Using Celebrity Spokespersons
Using celebrities … here’s a topic you don’t see discussed much in terms of ‘best practices’. Yet celebrities are quite available and generous in working with charities and nonprofits. Some, like UNICEF and Amnesty International, have successfully developed the use of celebrities into an art form.
Right off the bat, I should probably employ better terminology than ‘use of celebrities’. Insofar as celebrities become involved with charities and causes, they do so — in my experience — almost exclusively out of shared conviction, not ‘for hire’. And that shared conviction suggests a genuine partnership built around values, not money.
That is not to say that celebrities are not looking to burnish their images or have expenses met. But whereas J.Lo might fly to Dubai — or worse, Turkmenistan — for a fat check, she’s not likely to ‘endorse’ a cause for one.
This article — Top 10 Tips for Using a Celebrity Spokesperson — was written for corporate marketers. And so it talks about engaging celebrities in a more commercial context. Nevertheless, it’s a useful set of tips if you are heading down the celebrity path.
Surprisingly to me, while these tips start with being sure to find an appropriate match with the company’s brand, the author seems to take for granted that this most critical judgment of all will get the attention it deserves.
It’s that ‘fit’, and the integrity of the celebrity (i.e., reasonable certainty that the fit will be durable), that ultimately will determine whether the relationship delivers its intended benefits. After all, most charity-celebrity relationships are not intended by either party as one night stands (e.g., perform for our charity ball on May 1). Usually something more substantial, rewarding and ongoing is sought by both.
Think of your celebrity as a donor (after all, that’s what they are) … you are helping them channel their better sides!
So, make that initial choice very carefully, and then take account of the helpful advice in Top 10 Tips for Using a Celebrity Spokesperson. And don’t underestimate the TLC that your celebrity will require.
Tom
4 responses to “Using Celebrity Spokespersons”
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So true
Connecting and engaging with people is always about building familiarity and trust. We push the same message to those who we help fund raise through crowd funding at iPledg (http://ipledg.com/)
A well known personality will help quickly form your campaign or brand identity, and have people coming on board with a lot more passion
I’ve been working with celebrities that fit our cause (women’s hospital, Vancouver, BC) for over eight years. NOT A SINGLE ONE of them participated out of the goodness of their heart. We even had to pay Stephen Lewis (albeit, for his foundation).
To name a few: Marlee Matlin, Gloria Steinem, Margot Kidder, Margaret Trudeau, Mia Farrow, Naomi Wolf.
The only celebrities who have worked with us for free have been from our local news cast with CTV. Most recently, news anchor Tamara Taggart has joined our campaign cabinet as Chair, which has been fantastic. But our experience, by far, with celebrities is that they need to be booked and hired for pay via their agents.
Am I the only idiot who is paying for celebrity guest speakers?
Celebrities, indeed, can advance a nonprofit’s cause, but organizations should proceed with caution.
Celebrities can be polarizing — as many people dislike as like them. What’s more, donors may not naturally connect them to the groups they support. Case in point: during my tenure at Amnesty International USA, we conducted a letter signer test in a year-end appeal — Yoko Ono, a great friend to AIUSA, against Larry Cox, the Executive Director at the time. The segment that received the letter from Larry was the overwhelming winner.
The lesson? Nothing new or atom-splitting: test, test, test!
Cheers!
Bonnie
Test, test, test indeed… but also make sure your ‘celebrity’ is relevant to your cause. We see lots of famous people associated with charities because they’re famous and this doesn’t always translate into support.
There’s an interesting book written by the uber-experienced fundraiser Eileen Hammond on just this topic if you want to check it out (nothing to do with me just found it useful):
http://www.dsc.org.uk/Publications/Fundraisingtechniques/@158654