Your advertising has to compete with a lot of noise these days. With so many channels competing for attention, creating advertising that gets you noticed can be tricky. Not only do you need to engage the interest of ad weary consumers. But your ads also need to have the ‘wow’ factor that makes people sit up and think ‘I want one of those’.

Working out how to create ads that jump out and pull people in is a tricky puzzle. This is why so many brands are waving their cheque books at celebrities and signing them up to give their ads the ‘X’ factor.

Why are celebrity endorsements powerful?

Whenever they’re seen in ads, celebrities transfer their positive qualities, such as their reputation, talent and likeability, onto the product. They also act as the brand’s spokesperson, giving it credibility and the thumbs up in the eyes of their hero worshipping public.

Celebrity endorsements can raise awareness, increase a product’s appeal and influence the buying decisions of fans wanting to emulate their favourite stars, which is why so many brands are happy to pay millions for a brief share of a celebrity’s limelight.

However, as with all advertising, celebrity endorsements cannot build a brand on their own. It takes time, patience and delivering a consistent message through every channel to cement the positive thoughts and feelings people associate with your products.

But having a famous face appearing in your ads can give your brand that extra special ingredient that will help it stand out on supermarket shelves.

A few famous celebrity endorsements

Paul Merson – you’d be right to question the suitability of an ex gambling addict, who lost £7 million and went bankrupt, being the public face of a betting shop. However, the ex-Arsenal player is a well known face and is certainly someone Better Bet’s customers can relate to. Nobody can question his authenticity as a gambling man.

Girls Aloud – the band created by TV now make sure they stay on it at as much as possible. Endorsements for Samsung, Coke Zero, Ultimo lingerie and Sunsilk helps them maintain a high profile even when their music videos aren’t being played.

Johnny Rotten – the ex-anarchist and former Sex Pistol has given many the biggest shock of his career by being so successful at selling butter. Whilst an anti-capitalist in his heyday, he’s now being praised for helping to increase Dairy Crest’s business 85% in the last year.

Barack Obama – whilst the popularity of the new President continues to defy his critics and his halo remains intact, Brand Obama is regarded as the World’s #1 brand. With the image of an exceptional negotiator and communicator, his unofficial endorsement of Blackberry is estimated to be worth $30 million in marketing. And the best part is that he hasn’t been paid to do it.

Prunella Scales – the ex-onscreen squeeze of John Cleese is currently rated as the UK’s most successful celebrity endorser. Her series of humorous ads, with Jane Horrocks in tow, marching around Tesco is estimated to have generated sales of £2.2 billion for the supermarket giant.

Tiger Woods – perhaps the best example of a celebrity becoming synonymous with a brand, the successor to Michael Jordan as Nike’s brand spokesman has helped transform a ‘start up’ golf brand into the most popular clothing label on the fairways. With sales of $600 million a year, Nike Golf is also now competing to be the top brand for clubs and golf balls. No wonder Nike named a building after him.

The moment when the ball pauses after this putt at the 2005 Masters is probably worth millions in free advertising alone:

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

I came across a great site recently called datelance.com. In essence it’s a marketing site for a US design agency, dressed as an earnest attempt to find one of their employees – the eponymous Lance – a new girlfriend. Apparently he’s the only single person at Logoworks, and his colleagues are keen to get him hooked up. Within the FAQ section of the site you’ll find a very pertinent: “Is Lance desperate?” question, which is answered with “Lance is definitely not desperate”. Phew.

Anyway, the good news is that bda has its very own Lance. He may not have a Harvard MBA, but he does look good in a dinner suit. His name is Adam. We haven’t built him his own dating website, or created an advertising billboard, but if you are interesting in dating Adam, you can always drop us a line at ideas@thinkbda.com and we’ll make sure he gets your email.

In its Madison Avenue strutting heyday, advertising was the only way to sell. Back when people spent their evenings reading newspapers or glued to the TV, brands relied on ads to grow desire and plant jingles in people’s minds.

