Celebrity Marketing | cpi CELEBRITY PERFORMANCE

Celebrity Marketing – Success Factors from Consumers’ and Corporate Perspectives

Excerpt from the study published in May 2013.

Celebrity status as the product of fame and popularity seems to be an asset that is easier to acquire nowadays. Platforms such as YouTube and Facebook as well as formats such as talent shows or reality soaps have a potentially unlimited reach and lead to a new understanding of fame and celebrities. At the same time, companies are finding more and more ways to incorporate celebrities into their marketing strategies.

In addition to the still highly effective celebrity advertising, celebrity product placement has become another instrument of celebrity marketing that is both inexpensive and authentic. This tactic gives celebrities products that they will use every day and ideally with maximum visibility to others. Celebrity appearances at store events and product presentations are also becoming increasingly important to ensure press and media coverage. Not to be underestimated is also the wide reach of celebrity social media channels that are now leaving established media outlets in the dust and are becoming target-group specific platforms for modern brand/celebrity collaborations.

Given the increasing complexity of celebrity marketing, the aim of the present study is to capture current and general attitudes about celebrity marketing from the perspective of both businesses and consumers, without getting lost in details. What are the general motives behind using celebrities in advertising? Where are there similarities and differences in what companies and consumers say about these matters? What criteria are particularly key elements of selecting celebrity spokespersons?

This study was conducted in the autumn of 2012 by the Celebrity Marketing Alliance consisting of KAIORIZE, red onion and cpi CELEBRITY PERFORMANCE, in cooperation with W&V under the research supervision of Professor Alexander Schimansky of ISM Dortmund.

500 consumers, ages 14 and over, representative of the general German population, and 105 representatives of German companies were interviewed in two phases. The study consisted of questions on celebrity marketing.

Reasons for Celebrity Marketing

To increase awareness and to give brands a positive boost were the top priorities from both the companies’ and consumers’ perspectives (see Fig. 1). Closely following were an increased brand awareness through the celebrity’s personality and a substantial increase in brand affinity. Customer loyalty and promoting sales in the short-term were comparatively minor objectives for the companies and were considered relatively unimportant by consumers (see Fig. 2). There was a large discrepancy when it came to improving brand credibility: almost two thirds of consumers consider this to one of the company’s goals, while only one third of companies admitted to it. That the use of celebrities leads to increased credibility of TV commercials was shown in two studies by cpi CELEBRITY PERFORMANCE on the effectiveness of testimonial campaigns (cf. Studies from October 2013 and February 2014).

Fig. 1: Reasons for Celebrity Marketing (I)

Fig. 2: Reasons for Celebrity Marketing (II)

Celebrity Testimonials: Potential for Success

Significantly more consumers and company representatives believe that celebrity marketing is more effective than marketing campaigns without celebrities. This view could also be demonstrated in the studies by cpi CELEBRITY PERFORMANCE listed above. From the perspective of consumers (41%), there is likely to be an increase or strong increase in the use of celebrities for marketing purposes in the future. 57% of companies agree (see Fig. 3). Moreover, the importance of celebrities for the entire market was ranked by 62% of companies as high to very high. 64% of companies also ranked their experience working with celebrities as quite high. 74% of companies indicated willingness to work together again in the future or to start working with celebrities for the first time, indicative of what have been predominantly positive experiences in the past and positive expectations for the future (see Fig. 4).

Fig. 3: The use of celebrities for marketing purposes will …

Fig. 4: Importance of celebrities for …

Factors to the Success of Celebrity Marketing

In order to exploit the potential for success, a high fit between the brand and celebrity is often postulated as a criterion for effective celebrity marketing. 72% of consumers and 73% of companies see a match between the brand and celebrity of at least 75% important (see Fig. 5). The importance of brand/celebrity fit is also supported by the cpi-Celebrity-Brand-Fit-Index from cpi CELEBRITY PERFORMANCE, which provides a reliable measure of just that fit.

Fig. 5: Fit between Brand and Celebrity

Successful Celebrity Advertising: Criteria for Selecting the Right Celebrity Testimonial

From the consumers’ perspective, sympathy, familiarity and credibility within the target group should be decisive criteria when selecting spokespersons. Although these values are also important from a business perspective, they are significantly less so when compared to the consumers’ answers (see Fig. 6). The importance of these criteria is emphasized by the cpi-Index. This measures the potential advertising impact of a celebrity through a combination of awareness and image strength. Image strength includes the likeability and popularity of a celebrity and his or her credibility or trustworthiness. That image strength has significant positive correlations with the favorability with which endorsement campaigns are received, brand affinity and the perceived quality of the product being advertised was shown in the studies from cpi CELEBRITY PERFORMANCE listed above, thus demonstrating the importance of criteria for selecting the right celebrity spokesperson.

Fig. 6: Criteria for selecting the right celebrity testimonial