The Tech Firms Changing TV Advertising in 2018
Having a celebrity parading your product around in a TV advert isn’t always a good idea. The fact is, unless you choose the right celebrity to represent your brand, it can backfire.
That said, the latest research demonstrates that by choosing the right celebrity endorsement both your brand and sales can benefit.
The problem with choosing a celebrity endorser is that their connection with your brand doesn’t simply last for the 30 second duration of your ad. Celebrities are only human and when they make a mistake it can reflect badly on your brand, long after they have represented you.
You need to assess whether the celebrity you choose fits in with your brand’s ethos based on their past actions. It’s also worth trying to predicate, based on past events, whether they’re likely to jeopardise your brand’s image in the future.
One famous example is a rather unfortunate quip Peter Andre made on Celebrity Juice. Andre, the face of the Iceland Supermarket’s ads, remarked that fellow star Olly Murs needn’t be embarrassed because: “Olly dude… I’ve appeared in an Iceland ad.”
The obvious slur was met with indignation on Twitter and while some suggested it had gained Iceland free advertising, you can’t apply the epithet “any publicity is good publicity” to every bit of press.
That’s especially true when you’re paying for it. If a figurehead becomes an embarrassment, as Andre did in that moment, then many will question your use of them in future ads; just as the public did when Iceland stuck by Andre.
Sometimes a partnership with a brand is a bad move for a celebrity too. A famous example would be Nicole Kidman’s advert with Etihad airways. Kidman, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for Women, drew criticism for her association with an airline that allegedly imposes: “abusive labour practices on its female employees.”
Needless to say, while Etihad probably imagined the association with a humanitarian ambassador to women would help demonstrate their diligence towards the issues affecting women, it turned popular attention onto their alleged malpractice instead.
This isn’t to suggest you shouldn’t use celebrities for your ads, it’s just a word of warning that choosing the right celebrity for your brand is a difficult process that needs to be approached carefully. Get it wrong and it could be disastrous, think Tiger Wood’s turn of fortunes and brands like Accenture’s quick disassociation from the golfer…
It’s not all doom and gloom though. If you do choose the right celeb to endorse your brand it can become an incredibly lucrative partnership, which is beneficial to both parties.
Some celebrities become so synonymous with the product they advertise that when you think of one, you can’t help but picture the other too. This is brilliant for brands, because even when a celebrity is not directly representing the business they’re still symbolic of it.
You can barely watch Gary Lineker on Match of the Day without hankering for a pack of Walkers…
In all seriousness, it can be incredibly fruitful to have a celebrity appear in a TV ad promoting your brand. You just need to be aware of people’s perceptions of said celebrity too- according to research by Social Influence.
The study suggests that people’s perceptions of a celebrity can be positive or harmless, yet it doesn’t guarantee the celebrity’s endorsement will have a positive effect on your sales.
They took the example of Jessica Simpson, a singer and actress, who was perceived by consumers to be both positive and negative concurrently. On the one hand she was seen as: sexy and fun, the other ditzy and weak.
When they then put a hypothetical advert in front of consumers, which portrayed Simpson advertising a pocket knife, they overwhelmingly related the pocket knife with Simpson’s negative traits: being weak specifically.
Why? Because the advert created an overwhelming contrast between a traditionally strong and practical item- that isn’t in the slightest bit sexy- and a celebrity who was perceived as weak.
Jessica Simpson might have elicited a sexy or fun image had she been endorsing something associated with those traits but, for a product that relies on its strength, a female sport star would have been far more relevant.
Still, with careful planning a celebrity endorsement can reap extremely positive results. Anita Elberse, an associate professor at Harvard, notes that “the rewards of relying on endorsers very likely far outweigh the risks.”
Elberse’s research supports her claims, with results showing that many consumer-product brands who employed a celebrity endorser noted a 4% rise in sales- in the six months following an endorsement deal. Several of the brands studied also showed a rise of more than 20% in the same period; even after the study had accounted for other factors that could drive sales.
The study even managed to demonstrate a correlation between the announcement of a celebrity endorsement and a rise in the endorsed firm’s stock price. With Elberse noting that the “endorsed firm’s stock can be expected to increase nearly a quarter percent.”
Elberse notes three reasons why celebrity endorsements can have such a positive effect. The first, is the fact that it allows firms to tap into the celebrities fan base. Maybe football fans are more inclined to choose Walkers crisps, to supplement the big game, over other brands due to Lineker’s association?
The second, is the idea that a celebrity endorsement reassures the consumer of the product’s quality. The idea that ‘they’ (the celeb) would only endorse it if it’s good is apt here.
Finally, there’s the idea that a celebrity endorsement can help differentiate the product from its competitors by highlighting the traits that make that product important. Elberse uses the example of Sharapova and Canon’s partnership.
Sharapova a player noted for her aggressive style and precision was the perfect partner for Canon’s Powershot camera. Canon wanted the Powershot to be perceived as both aggressive and precise…
So is celebrity endorsement a good thing? Sometimes would be the most accurate answer. If you are able to obtain a celebrity who shares the principles of your brand- and stays true to those principles- and commands a positive perception among consumers- which you would like related to your product- then the chances are that it will be a good match. The problem is that celebrity and controversy often seem to be the two sides of the same coin.
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