I’m saddened by how few marketers utilize opportunities
for free celebrity marketing; linking to currently popular
TV programs, movies, and celebrities.”

- Dan Kennedy
No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent

I tell my readers, subscribers, and clients that “celebrity association” is NOT an option.

Today, celebrities dominate the news, the water cooler conversation, and everyone’s mind space, whether CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation or suburbia soccer mom. It used to be that celebrity news was relegated to the tabloids and a few entertainment shows on television. Today, celebrities grace the covers of Fortune just as they do the National Enquirer, and their activities lead the news on CNN.

At my urging, countless clients — national companies marketing directly to consumers or business to business — have in one way or another associated themselves with celebrities and profited from doing so. At first, many thought this was beyond their reach. Maybe you do,
too. Well, it isn’t.

Companies selling to the most affluent consumers, offering such goods as luxury cars, fractional jet ownership, and multimillion-dollar condos or other investments, as well as companies selling to “ordinary Joes and Janes” such things as weight-loss programs, fashion, cosmetics, even prescription drugs from “the little blue pill” to “the little purple pill,” scurry to sign up celebrities for their advertising… because it works.

• Celebrity association can make it possible to charge premium prices and fees and sell at prices signifi cantly higher than your competitors or the industry norms—with no other changes in your goods, services, advertising, marketing or sales. That obviously increases income.
• You can get more and better word-of-mouth advertising or “buzz” and more referrals. Celebrity association reduces your need to buy advertising and lowers your overall costs of acquiring customers. There’s abundant evidence that adding celebrities to advertising boosts readership, listenership and viewership, thus making each dollar invested produce more.
• Pricey, exclusive night clubs, restaurants and resorts pay large “appearance fees” to have celebrities come so they can brag about it. This can filter down to local businesses as well.
• Among my clients, a local spa brought in two soap opera stars for its grand opening; a local restaurant made itself the talk of the town with a “guest TV celebrity chef ” event; and a local mortgage broker in Chicago helped his income soar by using the immensely popular William “Refrigerator” Perry, the retired Chicago Bears player, in all his direct mail and even in voice messages delivered to customers.
• My long-time client, the Guthy-Renker corporation, was the first to bring celebrity hosts to TV infomercials and has continually upped that ante, building its franchise brands in skin care with Jessica Simpson, Vanessa Williams, Victoria Principal, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and soap opera stars. The largest public seminar company with which I toured as a speaker (for nine years) brought more than a hundred celebrities to its stage, so I appeared repeatedly with not only four former U.S. presidents and Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, but also Bill Cosby, Mary Tyler Moore, Naomi Judd, Johnny Cash and Christopher Reeve.
• I have decades of experience using celebrities in advertising, marketing, promotion, personal appearances, and in other ways for myself and for my clients. It has, almost without exception, been positive and profitable. Th e list is far too long for this Foreword, but on it are celebrities such as Donald and Ivanka Trump; George Ross; Kristi Frank and Bill Rancic from The Apprentice; Gene Simmons of KISS; George Foreman, Mike Ditka and Jim Palmer from the world of sports; hundreds of best-selling authors; and many stars from film and television.

Celebrities are available to fit just about any reasonable budget and for just about any purpose, and Jordan McAuley is one of the few guys on the planet who really knows how to get them. His advice and sources are invaluable. Beyond outright “renting” celebrities, there are many other ways to link yourself, your products, your services and your business to them: charities, speaking on the same venue, even by being alert for news articles in which celebrities talk about your type of business.

If you’re attentive, you’ll recognize the dominating command that “celebrity” has on every strata of society, every media in our culture, and every conversation. If you’re astute, you’ll recognize the importance of not having your businesses unattached and left out of this powerful and pervasive influence on the conversations of the day and buying decisions of virtually every consumer of everything.

Th e movement of celebrities and celebrity news from the sideshow of entertainment to the main stage of politics, business and finance is a mandate. If you’re not actively and creatively linking your business to celebrities, you’re ignoring the single most significant trend in advertising and marketing of our times.

Dan S. Kennedy is the author of the popular “No B.S.” series with such titles as No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent, No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs, No B.S. Business Success, and No B.S. Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses. He is also a highly successful serial entrepreneur who has built, bought and sold a number of businesses. Through a network of consultants, his own consulting and coaching programs, and his four different business newsletters, Dan Kennedy influences more than one million business owners each year.

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