Take a walk around town and chances are within seconds you’ll see a giant poster or billboard emblazoned with the face of whichever beefcake or movie star is the flavor of the month.
It is a strategy as old as the hills and so there is no reason why you shouldn’t employ it for your event. After all, you do want your event to be successful, and a large part of that is down to how many bums you can put on to seats. In that regard, celebrities have the potential to be a real crowd puller. Let’s do it then – let’s talk about celebrities and how they can have the impact you want on your event.
Choosing Your Stars
There are rock stars in every industry – people who have gained the kind of fame, prestige and respect accorded to those who have a reached a certain level in what they do. Therefore, knowledge of the kind of event you are organizing will help you decide who exactly to approach in looking for endorsements. It is after all no real use, and indeed it could be downright detrimental, to have a superstar rapper whose work is mainly based on anti-establishment economic themes to be the poster boy for your financial-sector-related seminar.
Familiarize yourself with the exact nature of your event and make a shortlist of personalities who could possibly be engaged and narrow it down based on a checklist of factors. This list should include your budget and by extension which name would or would not be a realistic target fiscally. Follow that up by delving into the person’s public persona and history to find out if that would be a match for your product. Save yourself the trouble of controversy (unless that’s exactly what you want, of course) and having to release statement after statement explaining your decisions to consumers and the general public. These are but two things to look out for and your company or team should have more details on what they want in a celebrity partner. The lesson is: always be aware of as many things as possible in order to make the correct choice.
Pre Event
If you’re going to be putting money aside for celebrity presence or endorsements, you might as well get your money’s worth and use it at as early a stage in your event as possible. By nature of them being “celebrities”, their images and brands have reach; this reach is one that is mainstream in nature and thus can attract at least the initial glances of the average person. This draws attention to your event and thus does a lot of publicity for you.
Make it clear what role the celebrity personality will play in your event so that there is no letdown with regard to false marketing for your clients. Have your partners directly participate in the publicity by sharing content on their own social media platforms as well. With a convincing campaign and enough star power to provide fuel, public awareness and sales shouldn’t be a huge problem.
At The Event
There are two ways celebrities can be utilized at your actual event. Now when I say this it might come across as commonsensical but I promise we won’t be so superficial! They are, wait for it, on stage and off stage. The whole point of engaging celebrities is for their visibility, and what better way to entice people to come for your show than with the promise of hearing some of their favorite personalities speak, sing, perform, or generally do anything at all. The allure of a person of great stature delivering the keynote address, or a prominent musician playing a set, is an attractive proposition for people who rarely have the chance to see these people in the flesh. In order to entice people to show up, play up the exclusivity factor of these appearances and make it seem that your event is the one special place that this is possible.
Of course you might simply take the option of having your celebrity partners as VIPs. This frees up a lot of logistical issues especially if the person is a performer with a lot of equipment needed. In so doing, you can reduce the planning and costs needed for such a performance without compromising too much on the pull factor your partner brings. How so? Firstly, the glitz and glamour attached to this person’s name or brand still exists and the audience still does get a chance to see him/her in the flesh. Furthermore, this frees them up to do some actually interacting with the people around them, which may indeed be a bigger draw in itself. The point is, there are advantages too with them as VIPs so there’s no need to feel compelled to have to put them on stage if that is not in the best interests of the event.
Post Show
When the curtains have finally dropped, it doesn’t necessarily spell the end of your event. Make use of the opportunity to feature not just your engaged celebrities but also those who are in attendance. Video compilations of these personalities sharing their thoughts about the event go a long way into helping you with your PR and also as advertisements for the future. This can also work by having them pen a short message on their websites or social media pages and also if you take the effort to search for any positive thing notable guests might have said about your event. Compile this and broadcast this to an audience that will be hoping for more in the future.
That’s It
Fame is a fickle friend but you can use this friend to make your event a success. Celebrities help draw attention to your show and by extension they will sell tickets. Plan your campaign well and reap the rewards with celebrities in tow.
