How to make money on giving away product to celebrities?

[santiago]

Hi,

How do you go about capitalizing off celebrities using your product? Any ideas?

Here are two scenarios that I have with two different businesses that I have..

1. Was invited to "Fashion Week" in LA. We were in a booth with a major fashion company and encountered lots of celebrities and celebrity magazines (OK, People, etc). We were encouraged to give away the product at the show.. Also, we've been asked to provide product to put in the Oscar's gift baskets. So..celebrities have our product, but how do we capitalize on this?

2. I have a service company that provides a service that celebrities use from time to time (most of our clients are general public). This is simpler, they are paying, but how would we go about capitalizing on a known person using our service? They are simply paying customers, not necessarily endorsing.

Thoughts??

 

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[fanocks2003]

Hi,

How do you go about capitalizing off celebrities using your product? Any ideas?

Here are two scenarios that I have with two different businesses that I have..

1. Was invited to "Fashion Week" in LA. We were in a booth with a major fashion company and encountered lots of celebrities and celebrity magazines (OK, People, etc). We were encouraged to give away the product at the show.. Also, we've been asked to provide product to put in the Oscar's gift baskets. So..celebrities have our product, but how do we capitalize on this?

2. I have a service company that provides a service that celebrities use from time to time (most of our clients are general public). This is simpler, they are paying, but how would we go about capitalizing on a known person using our service? They are simply paying customers, not necessarily endorsing.

Thoughts??

Go to the general public directly and offer free test offers in return for them signing up for your opt-in maillist (a list you then use to send out future product/service launches/offers). These "freebies" works" well in pressreleases, because they have a news value. The value is "Freebie". Who doesn't like freebies (I suddenly come to think of Leonardo Di Caprio's line in the The Aviator movie: "who doesn't like titties?..hehe)?

 

[MattThomas]

To be honest, I'm not too sure about number 2, but your first point, about giving a good away (if you were invited to fashion week, I am assuming its clothing), you are giving your product away to celebrities with the hope that they will wear it--either to an event or just photographed wearing it. Since celebrities are trend-setters, if they are seen wearing your product, people will flock to purchase the garment. A great example is Paris Hilton wearing UGG Boots. The boots became instantly popular after she was seen wearing them.

 

[GoldenEggs]

I don't know how fashion and celebrities work but in the music industry you sponsor(give it to them for free) artists to use your products. Then you have photo shoots of them with the product and get action shots of them using your product. You have press releases saying that guitar legend A uses your strings or pre-amp with corresponding photos and you have an Artist page on your website showing which artists use your product. Here are some examples: Boulder Creek Guitar , GHS Strings, Gibson Dobro.

I would think the same could apply to fashion and celebrities. Put out a press release that your products have been featured in OK! or People or as part of this year's Oscar's giveaway bags. Search for photos of celebrities that you have given product to, showing them using the product, if possible.

Added bonus if the celebrity really loves your stuff and mentions it in the press but it's your responsibility to leverage the exposure. You can't rely on the celebrity just having your stuff as a way to promote it.

 

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[santiago]

Thanks for the response!

The connecting the dots between person A wearing our product and then the consumer finding our product is the problem. We are a new product, so consumers wouldn't know how to find us. Our relationship isn't that we sponsor the person, so I don't think we can suddenly send out a press release saying "person a" wears our stuff..

I'll take a look at the examples you guys mentioned and see how they did it.

Thanks again, the help is huge..!

 

[china]

If they show up in photos wearing your items, that's a plus. The only problem is that you don't own the photo (if you didn't take it) and you'll have to buy the photo from the photographer or his/her representative.

If you give them your items and arrange a photo session at the same time, you'll own the photos.

What are you selling?

P.S. Many celebrities love free stuff. Some celebrities feel they are owed this. In other words, they feel that they should be entitled to your item for free since they are a celebrity. I'm not gonna name names but I once had a disagreement with a celebrity who thought she should be able to buy a 1 carat diamond ring for virtually nothing because of, well, she was who she was. And, because we were who we were, we refused.

 

[StaryHoly]

Hmm, it may work for branding purposes or you have a large caps to work on like the fortune 500 but personally for a small business owner, I would not bother. It is just costly unless your business is about selling fashion or big consumer electronics products. Otherwise why waste your money?

 

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