Octagon First Call

Fitness guru Denise Austin is the new face for Listerine’s Live Right, Sleep Tight sweepstakes. As part of the partnership, Austin will do do publicity outreach for Listerine as well as star in several webisodes online. Austin is what we consider an “influencer with assets”.

She isn’t the typical celebrity (i.e., athlete, musician, actress, etc.) but she has a strong female 25-54 following and she also has a website full of email addresses and fan loyalty. One can expect more of these deals in the future. Celebrities, or excuse me, influencers that bring assets to the table in addition to their name and likeness.Austin will also send some time in Q4 at promotional/retail appearances for the brand.

Surf their site and check out the videos (Denise will add a new one each week) and submit one of your own.

http://www.listerine.com/routines-whole-body.jsp

I was just going to write a post about director Spike Lee and his new “mobile digital short” project with Nokia when media relations expert Michael Schiferl (from Weber Shandwick) forwarded me a note about a different project.

The alzheimer’s association latest celebrity-driven video/PSA designed to help recruit 5 million people to ‘champion’ the Alzheimer cause.

This is the Association’s second installment of this project and it is as powerful as the first. Messages from Wayne Brady, Anthony Anderson, Terrell Owens, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Bryant Gumbel, Penny and Gary Marshall and more.

And on the website, they still have video from folks that participated in the first PSA (Molly Sims, David Hyde Pierce, etc.).

The Association was smart. They didn’t need two or three days of time from each celebrity. They hand picked people with a passion for the cause while minimizing the time needed. Really important in getting multiple people to participate in a project like this without budget.

Plus the PSA fits well in our new world of video sharing. When you type in alzheimer’s association in Google, their YouTube behind the scenes footage is the second URL that is listed.

Check out the site and help the cause! 

It has been a busy spring with “green this” and “green that”. It climaxed yesterday with Earth Day and several celebrity-driven cause marketing campaigns.

Gossip Girl’s Kelly Rutherford spent the morning with Sylvania launching their energy-efficient light bulbs.

Earth Share, a nationwide network of environment and conversation organizations, in concert with the Ad Council debuted a PSA encouraging people to get involved with saving the planet. Hollywood legend Harrison Ford lends his distinctive voice to the campaign.

Even Oscar the Grouch, from “Sesame Street,” participated in an Earth Day event at Macy’s in Herald Square.

And kudos to Green Nest LLC to take advantage of the Earth Day media interest and send out a press release of how celebrities (and they name some) and others can “green their babies room”.

We wrote about the eco-movement recently and we felt it was relevant to do so again with Earth Day occurring.

The green movement along with hunger relief are the two areas where you can expect a significant increase in celebrity participation in the coming days, weeks and months.

This topic comes up daily in our work. We partner with a celebrity to promote a brand or non-profit but we run into a roadblock in “accomplishing everything we need to deliver” because of the celebrity’s publicist.

Don’t fault the publicist. It is their job to promote their client and our (the brand/agency) job to maximize the partnership.

So where is the middle ground? Let’s take entertainment news interviews at events as an example. Most think this is a black and white issue — either, they agree to do an interview with an Access Hollywood-type or the publicist says they are not allowed at the event. It seems extreme and if you follow the wording above, it is. But there is plenty of grey in here.

We look at it in five levels. A) Exclusive interview with Billy Bush(-type), B) group interview with all the entertainment news at one time, C) entertainment news in attendance and can capture sound but no interviews, D) entertainment news not in attendance but company/agency supply them with B-Roll of the event along with interviews and finally, E) they get nothing.

Also, get a real feel for why the publicist is pushing back — image control? They need these outlets for another upcoming project? They don’t like the specific reporter or producer? They have been burned by the outlet before? 

It’s all a negotiation. So think through all these steps in advance of your call with the celebrity publicist. It will help creating a solution that benefits all.

PS — Interesting news this morning from the New York Times re: Miley Cyrus, star of the Disney Channel series “Hannah Montana”.

She has agreed to write a book about her early life in Tennessee, her success and the influence of her parents. It’s a huge book deal given by Disney Book Group and Disney-Hyperion Books (of course). The initial run will be about one million copies and it will release in the spring of 2009 when the Hannah Montana movie is also scheduled for release.

Really curious to see how a “serious” book sells (to moms) or if it is written for 10-13 year old girls. Time will tell.

We typically let the film critics and movie press talk about the weekend winners and losers. But this weekend is different because two stars had big weekends and we expect to see more from them in the future (and thus, wanted to write a few words on them). Jet Li & Kristen Bell.   

Li, as you know, is a martial artist icon in China, and his first movie with Jackie Chan led to Hollywood success. Their movie, “The Forbidden Kingdom”, will come in number one for the weekend. Previously, he had been in several movies in the States but this one is different. More attention because of Jackie Chan and bad weather driving traffic in NY, Philadelphia and Boston. We expect American companies to see how they can use Li to market to Chinese Americans as well as the Chinese marketplace itself. Check out his Foundation. It’s pretty cool and already gets excellent corporate attention from multi-national companies.   

