Influencer Marketing vs. Celebrity Endorsement: Know The Difference
Do you also think that a herd of businesses are rushing to get themselves noticed and marketing isn’t a walk in the park anymore?
You are right!
Regular marketing channels such as social media or even traditional media have been saturated because of it. Almost everything has already been tried and tested by brands.
Today, the game is to bring something new to the market and not rub off old techniques in consumers’ faces. Nowadays, targeting the new generation of users, and earning their trust is best done through familiar, trustworthy faces. It doesn’t matter if you own a small business or a big brand, you should know that to be able to influence people’s purchasing decisions, influencer marketing has taken up a novel space in recent years and celebrity endorsements have been in this game since forever.
While both these techniques utilize famous people to gain user’s trust and eventually get them to make a purchasing decision, they are still different in so many ways. As you keep on reading, you will know the key differences between both and you’ll probably be able to derive which one will work best for your brand.
Let’s get started!
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing leverages ‘influence’ to target the users and eventually get them to purchase. Brands usually collaborate with influencers (preferably in their niche) with a loyal and engaging follower base on social media. Not just this, it’s equally important to get your brand, or product promoted in an authentic and relatable way.
Businesses usually look for influencers in their niche i.e., health-sector influencers for a health product, fitness influencers for a gym/gym essentials, etc., and reach a more relevant audience through trustworthy faces. These influencers can nudge their user base to sign up, buy a product, visit a website, and make the users move ahead in their buying journey.
For example, brands like Ripped Up Nutrition & MuscleBlaze collaborating with fitness influencers on Instagram is a perfect example of targeted influencer marketing.
Similarly, skincare brands collaborating with beauty influencers on Instagram is also a very effective way to reach the right audience whilst generating trust.
As per the budget of your brand, you can reach out to influencers in your niche and get your brand across to a relevant audience. Based on the follower count, reach, and engagement, you can take a call on which influencers will bring the best outcome to your brand.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
- Reach as precise as the GPS
It’s rare but delightful to witness an influencer establish a connection with a certain niche or audience. While brands target users on a wider base or at best, based on data, influencers have the privilege to attract the right customers. In the umbrella of a brand’s overall strategy, influencer marketing lies in the zone of a ‘focused approach’. Since users are more likely to believe someone they trust over a brand, influencer marketing is the big thing in the market and will only continue to grow bigger.
- Product trust at max!
The trust and credibility that the influencer has built with their audience are put to use for your brand when you opt for influencer marketing. Hence, research well and list down the influencers that make sense to your product/service. Because the user watches these influencers daily and subconsciously starts looking up to them, and when they market your product, it’s looked at with utmost relatability and authenticity.
- Content more authentic than brand ads.
On a day-to-day basis, influencers strive to create relatable, share-worthy content that resonates with their audience and eventually increases their reach and follower count. When you shortlist relevant influencers, your product/service promotion will seamlessly fit into their content and you won’t need extra effort to set the context, make a script, get the brand as shot, and ensure it sounds relatable, all this but in the end sounding salesy and over promotional.
While influencer marketing sounds all sunshine and rainbows, you need to be pretty careful with the kind of influencer you choose for your brand. Because influencers usually create their own content, you have to find influencers that truly understand your brand.
Celebrity Endorsement
When a brand partners with a big celebrity, musician, artist, etc, and uses their fame to sell their product/service, that’s what celebrity endorsement is. This famous celebrity will appear in your ads, print ads, products, and any other digital media touchpoints that you use. This technique has been pretty old in the market and brands have been doing it since the 80s, Pears being the first brand to do it. Here is how they did it.
As celebrity endorsements have been prevalent in the market, a lot of other brands have tried it and still run it even after years. Here are some examples for you to look at.
Celebrity endorsements are a great option when a brand/product is being launched. A famous face not only creates a good hook but also generates memorability in the brand’s users. Because why would someone care about a regular brand being launched vs a brand being launched with a celebrity face? The intrigue and curiosity that’s driven in users’ minds for celebrities is put to good use by brands when opting for celebrity endorsements.
Because of these celebrities’ large fanbase, users look at the brand in a certain way which also impacts their purchasing decisions. Users start to trust a brand even before the purchasing decision. Well, they aren’t all wrong because which celebrity will let a brand that is not verified or credible, use their face?
Benefits of Celebrity Endorsement
- Brand Love Incoming
Celebrity endorsements bring a spike in brand exposure and can help differentiate it from other competitors in the market. As an outcome, the brand gets more visibility amongst the users, especially newly launched brands. If you look at it with a long-term lens, it brings more brand awareness and sales.
- Emotional connection towards the brand
Let’s say there are 10 similar makeup brands in the market targeting a similar audience. Users would not try out new brands on their skin/hair without trusting them, right? This is where celebrity endorsements can help. Celebrities hold the power to evoke emotions in their fanbase’s minds. Users can develop a similar emotion towards your brand when they spot their favorite celebrities endorsing it. Not just this, users would want to adopt their lifestyle choices, preferences, etc which can help you big time in promoting your brand.
