It’s that time again when I highlight a few current events and pull out some marketing tips and insights. Today’s theme is celebrities. Celebrities are known for their popular social media profiles, fundraising efforts and unfortunate paparazzi pictures. They often have marketing super powers themselves (or on their publicity team, within their company, etc.).
1. Grumpy Cat – Tony La Russa Hilariously Tries (and Fails) to Copycat at Diamondbacks Game
The cutest and most famous moody kitty in real life has some expert marketing and licensing staff behind her. Grumpy cat has been absolutely everywhere the past few years. She appears on TV talk shows, t-shirts and even her own upcoming cartoon series. Most recently the feline paid a visit to an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game where she “threw” the first pitch. In reality one of her handlers threw the ball, but that’s besides the point.
Everyone on the team got to spend some time with the cat, including Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa. When La Russa had his photo opp with Grumpy Cat, he tried out the expression for himself along with the handler and the results were amazing. I am siding with the various media outlets reporting on the event that La Russa is clearly getting his duck face on, failing at the frown completely, but seriously great try, man. We can’t say for sure if the idea was proposed by Team Grumpy Cat, the photographers or La Russa, but boy was it a smart, simple marketing move.
Marketing Tip: Whenever possible, get your fans to do the marketing for you – whether encouraging them to post a selfie with the product to social media or just share a positive experience with your product/service with friends, family or a company representative.
2. Mark Cuban – Provide Great, Evergreen Content to News Sites
Mark Cuban is a legend for being one of the most successful serial entrepreneurs in our era. Immediately after college he got involved in selling software and therefore developed deep roots in technology. He has a knack for social media and often takes to Twitter to share news and commentary. He is very vocal about his concern over social media paper trails and the danger of not being careful with what you say online. In fact, he’s so concerned with this problem that he has created 2 unique companies to fight back. Cuban is an incredibly savvy marketer and decided to start publicizing his startups by reaching out to Inc. last year for a special interview about them and the problems they will solve. He started early and certainly got the word out across many channels.
So what’s so genius about this strategy? He is a celebrity so he can definitely snatch up these interviews without any trouble, creating a huge ripple of publicity after the fact. That aside, the key takeaway here for every marketer is that Mark Cuban didn’t just offer original thoughts and conclusions to address a problem, he provided evergreen content. News sites are still picking this interview up and writing about it a whole year later. The video went viral and continues to be shared. The content still strikes a chord today and is likely to continue to carry resonance, not because of the solutions Cuban proposes but the problem that will continue to exist for many years to come as social media networks show no signs of slowing down in popularity.
Marketing Tip: Incorporate evergreen content when pitching journalists or creating content so that the topics carry a longer lifespan.
3. Kate Hudson – Silly Instagram Post Promotes Clothing Brand
Kate Hudson is famous for being film legend Goldie Hawn’s daughter as well as a talented actress in her own right. She is very active on Instagram, where her per-post engagement is through the roof. Kate is very good at posting little insights into her life while sprinkling little tidbits of promotion for her various projects, posed as personality-rich, behind the scenes snapshots.
In particular, this post from September 3rd, 2015, featuring Ms. Hudson and her brother, Oliver, modeling garments from Kate’s workout clothing line Fabletics. Oliver is wearing a fabulous Fabletics body suit and Kate is wearing leggings, a sports bra and jacket. The image is staged as a “Who Wore it Best” contest with Oliver winning by a landslide. Kate reposted the image from Oliver’s Instagram account. The picture is funny, interesting and captures a special family moment, all in one – great appeal for both their fans.
Marketing Tip: When posting a promotion to Instagram, make the image a special peek into your personal life, ideally with humor when possible.
-Sarah Le
