Celebrity Acquisition

We recently spoke about the “Disney Star Machine” with Meghan Casserly of Forbes.  As we’ve said before, the Disney Channel churns out some of the most popular and marketable tween/teen stars year after year.  From the old days of Christina and Britney to current Disney Princesses Demi and Selena, they know how to market and leverage their stars. 

Check out an excerpt below and be sure to read the article in it’s entirity at Forbes.

David Schwab, vice president of Octagon First Call, a celebrity acquisition and activation firm, says that television is ground zero for all marketing to the Disney demographic. “While TV time is decreasing for older audiences with the rise of the internet, for Disney’s core young audience, it’s central to their media habits,” he says. “It’s where they get their biggest exposure.”

As an illustration, Schwab points out that Camp Rock Two, released September 3, has been watched “three times in its entirety” by his three children, all under seven years old. “They’re not into radio at a young age, and their Internet time is restricted or monitored by parents,” he says. “So for the five to 12-year- olds, television delivers the most lopsided percentage of their media messages.” And for Disney, it works, even after their stars-and audiences-grow up.

“The shows and the stars see continued success even after the series stop producing new episodes-or even when their audience outgrows it,” says Schwab. Every few years, new children (largely little girls) come into the Disney sweet-spot age group, and the company capitalizes by syndicating their old series. “The audience then increases in two ways for Disney and the star: young kids catch reruns for the first time and become fans, and the stars themselves move on to develop new properties and take their aging audience with them,” he says. Case in point: Miley Cyrus’s Hannah Montana may be in its final season, but her edgy line of clothing for Wal-Mart, Miley Cyrus & Max Azria, is selling alongside Disney-branded Hannah Montana merchandise in the mass retailer.

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Year after year, Dancing with the Stars and American Idol consistently dominate the ratings and create marketable stars. But every year, we also see a number of stars who breakout and become marketable (i.e. Lea Michele and Sofia Vergara).  Here’s who were keeping an eye on as the 2010 fall TV season kicks-off.

• Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder: The leading actors of the CW’s Vampire Diaries have capitalized on the recent vampire trend and become popular with the teen crowd. A high end fashion company would be smart to snag them for an ad campaign a la Kellan Lutz for Calvin Klein.
• Eric Stonestreet: With an Emmy win under his belt, this lovable actor returns for the second season of the popular show Modern Family.
• Keri Russell: The actress returns to the small screen alongside funnymen Will Arnett and David Cross in Running Wilde. Both mom-friendly and stylish, we can see her promoting an affordable fashion line.
• Jaime King: The model turned actress is set to star in ABC’s upcoming mockumentary My Generation. We wouldn’t be surprised to see her appearing in a beauty campaign similar to her previous Revlon deal.
• Joanna Garcia: The actress is poised to have a breakout role in ABC’s upcoming Better With You. Young, beautiful, bilingual and newly engaged (to New York Yankee’s outfielder Nick Swisher) she’s a good fit for a wide variety of products targeting young women.
• Adrianne Palicki: Already known for her role in Friday Night Lights, the young actress will star in Fox’s new buzzed-about drama Lone Star. She would be a great choice to star in a beauty campaign.
• Craig T Nelson: With NBC’s Parenthood picked up for a second season, we think that the long time actor is due for a comeback. Brands targeting older males should consider him for their campaigns.

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By: Andi Bernal

After the long days of summer, college football season is finally underway. The fresh faces of the boys of fall are catching the eyes of the scouts and marketers alike. While these athletes can’t sign endorsement deals while tied to a university, it is just a matter of time before the brand market will be able to put an All-American face to their product.

Tim Tebow, the recent Gator grad and current Bronco, has already signed endorsement agreements with Jockey, Nike and Gatorade. Tebow’s clean-cut image opens him up to a number of deals, many of which he has reportedly turned down as to not get in the way of his football career, propelling even further his focused and competitive image.  While many marketers may have worried about Tebow’s decision to appear in a polarizing Focus on the Family commercial during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast, brands have already jumped onto the Tebow wagon and prefer the clean representation of Tebow over a rougher personality.
 
