We’ve all been there. You don’t mean to, but you can’t help envying that nonprofit up the street, you know the one that snagged the well-known celebrity to support their cause. The funds must be rolling in for them, right?
Well, your green-eyed gaze just might be misdirected. Harris Interactive recently released the results of a poll showing that the picture is more complicated than that. Just over half (51 percent) of Americans surveyed say that, “celebrities make little or no positive difference to the issue they are promoting,” while 45 percent state that celebrities “make a large or some positive difference.”
The poll also showed that the age of those surveyed made a difference in perceptions, with older adults being less swayed by a celebrity presence than youth.
However, as the poll notes, “One thing Americans say they have not done is support a cause or gotten more information on one because of something they heard an actor, singer or other celebrity say or do. Just 15 percent have done so compared to 85 percent who have not.”
So, before you spend time courting a celebrity to be your spokesperson, consider if this is the best place to put your energies, that is unless you can get a hold of Oprah.
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4 comments:
Ive worked on campaigns where having a celebrity endorsement has made a huge difference in the amount and frequency of a donors support.
I think that celebrity endorsement of a campaign, can certainly have the effect of affirming and positively reinforcing a donor's initial decision.
In my line of work, donors constantly refer to one source or another as an authoritative factor in what, or why they should give. One example would be Jimmy Carter's work for Habitat For Humanity.
Thanks for blogging about this.
I've used celebrities as figureheads for events and community initiatives, and as endorsements within individual giving campaigns; where they were clearly aligned with the cause and the target audience.
The campaigns have always been successful ones, and feedback from supporters has always been very positive (often in the form of letters addressed to the celebrity).
I've never had the opportunity to test whether having the endorsement got a better return on investment vs the same approach without though.
It would be really interesting to hear about anyone that has and what the result was.
It works when it is genuine. When the celebrity wants to be involved and when they are active. A face for the sake of it....waste of time
If you have the right celebrity involved and they are passionate about why their endorsing in the first place, thats great! To get a celebrity just because and it being only about how much they will make in the end, thats a no no.
Check out uPlej.com. Its the new way individuals, charities and businesses can donate to charity through social networking. Survivor winner Todd Herzog, Nathan/David Osmond (sons of Alan Osmond/Osmond Brothers), Thurl Bailey, etc. are passionate about and support this site.
www.uplej.com
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