Celebrities' use of Instagram

On October 6, 2010, the world was presented with a new social media app. At that time, the social media industry was booming with Facebook, which allowed you to connect with people all over the world and Twitter, which allowed the public to watch the events of others lives via tweets. Kevin Systrom introduced Instagram to the world. Today, Instagram is now of the most popular social media application used. In the Forbes Magazine, Jayson DeMers comments about instagram, “With 200 million monthly users, Instagram has become the network when it comes to image-based social media marketing.”(DeMers). Instagram allows people to share pictures with their followers. Huge portions of instagram accounts are celebrity based. Celebrities are using instagram to promote themselves and the brand they are attached to. Many celebrities post photo with different brands they are associated with. As Instagram grows it attracts more users, so now celebrities use the app as a self-marketing tool.  The more followers, the more likely they will be talked about and the more likely they can increase their self-branding.

            I believe Instagram is a great way for celebrities to enhance their values of endorsements. This is because the more likes celebrities receive on their instagram photos, the more likely companies with pay or send them free items, in order for them to post a photo with their brands. In Q Scores Blog: The Value of Celebrity Endorsements, Henry Schafer comments, “Q Scores identify the most enthusiastic consumers of a personality, character or licensed property, program, or brand. Derived from our data collection model of the Favorites Concept, the Q Scores measure of likeability is an important predictor of greater consumer involvement”(Henry). The more popular the celebrity, the more likely they are to sell a produce. I think that the more celebrities promote themselves, the more they expand their brands.  Many celebrities have extremely high number of followers. For example, Kim Kardashian posted a photo about how she wanted to break the Internet.  The photo was outlandish but went viral. The purpose of this photo was to expand her fan base and to expand the Kardashian brand.  The more publicity the photo gets, the more the celebrities’ brands go up. In 3 More Reasons for Brands to Use Instagram to Boost Influence and Drive Sales, Justin Rezvani states, “Instagram is a unique medium for brand advertising unlike any other platform in the social space. The visually driven community allows users to communicate in the universal language of photos and videos, opening the world to the possibility of more "humanized'' content.”(Rezvani).

Marketing and promoting has change throughout the years. Now with a single photo, celebrities can promote anything they want. I think one of the best celebrities that contribute to their own brand is Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift keeps her followers updated on her life and promotes new projects through her photos. For example, when her new album was coming out she had a countdown. Each day for 10 day she posted a different photo through Instagram to keep her followers interested in what her big news was. I found that by her doing this, it had people talking about her and the music she makes.

 There are other social media platforms celebrities can use, but I believe that Instagram is the best way to directly connect with fans. Instagram is the easiest way for celebrities to keep their personal brands alive. I think that celebrities use Instagram because it is convenient for them. According to Business Insider, the most popular celebrity on instagram is Kim Kardashian and then Beyoncé.  Both of these celebrities use social media to stay relevant and connect with their fans. Beyoncé did not announce she was making another album but solely relied on social media to trend the image she posted. Kim Kardashian uses Instagram to not only promote her own self-brand but also the endorsements she receives. There are millions of people on Instagram that follow their favorite celebrities.  The more pictures celebrities’ posts, the more likes they will get and the more recognition they will receive to their self-brand.

 Works Cited

DeMers, Jayson. "The Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2015." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 19 Nov. 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.<http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/11/19/the-top-7-social-media-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2015/ >

Rezvani, Justin. "3 More Reasons for Brands to Use Instagram to Boost Influence and Drive Sales." Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2015 <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237554>

Kosoff, Maya. "The 79 Most Popular Instagrammers In The World." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 06 Jan. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.<http://www.businessinsider.com/79-most-popular-people-on-instagram-in-the-world-2015-1#1-kim-kardashian-79>

Schafer, Henry. "Q Scores Blog: The Value of Celebrity Endorsements." Q Scores Blog: The Value of Celebrity Endorsements. QScores, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.<http://qscores.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-value-of-celebrity-endorsements.html>

Abigail Sisti 

Celebrity Crisis or Marketing Ploy?

When you think of celebrity “crisis” events you might think of Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, or more recently Beyonce and Jay Z. How are these celebrities’crisis teams performing? Perhaps the question should be are they doing anything? After looking more into crisis management for celebrities I’ve realized that much of what you think would be a panicked attempt to cover up stuff, are actually fabricated marketing ploys. An exception to that is Justin; he’s actually a complete train wreck. But as far as Beyonce, Jay Z and Miley some people say their “problems” in the media have generated more good than bad. And as Miley has publically shared before, all press is good press.