And let’s not forget about Kristen Bell. What a few months for this 27-year old actress. In the fall she was named to NBC’s Heroes. Earlier this month, Bell signed on to the Glow in the Dark campaign on the Jergens website. For every similar pledge made by the public, Jergens - known for its Natural Glow self-darkening skin products - donates $1 to The Skin Care Foundation.  Her movie, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” came right behind Li’s.  All of corporate America saw the clever advertising campaign throughout NY and other big cities the past few weeks. And this one too. She too will be a face you will see a lot of in the future.    

PS — A New Jersey based company called BigString has come up with a technology for instantly dissolving Instant messages that are untraceable, and probably could have bailed out a host of celebrities like Charlie Sheen, whose private messages were used for intentions, both good and bad, that they were not intended for. Although there is a certain proactive aspect as to who would use this technology, it will probably also help out those who want to keep real time conversations online safe and secure, as well as those who don’t want to get caught doing things they shouldn’t be doing.

Branded entertainment, product placement and media value. All buzz words you hear every day in the halls of brands and their marketing agencies. And now there is one that takes the cake.

Kudos to Susan G. Komen For The Cure for the announcement of their new ambassador, Sex and the City co-star Cynthia Nixon. Nixon announced the partnership and her battle with breast cancer this morning on ABC’s Good Morning America (that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2006). The partnership makes a lot of sense for Komen; Nixon is a well-respected and influencial actor, the Sex and the City movie premieres in less than six weeks (one week before Komen’s annual National Race for the Cure in Washington, D.C. – June 7, 2008).

As part of the partnership, Nixon will appear in public service announcements, educational messages on Komen’s website, participate in media interviews and public appearances.

This is an example of how Foundations and non-profits are now looking for their own faces without waiting for their corporate partners to deliver one. Because when they do, the celebrity typically wants to keep his/her corporate partner happy (to sometimes the detriment of the charity). Expect more of these type of deals in the non-profit industry in the coming months.

First Call is proud to be a partner of Susan G. Komen and on the team in making sure this partnership thrives.

We wanted to write a quick blurb about the Masters and pay homage to a group that knows how to manage “one’s brand“. It would be easy to write that they could sell “this and that” and make an additional “xx millions” a year. And it is important to write that side of the story.

But the Masters has done something that most brands are afraid to do in today’s time. Not sell out. Instead, they protect their brand, manage their revenue and ensure long-term success.

And with the enhancement of high-definition TV’s in the past decade, the Masters coverage on CBS clear stands apart all other tournaments for its beauty.

Nike expected four hours of TV exposure Sunday. But they thought they would get it from Tiger Woods not (new celebrity) Trever Immelman. But a wins, a win!

PS — I did like the ExxonMobil/Phil Mickelson commercials. In a “high price oil” era, they did a nice job of showing their math and science projects for American youth. Well done.

Most wouldn’t know it, but Al Roker is slowly becoming a force in the entertainment world. His day job on NBC’s Today Show is just one small part of his business. He operates Al Roker Productions, Inc., producing several TV shows, documentaries and specials. His production company has more than 20 programs in development.

This week, he was named host of Celebrity Family Feud, a new primetime NBC show debuting this summer. As we have written about before, he is also a ambassador for the Friends of the Ronald McDonald House Charities program.

But why write about Al?

We think his future is incredibly bright (hard to imagine with all the success he has had). But he is different from most hosts, broadcasters and celebrities. He comes to the table with assets. Besides the six million+ people that watch him for three hours daily, his company can produce any work in which you want to use him (another revenue stream for him and seemless operation too). He has published multiple books and thus has an extensive database of people that are “interested in him”.

Roker will serve as Amtrak’s spokesperson for their National Train Day on May 10, 2008.

From his website: The company is currently in production on series and specials for: The NBC Station group, The Food Network, Court TV, Fine Living, A&E and The Discovery Networks. Other clients have included Lifetime and Oxygen. In addition, the company has forged programming partnerships with Carnival Cruise Lines, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Readers Digest Foundation.  

I talked to Claude Brodesser-Akner, AdAge’s Los Angeles Bureau Chief yesterday. He is writing a story on the protests taking place around the world during the Olympic Torch Relay Run.

 The question he posed to me was, ”Will the protests affect Olympians chances for getting endorsement and marketing deals in the coming months?”

 I thought it was worth writing about this morning because while the protests are real, I want to separate Olympic marketing from it.

Point blankly. This won’t affect deals. Why?

Olympic marketers are not activating programs just yet so this protest (which will happen today in San Franisco) will be gone by the time programs get started (there are some endemics like Speedo, NBC, etc. that have year round programs but not most of them). And in this country, Olympians = dreams and hope and the public is smart enough to differentiate their efforts in trying to win gold from anything else.

All this being said, it is important for Companies to recognize the buzz and plan accordingly. They can do so in two ways; 1) message train their athletes because the media may ask a tough question during an interview and 2) if one of the program tactics includes an outdoor, open venue, just plan security and event flow with detail.

Yesterday was the four months out window to the Games. It will be here shortly. Expect marketing deals and success from swimmer Katie Hoff, Natalie Coughlin, gymnast Shawn Johnson, volleyball players Misty May and Kerri Walsh. And oh yeah, the greatest Olympian of all-time Michael Phelps.

PS — Kudos to Speedo for their athlete marketing efforts this spring. They are the leader in the clubhouse in Olympics PR so far.