Check out this video from my friend Steve Harrison on the #1 secret to getting major national publicity:

http://www.TheBigSecretToGettingPublicity.com

There’s nothing like getting some major publicity to make sales soar for whatever you’re promoting.

In the publishing world, an appearance on a top national TV show like Oprah, Today, Good Morning America, The View or an article in a major publication like Time, Newsweek, People or the New York Times, can propel a book to the bestseller list almost overnight.

But scoring publicity hits in major media outlets like those isn’t easy.

There is however one big secret, which if you know and use, will dramatically increase your chances of getting coverage in the biggest magazines, newspapers and radio/TV shows across the country.

No, the secret isn’t about writing the world’s greatest press release or press kit.

No, the secret isn’t about having a great publicity idea or hook (although that’s important too).

Nor is the secret about hiring a high-priced PR firm (though every top publicity knows and practices this secret).

In fact, the chances are good nobody has ever told you about the secret — but once you understand and put it to work, you’ll find it much easier to get big-time media coverage.

To discover this secret, go here now and watch the video:

http://www.TheBigSecretToGettingPublicity.com

“Celebrity endorsement bears risk — ask Accenture about Tiger. Or Juice+ about O.J. Simpson.

But. Celebrity endorsement virtually guarantees better readership (or viewership or listenership) from ANY constituency. I have had the very good fortune over year of having copywriting/advertising/marketing projects with use of celebrities and often, writing words for the celebrities’ mouths (for print, direct-mail, audio, video, online) — including football legend Fran Tarkenton; sitcom parents like Alan Thicke, Florence Henderson, Judith Light; soap stars like Gloria Loring and Victoria Principal; icons like Art Linkletter and ‘Lonesome George’ Gobel; business celebrities like Lee Iacocca.

I can tell you, from perspective of one of the highest paid direct-response copywriters in the world, that I much prefer writing copy to be “said” by a celebrity than a non-celebrity.

- Dan Kennedy, Look Over Dan’s Shoulder

“Once upon a time the most popular celebrities were boxed up in such slick, sleek packages it was almost impossible to get a feel for their real personalities.

Every move was choreographed, even their love lives, and even when they weren’t on the red carpet they were red-carpet ready. Those days are long gone. The celebrities of today, the ones who are making it huge by connecting with their fans, whether on the screen or online, are all about keeping it real and being themselves.

No matter how big or small you want to go, your authenticity will be at the root of your appeal and is what will keep people coming to your site and spreading the word about your personal brand, service, or whatever you are offering.”

- Gary Vaynerchuk, CRUSH IT!

“People want to be like their heroes, so if their hero says they like something, they’ll follow suit.

‘Celebrity Leverage: Insider Secrets to Getting Celebrity Endorsements, Instant Credibility and Star-Powered Publicity’ delves into how businesses get these all-powerful celebrity endorsements for their products and getting their products known.

With may tips that are not stated in advertising in getting a celebrity on board, ‘Celebrity Leverage’ is a guide that should not be missed for businesses who want to get their product moving quick.

- James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
The Midwest Book Review

In his book Exploiting Chaos, Jeremy Gutsche of TrendHunter.com tells this story:

“In 1930 fallen market shares and the Great Depression gave R.J. Reynolds an opportunity to spark change.

They began to experiment with fear marketing, claiming, “More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarettes.” Sounds healthy to me. In a time when health impacts were less known, the message created subconscious fear: if doctors only smoke Camels, should I be worried about my brand?

Lucky Strike countered with, “20,679 physicians say, ‘Luckies are less irritating.’” It didn’t matter. By this time R.J. Reynolds was a step ahead. In 1933 Camel started using athletes to associate their image with vitality.

Superstar jocks endorsed,

“They don’t get your win,”

“It takes healthy nerves… to win the World Series,” and

“21 out of 23 St. Louis Cardinals Smoke Camels!”

By 1935, the once-aging giant had reclaimed the #1 position.

“Celebrity has two sides to it.

