As the lead publicist of a luxury PR firm first let me say this, I am 100% against the concept of giving away freebies to celebrities to attract a brand following. This concept has a reduced lifespan for being credible and the sustainability of the luxury brand depends heavily on the branding approach.
What happens is that luxury brands create huge budgets to gift seeding celebrities. Yes, they use top celebrities as seed bait to get consumers to buy products, services, and goods. No laughing matter this concept has been around forever and it does work to increase demand.
The problem is the sustainability for the brand is often impacted in a negative way mainly because it is truly not credible. This end result makes you question why any PR firm would support this practice, as it is a fluff (fake) PR campaign targeting no real target audience and building no credible branding.
Don’t get me wrong, I never said I don’t believe in giveaways or even gifting. Education of the brand concept should be the biggest part of the branding approach, especially when offering giveaways and gifting celebrities.
Beyonce Knowles ranked among the top 10 seeding celebrities relates that she receives about 15 bags a month! Consider the bags that Beyonce likely receive are extremely high-end. Beyonce also stressed that an Armani croc bag she received as a freebie was likely to be so expensive that even she would not buy it.
I feel that a freebie gifted to a celebrity should serve a purpose. Oprah is considered the biggest brand endorsement of all times because she understands this concept. I have never ever herd Oprah Winfrey give a brand endorsement without educating consumers about the purpose of the brand, hint, hint!
At Mosnar Communications Inc we focus on building brand awareness around a branding concept. Our niche is luxury PR so we study and research how to connect with luxury consumers. Luxury brands should focus on creating luxury demands for luxury lifestyles. True PR involves a strategic plan and approach to connect with target audiences through credible media outlets.
Before you give it away build it to make it sustainable!