There’s no doubt about it, celebrity appearances are one of the best ways to boost sales and branding. Having a celebrity endorse your organization with an appearance can instantly change its public perception by inspiring consumer confidence, credibility, and legitimacy. Their likeness will grab the audiences’ attention and add a touch of curiosity to your event, which increases the buzz and attendance around it.
But how will you prepare for the engagement to make the most out of it in terms of promotion? Here we’ll discuss some ways to maximize those celebrity appearances from a photography and marketing point of view.
Logistical Details
There’s so many details to go over when planning a celebrity appearance. But one of the main tasks is to share your plan with the celebrity to make sure they approve what you have in store. This will eliminate confusion and any awkwardness that comes up the day of, so your special guest doesn’t feel uncomfortable!
Be sure to discuss what sort of photography and videos will be taken and whether you can use them for future marketing material. It also may be necessary to ask whether you can use your logo in the media as well.
Strategies and Techniques to Maximize Celebrity Appearances
Hire a Professional
Saying this may sound a little redundant but the point still needs to be made! Always hire your own professional photographer and/or videographer so you’ll be certain to have your own future marketing materials.
This gives you full control over the quality and distribution of any media assets. Especially since nonprofessionals may take unflattering or unusable photos, with a professional event photographer you’ll always get quality, high-resolution images from multiple perspectives. And they can also add options like retouching, logos/watermarks, and exclusive online galleries where attendees can view, download, and share photos from the event.
Step & Repeats
This is pretty much standard when you have a celebrity appearance. It’s a great opportunity to get some images of them with your logo, with a clear indication that they’re representing your brand and company. These images can be posted all over social media, news outlets, magazines, and other print and online material so that every photo includes your logo and delivers consistent messaging that appears wherever they’re posted.
It’s also a great way to stage shots if the celebrity is taking photos with multiple sets of people or doing a meet and greet. If you want some tips on how to run a smooth meet and greet, we got you covered in this article!
Arrange an Interview
Interviews produce tons of great content that you can use later on in the future.
In addition to getting the celebrity to talk about your company or themes you’re focusing on, you can get videos, sound bites, photos, and quotes related directly to your brand.
Live Streaming
Live streaming is becoming an increasingly more popular feature to add to event coverage. By providing a live look into the event, it offers a more intimate and authentic way to share it and gives the audience a cool “exclusive look” which can arouse curiosity. And since many platforms now offer a live stream feature (like Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram) it actually boosts the video’s discoverability!
If you want to learn more about what live-streaming does for you, read our article about how we implemented live streaming at MPI’s ACE19 expo!
Videos!
Lastly, this goes with much of what we’ve already discussed but we can’t stress enough the importance of collecting as much video content of the event as possible. Video compilations of those celebrity personalities sharing their thoughts about your event can go a long way into improving your PR and advertisements or promotional material in the future. You can read more about the power of videos in marketing in this article, but in general they’re just very appealing content that attracts the most viewers and engages them the longest.
In addition, try to get some “behind-the-scenes” shots of the event and interactions that happen between the big moments! People are interested with what goes on in those intimate moments so they’ll tune in especially when a celebrity is involved. It’s also just a great way to show the authentic, genuine site to the event, celebrity, and your company.
Final thoughts
The biggest tip we can give you is to BE PREPARED! Sometimes the appearance only lasts for a half-hour so proper execution is paramount. Due to everyone’s hectic schedule, remember to arrange your celebrity testimonials, PR photos, and any other big moments before the event.
These engagements can seem like a huge undertaking, but they are marketing GOLD. Your event can be a huge hit with the industry professionals and any fans of the celebrity you secured. Make sure you consider every aspect from every point of view so when the day comes, everything will run smoothly and you might actually get to enjoy the event yourself!
