Question

Topic: Strategy

Finding The Right Well Known Personality

Posted by Anonymous on 4/19/2009 at 1:00 AM ET 500 Points
I am in the process of deciding & looking for a well known personality to represent our product & charity

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Who would you choose and how would you reach that individual and convince them to join this grassroots cause?


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  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/19/2009 at 9:06 AM Member
    You might want to start by looking at https://www.celebcauses.com/ to identify celebrities that are already involved with helping children. The site listed 270 people, and for $1 you can access all of their contact information for a week.
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 4/19/2009 at 1:27 PM Accepted
    Greg, Great cause.

    If it were me, I would watch the talk shows on hulu.com and get a feeling for potential celebrity spokes people and endorsements.

    Maybe something younger, like Dakota Fanning, somebody who would be great for social media exposure (see Ashton Kutcher on Twitter)

    I have had success contacting celebrities through their representation. You can do some research on web, find name and phone number of some body associated with celeb by project, film production etc. ... call and ask for agents name. I have called the top talent agencies and just asked if they represent a talent and even if they do not, they might tell you who does. Just go at it and don't quit until you have a bona fide representative.

    best of luck,

    Steve
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 4/19/2009 at 2:29 PM Member
    This link might help you contact a talent:

    https://www.nativecelebs.com/subs/advice/advice9.htm
  • Posted by mgoodman on 4/19/2009 at 5:43 PM Accepted
    There is a market research firm called Q-Scores that maintains comparative ratings of celebrities on several dimensions (e.g., familiarity, believability, trust, etc.), and you can then segment on different target audiences.

    That way you can get objective information for YOUR target audience instead of relying on a collection of subjective reactions from a group that may or may not be representative of the people you really want to reach.

    I've used Q-Scores a few different times and they provided exactly what I needed then. Of course, they charge for the service, but it's a lot cheaper than spending a lot of money advertising a sub-optimal celebrity.

    As for contacting the celeb, Steve Byrne is right: You need to find their representatives. I've been on both sides of that one (i.e., contacting and being contacted), and you need to be very clear what you're requesting and what's in it for the celeb. Don't dwell exclusively on what a worthwhile cause you have; they've heard that story before, and there are a lot of worthwhile causes.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 4/20/2009 at 7:42 AM Member
    The very best of luck to you. I'm curious, your website says that aluminum cans of drinking water will be your symbol. But will this also be your distribution method? It seems to me that in some cases it is more efficient to drill wells or to provide desalinization equipment. While the aluminum can of water might or might not be a great symbol for your firm, it certainly seems to me that flies in the face of recent green initiatives to distribute so many aluminum cans.

    I am not an expert in celebrity endorsements, but if this were my project, I would look at this as a two phased approach. In the long term, I want to have a well-done and well respected celebrity endorsed this project, and I think the guidelines above sound very good to me. But in the short term, if it were me, I would solicit the help of a respected but less expensive person who might have access to A-list celebrities.
  • Posted on 4/20/2009 at 9:06 AM Member
    Michael Phelps would be a natural fit!
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