« Ogilvy Group UK Home

By Sarah Green (not the E-list ex Blue Peter celebrity)

Celebrity endorsement at your peril. Can your brand afford to take the potential risk?  Is there such thing as a ‘risk-averse’ celebrity?

Who would have thought that squeaky-clean Tiger Woods would have seen his world (and his brand endorsements) come tumbling down around him?  But then again, Kate Moss regained her status as a leading celebrity brand endorser post the cocaine scandal with her TopShop partnership.  Escalating the retailer’s profile and sales significantly.

Yes, in this mad world where Katy Perry’s makeup-free face makes the front page of the tabloids, celebrity endorsements can sure pack a punch. The constant challenge for marketers is to come up with new ideas, ensure there is relevance and to keep things interesting.  Why would multi-millionaires Billy Connolly or the then newly-weds Ashley and Cheryl Cole give a toss about the Lottery?  Just a smug ‘invitation’ to give it a go with the opportunity to have a taste of their fabulous lifestyles?

Walkers’ association with Gary Lineker is one of the long-lasting celebrity partnerships that has benefitted from refreshing and updated campaigns; they’re topical, tongue-in-cheek, and can incorporate other partnerships (eg Comic Relief).  Gary can also complement additional personality endorsements as diverse as Lionel Richie to the current ‘Clash of the Comics’. The long term relationship has worked well for both parties.

But one-night stand relationships can be just as rewarding and have the desired effect on brand sales albeit on a tactical basis. The crucial thing here is timing – assessing the celeb’s appeal to coincide with the brand hitting the shelves or being made available. Kylie was perfect for the launch of the ‘small but beautifully formed’ Ford Street Ka; Morrisons and M&S have also used celebrities tactically to capture the zeitgeist.  Right person, right place, right time, short or long term, the role of celebrity will continue to play its part in the marketing landscape.

There is a myth in the advertising industry that Terry Lovelock, then a copywriter at CDP, came up with the line, “Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach” (an example above) in a hotel room in Marrakesh. According to the story, after 3 weeks of waiting for Terry to come up with something, his boss threatened to fire him if he didn’t crack it. So, Terry drove to North Africa to get “inspired”. Legend has it that he came up with the idea while in bed – he woke up from a fretful dream, grabbed his notebook and wrote the famous line that spawned one of the best-loved advertising campaigns in adland history.

Over the decades there have been many theories on how to come up with ideas – David Ogilvy recommended interrogating the product until it “confessed”, Leo Burnett made everyone on the Macdonald’s account work serving burgers for a week to gain inspiration and a Creative Director I once worked for reckoned no one ever came up with a decent idea when sober. On a recent episode of Mad Men, the creative team were seen stripping off (that’s Peggy below) to try and encourage the creative muse. (Not to be encouraged in today’s open plan environment.)

These are tips from creative people. But how do clients think we come up with ideas? Judging by the amount of time some of them give us, they think they just happen spontaneously once we see the brief. But seriously, many clients are mystified by the creative process. So mystified that they spend their careers trying to de-mystify it. I once attended a session where we were “taught” how to come up with a Big Idea via a PowerPoint presentation. Most of the people in the session were clients – and they loved the whole thing. At last, the creative process revealed! But I, and the only other creative person on the course were downhearted.

Cynics I hear you say – but no. We’d have loved it if it had worked – we’ve all had the fear of the blank layout pad. We’d welcome a tried and tested way to crack a brief – but the truth is there just isn’t one.

The proof is seen in the results of group brainstorms. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a genuinely great idea come out of one of these no-such-thing-as-a-bad-idea sessions. Mediocre ideas maybe. But not great. Sorry if this sounds controversial, but I really believe that creativity should be more highly valued. The best Copywriters and Art Directors have been trained, not by PowerPoint but by years of hard grind, plenty of rejection and the sharp tongue of an honest creative director. Anyone in a creative department has worked incredibly hard to be there. Their job is to come up with ideas – however they choose to do it.

So, what about the Heineken story? Here it is in Terry’s own words:

“ The brief was “Refreshment” and that was it. Took me three months to come up with something. They wanted a line “with legs” which lasted two years. I had to get out of the agency to think. Ended up in the Hotel Mahmounia in Marrakesh. It’s all true. Desperation struck at 3am. The campaign lasted 24 years. Beyond all my expectations. I was just trying to keep my job. If only I had negotiated royalties. I thought a good old fashioned line like “Refreshes the parts” would take it anywhere. Wouldn’t allow it now though. Possibly medically misleading.”
(T. Lovelock, retired drummer, copywriter, director)