But unfortunately for the once cocksure ad man, people and times have changed.

The old adage of ‘advertise or die’ is now being replaced by ‘evolve or die’. People are binning newspapers permanently, and fast forwarding or switching off the TV altogether.

The problem with advertising

Advertising’s first aim has always been to grab attention. Then it implants an appealing collection of thoughts and feelings that spring to mind when people are trawling supermarket shelves.

The problem is that consumers have been dazzled with advertising for so long that they’ve started ignoring it. Over time, the unfulfilled dreams promised by ad men have created cynicism, and an attitude has grown towards avoiding ads altogether.

So, brands need to find new platforms for engaging with their ad weary public. For many, this has simply meant diverting their budget online.

But as studies are showing, people are forming buying decisions based on the quality of the content brands provide, and not just on their advertising.

Brand perceptions are being formed online

Last year brands spent nearly £3 billion chasing after the migration of eyeballs onto the internet. But simply raining down ads isn’t an adequate response to the way in which people use the web.

A survey of UK consumers, last year, found that 86% had researched a company online before deciding whether to buy their product. And 22% always conduct an online background check before parting with their cash. Whilst these stats sound promising, less than half (49%) found the information they were looking for.

So, brands should start providing useful content on their website if they want to engage people’s interest and influence their buying decisions. After all, people use the internet to find information, not advertising.

Brand perception is built at every touch point

Advertising can be expensive and makes less of an impact than it once did. There are also now too many other ways in which people can engage with your brand (and they’re looking for a conversation that isn’t one way).

So you need to consider how your business is engaging with customers at every touch point. Whether it’s via magazine ads, direct mail, email or customer service, every engagement influences how people perceive the quality of your products.

And as the survey shows, people are increasingly demanding informative, useful content that answers their questions and assists their buying decisions. Which is why advertising alone, ultimately, is no longer enough to satisfy the needs of today’s cynical, connected consumer.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

For the last week people have been bookmarking, blogging and Tweeting like mad about a new report on social media marketing. Put together by popular blogger and white paper specialist Michael Stelzner, the report features responses from 700 marketers on how they’re using social media to boost their exposure.

The report indicates that whilst marketers are enthusiastically joining the ‘social media gold rush’, few know where to start looking or how to unearth its riches.

Here are a few of the report’s nuggets:

• Nearly 9 out of 10 marketers are using social media
• Most (72%) have only started using social media in the last few months
• Whilst time might be the main expense involved it doesn’t come cheaply. 64% are investing over five hours a week in their campaigns
• The most popular social media tools in order are: Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook (only 41% are posting onto YouTube)
• Over half gained greater exposure, increased traffic and new business partnerships from social media

Social media → exposure + engagement

With 85% of small businesses reporting greater exposure, the report’s findings show why social media marketing is becoming so popular, and why it’s not just a passing fad.

Whilst we’re under gloomy recessionary clouds, many marketers can’t afford a new brochure, glossy ads or their own exhibition stand. So the low cost of social media makes it an enticing avenue to explore and play around with.

And a lot of playing around needs to be done because social media is still in its infancy with marketers still only taking their first hesitant steps. This was reflected in the survey’s most commonly asked questions:

• What are the best tactics?
• How can I increase the effectiveness of my campaigns?
• Where, on earth, do I start?

Whilst it’s tempting to sit back and watch whilst others struggle to get it working before attempting it yourself, it’s only through experimenting that you’ll discover how to use social media effectively.

New tactics are needed to get the most out of the new tools. Relentlessly pushing out sales messages isn’t going to work when your audience has the power to switch you off. People now want engaging experiences to go with the product. And to buy from those who’ve taken the time to build a relationship with them.

Social media provides the tools to engage with people and create these relationships.

So, if you haven’t already, open a Twitter account, start blogging and consider starting a Facebook group for your business. Nine out of ten marketers are already doing it, and they can’t all be wrong.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.