When you want your product or service to gain awareness with the general public there is no better path to public appeal than association with celebrities. Whether it be movie stars, athletes, television personalities or business moguls there is no method more proven to work than celebrity product placement.
There is a science to celebrity product placement. Planning is critical. Knowing your ultimate goals before you enter into this industry is critical. In this Ezine article we will review your marketing goals and how to effectively use your money to gain the maximum exposure while avoiding the common pitfalls experienced by many firms.
Simply stated, your goal is to build association between your company’s product/service and celebrities. To do this you have several steps which must be executed properly. The first is to obtain pictures of celebrities with your product or with your logo. Many new companies want a picture of the celebrity holding the product. However, many experienced companies have learned that products and packaging change often. This could easily render your celebrity photos outdated. The ideal celebrity photo is the celebrity on a red carpet standing in front of a media wall with your logo. If you are very good at your job you will get each celebrity standing next to only your logo and not logos from dozens of other companies.
So how do you get these pictures? The best option is through a professional celebrity gifting service. Gifting services will invite celebrities to private locations to get products from twenty to forty companies. There are several companies which hold major gifting suites during the Oscars, Grammys, Emmys and other award shows, but most of them do not draw significant A-list talent. The average gifting suite will draw two celebrities even though the website and promotional material will claim ten, twenty or thirty celebrities will be invited, few ever show up. The other red flag is to look at the media wall from these gifting companies past events. Do you see a celeb standing in front of dozens of logos? If so, it is best to avoid that company because they may have some celebs, but they don’t offer you the one thing you need — Celebrity photos with only your logo!
Once you find a good gifting service company you will have the foundation of your marketing goals. But just getting pictures is a small part of your marketing goals. Now you need to get the public to see those pictures. Start by knowing the difference between advertising and press. You cannot use those celebrity pictures for advertising, you can use them for press. If you send them to a magazine or newspaper you will not have a problem. If you put them on your company website in an area that is related to news you will not have a problem. Do not, under any circumstances print those pictures of your product packaging or in-store displays as that is advertising and you will need a signed legal release from the celebrity. To be on the safe side make sure your lawyer gives you advice on the difference between press and advertising.
Many companies have experienced great success in getting their celebrity photos into magazines. The key to this is timing. You must do some work and know when a celebrity has a new television show or movie being released. Take that date and plan to make a move at least 30 days in advance. Send your pictures to all the magazines, newspapers and websites possible and let the editors know about the celebrity and their upcoming show. The show will make the news and you will get the picture. Keep working on this approach and sooner or later you will have some success. Once you get published you may have reached all of your publicity goals.