Say GOODBYE to Celebrity Marketing and say hello to PEOPLE marketing

The DAWN of the social media marketing

Once upon a time, there was a distant; far away period on Earth where celebrities rule the planet with their faces plastered on posters, billboards, magazines, and last year …TWITTER! These celebrities were paid a huge amount of money in exchange for endorsements, and even to post sponsored tweets on Twitter. (Companies should have paid me… kidding)

Then the human race was awoken and they “fought” back. But it’s not as if we went to war with them. One man, Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix – a company which tracks every nationally televised TV ad – provided statistical data on branding strategy insider which showed that celebrities are losing their effectiveness and that their ads were performing below average.

Later, more facts came in showing that celebrity ads did not perform any better compared to non-celebrity ads, and for some cases it even did the opposite, it did much worst, although there were celebrities which did well.

According to branding strategy insider, consumers today are more likely to be influenced by someone in their social circle, compared to a weak celebrity connection, as today’s consumers are difficult to impress and are only influenced by ads that are relevant.

In the video above, comedian Dave Chappelle, made a joke that Pepsi tasted better because he was paid more, and at the end of the video he said that people don’t know what is fake and what is real anymore. Celebrities used to portray trust to consumers all over the world. But if they don’t know what is fake and what is real anymore…who is there to be trusted?

This is where social media steps in. Social media provides two of the most important keys in the advertising industry…Relevance and Information. To give you an example, who would you rather trust? An advertisement from a company or your friends? Whose opinions are more relevant? Most of us would rather trust our friends, as the close relationships we have with them and the trust we have for their opinions are more relevant in our decisions. As we developed trust, we would also trust the information from our peers, both offline and online, more than the words of a celebrity.

Is this a sign that the age of socialites is being taken over by the age of social-medialites? I say it is certainly possible! People aren’t as affected by celebrity ads as they used to because people are spending more time on social networking sites and asking opinions about a particular product or services from their friends. We are asking people what are the Twitter applications they recommend, what perfume to wear on a date tonight, which places would give a great backpacking experience, and what is even more important than asking the right people the right questions… is that we are getting the right answers from the right people!

If you ask me, celebrity endorsement doesn’t influence me at all. In my personal opinion, I would rather go online on Twitter and get help and opinions from the Twitter community rather than just watching an ad and buying it. Not unless @alyssa_milano tweeted about it! (celebrity crush speaking).

But it could it be because @alyssa_milano spends time on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to engage and converse with people! Yes, it’s true! I have exchanged several tweets with the lovely Alyssa as she spends time reading and replying tweets from her followers. She might be a celebrity, but she’s also a friend to me. And that makes all the difference.

While there is a decline in the effectiveness of celebrity ads, what about in the case of Alyssa? Could celebrities that use social media to converse with people be even more effective? Could social media be the platform to develop a deeper sense of CONNECTION with the consumers? What do you think guys?

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