From any and every demographic, be they rich investors and CEO’s or the “you might be redneck” crowd at the trailer park. Second, because it is reassuring to clients that you are hanging out with famous and important people. You are accepted as the kind of folks you associate with. Three, because it may stimulate pass-along or referral-producing conversation… “hey, look what my guy’s up to — and here’s what he says about…”

Of course, you immediately think you have no opportunities like this, cannot afford to contact yourself with celebrities and that this doesn’t apply to you, and you’re wrong on all three counts. In fact, just for demo, I’ll hand you a “free use of celebrities” just about anybody can use, even you! Let’s assume I send you an envelope with full-color photos of, say, Paris Hilton, Hugh Hefner next to a Playboy bunny, Sarah Palin, George Clooney and me, with the headline: What Do Paris, Hef, Sarah, George and Dan Have in Common?

– will I grab your attention? Arouse your curiosity? Get you to open the envelope? Easily done. By anybody. It is, as example, something frequently done with photos or lists of celebrities who all wear hearing aids, in advertising or direct-mail for that product. And there are plenty of other opportunities to connect yourself with as well as create your own celebrities.

I have said it before and say it again: if you are failing to connect yourself, your products, your business with celebrities, you are failing to take advantage of an important, reliable and readily available abstention-getting and selling tool — so, if you leave good tools in your bag unused, you really have no right to complain about any unsatisfactory results, do you?”

- Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Marketing Letter

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

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

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!