How to Get Your Product into the Hands of a Celebrity

It's many a business owner's dream to get the product they're so proud of in the hands of a star. In many cases a bit of stardust can have a huge impact on the success of your product, as celebrity watchers keep a close eye on these influential trendsetters. And with the right product, preparation, and persistence, a celebrity could be showing off your items on the red carpet. So, where do you start?

First you'll need a list of target celebrities, a database of media contacts, and a one-paragraph summary of your product or company for a press release. To grab attention, make sure your release includes the celebrity name, event information (when there is one), a paragraph about your product (plus cost and where to purchase it), names of VIPs (even local) or celebrities who have used it, your contact information and website, and your logo to reinforce your brand.

Then, use great packaging to capture attention. When Film Fashion was purchased by mega PR company Rogers & Cowan, my desk was positioned next to the great publicist Alan Nierob. Alan represents some of the biggest stars in the world, including Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, and Beyoncé. Before I saw it for myself, I wouldn't have believed how much stuff his clients got with every day's mail. This is why branding your product and the package it's delivered in is so important: You want your gift to stand out for the very reason a celebrity wants to stand out amongst his or her peers--to be memorable.

Next you must locate a publicist, costume designer, or stylist to get the ball rolling. Here are my best tips to reach them and the best approach to take with each one.

PublicistsThe celebrity's personal publicist is always the first place I start. Large public relation firms like Rogers & Cowan, Baker/Winokur/Ryder, IDPR, Ken Sunshine Consultants, Bragman Nyman Cafarelli, and 42West represent hundreds of celebrities. You will also come across boutique agencies and a handful of independent publicists. Websites likeIMDbPro.com and WhoRepresents.com, can help build out your target list as well. These sites charge a fee to join, but your money will be well spent if celebrity marketing will skyrocket attention to your product.

Once you send the product, it might sit in the person's office for a few weeks before he or she will forward it to the client, so follow-up is essential. I follow up every two weeks, and sometimes am asked to resend my materials (so you'll want to e-mail descriptions and images before sending anything). And be sure to let them know whether you are loaning or gift away something, or inviting them to an event right up front.

StylistsYou'll find that publicists will often offer up the names and phone numbers of stylists, which will help you build a database of stylist contacts to approach. You can also contact agencies that represent wardrobe stylists, hair stylists, and makeup artists. A quick Google search will yield some of the bigger agencies.

I even study magazines to pick up on who the hottest stylists are. I read the small print usually found along the side of the photo. If you do this for a while, you'll become familiar with many stylists' names. Stylists need fashion merchandise for their busy clients. Anyone can find Chanel, but stylists must dig deeper to find undiscovered product that might put a celebrity client in the fashion media.

Costume DesignersCostume designers are so valued in the industry they have their own award category at the Academy Awards and the Emmy Awards, and their own annual Costume Designer Guild Awards. And the best news? Costume designers have a budget for purchasing any wardrobe used for a project. The easiest method of locating them is through the Costume Designers Guild. The guild will charge a fee to send information about your business to all its 900-plus members, but it could be well worth your while. You can also research the names of the people you want to reach on IMDb.com. Then, send information on your brand through snail mail to the studio, care of the show or film and the person's name. Alternatively, you can look them up on Twitter and Facebook.

Overall, I suggest starting with a celebrity's publicist, but realize this person might refer you to the next person on your list. Don't give up. Sometimes I've even been referred to a best friend, spouse, or sweetheart. There is always someone on the star's team who is responsible for his or her image and who will be interested in your gift.

To find out whether a celebrity is using your product, follow the star's comings and goings on entertainment websites like WireImage.com or GettyImages.com. These are other services like PR Photos, Splash News, FilmMagic, World Entertainment News Network, Pacific Coast News, Patrick McMullan Company, and Elevation Photos, where you can access the latest photos of celebrities at events. If you know in advance that you've snagged a celebrity to wear your product on the red carpet, these are also the photo agencies you'll contact so you will own your own image. Chances are good that they will be sending a staff photographer to cover the event anyway, and when you call, you can confirm that they have the credentials secured already.

Excerpted from Will Work For Shoes: The Business Behind Red Carpet Product Placement (Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2011) by Susan J. Ashbrook. Susan J. Ashbrook has been involved in celebrity product placement for 20 years. She founded Film Fashion, the first fashion product placement company in Los Angeles.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220318

Should you contact celebrities for your products?

Many of you want to know how to contact celebrities to gift your products and if this strategy can help increase your product sales. I’ve personally tried a few celebrity gifting methods and some proved to increase sales, some didn’t. Read on.

When I was working with a PR company, they had a lot of celebrity stylists stop by their office to look for new products for their clients. My PR company gave away about 25-30 of our products (t-shirts) to various celebrities, including the cast of Dancing with the Starts, Girls Next Door, Mena Suvari and others. This was about six months ago and I’ve yet to see a photo of any of these celebrities wearing our tees.

