Does Celebrity Advertising Work?

It’s Easy For Your Message To Get Lost In The Crowd

People today have an attention span of 8 seconds. That is shorter than a goldfish’s, which is 9 seconds. Consumers are exposed to over 5,000 advertisements per day. Of those, only 153 are processed by the subconscious and only 86 make it to the conscious mind. Of those, only 12 will make an impression. That means less than 1% of your ads will have an impact on your potential client. If you could improve this percentage, would you be interested?

Why are Companies Paying Celebrities Billions?

Approximately 19% of all national advertisements feature a celebrity. Celebrities are being paid billions of dollars each year to endorse products and services. The reason for this is because celebrity endorsements work and increase annual revenue. The Science Behind It

The Science Behind It

The reason why celebrity advertising works is based on a basic principle; people like what’s familiar.

When someone sees a celebrity, the portion of the brain called the fusiform gyrus becomes active and the brain must analyze why that person is familiar. The brain does this by doing a comparison with the images stored in the long-term memory. This means that if someone sees your commercial with a celebrity spokesperson, different areas of the brain are engaged. This dramatically helps improve retention of the ad and bypasses the subconscious mind. This is one of the reasons that celebrity endorsements are so powerful.

Will Any Celebrity Do?

Having any celebrity or recognizable figure in your advertisements will be more memorable for the consumer. However, this does not mean that any celebrity will help increase your business. In order for a celebrity to be effective, there must be a logical connection to your brand.

What is Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell’s connection to attorneys? When a potential client is looking to hire an attorney, they want someone who is going to fight for them. Who personifies that better than an MMA legend? In fact, Chuck Liddell is one of the most popular and recognizable MMA fighters of all time. Your democratic knows who he is and by partnering with Chuck Liddell your intakes will increase by 20-40%.

Should Attorneys Be Their Own Spokesperson?

A study was conducted by Princeton University that cemented the fact that people do not trust lawyers. This is supported by multiple online studies/surveys. In fact, 81% of the people polled considered attorneys untrustworthy. However, many attorneys have been in their commercial for years and have become their firms’ brand. In this situation, a celebrity endorsement can help increase trust. It has a similar effect as a word-of-mouth referral.

Dollars And Cents

Research clearly demonstrates that a celebrity endorsement can increase your business by 20-40%. At TigerShark Studios, we have seen firsthand what a celebrity endorsement can do for a firm.  In some cases, we have even seen better results than what the research indicates.