Our team helps brands, their agencies and nonprofit organizations by assessing the business value of celebrities, negotiating smart partnerships and activating each program. We provide fast and accurate information and recommend talent based on many factors including their relevance, points of differentiation and cost. The results of our work are seen as television commercials, webisodes, publicity programs, YouTube posts, celebrity seeding, social media » Read More
CES, the Super Bowl of Technology takes place next week in Las Vegas. And just like the big football game, there are countless people (customers), hundreds of brand/product launches, a large number of media (and bloggers/citizen journalists), distractions at every corner and celebrities/influencers being used to break through the clutter. Fortunately, the new technology age makes it is easy for your brand to research (quickly, I might add) recent successes and failures at CES to help you figure out your best game plan. So before determining the marketing tactics employed onsite, please write down a list of conference marketing goals (e.g., media impressions, retail buy-in, twitter followers, facebook likes, YouTube views, face-to-face meetings, etc.). Then create your activities around these needs. Focusing on your end results will help you reach your goals. And in knowing that it’s critical to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time, I’ve listed five specific tips on how best to use celebrities in marketing your activities onsite.
1. You must standout. Lady Gaga/Polaroid (for two years in a row), 50 Cent/Sleek Audio and Blackberry's slew of celebrity interviews (Adrian Grenier, Piers Morgan, Common, Olivia Wilde) were perfect examples last year. At CES, big IS better.
Your message and product must be worthy of news. Don’t just rehash information because of the audience size. Be first to market and scream from the rafters. After your launch activity, quickly edit a 30-60 second YouTube-type piece that can be distributed and easily monitored for click-throughs/success (make it engaging and light-hearted if possible. A corporate marketing video will not spread). The earlier in the week with news will give your brand and PR/digital agency time to spread and push the information to all.
2. Social Media & Digital Engagement. This seems so obvious, but reporters, bloggers and the audience want to see social media engagement and usage. Make sure your talent is fully up to speed and using appropriate hash tags and tag words to get picked up. It’s also a great place to create news, create a time capsule for your booth and build and your product launch (including the celebrity appearance and/or prep work). Don’t just stop at CES. Take advantage of the celebrity’s time the week after the event when people are returning home and sharing with their colleagues (most brands do not do this).
3. Timing is everything. Scan Twitter, the local newspapers, PR Newswire and other sources to find out when others are launching products and when key media will be focused on other items. As of five days before CES, there was already a document floating around the internet of 20-30 evening hospitality functions hosted by major companies. Also, the location of your announcement is important; somewhere that is easy for your target audience to get to and unique to others. It goes without saying, the location must have free wifi and live streaming is a given.
4. Relevant celebrities. Of course your talent needs to align with your brand and product, but you also want to work with someone that is relevant to pop culture….it will help for mainstream media and social media pickup as well as add to the “buzz about your item”. For example, the TV show Glee is going to have a huge Super Bowl season premiere. Everyone wants to know about it….even if a cast member won’t give details, the media would be all over them at least asking about it.
5. Start your marketing now. Just like the Super Bowl. Take advantage of the lead up anticipation to seed your story or at the very least, tease it. Take advantage of media, social media and all of your company’s assets (i.e. blog, email blast) in advance. Twitter conversation and online stories began 10 days before the actual start of CES. On site, be aggressive. Spread your message outside of the booth that you have purchased or the room you are using for your event(s). Seed and pre-seed.
What is the most successful celebrity + brand/product partnership you have seen in recent years and why? Also, who is the most compelling speaker you have listened to at CES?
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