Celebrity big bother - is celebrity endorsement a good idea?

'We’ve got a great opportunity to use [insert celebrity here] in our new ad campaign, can I get an agency point-of-view whether it’s a good idea?'

It’s a bit of a weird question on the face of it though, isn’t it? I mean, you’d never ask a generic question like 'is illustration a good idea?' or 'are women a good idea?'.

Adland snobs (and 99% of creatives, let’s be honest) almost wear their lips out sneering at the slightest suggestion of 'celebrity endorsement'. But when it’s done properly and (here’s the rub) creatively brilliantly, it can be not be just effective, but amazing.

Let’s start with effectiveness: it clearly works when it gets nailed. Ever since Staunton chess sets did the first celebrity campaign (using chess player Howard Staunton in 1849, in case you’re even vaguely interested) loads of brands have employed the tactic successfully. From the randomness of 'e for b and Georgie Best' to Clooney’s coffee obsession, celebrity endorsement is everywhere. Nike golf sales doubled almost overnight when they first started using Tiger. I remember once looking into Sharukh Khan’s endorsements in India for Nokia and seeing that he endorsed over 60 separate brands and over 95% of them saw a direct sales uplift as a result (pity the Brand Manager of the other 5%, right?).

So what’s the magic formula?
How do we make sure that our campaign is a winner, and not an 'Ennis' for Santander or a (heaven forbid) 'Figo' for Just for Men. It starts, of course, with the major rule – make sure that you choose the right celebrity and use them on the right product in the right way. Duh.

And here’s a very simple piece of further advice for making sure that you have a few more David Beckhams and a few less Joe Harts: Understand who and what you are dealing with. Footballers play football. They don’t sing, dance or act. You wouldn’t ask your dentist to plumb in your sink, so why do people forget this very simple rule. To understand what can go wrong just look at Messi in those Pepsi ads, or Turkish Airline ads, or Qatar Foundation ads, or….basically anything. I can remember an old boss of mine once telling me about an ad we did that 'Only Michael Owen could possibly play Michael Owen THAT badly'.

Finally, here are two great examples of getting it right:

Carlsberg 'Old Lions' – don’t get footballers to act out some pony script. Chris Palmer stuck the camera on them in a dressing room to capture their banter and let the magic happen. They had to do two things they were good at and comfortable with – banter and playing football. And the result was golden.

Nike 'I feel pretty' – Genius. What are the two things that Sharapova can do brilliantly? Play tennis and look beautiful – so get her to do those. And she does them amazingly for one of the best ads of all time, celebrity or otherwise. She’s been in 304 ads since and they’ve all been rubbish because they forgot the golden rule. SHE’S NOT AN ACTRESS.

So there you go. Is celebrity endorsement a good idea? Well, as with most questions, the answer is a maddening 'it depends'. The right celebrity employed on the right brand in the right way is a ticket to gold dust. The opposite and you end up with Rory McIlroy in your kitchen talking about current accounts. Celebrity Hells Kitchen, if you like.

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