Celebrity influencer marketing is nothing new for big name brands: who could forget Cell-C’s adverts featuring Trevor Noah; or Tendai ‘The Beast’ Mtawarira shaving with a BIC razor; and more recently, Bouwer Bosch ‘skoffeling’ for King Price. “Having the famous and influential as ambassadors of your brand is a great way to build exposure, especially if you’re a multi-billion Rand company in a crowded market. But for most businesses – particularly those of the micro, small and medium range – significant financial and even administrative barriers have made it near impossible to enlist the help of someone famous…until now,” says Wouter Lombard, Co-founder and Head of Talent Management at myFanPark, South Africa’s leading celebrity engagement platform, connecting everyday people and businesses with more than 2,500 famous personalities in professional sports, lifestyle, and entertainment.
He continues: “As part of myFanPark’s recent technology development, we’ve made it incredibly easy for businesses to acquire instant content and promotional videos from celebrities, and at significantly cheaper prices than traditional avenues.”
Each celebrity determines their own price per request, meaning brands are able to find more affordable options than high-end production shoots. At the same time, these videos are of a more authentic and informal nature, which can also then be used on the brands’ own social media platforms or website. Lombard says that celebrities including Barry Hilton, David Kau, Casper de Vries, Willie Le Roux, Locnville and a host of social media and TikTok influencers are already offering this service to brands.
Further to this, Lombard adds that some talent on myFanPark can also provide social media interactions with brands and companies. This means that – in addition to promotional requests – brands can have celebrities share and retweet social media posts and even create content specifically for the company.
“Having the backing of a celebrity enhances your brand’s reputation and leads to higher conversion rates. In fact, findings from the Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report for 2020 have shown that celebrity and influencer marketing campaigns saw a return on investment of 1 : 5.78 – a significant return on value for small businesses who need to maximise their marketing output-to-cost ratios,[i]” notes Lombard.
He concludes by saying, “In 2021, we expect to see a significant uptick in the number of commercial requests we receive at myFanPark. This comes as the COVID-19 pandemic causes the cancelation of more events; as South African brands become more entrenched in digital marketing channels; and as consumers are able to better relate to authentic content that feels less forced.”
[i] https://influencermarketinghub.com/Influencer_Marketing_Benchmark_Report_2020.pdf