The best example of this is Nike’s partnership with Michael Jordan. People didn’t just buy should, they bought a dream and a legacy.
- The Paparazzi, in real!
This is a pretty obvious one. The media is obsessed with celebrities and is known to stalk them, their lifestyles, their food choices, etc.
When you get a celebrity to endorse your brand, it’s pretty obvious to get the media’s attention as part of a ‘buy 1, get 1’ offer, lol. Magazines, news channels, social media, the word is out there, everywhere. Though it may be high in budget for maximum brands, the ones that go for celebrity endorsements are known to get universal visibility and acceptance.
Key Differences: Celebrity Endorsement vs Influencer Marketing
If influencer marketing vs celebrity endorsement was the topic of a debate, it would last all night! Because both techniques are unique in themselves. Even though there are tons of differences between a celebrity and an influencer, a brand should know which face will work well for them. A celebrity with high recognition or an influencer with great reach in their niche, the choice is yours. Before you decide, let’s look at some of the factors that will affect your choice
Reach and Target Audience:
It’s as simple as 2+2 in mathematics- the more you add, the more you get. If you have the budget for a celebrity endorsement, you can end up with a nationwide visibility, and a larger user base. If you have a regular budget to grow the business, you can reach a specific niche audience through influencers. A larger audience can be reached through celebrities compared to influencers. However, with influencer marketing, you reach a focused group of people relevant to your business.
Authenticity and Trust:
Influencers are known to be more authentic as they are passionately sharing their lives and interests on social media on a day-to-day basis. This automatically develops authenticity and more trust with the users. If you compare this to celebrity endorsements, they are looked at as more of a ‘manufactured’ promotion, which can lead to lesser trust and authenticity.
When influencers promote products, users feel much closer to the product even before buying while when celebrities promote a brand, they still lack the level of authenticity that influencer marketing offers.
Cost:
Influencer marketing consumes lesser costs than celebrity endorsements, always!
While celebrity faces come at a higher price, influencers have proven to be really cost-effective, especially for small businesses. Even if you are starting your brand with zero marketing budget, you will find influencers who will create content in exchange for just goods and services. If you have a limited price and resources that you can afford, starting with micro-influencers will be the best way to go.
Engagement:
Engagement on a certain brand is equally proportional to the created content. The higher the content quality, the more engagement it gets. Influencers create their own content and would be open to taking your suggestions while celebrities have lesser control over their content. As a result, this makes celebrity content less relatable (more fantasy-driven) than influencer content. Though celebrity endorsements have a national/global reach, influencers have their own knack for engaging with their audience.
Lenskart: Celebrity endorsement
Celebrity vs Influencer: Choosing the Right Strategy
Factors to consider:
| Business Goals | If you are looking for credibility building, and prestige to be associated with your brand, celebrity endorsements are your way to go but in case you are targeting lead generation and conversions, start with influencer marketing and see those numbers rising! |
| Industry | If you are from a luxury industry such as cosmetics, fashion, automobiles, etc, celebrity endorsements can work wonders but if you are from an experience-driven industry such as fitness, gadgets, food items, etc, influencer marketing is a better option to reach more audience. |
| Brand Direction | Long-term brand building? Celebrity endorsements! Short-term agile campaigns? Influencer marketing! |
| Cost | As you must have already figured, if you have the budgets for over-priced celebrity contracts, and production, your brand is aiming for new heights already. If you are working on a cost-effective model, smaller campaigns with micro-influencers are a good way to start. |
| Target User Base | As you start your brand, celebrity endorsements will be a good choice if you wish to reach a larger user base with your launch. But if you are a brand strategically launching itself and expanding as per the audience’s response, influencer marketing will give you greater insights at minimal costs. |
| Brand Trust | Everyone knows how celebrities will promote anything if given enough money which eventually makes the perception of it very transactional. Hence if you are looking for stronger personal relationships, experience-driven genuine sales, and trust, influencer marketing is your way to go. |
When to choose influencer marketing:
If you are from an experience or product-driven experience-driven industry and want your brand to target a specific audience with a limited budget, that’s when influencer marketing can work wonders for you.
When to choose celebrity endorsement:
If you are from a prestige-driven industry and want your brand to achieve mass awareness in one go and create a brand perception of legacy and luxury, that’s when celebrity endorsements can work wonders for you.
Conclusion
Nowadays, there is no one way to succeed for brands. To reach the maximum marketing potential, a good mix of both influencer marketing and celebrity endorsements can go a long way!
If you are a small business or a newly launched brand with a limited budget, you can start with influencer marketing and expand towards celebrities as per the goodness received from the brand.
Happy Marketing!