Brand endorsement is a term that is widely popular both in the marketing industry and outside of it. If it was not for brand endorsements, many brands would not be where they are now. Nike, one of the most popular global brands, has been at the top of the list when it comes to celebrity brand endorsements.

Although it may look quite appealing to the eyes, there are a lot of considerations and acute knowledge about celebrity endorsement that can be implemented in an actual marketing strategy.

In this article, we shall discuss all the core processes related to celebrity brand endorsement to help you figure out if this is something you want in your marketing strategy or not.

Definition And Importance Of Brand Endorsement

Endorsement, in its actual meaning, is an entire channel of brand communication where a celebrity acts as the spokesperson for a brand. They also certify the brand’s position and claim by extending their popularity, personality, expertise in the field, or status in society to the brand.

For instance, Lionel Messi’s endorsement of Adidas is one of the most well-known and well-structured brand endorsements ever. With Messi’s popularity and expertise in the field, the brand could position itself as one of the best in the field of sports and athletics.

One of the biggest advantages of celebrity brand endorsement is the credibility that a known face brings to the brand. The audience always looks for something credible to trust the brand and spend their money on. Having a celebrity as the face of the brand is the best thing to do when it comes to building credibility.

With a known face endorsement, the brands can position themselves in an authoritative position in the field they belong to.

Types Of Brand Endorsement

Celebrity brand endorsement is more like an umbrella term for the different types of brand endorsements that brands do. Once brands decide which celebrity they want to feature in their advertisement campaign, these are the techniques they can refer to for their endorsement strategies.

This is one of the most common types of celebrity endorsements that you may have seen. If you think it through, you may have seen Lionel Messi only wearing Adidas in every one of his press conferences or pap-walks. This is what happens in one-off celebrity deals.

This kind of deal is way more common with an athlete than with a celebrity. Athletes sign multi-year contracts with a particular brand and stick to wearing it at every possible event. However, this may not be as simple when it comes to celebrities of another sort.

For brands that are just starting off, one-off celebrity deals are a great option to make themselves available among the audience.

Unofficial Deals

In other cases, instead of officially hiring a celebrity to endorse products, brands just simply send their free products to a handful of celebrities. Brands heavily rely on different PR agencies to contact these celebrities to do the outreach.

For some brands, hiring a celebrity equals the cost of giving away their products for free. Without having a formal deal in place, brands just reach out to a wide spectrum of celebrities, hoping to reach a newer audience.

Unofficial deals are, in fact, a good way to get the brand out there in the market without having to spend a huge sum of money on hiring a celebrity.

However, since brands are not actually paying the celebrities, the chances of them promoting the brands remain low.

Long-Term Celebrity Deals

Long-term celebrity brand endorsement deals are a bit less common, but there are some instances where brands immediately recognize the staying power of the celebrity and put forward a long-term contract for them.

For instance, Sofia Vergara is a long-term endorser of Procter & Gamble. Lionel Messi has been endorsing Adidas since 2006.

However, recognizing which celebrities have an actual staying power and who are to fade away soon is a tough job. It is more like something that totally depends on luck. So, to be on the safe side, brands usually stay away from long-term celebrity deals.

But, if they think they have found the best celebrity endorser and are sure of their staying, they consider it a worthy shot. The endorsement gets way more powerful as they spend more and more time with the brand.

Factors To Consider In Selecting Endorsers

As I mentioned before, in types of brand endorsement, brands need to factor in all the certainties to choose the correct celebrity for themselves.

This counts as one of the most important steps, as without having the exact celebrity you need for the brand, there is no way that you can ace your celebrity brand endorsement plan.

Here are some tactics that can help brands consider while choosing a celebrity for their brand:

Going Through Their Endorsement History

Brands first look at the endorsement history of a celebrity. This gives a better picture of how they would be as the spokesperson in front of the audience. On top of that, it will also help brands figure out if or not their audience will accept them.

Brands always look for celebrities who have an endorsing history of promoting products that are very similar to theirs. They even look for celebrities who have, in the past, endorsed their competitors too.

Identifying Their Interests

This is yet another important factor to consider when it comes to signing a successful endorsement deal. Brands need to make sure that celebrities share similar interests with them.

They ask themselves these questions:

• What is the celebrity passionate about?
• Do they have similar interests with the brand?
• If not, does the brand address the passions or interests of the celebrity?

Making Sure That The Audience Is Correct For Them

It is important to take into consideration if the existing audience of a celebrity overlaps with the target demographic of the brand. For instance, MAC would not really go to Vin Diesel or The Rock for a brand endorsement and expect their audience to accept it right away. Brands need to match their audience demography with the ones of the celebrity.

It is also important to make sure that the celebrity audience is vast enough to bring substantial changes to the overall revenue of the brand.

Considering Their Audience Engagement

If brands decide to go for a social media brand endorsement, this one is very important. Regardless of the network they use, a celebrity brand endorsement would be worthless if they don’t have a strong following base.

With that being said, finding a celebrity with a huge following base is not enough. Brands also need to see if they have enough engagement with their followers on social media.

Looking For Charities Or Shared Causes

If there is a philanthropy or cause that the brand supports, they look for celebrities supporting the same cause. The best way to check the celebrity’s eligibility is to go through their overall public brand. Just the endorsement history won’t suffice.

Moreover, when brands get someone who supports the same cause, it creates a sense of authenticity among both sides’ audiences. Hence, the audience would then be more eager to try out the brand and be judged for themselves.

Strategies For Effective Brand Endorsement

Creating a celebrity brand endorsement strategy is not as simple as you may think. There goes a lot of hard and smart work behind the best of the strategies that we witness today.

Here are the strategies for an effective celebrity brand endorsement:

• Identify the correct customers
• Develop authentic partnerships
• Use multiple channels
• Monitor and measure the results
• Maintain utmost transparency

Conclusion

Celebrity brand endorsement is not the all-in-all of the brand-building process. However, it serves as a major pillar in taking the brand to the next level.

With the evolution of branding as a proper practice, companies need to be extra careful to use the best marketing channels. Celebrity brand endorsements are not the only way outs.

When other channels of marketing are used, celebrity brand endorsement gives brands a final edge. Just how it did for Adidas, Nike, and so on.

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