Charity communicators are often asked to secure celebrities and influencers to help a campaign fly – almost every campaign we see in the media now has a celebrity ambassador. But since the pandemic, the world has changed for celebrities, influencers, their agents as well as us! The increase in volume of requests is huge - your ask has to be even more relevant and compelling to get cut through.
So what can we do to help ourselves, our causes and our campaigns? Read on for the top 12 tips from this PRCA session with experts Martyn Sibley, Paul Cullen and Dom Smales, hosted by PRCA charity group vice-chair Beth Andlaw.
1. Your no. 1 consideration when approaching a celebrity should be – is it relevant? Has the person you’re approaching mentioned your cause before? Why would that person be telling your story?
2. A celebrity or influencer shouldn’t be relied on to make a campaign work – they should be the “cherry on the top”. If the campaign doesn’t stand up on its own its not going to work with or without a celebrity. Don’t think about your celebrity or influencer as your reach – think about them as your content creators and authentic ambassadors.
3. Think about talent from the outset so you can weave their expertise through a campaign from the start – you can co-create a campaign with celebrities and influencer, rather than going to them with an ask at the end.
4. Know who the team is around the talent. Understand the difference between an agent, publicist and manager – each one could help you differently / come at your campaign from a different perspective. Persistence is key – when you’ve done your research and know a campaign is relevant for the talent, just keep asking!
5. The beneficiary is no longer separate to your marketing targets – the very people your charity seeks to help are also likely to be influential amongst your donors.
6. Influencers will continue to represent more and more niche audience groups – identifying these individuals will be key. Social media tracking means that there’s a lot more performance data we can look to now, to prove these tactics work.
7. Talk to influencers in their language – if they most often post via You Tube, send them a You Tube video with your ask. Are they big on Tik Tok? Make a Tik Tok video to approach them with.
8. Look at how your high value fundraising team works with key donors and apply this approach to trying to secure a longer team patron or ambassador.
9. Inclusivity and diversity should be at the core of our sector and campaign planning. We need to work with people who are willing to take action. We can also look to work with influencers who are experts in this field and can offer professional consultation and insights.
10. Never pay a celebrity to work with your charity. It’s a risk to their reputation and yours. Working with experts to consult on campaigns or content is different – for example disability consultants.
11. Measurement should be focussed around sentiment and engagement not reach. Can you ask agents to tell you what a corporate cost would be for that celebrities support similar activity? Try to link to fundraising – how much money does the celebrity or influencer involvement help to raise?
12. What’s next? Communicators should start looking at subscription economy e.g. Only Fans, and Cameo. Everything that a celebrity does on these platforms has a cost attached to it – charities could really benefit from this.