Hollywood Awards Season has Hundreds of Companies Wasting Money on Gift Suites

Social Hill, the nations' leading direct product placement company, has made radical changes to the celebrity gift suite industry after extensive research into the fundamentals that have been failing brand managers for years.

Hundreds of brand managers and publicists will participate in gift suites over the coming months, only to find them to be a complete waste of time and money. The very fundamentals of gift suites fail the results-oriented brand manager. Social Hill has researched and rebuilt the process from a brand manager’s perspective with brand building as the primary focus.

Hollywood gift suites have become nearly as famous as the events they surround. The 2012 Awards season starts in January with the Golden Globes, and is followed by the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Grammys and finally at the end of February, the Oscars. Dozens of meeting rooms in local hotels will be rented out to hold exclusive gift suites for the stars. 

The promise of the gift suite seems to make sense: Hundreds of celebrities will come and meet with dozens of companies and get free products. Expectations of Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry coming to get the latest and greatest products is irresistible to brand managers. The companies will benefit from the “unofficial endorsement” of the celebrity as the mass media (or social media) distribute images of the celebrity with the new brands. This is called “Celebrity Association”. In mathematics it is called “The transitive property of equality” which means If A=B and B=C then A=C. With celebrity association it is more like; If people like a celebrity, and a celebrity likes your brand, then people will like your brand. This is powerful marketing and that is why hundreds of companies participate in gift suites each year.

It is too bad that over 90% of them will never participate in a gift suite after trying it once. Of the remaining 10% who will give it another try only 3% will move on to a third gift suite. Bob Olejar of Social Hill has been evaluating this business for the past decade and states “We have looked at the product lists from all the major suites over the past few years and called the brand managers for feedback after the events. The comments we get range from disappointment, frustration and many accusations of fraud.”

Gift suites fail for brand managers on all levels. They fail the basic requirements for celebrity association. Hollywood gift suites fail at their fundamental structure. Here are the shocking quick facts:

•     Although 200 guests attend an typical gift suite only 2 of them will be celebrities


•     Pictures of celebrities at a tradeshow style booth have no PR value


•     Pictures of celebrities on a red carpet with dozens of logos behind them have no PR value

Social Hill has taken this research very seriously and has completely redesigned the gifting business from the perspective of a brand manager. “Direct Product Placement with a celebrity is the goal of a brand manager, not gifting” says Olejar. We still have a red carpet photo, but our press walls only have the logo of one brand. One celebrity in a photo with one brand creates celebrity association. We also don’t take any tradeshow style photos. We have an interior designed photo studio for celebrities to take organic photographs with their favorite products. Organic photos create celebrity association.

The gifting business is dying due to the emergence of results-oriented brand managers and publicists. Direct celebrity product placement is the future for the industry and it is the current business model for Social Hill.

Brand Acceptance: Bearpaw gains traction

Something magical happens to a brand when they become accepted into the celebrity culture of America…they become a topic of conversation for the entire culture of America.  For the last 130 years our western culture has experienced mass media through magazines, radio, movies, television and now the Internet.

The goal of every brand is to gain acceptance by the American consumer.  To gain acceptance, brands need to first get their attention. Brands need to be a topic of conversation. If you get people talking, they will take a look at your product. Building the buzz on a product is the goal, and there is no better way to get people talking than associating a brand with celebrities.

Bearpaw is the perfect example of how a great brand does everything right.

Social Hill has worked with Bearpaw for the past 2 years. We have a simple goal: We introduce celebrities to the Bearpaw product line and get them to try on a pair or two.  It is not complicated, educate them first and let them try it for themselves. It is a simple strategy that works when the product is good enough to meet the standards of celebrities who have access to any product they desire. Once they try on a pair of Bearpaw boots they want them and then the buzz begins.

Celebrities are wearing these boots night and day. You might have thought that sheepskin shoes and boots would be a fashion faux pas in the summer months, but numerous celebrities are starting a new trend and sporting their Bearpaw footwear year-round. Country singer Gretchen Wilson, actresses Shannon Elizabeth and Jennifer Love Hewitt, and singers Jordin Sparks and Crystal Bowersox have all become fans of Bearpaw. Karina Smirnoff from Dancing with the Stars has even worked with the brand to design her own boot. Lacey Schwimmer, Chelsea Kane, Brandy, Debby Ryan, Tim Duncan, Taboo (Black Eyed Peas) and Romeo are wearing Bearpaw’s regularly.  

