Customer Reviews

Celebrity Sells

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4 star:		(1)
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Hamish Pringle has written a thoughtful, crisply-paced book exploring the power of celebrity and how that power can be harnessed in marketing. The book focuses on the U.K. - thus, many of its case studies and celebrities will be unknown to those who haven't spent time in England - but its core message transcends national borders. Even those who have often had to deal with celebrities will still learn ample lessons, while those who have never dipped their toes in the celebrity marketing pool will find this essential reading. It is a textbook for avoiding many pitfalls of star marketing. We recommend this useful, insightful book to marketers and executives who are considering their first foray into the celebrity arena or re-thinking their use of celebrity marketing.

Hamish Pringle has done a great job. 'Celebrity Sells' is a good read. It's also an invaluable guide to what to do, and what to avoid. He has had the good sense to tap into the first hand knowledge of some authoritative experts. These interviews give real insights into what made Dudley Moore and Prunella Scales (Tesco), Maureen Lipman (BT), Rowan Atkinson (Barclaycard), and the One2One campaigns the huge successes they were. I also found his pitfalls section very illuminating (noting how overexposure can be a particular problem). Pringle draws interesting conclusions from the increasing incidence of celebrities among IPA Effectiveness Award winners. I guess that old adfolk like me have always known that the first target market for any campaign is always the client, and nearly 20 years experience running pitches has proved it beyond doubt. It's intriguing to get the inside track on the special relationship clients (both as companies and people) have with the celebs their agencies have hired. But Pringle gives us ten priceless rules for how the agency can best manage those relationships. The examples given are what makes this book particularly rewarding. Some must have been no-brainers. But who could ever have predicted George Foreman would sell as many grills as Dyson has made vacuum cleaners?

I confess to having a vested interest in Hamish Pringle's writing--I was his co author on the highly successful Brand Spirit: How Cause Related Marketing Builds Brands. He followed that up with a collaboration with someone in consultancy--Brand Manners and now Celebrity Sells. His genial and affable style, accessible to media and communications experts and lay people alike, is built on a firm foundation of careful analysis and case studies. He also captures the zeitgeist--explaining what it is about the 'celebrification' of culture in the early 21st century that strikes a chord with consumers. I can't wait for his next book!

Using celebrities to sell a brand can be immensely powerful, if you get things right - and little short of disastrous, if you get things wrong. Celebrity Sells shows you how to avoid the pitfalls, and sail into the sunny uplands of sales success in clear, readable and pithy prose. No other book, or article, on the subject that I have ever read is remotely comparable in terms of comprehensiveness, authority and know-how.

This book is a really accessible guide to how use celebrities in advertising. It tells you what works and what doesn't, and how to get the best out of celebrity advertising. Backed up by good solid research, with lots of case studies too. A handy guide to an increasingly important area of marketing.