The Celebrity Marketer

Before you jump the gun let me try and explain the concept of a celebrity marketer.

A celebrity marketer is not Schalk Burger wrecking a kitchen or radio studio on behalf of Steers. Nor is it a lingerie model lounging over the latest German sedan.

In essence, a celebrity marketer hasn't cut their teeth promoting another companies product or brand. Instead they have used their communication skills to promote themselves. Electronic communication tools such as blogs have simply catapulted these individuals into the limelight.

There are bloggers who command thousands of unique visitors to their sites daily and who have built up solid, loyal audiences. On top of this, these marketing experts also contribute to high traffic, specialised websites with high quality industry specific articles.

Think about your own habits and maybe it will reinforce what I am saying:

1. If you want expert insights into the marketing industry you are more likely to visit a marketing specific site or blog and look through who is writing articles and appearing frequently on these sites before you bring in a PR agency.
2. You will think twice before you take your stock broker to lunch for some educated input, but you won't think about spending hours surfing the internet looking for input for advice from investment gurus.
3. Very often if you want health advice, you'll search for a condition specific health website and read up as much as possible on the subject before you consult with a medical professional.

I hate the use of the word ‘guru' but one has to only look around at names such as Holford (health and nutrition), Branson (business), Moerdyk (marketing), Maher (blogging / technology) and Kirsten and Keohane (sport) and you begin to realize that these guys can add enormous value to a campaign. They have focused on developing themselves as a brand, and utilised whatever communications tools are available to their disposal to build a following.

Professional network

Think about it from a commercial perspective – you spend R10 000 on an advert in a magazine that may be seen by roughly 5000 people. Suddenly you have a new tool in your arsenal: a professional with a solid following, platforms to communicate messages and a professional network to tap into.

Using sport as an example - if you want to know about cricket or rugby in South Africa – you consult www.keo.co.za which has in excess of 30 000 unique visitors each month. I stand to be corrected but I believe it to be the biggest sporting blog in South Africa. If you had to ask me who the current communications manager for SA Rugby is, I'd shrug my shoulders – we know Keohane because he established himself as a brand.

A while back I was reading something about buying property. The author asked an interesting question – when you walk into a potential property, the estate agent often comes up to you and gushes about what a great investment property is and how you are guaranteed to make money with it. The author began to get quite frustrated with this and he began asking each estate agent, whether or not they in fact owned investment property… the majority of them replied that they rent their primary residence.

Marketing as a profession has evolved as electronic communication has made platforms accessible to a variety of contributors. It might come across as arrogant – but if an editor won't publish you – you can publish yourself.

Taking nothing away from less entrepreneurial marketing professionals, the addition of a ‘celebrity marketer' to your team must be considered if they can get you in front of the audience you are looking to reach.

Marketers should also consider developing a professional persona as well. I am not talking about shameless self promotion, but some intelligent, well put together articles helps them to develop their own reputation a network.

As a marketer, you don't want to be like the estate agent punting something you've never actually done yourself.