It’s not hard to see Miley Cyrus has come a long way since her Hannah Montana days. And while much of what she does is a bit risky and outrageous, is it a marketing strategy? Miley’s original brand was with Hannah Montana and Disney. In order to break this she let her bad girl shine through and completely destroyed any trace of Hannah. So while at first glance you may think that her camp was diffusing bombs left and right, they were probably sitting back hoping it would work. This is not always true though, in the To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter by Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd we see that the Internet has a huge impact on celebrities. This includes their feuds and “authentic moments” where they might not be behaving their best. The article mentions that Miley was feuding with Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato after posting a parody mocking them. We learned that “Cyrus, Lovato, and Gomez have publicly denied a feud and were photographed in late 2008 having dinner, presumably a staged event as damage control to counteract fallout from the rumors”(Marwick). While much of what we perceive as Miley trying to break her Disney image there are also instances of her going over the line. One of these times is when she “bullied” Snead O’Connor. In the clip below you can see the fallout occur. The question becomes how much of this is part of a marketing plan or how much is actual bad behavior? Should her team be doing more to save her image, or do they like the bad girl, care free Miley? If her attempt is to wipe any existence of Hannah Montana away, I think she’s succeeded ten fold, and even crossed the line to raunchy and disrespectful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWW_Y5JHTnc

One couple that teeters between crisis and marketing strategy is Beyonce and Jay Z. Mentioned in a Billboard article by Joe Lynch, celebrity publicist Jonathan Hay shares,  “Always consider the timing in these situations” Hays says.  “That staged elevator fight hit the news immediately before the release of their On The Run tour trailer video. The fight gives regular news stations –beyond just entertainment news—a headline, which broadens their audience” (Lynch).  On the other end of this Jordan Sargent, a Gawker staff writer shared that she believed this was not suppose to happen and it was the first time they experienced a media controversy that they hadn’t controlled. Jay Z got the brunt of this media – and it wasn't positive (Lynch). If it was a crisis, the response could partially be the Instagram picture we see in the Huffington Post article making number 8 on the list of Instagram moments (Marcus). I think Beyonce has done a good job of diffusing rumors with her Mrs. Carter tour and multiple photos and sightings as a family.

Another celebrity I think we can all agree needs an awesome crisis management team is Justin Bieber. There is no doubt his issues aren’t planned marketing ploys, just bad behavior. As we see in the article Biebs Behaving Badly he has made many bad decisions that have caused bad press and resulted in him losing fans. He got a DUI, spit on a neighbor, assaulted a limo driver, and had his body guards carry him up the Great Wall of China to name a few (Biebs Behaving Badly). However, his recent efforts to revamp his image have not gone unnoticed by the media. In a BBC article it explains that Justin stated ““I didn't know what I was getting myself into," he said about being discovered by Usher at the age of 14. “There were moments I am proud of. And there are moments I am disappointed with myself for. But the things I have done, don't define who I am. I am a kind-hearted person who loves people. And through it all, I have lost some of my best qualities. For that, I'm sorry. I am looking forward to being someone you can all be proud of””(BBC). Do you think these apologies will help him? And do you think he can salvage his image? While some may be skeptical and refuse to like him at least they can enjoy the upcoming Comedy Central Roast where celebrities such as Kevin Hart, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Will Ferrell and Martha Stewart (to name some) get to throw their digs (BBC). I think that his efforts will pay off and some people will forgive his misbehavior. Also now that he’s working on music again fans will be eager to accept his apology and take a listen.

Works Cited

"Biebs Behaving Badly." Entertainment Weekly 21 Feb. 2014: 14.

"Justin Bieber Says Sorry for Tabloid Headlines after Comedy Central Roast." BBC News. BBC, 15 Mar. 2015. Web. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/31896345>.

Lynch, Joe. "Jay Z, Beyonce and the Rumor Mill: Who's Pulling the Strings?" Billboard. N.p., 5 Aug. 2014. Web. <http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6207049/jay-z-beyonce-on-the-run-tour-rumors-media>.

Marcus, Stephanie. "Top Celebrity Moments of 2014, According to Instagram." The Huffington Post. 16 Dec. 2014. Web.

