Tuesday, January 21, 2014

AMiable Solution #90: The Big Face-Off






In addition to seeing a host of familiar products and services advertised during this month’s Big Game, you’ll likely also see a slew of familiar faces, which brings us to our second theme to glean from Big Game commercials:

2.  Celebrity endorsements.  Crawford had more than just her ice-cold can of Pepsi sweating in the soda company’s 1992 commercial.  In 1993, McDonald’s pitted basketball legends Michael Jordan and Larry Bird against one another in an epic hoops-shooting contest.  Just three years  ago in an interesting twist, Snickers featured Betty White not as someone who enjoyed the       candy bar but as someone who needed it.

And that’s certainly not all.  The list of celebrity-focused commercials promoted during The Game--and throughout the year--is as long as the playing field itself. 

According to Dean Crutchfield’s September 22, 2010, article in Ad Age, roughly $50 billion is spent on corporate sponsorships and endorsements worldwide.  Some brands have seen sales increase by as much as 20% because of them. 

But celebrity endorsements are not without risk.  “Good” celebrities can go bad in the buying consumers’ eyes.  Remember Tiger Woods?  Michael Vick? Paula Deen? They all endured period of public examination of personal experiences that left them without credibility and without sponsors.

Your organization can play the sponsorship game without the drama and expense of an entertainment icon or sports hero.  A more localized figure that is both recognized and respected by the community, whether that community is your organization’s town, county, state, or region, could increase your brand’s visibility and consumer response just as well.  The key is to choose someone is who both relevant to the brand and to the consumer.


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