Celebrity Gift Bags Might be a Scam

Celebrity Gift Bags May Not Be Useful to Professional Brand Managers

We deal with hundreds of brand managers. They all know the single best way to build a brand is through celebrity association. Putting a celebrity with a brand builds consumer trust. It lends credibility to a brand. It is often even more powerful than a full fledged advertisement.

The idea of giving an Official Oscar celebrity gift bag to Sarah Palin, Angelina Jolie, or Brad Pitt seems like a great way to build a brand. In theory, the bags will go to the celebrities, they will open the bags, use the gifts, talk about them on television and be photographed using the items by the paparazzi and coverage will occur all over the world. This is a great theory, but it is more of a fantasy.

In business, fantasy often is replaced with reality. The harsh reality of sending products to celebrities through an Official Gift Bag has been consistent disappointment. It starts with only a small percentage of celebrities ever receiving the gift bags. Most go to publicists, managers and agents. Even when they do go to the celebrities they often are passed on to friends and family. In the extremely rare case a celebrity ever actually opens the bag the chance of them ever using the product in public and it appearing in a magazine or television show is astronomically rare.

So what can a brand manager do when they are "in the official Oscar gift bag" or "in the Official Grammy gift bag"? The first thought is to put out a press release to the world proclaiming they were "in the Celebrity Swag Bag". Well, this is a point of debate among the most experienced brand managers and publicists. The debate is over what makes celebrity association work. By definition "If people like a celebrity, and a celebrity likes your brand, then people will like your brand." Given this definition, there is no celebrity association when your "being in the swag bag" press release is about putting your item in a bag and giving it to a celebrity which has; 1) not asked for the product and 2) may not even know the product exists before getting the swag bag.

So why do brands keep participating in mail-out celebrity gift bags?

The short answer is: They don't.

The overwhelming majority of brand managers will do this once and then never do it again. Professional brand managers are fast learners and rarely repeat mistakes. Celebrity gifting is about product placement, not about giving away product and getting nothing in return. Celebrity gifting should be about taking pictures of celebrities interacting with a product in a natural environment.

Celebrity association is the single best way to build a brand in western culture. It has been for the last 130 years. The important thing to know is how to do it correctly.

For more information, check out our website at: http://www.giftingservices.com