Marwick, Alice and Danah Boyd, “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter,” Convergence 17.2 (2011): 139 – 158.

"Miley Cyrus Evolution: Good Girl Gone Bad Or Marketing Genius?" YouTube. Latest Breaking News, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWW_Y5JHTnc>.

According to marketwatch.com, the idea behind celebrity endorsements is pretty simple: “People like celebrities. If those celebrities say that they like a product, people will like that product, too.” (Sager) But is this really the case? Companies are paying celebrities a whole lot of money to endorse their brand or product, but what if that celebrity is not well liked?

            Lets take a look back to Kim Kardashian’s super bowl ad, and let me just say that if T-Mobile was looking for a well liked celebrity, in my eyes, they failed. 

          Yes, Kim K was essentially making fun of herself by taking all the “selfies,” but then the commercial turned into being all about her, and by the end, people forgot what T-Mobile was even trying to endorse. There was a lot of backlash to the commercial and, like always, viewers took to Twitter to talk about how they felt. People were tweeting things like “I just lost seconds of my life from that ad” and even started a hashtag called #Stopkim. (Chavez, Parker)

            According to Henry Schafer’s article, The Value of Celebrity Endorsments, it is really important for the endorser to have a connection and be compatible with the brand that they are endorsing. Adam Levine is a perfect example of this. We all know he is one if the endorsers for Proactive, but instead of the company just getting a celebrity to say “Hey, use this product it works,” they used someone like Adam Levine who used to have acne, and they even used his before and after pictures to give him the credibility. The same goes for Jennifer Hudson and Jessica Simpson for Weight Watchers. Marketers used the same tactics where they showed their before and after pictures and, in my opinion, was a more humble way of endorsing a weight loss program. As opposed to Kim and Klohe Kardashian’s QuickTrim endorsement that just included them waking around in a bikini basically saying “Hey, use this it works,” and then it ended up being banned in Australia.

            On the other hand, Kevin Harrington talks about how it is not even worth it for a company to have a celebrity endorse their product or brand, saying that “Rather than spend too much time and way too much money on Beyonce or Justin Bieber to sing the praises of your product you’d be far better served to invest that money back into your company.” (Harrington)

 To be honest, I can see where he is coming from with this. Everyone has a different opinion on celebrities and although I may love Adam Levine (I mean, who wouldn’t) there may be some people who aren’t very fond of him. Even if that certain celebrity endorsing your brand has a great reputation, if the next day they are in the tabloids for a DUI, your brand may be screwed.

            The point I am trying to make is that if people do not like a certain celebrity, it could affect the brand in a negative way. “Using a celebrity in your advertising or promotion can draw huge attention to your product or service, but it comes at a cost.” (Harrington)      

            So now the real question is: Do these celebrity-endorsed ads really work? In an article written on marketcharts.com, a study was done to see if celebrity endorsed ads had a positive difference on consumers. It shows that in 2013 only 45% of United States adults said that they made a large or some positive difference and 51% said they made little to non. The same article did another study where they compared celebrity endorsed vs. non-celebrity endorsed ads. The results, as shown in the chart below, found that celebrity endorsed ads had less of an effect than non-celebrity endorsed ads.

             So in the end, there are many factors to consider when using a celebrity to endorse your brand such as, being compatible with the brand they are endorsing, and whether or not they have a positive image in the media. Or, you can just forget about having a celebrity endorser all together.

Works Cited

Harrington, Kevin. "Save Your Money: Celebrity Endorsements Not Worth The Cost." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinharrington/2014/01/31/save-your-money-celebrity-endorsements-not-worth-the-cost/2/>.

"How Influential Are Celebrities? (Updated)." MarketingCharts. 7 Feb. 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2015. <http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/are-celebrities-that-influential-38018/>.

Parker, Heidi. "Kim Kardashian Gets Slammed on Twitter for Her New Super Bowl T-Mobile Ad Where She Shows off Her Body While Taking Selfies ." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 4 Feb. 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2935739/Kim-Kardashian-gets-slammed-Twitter-new-Superbowl-T-Mobile-ad-shows-body-taking-selfies.html>.

Sager, Ryan. "Do Celebrity Endorsements Work?" MarketWatch. 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 28 Mar. 2015. <http://www.marketwatch.com/story/do-celebrity-endorsements-work-1300481444531>.

"The Value of Celebrity Endorsements." QScores.com 27 Jan. 2014. Web.