Find The Right Personalities To Market Your Offering

Principle
Hollywood stars or pro athletes were once the “go-to” spokespeople for brands. The Internet has created the possibility of a whole new genre of successful spokesperson: “The Brand Ambassadors.” 

Best Practice
Find satisfied customers who are willing to promote your product online.  These “Brand Ambassadors” deliver the most believable online accounts of your product’s strengths.  Given the range of communication avenues available, it’s often inadvisable to spend large amounts of money on spokespeople for one spot, such as a TV ad. 

Context
Mac MacDougall, who coined the tagline “Just for the Taste of It” while developing the first TV ads for Diet Coke, said he wouldn’t change much about the ad campaign if he ran it today.  The original ad featured some of the hottest stars of the 1980s drinking Diet Cokes while watching an elaborate theater routine.  MacDougall said if he were tasked with the same campaign today, he’d still get the hottest celebrities of the day, but he’d have them do something more interactive.[i]  “Today, I’d probably be recommending 10 or 15 Hollywood stars, and I’d probably have people be able to blog in to those stars, or have them talking to you (in an online video) while drinking a Diet Coke.”

However, most organizations don’t have a Diet Coke-sized budget for marketing efforts. When online branding content can be created by customers and spread virally, the right spokesperson doesn’t have to be a Hollywood star.  As clever social media marketers demonstrate, a successful Internet campaign can leverage existing assets for maximum return on investment. 

Case Studies
Microbilt, a financing company that gives credit to borrowers with poor credit history, commissioned a 90-second online video commercial for one of its vendors, Red House Furniture. The edgy video, which makes light of racial tension, has been viewed more than 1.85 million times on YouTube alone.[ii]  Production costs were approximately $10,000.[iii]  Employees at the actual Red House store acted in the video, which lent an air of authenticity to the equality and diversity at the store.

Magnify.net, an online video company, moderated a video ad creation contest for Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade goods. The campaign promised $10,000 in prize money split among the top eight 30-second commercial submissions from the Etsy user community. The contest received nearly 200 video responses, according to Magnify.net CEO Steve Rosenbaum.[iv]  What’s more,  Advertising Age — which has lambasted user-generated ads as “shabbily produced and usually pointless,” — raved about the Etsy campaign.

Gary Vaynerchuck, a social media commentator and entrepreneur, used his own personality-driven social media marketing efforts to drive his various businesses.  Vaynerchuck launched WineLibrary.com in 2006 and expanded the business’ revenues from $1 million to $60 million through using his own personality to drive sales.[v]