• Ad Age, Thursday, September 23, 2010 8:31 AM

Dean Crutchfield, chief engagement officer at brand experience agency Method, asks whether the Tiger Woods fiasco has finally convinced marketers that endorsement dalliances with celebrities just aren't worth all the glam and glitter. Turns out there's good reason it probably hasn't: Not only do studies indicate that sales can rise by as much as 20% for some brands, a Harvard Business School associate professor reports that some companies have seen their stock increase by .25% on the day a deal was announced.

Crutchfield goes on to list seven "sound criteria" for a celebrity endorsement strategy. Bottom line: "Even C-listers like Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi of "Jersey Shore" can lead to little marketing triumphs," he points out.

Then he raises a challenge that is admittedly "fraught with dander." CMOs will have to start integrating social media into their celebrity-endorsement strategies because "they make up marketing's most powerful media: recommendation," Crutchfield writes.

By the way, according to Millward Brown, more than 15% of advertisements in this country have a celebrity within. It could be worse: The figure is 24% in India; 45% in Taiwan.

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