Ask your friends, your significant other, even your teenage kid about products their favorite celebrities use, and 8 times out of 10 you'll get a list of them, and from different celebs. With the day to day life of many celebrities only a swipe away, cascading through news feeds, there's been an eruption in the product placement market. For years you wanted to get your product in TV shows and movies to have a giant impact and brand yourself to the masses in one fell swoop. These days, you can get more exposure from a few well-placed social media posts than from your product being used by a main character on a TV show, or in the background of some movie. The real shocker in all of this though is that the cost to get your product on a celebrities' social media posts, be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or more, is normally a fraction of the cost than film or TV.
For most businesses, it's a no-brainer comparison. We'd rather have an active audience over a captive one. True, it's great to say your company's product was used by a main character of a blockbuster movie, like in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Steve Rogers wears Levis Jeans, or Bruce Banner uses Beats headphone, but how many of you reading noticed that or noticed and then forgot until I jogged your memory? Yes, the audience for movies and TV shows are captive, they've devoted their time (30 minutes to 2 ½ hours) to an event, but if you are just a small blip during that time, it probably won't have a lasting effect. However, if a celebrity posts a few pictures of themselves with your product, calls it out by name in the description or social media video, that sticks with more people. The people viewing those posts are paying attention and your product, even if it isn't the main focus, is part of that message.
You used to know the drink a celebrity enjoyed, or the clothes they'd wear day to day, because you'd see it in pictures sold to magazines by paparazzi. Now, these celebrities are sharing aspects of their lives with the world through social media, almost making paparazzi obsolete. You don't have to notice that Starbucks cup in the hands of your favorite celeb in a blurry picture, but instead get a crystal clear selfie of them with it at the beach or on the move.
Wanting to understand a bit more about this scenario, I talked to an expert in celebrity endorsement, including social media. "You see it all the time," they informed me, "celebrities on their Facebook talking about a fashion designer, game they played, and more, or they've taken to Instagram to post pics of food from a restaurant, makeup they have, or even a view from the hotel they're staying at and it gets thousands of likes, sometimes even millions. It goes further than just products though. A celebrity that takes to social media to support a charity can have amazing results in raising money or they can voice support for a company's services and people respond. They pay attention to these posts and pictures today with a fervor greater than we've seen in the past."
So what does this mean for businesses, I asked the expert. "What they all look for, opportunities," they told me. "The average business isn't going to be able to afford the 15 seconds or less of product placement in television and movies, but they can afford a few posts by a celebrity which fits their image and their target demographic. In addition to the cost difference, they get a more lasting impression on the audience and even multiple exposure, as those same posts may get revisited by people commenting on them, or shared and reposted on other users and groups pages. With sharing and reposting being a factor, a popular post or image has the ability to go viral and product a snowball effect. All at a cost most businesses can afford."
With all of this information, I couldn't see why a company wouldn't at least examine the possibility of celebrity endorsements. Maybe it's the years of believing it was too expensive? Maybe it's having your heart set on a specific celebrity? Maybe it's lack of know how? No matter the reason, in our current trend of a continued growth in social media which shows no signs of stopping, I recommend companies, currently engaged on social media or not, to ponder what a celebrity endorsement on social media could mean for them.
If you would like to consider utilizing celebrity endorsements in social media marketing, please consider reaching out to Bob Cefail and the team at CShopTV for more information.
About The Expert - Bob Cefail: Bob Cefail is an entrepreneur that I have worked with for the past 12 years, who early on recognized the need to be fluid in his approach to marketing in order to keep up with the ever changing technology both businesses and consumers have access to. One of Bob's biggest strengths is how he seeks out new platforms for marketing and rapidly experiments to find out the best utilization of them for his clients. For the past 5 years, through his company CShopTV, he has worked with many businesses to consult and oversee celebrity endorsement campaigns through social media, television, radio, and in person appearances at events.
About the author - C. R. Viggiano - an IT aficionado and marketing expert with more than 20 years of programming and project management experience as well as 15 years of marketing experience.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com/expert/C._R._Viggiano/2287743
Article Source: EzineArticles.com/9720519
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