Building It Up with celebrities: how to make endorsements work for you?

The idea behind a famous face endorsing businesses and products is pretty simple — when the audience spots famous individuals promoting a new product they are prompted to buy that product, either subliminally or directly. Celebrity endorsements aren’t new to marketing and brands often remain in a hurry to sign top celebrities and invest money in influencer campaigns. However, it is critical to understand that one size 'does not' fit all.

When building a celebrity-centric campaign or hiring celebrity talent, most businesses start with the 'who'. But rather than focusing on the 'who' at first, brands should start with ‘why’. This will help impart a better understanding of whether your target audience needs a celebrity push to purchase your product/service, curate relevant content accordingly, and subsequently lead to matching these attributes with the right celebrity for your brand.

"Content is the queen and the celebrity is great as an additional booster to that. Once you have figured out your brand identity and your ethos then get the right people to promote who you are," says Malini Agarwal, Founder & Blogger-in-Chief of MissMalini.com.

Having said that, content is the genesis of all of but what people struggle with is discerning how much of that content can pull through by itself and how much of it needs a celebrity or an influencer to push it forward. In reality, this content should be in sync with the right face to make the brand work. "If you put together the right content, it will sell. Celebrities should be a part of the content, and not the content itself," says Preeta Sukhtankar, Founder, TheLabelLife. Today, ‘celebrities’ and 'influencers' have become more attainable and as access to digital publishing tools continues to grow, the pool of talent that brands can choose from increases as well. Yet, what remains constant is the type of content that the celebrity endorses and how it aligns with the brand values.

On this special episode of #BuildingItUp with Bertelsmann, hear from two accomplished and dynamic women who not only took the celebrity route for their business but also crushed the stereotypes surrounding it with their phenomenal success.

Preeta Sukhtankar and Malini Agarwal answer some of the most burning questions around celebrity endorsements for brand building. 

Listen now: http://bit.ly/2H13LDc