Sam Bradford could potentially go down same path as Tebow. His fresh face and Native American background with a strong faith base leads him to potentially tapping into a unique demographic of supporters.
 
Dick’s Sporting Goods is also utilizing some college greats in their new tongue-in-cheek ads with Darrelle Revis (University of Pittsburgh/ Jets), Andre Johnson (University of Miami/ Texans), Darren McFadden (Arkansas/ Raiders) and Nnamdi Asomugha (UC Berkeley/ Raiders). These comical bits turn football players from giants on the turf into funny guys on the street and consumers are able to appreciate a good laugh with their favorite players.

Familiar football faces will also make a return to the turf in Allstate’s Tailgate Tour featuring Eddie Kennison (LSU), Natrone Means (UNC), Kilmo von Oelhoffen (Boise State) and Jim Pyne (Virginia Tech). The players are attending Allstate’s tailgates at their alma maters seaspn openers and give their insight on upcoming games.

While new and old players get face time, new and current artists will be featured his fall on college game days. ESPN partnered with Atlantic Records to highlight musical artists during college kick offs on ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com featuring B.o.B, Janelle Monáe and Zac Brown Band. Not only will this add to the artists’ visibly, but it also fortifies the entertainment dimension to watching a football game.

College football is an American tradition that emanates the connotation of hometown boys finally “making it.” Consumers will support this dream and marketers will tap into it at the same time.

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Disney Channel (and their Disney Channel Original Movies) continue to churn out some of the most marketable kids and tween stars year after year.  Their DCOM Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, premieres tonight at 8pm and is likely to be a hit with kids and parents alike.  With the original recording 8.9 million viewers for the premiere, we expect to see similar numbers as families tune in to see Disney favorites Demi Lovato, the Jonas Brothers, Meaghan Jette Martin and Alyson Stoner. 

Aside from promoting the movie and touring the country on the stage, the stars have been busy since they hit it big.

• Demi Lovato: the young singer/actress recently partnered with General Growth Properties (which owns and manages malls throughout the US) for their Shop ‘Til You Rock Campaign. The tween/teen star made three appearances at GGP malls over the past month and recorded a video for their website. The budding actress and musician will also have her name on a new clothing line inspired by her Sonny With a Chance character, available exclusively at Target (released August 1^st).
• Jonas Brothers: the trio of squeaky clean brothers have been a marketing powerhouse with legions of loyal tween fans. Partners of the brothers have included Xbox 360, Allstate’s ‘X the TXT’ program, AOL and Breakfast Breaks. Nick Jonas has also had a multi-year deal with Bayer Diabetes Care, promoting their products in TV spots and PR (as he is a type 1 diabetic himself).
• Alyson Stoner: the versatile young star (who recently appeared in Step-Up 3D) serves as the dance editor for KEWL magazine and has already released The Alyson Stoner Project (a dance video hybrid). She has nearly 50,000 followers on twitter, over 17,000 Facebook fans, almost 23,000 MySpace fans and actively posts on her blog.
• Meaghan Jette Martin: the actress/singer was also the star of ABC Family’s 10 Things I Hate About You and recently partnered with Lunchables for their “Created By You” contest. She also teamed up with Build-A-Bear Workshop last year for their “Love.Hugs.Peace” movement, recording a special version of “Let’s Talk About Love.” She is currently filming Mean Girls 2 and has almost 100,000 twitter followers and an active YouTube channel.   

Keep an eye out for them (and supporting cast members) to continue to grow in popularity, making them even more enticing to brands in the tween space.

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The stars have aligned, Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke have spoken, and the eleventh season of Dancing with the Stars is underway. The announcement made during The Bachelor Pad gave light to twelve celebrity names that shortly are sure to be gracing blog spaces, magazine covers, and twitter pages. We’ve put together your comprehensive list of the tweeters and the dancers and with this deadly combination, twit-ancers have the opportunity to reinvent new and exciting brand-friendly images.