I then decided to try a different strategy and partnered with a celebrity gifting company for our Stay Strong organic cotton tees. The tee was part of a gift basket that included other Breast Cancer Awareness products. I received a press release and photo of the gift basket out of it, but no endorsement from any of the celebrities who received the gift basket. Most recently, I partnered with a celebrity gifting company that specializes in baby and children’s products. No results from that one either.

I also sent about 60 shirts on my own directly to celebrities and received thank you notes from quite a few of them (Denise Richards, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sarah Michelle Gellar). In addition, I organized Savor The Success’s Celebrity Gift Basket campaign and received a great response from this – thank you notes from Courtney Cox, Denise Richards, Tori Spelling and Ed Begley.

However, it’s not the fact that I received these thank you notes that have increased sales. It’s what I did with the actual thank you notes that helped to drive sales. After I received the thank you notes, I contacted all my customers (including all our retail partners) to let them know that a certain celebrity loves our tees. In addition, I emailed all of the celebrity magazines to let them know as well. As a result, I received mentions in glamour.com, ellegirl.com and a few other major magazine’s websites, which definitely helped to increase sales.

I’ve spoken with other companies who’ve tried celebrity gifting, as well as with PR and gifting firms and here’s what I found.

Ways to get your products into the hands of celebrities

Gifting suites at events attended by celebrities – these gifting suites are often organized by PR or gifting companies and you have a ‘booth’ at the event or place your products in attendee gift bags. These often require hefty fees (thousands of dollars) to participate and anyone who walks into the gifting suite can pick up a free sample of your product. The advantage is that you can often get a photo of a celebrity holding or using your product, but the disadvantage is that you don’t have control over who that celebrity is.
Hiring a PR company that specializes in celebrity gifting– these companies prepare and send gift baskets (usually organized around a central theme such as Green Products, Baby Products, Breast Cancer Awareness Products, etc.) and send them directly to the celebrities or their assistants and managers. The advantage is that many of these companies have personal relationships with the assistants/managers and the fee for this service is much smaller than that for gifting suites (anywhere from $30 to a few hundred for a gift basket), but the disadvantage is that your product is one of many that the celebrity receives in that gift basket.
Working with a PR firm who includes celebrity gifting as part of your overall PR plan – this is more targeted towards your “dream” celebrities and these companies often have personal relationships with celebrities, their stylists or their agents. The cost is usually included in your monthly PR retainer fee.
Contacting celebrities or celebrities’ agents directly – using a directory such as WhoRepresents.com orContactAnyCelebrity.com to send your products directly to the celebrities or their agents. The advantage is that the cost for this service is usually low ($10-$20 per month) and you have access to any celebrity you want, but the disadvantage is that you’re sending an unsolicited product to someone you probably have never worked with before.

The goal, of course, is to either get a photo of the celebrity using/wearing your product or to get a written testimonial that you can post on your website and use in your marketing materials. Each of these methods has its own advantages or disadvantages, so it’s best to decide which avenue to pursue based on your budget, the type of product you have and your PR goals.

Does celebrity gifting increase your sales?

We heard back from many entrepreneurs who’ve participated in celebrity gifting and here are some of their success stories:

Big Feet PJ‘s has participated in a few celebrities gifting suites and they use the celebrities photos from the events on their website.
Tiny Revolutionary has used celebrity gifting with great success. Here’s what the owner, BreeAnne Clowdus told us: “When we started our company in 2007, we did a slew of celeb gifting (about a dozen celebs at $125 a pop) with a PR company. For over one year, nothing and then, when Obama’s campaign was in full swing, Sheryl Crow was photographed on the streets of New York with Wyatt wearing our “Save Some Green for Me! Drive a Hybrid” tee. Then, a few weeks later, she was at the Democratic Convention on Access Hollywood and guess what he was wearing? Yep! Our tee. This was the only reason our publicist was able to secure placement in Us Weekly for TR and it’s been the subject line on many a blog post about our company. It was gold.”
BabyLegs has also had a great response to celebrity gifting. “We currently subscribe to a celebrity gifting company for our product BabyLegs. We have had great success with gifting celebrities and have seen our product on many celebrities’ children including Angelina Jolies’ daughter Zahara, Gwen Stefani’s children Kingston and Zuma, and Jessica Alba’s daughter, Honor. We have been gifting celebrities for over two years, and are finally getting the shots that make it all worth it. There are certain products that make sense for celebrity gifting, they need to be products that the celebrity would take out of their house and use/wear in public. Celebrity gifting does not lead to an immediate increase in sales but it does build brand awareness and instill consumer trust.”
LA Plates: “We have had a lot of people drawn to our product because of our profile with celebrities. We have worked with the women who run The Silver Spoon out of LA. I can’t say that celebrities buy more because of placement in gift bags. However, having a celebrity seen with your product gives it more credibility.”
Fezelry Jewelry Designs: “I am a small indie designer; due to the extreme cost involved I have not used a gifting company though I have contacted a few and determined such a thing would not be beneficial to my company or my bottom line. I have instead mailed my items directly to the celebrity or stylist and as a result (of a lot of hard work and persistence) I have been successful. I have landed a few pieces on major television and then used this exposure to cross market the item and sales have increased.”
Smart Mom Jewelry: “There is no question in my mind that having a celebrity photo gallery on our website and using celeb photos in our marketing efforts has had a huge increase on sales. It’s hard to say exactly how much of an impact but sales have increased over 500% since we added the celeb gallery to our site…I don’t think the gift baskets are as worthwhile as events. With baskets, there’s a CHANCE the celeb will like your product and later be photographed with it but there’s certainly no guarantee that will happen. And celebs receive LOTS of baskets from many sources so who knows if your product will stand out? In other words, chances are that no one (potential customers or press) will know your product was even involved in a basket. At an event,however, you come away with actual photographs, “proof” that celebs did, in fact, see/use your product. It’s a much better investment, in my opinion. It does cost more to do the events but for good events, it’s worth it. The downside to events? You’re not going to get the A-Listers. J-Lo and Halle Berry are not attending these types of things. You will come away with lots of photos of “unknowns” – but even lower-tier celeb photos can have a positive impact on sale.

