Celebrity Endorsement: Is it really effective in the long run?

Celebrity endorsement seems to work best when it is organic and natural. Many people wonder if it is worth it (Justin Timberlake reportedly made £3.4m for his one-liner to the McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" campaign) and if it really works at all. The answer to this question would be a definite yes. If a company or brand chooses well, the celebrity endorsement could have a huge impact on their popularity and sales. According to an article in the Independent, “in a survey carried out by GMI Inc. (the world's leading provider of global online market research) 30 per cent of US and European shoppers would be more likely to buy a product which came with celebrity endorsement. In Japan and China, this figure stood at around 55 per cent”. So celebrity endorsement does have an impact on shoppers and their purchases.
In the Hamish Pringle book, Celebrity Sells, an entire chapter is dedicated to the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements. An interesting excerpt reads,

“Their [Millward Brown a leading UK research company in the specialist field of quantities pre-testing of commercials] experience overall is that celebrities can be used successfully to grab attention and generate interest in involvement in the brand. They can also be used to establish a brand ‘cue’, which can in turn aid recognition and communication and they have found that the ‘right’ celebrity can add values by association. Their research suggests that as long as the star does not upstage the brand it is often beneficial if the celebrity is used for what they are famous for already and for the brand to borrow and build on existing persona. Generally speaking, Millward Brown find that humorous add communicate better than ‘straight’ ones and that spoofs or parodies can be especially effective”.

Therefore, in order for celebrity endorsements to be effective, a brand must use a celebrity that really matches their brand, that way they can build on what they have in common. Some believe that celebrity endorsement does not take much creativity, but the truth is that it takes even more creativity than normal marketing and promotion. Since there are so many celebrity endorsements out there nowadays, one must make their celebrity partnership stand out of the crowd of celebrities endorsing various brands. Creative ideas can make a celebrity endorsement a roaring success. In addition, choosing a celebrity that is the most ‘spiritually aligned’ (in the words of Pringle) out the bunch can really make a difference to people’s perceptions of the endorsement itself and the product.