1. Audrina Patridge 1,040,000+ followers on twitter. She’s the current face of Bongo and has the broad appeal to be the face of beauty brands and fashion brands alike. Her Carl’s Jr. commercial has over a million views on YouTube. Will she be a Kardashian or a Gosselin? We’ll find out soon.
2. Brandy 713,000+ followers on twitter. She’s been relatively out of the public eye since her “The Boy is Mine” days, but this singer has the opportunity to get back to her talented roots. She was involved in a car crash (where someone was killed and she settled out of court) and it will be interesting to see if she can overcome that (for marketing opportunities in the future).
3. Mike The Situation Sorrentino 185,000+ followers on twitter. Currently, Sorrentino is rep-ing Devotion Vodka on his Twitter page, and we see a number of Twitter deals in “The Situation’s” future. This party boy has a few more years left before he officially becomes a party man and we see this reality novelty living up the limelight and becoming an interesting young adult face (for a certain demographic!).
4. Margaret Cho 81,000+ followers on twitter. Funny woman Cho will be a face to be reckoned with the demographic of 25-40 year old women. She is already a part of Lifetime television and could bring a good vibe and comedic approach to women-centric brands.
5. David Hasselhoff 48,000+ followers on twitter. Already a viral video veteran, Hasselhoff can use his humorous outlook at his own persona to enjoy Internet fame. He can host everything from parties to award ceremonies. Interesting comeback. We can only imagine the ratings in Germany if the show is shown over there.

Honorable Twitter mentions:

1. Rick Fox 38,000+ followers on twitter (marketable, model, fresh face)
2. Kurt Warner 32,000+ followers on twitter (can clean up in faith-based marketing, Hall of Fame candidate in five years)
3. Michael Bolton 2,000+ followers on twitter (not sure what to say on this one)
4. Kyle Orlando Massey 600+ followers on twitter (they are struggling finding young kids)

Exciting to watch:

1. Florence Henderson- No twitter presence YET. She promoted Wesson Oil for 20+ years and continues to be relevant (remember: the Brady Bunch went off the air in 1974). Her recognizable face will sound across generations and her warm persona will be a welcomed familiarity with the abundance of rising and falling reality stars. Her range stretches across brands, as she is a mom, a legend, and a star.

Wildcards

1. Jennifer Grey (so intrigued. She has overcome cancer and multiple injuries in the past decade)
2. Bristol Palin (will be polarizing like Kate Gosselin (but because of her mom not her)

The 62^ndannual Primetime Emmy’s premiere Sunday, August 29^thon NBC and for the first time in over six decades the show’s host is bound to interrupt the programming to answer his phone. The Emmy’s producers have introduced a Twitter component to the regular programming where host, Jimmy Fallon, will share his favorite ­­­­­­­.  While Emmy veteran Glenn Close may not have “Tweeple” per se, many of the newest invites to the Emmy’s are masters of their own Twitterverse. New shows, Modern Family and Glee, have a combined 33 nominations to their names and their players contribute on the regular to keep a close and personal fan base with their viewers. Social Media has enabled celebrities to create a unique, almost personal relationship with their followers.  Ultimately, Twitter (and other SM) is a great tool for brands to directly send their message to thousands (or millions) of their celebrity endorsers’ followers-people who are already actively seeking out information from these celebs. This direct contact and instant delivery add value to a brand’s marketing program.

Be sure to check out our list of Emmy nominees on twitter and follow us as we tweet along at #OctFC during the show.

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With today’s NFL owners meeting in Atlanta, there is a lot of buzz surrounding the potential decision to expand the regular season to 18 games (would take effect in 2012 at the earliest).   We took a look at the ancillary business winners and losers of the potential change, outside of the obvious impact to the networks/cable TV world, team ownership, stadium revenues, the NFL and players.

