Release Your Inner Rock Star

After much exposure during the VMA Awards and her latest tour, Taylor Swift is now an endorser for the Band Hero video game. In her new commercial, Taylor Swift performs alongside Rivers Cuomo from Weezer, Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Travis Barker from Blink-182.

The commercial starts out with the classic opening scene from Tom Cruise’s Risky Business. The celebrities were true to Cruise’s rendition with white socks and button down shirts. As the walls of the living room fade away, Taylor moves out onto an arena and into a crowd while performing her hit song, “Love Story.”

While various celebrities from Heidi Klum and David Cook from Michael Phelps and A-Rod have endorsed this video game, this month Gwen Stefani of No Doubt announced that she was suing Activision, the company that makes Band Hero, because her band avatars were only supposed to sing three of her original band songs. Instead, players of the video game can use images of Gwen Stefani to perform songs like the Rolling Stone’s “Honky Tonk Woman.” While it is evident that celebrities drive the sales of this video game, such endorsements deals are at the center of legal dispute and increase the risk liability for companies who hire stars.

Star Power & Women's Fashion

“Since half the people out there are inspired by celebrity, I think that if consumers see a star wearing a trend or new style, they’re more open to it.”

- Jerry Talamantes, Dillard’s Midwest

According to Cotton Inc.'s Lifestyle Monitor, which studies American attitudes and behavior toward apparel and homestyle furnishing, a new survey finds that "among all women, 26% cite fashion magazines, 18% cite TV shows and 12% say celebrities are their top sources for clothing ideas." In addition, women in the age group from 13-24 are more likely to get their ideas from these sources. As seen in the table below, the influence of star power begins to decrease as the woman gets older. However, fashion magazines and commercials/ad, both of which frequently star celebrities, do maintain a rather high rank as an idea source.

It is also interesting to see that American women, who shop at least three times a month, whether in the store or online are more likely to look to these sources when impulse buying: clothing ideas from fashion magazines (31% versus 21%), celebrities (16% versus 8%) and TV shows (21% versus 15%).

In addition to the Anna Sui Target clothing line, which was featured as a tie in with the hit show, Gossip Girl, this same marketing technique was used with Mad Men. Banana Republic sponsored a chance to win a walk-on role in an upcoming episode of Mad Men, which would come with a $1,000 gift certificate prize to the store, which carries classic workplace wardrobe items, like the white shirt and pencil skirt, styles which are often worn on the show.

The article observes that these tie-ins are becoming a regular marketing strategy: "Tom Julian, trend expert and president of Tom Julian Group, a brand consultancy in New York, says the 'Mad Men' and 'Gossip Girl' promotions are 'a solid illustration of integrated marketing with a cultural and style tie-in. If the time and merchandise is right and an organization can surround the consumer with product, messages and lifestyle cues, fashion trends resonate in a bigger and more effective way.'"

Destroying Brand Image

This week, I saw a short article announcing that Kanye West's tour "Fame Kills" with Lady Gaga has been cancelled. Kanye West has been under the microscope since he stole the spotlight from Taylor Swift during the MTV Video Music Awards. This is just one example of how celebrities can ruin their chances at scoring endorsement deals.

Even though consumers generally hold preconceived notions about celebrity endorsers, stars aren't invincible in their position of power. If a celebrity has even one incident of inappropriate or questionable behavior, a company will quickly drop an endorser. If the cancellation of Kanye's concert is any indication of his popularity with the people, then a corporation would never renew an endorsement deal.

At the current moment, I don't think that Kanye is signed with any companies, though he does have his own line, Louis Vuitton Don sneakers. Though the line is new and fashionable, recently released in June 2009, consumers would probably not buy if they knew that Kanye West designed them. Clearly, the reputation and character of the star is everything and thus the element that makes celebrity endorsement such a corporate liability.

Choosing the Celebrity Endorser

Advertisements are everywhere we turn, either in print, on billboards and in magazines or in the form of television commercials. The power of many of these advertisements come from ad endorsements. Even though a celebrity will naturally capture attention, companies select their endorsers much more carefully than we might expect.

For example, companies don't just select a television or movie star who has recently been in the spotlight, but an individual who carefully represents the company's brand. For example, Target refused to have Anna Sui's new clothing line worn on the set of Gossip Girl, despite the fact that the show inspired the collection in the first place. An Anna Sui advertisement recently publicized the new clothing line at Target based on each of the Gossip Girl characters. This television ad ran during the break of the actual Gossip Girl show, which airs Mondays at 9PM.

Anna Sui clothing line available at Target loosely

based on the distinct styles of each female character

on the television hit, Gossip Girl.

Despite this original plan for Anna Sui's clothing line to be featured on the show, the designer was not able to send her clothes to the set of Gossip Girl for the young female stars to actually wear.

Leighton Meester and Blake Lively, who star on Gossip Girl.

Executives at Target feared that their company would be "too closely associated with the show." This is clearly a disclaimer of sorts for each of the star's debased television personas. With themes of debauchery, drunkenness and sexually promiscuous behavior, Target refused to have the stars of the show concretely associated with the clothing line, despite the fact that the inspiration had been drawn from the celebrity cast itself.

This is one example of how companies not only seek to make a profit from celebrity images, but the celebrity selection is under close and careful inspection. Similarly, supermodel Kate Moss originally had a contract with Burberry and Chanel, but cancelled the deal because of her use of cocaine. More recently, due to her outburst at the U.S. Open could have cost Serena Williams two of her largest sponsors, Nike and Kraft Foods.

Just as companies seek to eliminate stars with tarnished images, they also harness the positive energy and reputations of others. Based on an ad I recently saw in a fashion magazine, Walmart and L.E.I. Jeans did not only select Taylor Swift because she is popular teen star at the moment, but because she is considered one of the more upstanding young female stars. The ad depicts a photo of her onstage, with the words in white print across the center: "Life Energy Intelligence Taylor Swift." The lack of punctuation not only makes these three qualities synonymous with Taylor, but then attaches these qualities to creating an all-American image for both the classic jeans and the Walmart store.

All of these examples suggest that companies are very much aware of the reputations and images of the celebrities that they hire.

The bottom line is celebrity endorsers can drive the success of an ad campaign, but choosing the wrong celebrity becomes risky business...