personas first, similar to how you would build buyer personas. This will help you make sure that the people you partner with align with your values and have a relevant audience. Otherwise, you might end up with an ad similar to the infamous Beyond Meat ad featuring Kim Kardashian.

Reaching out to a celebrity is a multi-stage process. You'll need to get in touch with their managers, overcome objections and obstacles, and become an expert in negotiations. That's why ideally you need an agency that's been working with celebrities before and can show you the ropes.