- Let's say you have a product, you have a service,
and you want to cut through the noise in the market place.
How do you do that?
Or maybe you are considering,
you're thinking about leveraging a celebrity
to promote your product or service.
What do you do?
What is that first step?
Now when it comes to celebrity marketing, first of all,
realize there are many different types of celebrities.
A lot of times when we talk about celebrities,
a lot of people think about,
oh, it's Tom Cruise, it's Brad Pitt,
it's like the A-list celebrities.
Now, chances are, it depends on your product,
but for most of us, for most business owners
who are watching this video,
chances are, you probably don't need an A-list celebrity,
because maybe your product is niche,
maybe you're offering, you're not selling to the world.
You really don't need to spend that much money
to get a A-list celebrity, right?
So there are many, many types of celebrities.
What you probably need is not an A-lister.
You probably need what I call a niche celebrity, okay?
Comment below, is that what you need?
That means a celebrity that may not be mainstream famous,
but they are famous to a certain industry.
They are famous to a certain category of people
that you want to serve, that you want to add value to,
you want to sell to, right, meaning a celebrity.
Now, let me tell you how the celebrity business works.
Most of the time, most people,
they think that if you are a celebrity,
you must be rich and famous,
and nothing could be further from the truth.
Only a tiny percentage of celebrities
actually have both fame and fortune.
Most of the time they have fame and no fortune.
They could be a sport celebrity.
They could be a singer.
They could be an actor or an actress.
They could be a reality TV star, right?
When they are not filming,
when they're not creating their work,
when they're not working on their craft,
in between, you will be shocked,
there's not much for them to do.
There's not a lot going on in their lives,
and they actually don't make as much money as you think.
Yeah, maybe they get an endorsement deal here and there,
but not often.
When they are not filming, chances are,
they are not making a whole lot of money.
They don't have a steady income stream coming in.
So when you approach them,
and I'll teach you how to approach them in just a minute,
when you approach them,
you will be shocked how open they are
that they've got an offer that, hey, you know what,
they can make some side money, some additional money,
some additional income beyond then just their craft.
So understand, they're not actually as hard to get
to negotiate a deal as you might think.
So you've got a product you want them to promote.
The easiest way, which is the most simplistic way to do it,
is you actually pay them.
You pay them a fee, you contact them,
"Hey, I've got this product.
I would like you to look at it,
and I would like you to promote.
And what would an endorsement deal look like?"
And I found the best way to connect with them
is actually through Instagram.
You DM, right?
Not as a fan, but business.
Most celebrities, they have some kind of email,
or if they have a YouTube channel,
they have a business email that you could contact them
and actually talk business.
And you'll be shocked how open they are,
how easy it is for most of them to talk business, right?
Ideally, you want to deal with them directly.
That's why Instagram, DM is a little bit better
because chances are they check it themselves
for most of them.
If you could bypass the agent, the middleman,
then bypass the middleman and just deal direct,
deal with the celebrity directly.
So you just pay them a fee.
Now, if you can't even afford that,
some people would just give them free product.
Here's the free product, use it,
if you like it, talk about it, right?
But understand if they have a following,
they get shit all the time.
Like I get all kinds of shit all the time, right?
Free stuff, people want me to endorse,
and I almost never endorse any one of them
because it's not what I do, right?
Rarely I endorse anybody.
Just knowing that they have a lot of stuff
that come across their table.
So free product, it is okay, not as enticing.
A free product plus some kind of a fee,
once you negotiate, it's a little bit better.
Another way that you could do it
is you can actually offer them equity.
Now, it depends on what you do,
it depends on what the deal is.
Some brands would offer celebrities equity
for endorsing the deal.
Now, there's pros and cons to that.
The pros are you lock them in.
You don't need to pay money upfront.
Here's the cons.
The cons are, you're tied to that name.
Chances are, it's a longer term deal, right?
If something happens to the celebrity's brand,
i.e., they get drunk,
they fucking get into some kind of scandal,
or they're on the news for something,
or they get into some drug thing, you've got a problem.
It would damage your brand
and it would damage your reputation.
That could happen.
You could do it, but just knowing that there is a risk.
Personally, I think it's much better off
to do a short-term promotion, a short-term deal,
and not tied to one particular celebrity,
and celebrities for most of the time,
they go in and out of flavor anyway, right?
And a lot of, by the way, a lot of reality star,
you see that short one minute of fame,
a lot of those people you could actually leverage
because afterwards, after that one minute of fame,
they don't have much going on.
They go back to their normal life.
It's not like now they transition into Hollywood.
And when you talk with them,
you could get them way less than you think,
way less than you think.
And it's great because that endorsement you can use
for a long time, and if you sign a deal,
you could continuously use that endorsement
for all your marketing on all your social media
for a long, long time.
So you pay them, or you give them free product,
or you offer them equity.
And like I said, the best way to do it is through Instagram.
This is why I talk about this in my book, "Unlock It,"
the power of social capital,
not social media following, but social capital.
It is a form of capital that you could leverage.
For most entrepreneurs, most brands,
I recommend look into not just celebrity,
but look into actually influencer marketing.
Now influencer, they may not be as famous
as other mainstream celebrities,
but they are famous within the category
and chances are, they engage with the fans more.
They have a very good loyal following.
There's a relationship between the influencer and the fans.
If you do that properly,
chances are it would cost you less money
than to hire a mainstream celebrity.
You can hire a whole bunch of them to promote,
your risk is minimized,
and chances are, they are easier to work with
because they probably don't work with a lot of brands.
They probably don't work with a lot of business owners.
They could have a following of a million or in the millions,
and you would find that they're just making those videos,
they're doing their own editing.
It could be a YouTuber from their own home,
and they may have one editor.
It's just you're dealing with that person directly.
And it's good, it's easy, it is simple, right?
If you want to get a copy of my book, "Unlock It,"
you could click on the link below and get a copy.
It costs a few dollars.
If you don't even want to spend a few dollars
and you want to be successful,
we've got a fucking problem here.
Go get the book today.
Until then, I'll see you in my Bentley.