• by Chris Console , Columnist, June 7, 2018

We’ve all seen a well-known celebrity, athlete or public figure promote a product or service on behalf of a brand over the years. Think Britney Spears for Pepsi, Shaquille O’Neal for Icy Hot and William Shatner for Priceline — just a few of the thousands of celebrity partnerships consumers engage with regularly. From their commercials and social media posts to billboard ads and interviews, famous faces have endorsed something that has caught our attention, prompted consideration and persuaded us to act.

When considering these brand engagements, it’s crucial to evaluate where partnering with a celebrity is right for your brand, and how teaming up can affect your bottom line and help achieve brand goals.

Knowing Your Audience

The most important question a brand must ask is, “Will a celebrity add value and credibility to my brand’s marketing and communications plans?” Since investments in celebrity ambassadors range from thousands to millions of dollars, it’s important they appropriately integrate with your strategies, target audience and overall mission.

Consider someone who resonates well with your target audience based on the data, such as someone with the proper focus, relevance, social media and community presence. 

Also, think about what you want your audience to do after engaging with the content of your celebrity partnership. How will your celebrity partner convince them to act? Your brand can refine the type of celebrity partner that will be an integral part in a brand’s marketing and communications mix. 

Creating A Game Plan

Once a celebrity ambassador is selected, the next step is negotiation and developing a scope of work to formally present. The scope should define what types of tactics he or she will be a part of, how many, when and where they will take place and so forth — all evaluated against the investment.

There are many tactics to consider when developing your scope. From a public relations standpoint, tactics include a media day(s) with targeted interviews, social and digital media engagement or a personal appearance at an event.

Also, think about the best way to communicate through the mediums your ambassador owns and controls — contracts should include agreements for the ambassador to post about your brand from their social media accounts or connect with one of their charity partners, which may also be willing to share or participate in communications about your brand.

What’s imperative to take away from negotiations, and even following a formal agreement, is maintaining open lines of communications with the talent and his or her team regarding tactics, key messages and use of content planned. Being transparent in communications will also encourage your partner to feel passionately about what they are agreeing to be affiliated with, to help ensure authenticity and credibility among audiences.

Messages: Development and Delivery

Whether it’s a tag line in a commercial or a call-to-action in an interview, message development is one of the most important aspects when working with your brand ambassador. As someone who is representing your brand, it is crucial your ambassador comprehends and retains messages that are relatable for both your ambassador and audience. 

A good rule of thumb is to create three or four simple messages, including a call-to-action for your audience that the ambassador can easily remember and recite during interviews. A message training before media activities begin will help ensure your ambassador has a clear understanding and background of what your brand wants to communicate and how these messages fit in to who they are as an individual.

Execution

Be sure to have clear analytics and goals in place to measure the success of working with your ambassador. Earned media impressions, views, clicks and message pull-through are just a few ways to determine the effectiveness of your collaboration.

Most consumers realize celebrity ambassadors are paid to tell your brand’s story. However, what makes working with a celebrity a valuable opportunity is having the ambassador serve as a compelling voice to successfully deliver messaging in a meaningful way to resonate with audiences, while working towards recognition, consideration and action for the brand.