Other entrepreneurs have had mixed results or haven’t yet been able to measure their results:

Hand Picked Pumpkin: “I did not see a spike in sales, just a surge of traffic that day from a post celebrity baby blog did BUT I do think it added a lot of validity to my product and new company – and gave me a big confidence boost – all of which are priceless at launch time. Since then we have continued to do some celebrity gifting here and there via gifting companies and have yet to see anything as big happen. Here’s a link to our celebrity page.”
Zoobies.com – “We’ve done a few gifting suites. I don’t think a company can expect a spike in sales just by having their product in the hands of celebrities. We were lucky enough to have a picture of Tori Spelling holding a Zoobie turn up in US Weekly magazine as a result of a gifting suite. We also have a nice celebrity gallery, but if I were to choose between spending money on a trade show or a celebrity gifting suite there’s no question, I’d pick the trade show. I’d also rather give product to major buyers than celebs. I would only recommend a gifting suite to a company that knows how to drive PR; a pic of a celeb with your product doesn’t do you any good if you don’t get that picture into the hands of press people.”
Nancy Draper of Nancy D. Jewelry, a jewelry artist: “I am a Pacific Northwest jewelry artist, specializing in nickel-free earrings for those who suffer from metal/nickel allergy. About a month ago, I sent 200 pairs of my earrings to a gift bag promotional company, after doing a bit of exploration. They were included in the goodie bags at the premier of a movie at a theatre in New York City. Unfortunately, I saw no business from it. What I did see was that I was able to send them all of my inventory I was ready to move, and I’m able to leverage the experience when marketing to others.
Rojeti.com – “I have been involved several programs to date, and quite honestly the only thing that has come from it is an increased request from others for ‘free’ products for their events. On the up side, I was able to generate a press release that mentioned the event with a list of celebrities that would be receiving my product. On the down side, after paying for the ‘inclusion’ fee, the cost of the product, the shipping, and the marketing materials, I spent several thousand dollars – and still haven’t seen a single sale from the event.”
ZGirlz Cosmeticz: “We did not find an increase in sales with gift giving to celebrities. We gave directly to celebrities as well as hiring a company. We gave to Jessica Alba and all of her baby shower attendees, we gave to Paris Hilton, and to Tori Spelling, Scott Baio, Jennifer Morrison, etc directly. And we hired two celebrity gift bag companies to give our products in swag bags at multiple celebrity events. It made absolutely no difference for us and cost us quite a bit to do it.”

What products are most suited for celebrity gifting?

From speaking with many business owners, I’ve found that items like apparel, accessories, toys, baby products (strollers, baby carriers, etc.) and the like work best for celebrity gifting. If you have an organic soap, for example, a celebrity will most likely never be photographed using your soap (although they can write a testimonial or mention your soap in an interview).

According to BreeAnne of Tiny Revolutionary, in order for a celebrity gifting campaign to be effective, the following must happen:

The recipient has to wear it.
They have to be in public wearing it.
They have to be photographed wearing it.
The photograph has to show the item clearly enough to be identified.
Someone has to buy the photograph.
Someone at the publication has to ID the product.

Does your product fit the above? If so, you might want to try celebrity gifting and signing up for a subscription toContact Any Celebrity. It’s not a guarantee of increased sales, but if all the right pieces fall into place, it can definitely build buzz about your products and company.

If you’ve had experience with celebrity gifting, leave a comment below and tell us about your experience.

http://www.launchgrowjoy.com/contact-celebrities/

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