Social media outlets are growing exponentially and advertising dollars allocated to these options are following suit. If some of the biggest potential of social media lies in the medium's ability to tap into personal brand advocacy, could this phenomenon present advertisers with a more authentic, trusted and cost effective form of endorsement?
For example, remember the Gillette Fusion commercials featuring Tiger Woods and Roger Federer? Those two pitching razors was, to me, pretty awkward and not at all compelling; plus, the campaign must have cost P&G a ton. I can't imagine I was alone in that thinking.
Alternatively, if a buddy of mine said via Facebook that he really dug his new Fusion razor or liked the product's page, I'd probably be more inclined to try thing. The cost to P&G for planting that seed? Minimal.
Now, how marketers can go about getting millions of social media users to (believably) advocate their products is certainly another discussion. But, I'm convinced that finding a way to do so would ultimately be less expensive and more compelling to target consumers. At the least, it would reduce the amount of cheesy celebrity ad appearances and that's not such a bad thing, is it?
3 comments:
I agree with you that it won’t be a bad thing to have less cheesy celebs-ads! However, I doubt that social media would have the power to kill celebrity endorsement. Although word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends, or even random fellow consumers, usually play a big role in our brand perception, celebrity endorsements has been and will continue to be a strong tool, especially in our celebrity obsessed culture. I believe what is more likely to happen be that we’ll see more and more celebrity endorsements in the social media domain.
A recent study of social media campaigns by Brand Affinity Technologies analyzed over 200 Facebook and Twitter endorsements as well as similar Facebook ads that did not feature celebrities. The results were that – for the same spend – endorsed messages delivered over 50% greater performance lifts on the low end.
For more, see following article:
http://www.techjournalsouth.com/2011/03/celebrity-endorsements-more-cost-effective-than-display-ads-in-social-media/
Another study from the Nielsen Company states that celebrity endorsers are still powerful forces for brands. Moreover, the research indicates that people that follow them on Social Medias are valuable too. Not only are they four times more likely than the average U.S. adult to follow a brand that their favorite celebrities endorse, but they are also much more likely to engage their social media contacts with their opinions and advices, and therefore be influencers.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-power-of-celebrity-endorsements-enhanced-by-social-media-2011-5#ixzz1OFTcFChC
You raised and interesting point about how you would be more inclined to use a product after your friend had recommended rather than a celebrity. The way that these new social applications and tools are being used, some celebrities are actually allowing you into their personal lives, showing you how normal (or some cases abnormal) they are, and more importantly giving you the ability to relate to them and get the feeling you know them. They do everyday tasks like pick up the kids and the groceries, or buy razors at the drugstore. As they share more of their regular lives you start to feel they are more normal than you had previously thought and in some cases they are even a little like you. They tweet that they bought the razor because they it gives them a particular benefit which makes more sense to you. Now if they are not in front of the camera and reading off a script but rather writing a message that lands up directly on your phone, are you more inclined to buy the product – or at least a little more interested in it?
I completely agree. I feel that social media is a way more effective tool to market brands than traditional celebrity endorsements, because people are looking for actual recommendations from real people (either friends or hollywood celebs- as long as they're not being paid). I've always believed that in many cases celebrity endorsements actually turn people off from a product, especially if the product and celebrity don't seem to have a natural fit.
An interesting study on the declining power of celebrity endorsements was published by Ad Week just last week. According to a pole by Adweek/Harris Interactive, only 4% of respondents said they would be 'more likely' to buy a product when it is endorsed by a celebrity. Even more noteworthy were these statistic: 77% were 'no more or less likely' to buy a celebrity endorsed product, while 14% were actually 'less likely' to buy it. Perhaps my initial beliefs were pretty accurate?
You can read more here:
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/celebrities-moving-product-not-so-much-132328?fb_xd_fragment#1
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