In the past decade the PR industry has called upon many a celebrity ambassador to help drive awareness of a key issue or brand campaign. Those days are behind us. The rise of scepticism, erosion of trust and the sheer apathy of celebrity-endorsed content, means brands media and consumers are demanding more authenticity than what a well-known name can offer.
For many reasons, celebrities and brands have been perfect matches in the past. When done right, you’ve seen a brand and celebrity share similar values, a complementary newsworthiness with the celebrity having a new project (movie, show, album, etc.) to talk about around the time of the brand’s launch, and a unique reason for joining forces. And, in the best cases, the celebrity spokesperson has a true passion for the topic at hand.
But this is no longer enough to engage an audience. Today’s audiences are smarter than ever. They understand when a paid exchange has occurred, and once that first sense of scepticism creeps in, you lose the audience. They aren’t thinking about the message – they are thinking about the ulterior motive.
So, why is the demise of the celebrity ambassador trend happening now? The answer is the rise of digital communications. Digital is now the connector of everything: commerce, content, assets, real moments, and emotions. It is linking the world in a new sense of commonality and emotion. What it means to be a human is a new, shared experience that is having new meaning across the world thanks to social media: we all share the same hopes and fears.
An amazing example of this is a campaign from Brazilian soccer team Sport Club do Recife which had a problem with fan violence at its games. To combat this, the Ogilvy Brazil team helped uncover a powerful insight – men won’t fight in front of their mothers. This was the cornerstone of the “Security Moms” campaign which saw the club hire mothers of the fans to act as security guards during the games. As a result, violence went down significantly. A perfect example of real people telling real stories.
If you reflect on Qantas’ safety video and accompanying campaigns over the years, you can see the evolution from celebrity to real people play out. In 2011, John Travolta fronted the brand’s in-flight safety video. “I can guarantee that the guys in the flight deck and the greater team care just as much about aircraft safety as I do”, Travolta promises in the opening scene. By 2014, the brand had shifted gears to a video that exclusively featured its pilots and crew. Two months ago, the brand launched an in-flight video that showcased Australia and Australians from all walks of life going through their day to day tasks as they describe the safety needs. A true example of the celebrity to real people transition that is needed in today’s environment.
One brand that has always done a great job by featuring real people is eBay. Full disclosure – Pulse represents eBay. In our two years of working with the brand, we’ve been proud to continue to highlight the real people that make eBay a success, the stories behind the sellers and buyers via our ongoing eBay stories program. The real celebrities on eBay are these everyday people that are slowly changing their lives through the site.
So, the next time you’re thinking about an ambassador for a campaign, think twice about putting that famous face front and centre. Think about who is going to really connect with your audience in an authentic and meaningful way – people like them, not celebrities.
By Amanda Shannahan Moore, deputy managing director at Pulse Communications.