I continually say to people that in many cases they miss the boat by not linking real celebrities, be it Hollywood or sports, to their products, services and businesses. I think this is a woefully underused opportunity and there’s abundant evidence that it makes all the difference in the world.

You could not sell that stupid grill without George Foreman or somebody like him. Home Shopping Network has discovered that with nine out of ten products, you better have a famous person or they don’t work. Exceptions are Ron Popeil’s products where the products really are the star.

Small businesses and local businesses get bumps in sales when they do celebrity marketing be they local celebrities or national celebrities. What’s important for you to know about all of this is that it’s not as expensive as everybody thinks, it’s not all that difficult to do, there are more of them looking for a paycheck that you would ever possibly imagine. When you’re doing regional or local — not national — campaigns there are lots and lots of folks available in the five to 15-thousand dollar range for like unlimited use of picture, endorsement, autograph and then you can get more complex from there.

The other edge of this is by all means make yourself a celebrity to your clientele and in your target market. By that I mean do the things that celebrities do. Write a book, do interviews, get articles published, be visible at major events within the industry, be seen with other famous people. Do all of things that a celebrity does in order to be a celebrity.

There are in almost every industry and target group famous people that nobody’s ever heard of. I include myself in that group. In an airport we’re not famous. But in our clientele we are famous. You probably don’t’ want to be so famous that you can’t even walk through an airport, but it’s nice to be so famous that you can’t walk through a property casualty insurance convention without being mobbed by people who want to talk to you. That’s good business that doesn’t happen by accident, you create it.”

- Dan Kennedy’s JUMBO Results Entrepreneurial Strategies

In his book Exploiting Chaos, Jeremy Gutsche of TrendHunter.com tells this story:

In 1986 actors, sports heroes, and other icons appeared in TV commercials and shouted, “Don’t mess with Texas!”

One of the first commercials featured two Dallas Cowboy football players, Ed Jones and Randy White, picking up trash on the side of the road. Ed Jones grabs a can and bellows with anger, “Did you see the guy who threw this out of his window — you tell him I got a message for him!”

He then crushes the can on the side of his head and says, “Don’t mess with Texas.”

Tim McClure, GSD&M’s executive creative director, noted, “It was an attempt to get away from the ‘Crying Indian’ and look at things from the consumer’s view.”

Today the phrase can be found on bumper stickers, t-shirts, and in the vernacular of Texans across the state. Yet this is a trademarked slogan, used for the first time as part of an ad campaign.

Market from the perspective of the customer, not the advertiser.

“Don’t mess with Texas” was so effective that it became part of Texan culture and the challenge became keeping the slogan connected to its original purpose. To ensure this, the litter campaign relies on celebrity endorsements from Texan stars like Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Love Hewitt, George Foreman, Owen Wilson, the rapper Chamillionaire, and Chuck Norris.

If you knew the Chuck Norris jokes, you’d surely stop littering:

• Chuck Norris doesn’t do push ups, he pushes the world down.
• Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one dead bird.
• Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, he decides what time it is.
• Chuck Norris doesn’t sleep. He waits.

The celebrity messages keep the slogan in the limelight, but it can be even more insightful (if not shocking) to observe the user-generated videos on YouTube.

One video features a young man assembling a rifle in a park. When he spots a kid littering, he takes the shot and the credit denote, “Don’t Mess With Texas.” The user who made the video, firedragon15309, explains, “This is [an ad[ that I made for a competition last year. It got disqualified…”

Really? What a shocker. The user also notes that Matthew McConaughey was a judge and this video was allegedly his favorite.

You might object to this videos’ content, but it exemplifies the cultural connection made by “Don’t Mess With Texas.” In comparison to the crying actor, it’s pretty clear which campaign is more effective.

The Institute of Applied Research suggested that a reduction in littering of 10% would be above average; a reduction of 15% would be remarkable. In the five years that followed the launch (1986 – 1990), litter was reduced by 72%.