The press has also noticed. The brand is appearing in all the major celebrity magazines like People, OK, US Weekly and Star. They have been on multiple television shows like TMZ, Dancing with the Stars and even Jersey Shore. The pictures of celebrities in Bearpaw’s are all over Twitter and Facebook.  

Bearpaw is actively spreading the word about celebrities wearing its footwear. Social media is where the buzz of celebrity culture thrives. Consumers are talking about brands in social media and Bearpaw gives them plenty to talk about. Bearpaw is a topic of thousands of social media conversations and that translates to an explosion in sales.  As we talked about in an earlier post, the quality of the Bearpaw brand is building an exponentially spreading "trust" from consumer to potential new consumer, the basis of all social networking sales.

Start the buzz. Spread the word. Generate interest. Gain acceptance. Now your brand is a hit. Bearpaw is the perfect example.

Reference Power is Everything

If you read Ad Age, PR Week, or any of the other media outlets for brand managers you will find hundreds of theories on advertising strategies, public relations techniques and the occasional complex mathematical formula which will help you build your brand.  It is often informative, but almost always long winded.

There is only one common truth in all successful brand building strategies from the dawn of time until now: “Reference Power Builds Brands.”  When other people tell you a brand is good, you tend to believe it is good. How strong is the power of their reference? That depends completely upon how much you value the opinion of the person who is giving you the reference.  For example, imagine you are asking a professional basketball player to recommend a good shoe for playing basketball. You would probably value their opinion and their reference power would be very high. You could ask the same basketball player which mobile phone is the best, but you probably wouldn’t value their opinion and therefore not be influenced by their reference.

Let’s take a look at the use of a celebrity spokesperson in advertising. Advertisers know the power of reference. They could use an actor or an executive from the company, but they get better results from a celebrity spokesperson. Why? Because of reference power. If you recognize the celebrity spokesperson the advisement is off to a good start. If you like the celebrity spokesperson the advertisement is doing even better. If you feel the celebrity spokesperson has a valid connection with the product the advertisement is almost a success. For these reasons you have established some value for the opinion of the celebrity spokesperson and have given them some reference power even before they begin to speak about the product.  Prepare to be influenced.  But wait…..   Your brain is not that quick to give up too much reference power. Why? Because you know this is a paid endorsement and the celebrity spokesperson’s reference was highly influenced by money.  You still may value the sales pitch of the celebrity spokesperson, but you do so with caution.

People are often influenced by products they see on film and television. This again is all about the reference power. You may like the character or the celebrity on the show and feel influenced by the brands they wear. This has proven to be a very powerful way to build a brand. Again it is all about you observing a celebrity and forming opinions on brands based on the perceived like or dislike of the celebrity.  Reference power is again powerful, but again you may have some reservations. Like advertising there is a reason to hold back on giving too much reference power to what you see on TV and film. It is acting. The celebrity has been told what to do and say. In some cases you may hold back some of the value you give to this reference.

The pure reference power comes from a natural endorsement. If someone whose opinion you value is using a product, it is very powerful. For a brand manager there is nothing better than getting people to tell other people about their brand. The problem is getting this process started and keeping it going. The solution is to find a small group of people who can reach a large group of consumers. This problem is solved with celebrities, but we already discussed how celebrity spokespeople are only somewhat effective.  The solution is not in the paid endorsement, but rather the implied endorsement.  An implied endorsement is when a celebrity is photographed using a product. They have not said they officially like the product, but it is implied.  Implied endorsements are viewed as being more honest and therefore have more reference power than paid endorsements. 

Strategic brand managers will leverage implied endorsements to build any brand.  At Social Hill we have a very simple formula which is the core of our business. It is the law of celebrity association: “If people like a celebrity, and a celebrity likes your brand, then people will like your brand.” 

Check out Socialhill.com to learn more.