Winners

• Vegas will clearly benefit from two additional weeks of gaming, hotels, sports books, restaurants and amenities..
• Bars/restaurants, pizza delivery and other popular tailgating brands/items will continue with loyal fans flocking to local bars/tailgating in support of their favorite teams.
• Brands with football-specific marketing campaigns will benefit from an additional time to leverage their marketing campaigns, especially those that utilize a football personality (current/former players, commentators, etc.).
• Fantasy Football participants and companies will have an extended relevance online and in the media.
• Twitter enthusiasts (including brands/marketers on twitter) will continue to actively engage with other fans, building their followers.
• Advertisers for football-focused media outlets will continue to see solid audience numbers on networks that cover games (and game/season highlights).

Losers

• Other sports programming on Sunday will suffer, as the NFL clearly dominates Sunday programming (sports and otherwise).
• Gamblers will have two additional weeks to give money to the house.
• Sunday family time may be put on the backburner for another two weeks.

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Disney star Demi Lovato poses for a Shop Til You Rock photo.

• Jennie Garth and the American Association of Orthodontists: The actress and mom of three partnered with the American Association of Orthodontists to highlight the latest in back-to-school fashion and orthodontic treatment. Garth hosted the AAO Style ‘N Smile Fashion show earlier this month, promoting a healthy smile and confidence as the must-have accessories of the season. She also recorded a video PSA and will appear in a print ad with her daughter.
• Kylie Jenner and Sears: Continuing the precedent set by her sisters (Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian), Kylie recently inked a modeling and endorsement deal with Sears. The young star appears in a new online back-to-school contest as well as an upcoming national TV spot for the national retail store.
• Jason Derulo, Kellie Pickler and Drake Bell and Staples: Staples “Give-Back Pack” campaign features country music star Kellie Pickler, TV star/singer Drake Bell and pop music star Jason Derulo as “pack leaders.” The three musicians each recorded exclusive content for the program’s website and are featured in a new PSA. Staples kicked off the back-to-school effort with a PSA in May starring Twilight actress Nikki Reed.
• Charice, Victoria Justice and Big Time Rush and Macy’s & Nickelodeon: The young stars celebrated the back-to-school season with the Back-to-School Blowout Concert and Fashion Show at Macy’s Herald Square in NYC on August 15. Sheryl Crow, Faith Hill, Shakira and other A-list celebs supported Macy’s and Nickelodeon through their “Beyond the Backpack” pro-social campaign championing kindergarten readiness for pre-schoolers.

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With the start of a new NFL season rapidly approaching, we thought that it would be timely to get your thoughts on Fantasy Football. We’d appreciate your thoughts and taking a couple of minutes to complete our survey. We’ll post our results here in a couple weeks.

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With social media in the palms and pockets of so many, brands no longer rely solely on TV and print spots to promote products. Immediate contact to a specific demographic is just a tweet or a status update away and the reach is instantaneous and vast. Today, almost every endorsement deal includes integration within the celebrity’s Twitter and Facebook accounts (and often a YouTube video) to perpetuate the brand’s concept. No production costs, no creative needed- just a popular tweeter and a product to endorse and millions of followers are immediately notified of their favorite celebrity’s favorite new product. Social media deals have become the newest, quickest and possibly easiest form of celebrity endorsement and give a personal touch to each brand.

And everyone is doing it. Last night on Entourage, “Vince Chase” is even seen and heard mentioning tweeting for his new tequila endorsement deal.  The range of tweet promoters includes celebrities from Dr. Drew to Snoop Dogg. The fictional Kenny Powers from HBO’s Eastbound and Down, who is the newest face for K-Swiss has over 100,000 followers on Twitter and makes regular tweets promoting the shoes. Kim Kardashian, a tweet-endorsing regular, promotes a number of brands on her Twitter page ranging from Reebok Easy Tone to Carl’s Jr.  And with over 4 million followers, the audience that receives her daily tweets is wide spread and precisely the consumers that the brands wish to communicate to. Jamie-Lynn Sigler recently inked a deal with Sony Ericsson. As part of her endorsement deal, she was seen at the Sony launch tweeting on her new phone about her new phone.  

Social media platforms have made it easier than ever for consumers to get closer to their favorite celebrities. This familiarity and daily contact in a very personalized platform drives home the endorsement in a way that older forms of advertising sometimes struggle to achieve.

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