What would it take to convert your customers into advocates of your brand?

A cultural connection can have an astounding impact.

“Kim Kardashian, a reality TV celebrity famous for being famous (and for a particular anatomical attraction) has 500,000 fans on Facebook and 2.6-million followers on Twitter.

I give Carl’s Jr. restaurants kudos for attempting to leverage this existing (key word: existing) media platform. They’ve signed Kim to hawk their new salads… beginning with a live, online event that occurred in January. (The Ultimate Salad Lunch Date With Kim), 3D video, coupons distributed from Kim to the 2.6-million. I’m not at all sure about Carl’s Jr. selling salads, but I sure do like the renting of a celebrity with the list.

This changes the entire game of paying for celebrity endorsers or spokespersons in my mind: if you’re going to get one, seems preferable to get one who can deliver a direct marketing vehicle for your use. Of course, the star’s fans, friends ‘n followers need to be your customers, which Carl’s believes to be the case. Were I casting about for a celeb for an infomercial, print campaign, direct-mail, etc., I would now ask about the social-media platform they control.

Who says salads can’t be HOT?” – Carl’s Jr. has a history of tying sex appeal to its products and TV commercials, notably the once controversial campaign with Paris Hilton. More recently, steamy ads featuring a star of MTV’s The Hills. They are also frequent users of online media. This summer, they paid popular YouTube celebrities (!) to create viral videos for their $6 Mushroom Burger.”

- Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Marketing Letter – Click Here To Get 2 Issues FREE!

According to USA Today’s Ad Meter, Betty White’s Superbowl commercial for Snickers was the most popular of all 65 commercials aired during Super Bowl XLIV.

The poll, made up of 250 adult volunteers in San Diego and McLean, Virginia (the home of USA Today’s headquarters), electronically charts the group’s second-by-second reactions to ads during the Super Bowl.

The Betty White/Snickers commercial (which also featured actor Abe Vigoda) scored 8.68 out of a possible 10.

Other Super Bowl commercials featuring celebrity endorsements (in order for popularity) included Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo for HomeAway, Megan Fox for Motoblur, Troy Polamalu for TruTV, Beyonce for Vizio, Jim Nantz for FloTV, Don Rickles for Teleflora, KISS for Dr. Pepper Cherry, Brett Favre for Hyundai, Ed Begley Jr. for U.S. Census Bureau, Tim Tebow for Focus on the Family, Lance Armstrong for Michelob Ultra, Joe Montana for Skechers, Charles Barkley for TacoBell, and Danica Patrick for GoDaddy.

The two least popular commercials with celebrity endorsements featured female race car driver Danica Patrick for GoDaddy. This year, it was Go Betty, Go!

Ever wonder how Kleenex became a household name?

The Minneapolis Star Tribune tells this story:

With cotton supply short in 1914, a substitute was urgently needed for surgical bandages used in World War I battlefields and in hospitals. The Kimberly-Clark company developed a remarkably absorbent cotton-like wadding called Cellucotton. Cellucotton took the place of cotton bandages and was used in gas-mask air filters.

After the war, huge surpluses of Cellucotton crowded warehouses, and Kimberly-Clark started looking for a peacetime use for the product.

The first postwar spinoff was a glamour product — a cold-cream tissue. Called the Kleenex Kerchief and advertised as a “Sanitary Cold Cream Remover,” it was used by Hollywood and Broadway stars to remove makeup. With the help of celebrity endorsements, sales steadily rose and the product remained unchanged. But then women began to write to the company complaining that their husbands were blowing their noses in cold cream kerchiefs.

About the same time, a Chicago inventor devised a pop-up tissue box. In the early 1920s, Kimberly-Clark decided to place its kerchiefs in these boxes. Now, the product won even more nose-blowing converts, for it supplied a quick and easily accessible way of containing sudden sneezes.

Consumer demand persuaded the company to change from marketing a cold-cream tissue to selling one for nose-blowing, and Kleenex was born.

- From Charles Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Ordinary Things