Forbes
Dorothy Pomerantz, Forbes
This Sunday, almost as many people will be watching the big game for the ads as for the football. It’s the one event each year when advertisers can be fairly confident that viewers are still sitting in front of the screen when they pitch their products. Expect celebrities to feature heavily. David Beckham, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the cast from Full House are all slated for highly-anticipated Super Bowl ads. The going rate for a 30-second spot this year: $4 million. Celebrities can ad as much as an extra $1 million to the cost of an ad, depending on the celebrity.
So is that money worth it? According to a new study from Ace Metrix, the answer is, no. The research firm looked at 30,000 ads, 1,200 of which featured celebrities, and found that on average, celebrity ads underperform ads that don’t feature celebrities.
According to Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix:
Advertisers continue to invest heartily in celebrities as spokespersons or endorsers and more recently as ‘brand ambassadors’ hoping to reap financial and brand lift rewards by leveraging the popularity and social status of the public icon. But often advertisers ignore the risks such as the fleeting or narrow appeal of a particular celebrity.
Not all celebrities are worthless, according to the study, some actually do help sell. Ellen DeGeneres was considered 60% more effective than the average celebrity. The daytime talk show host shills for Cover Girl and JC Penney. (Her Penney ads may measure as effective with viewers but they haven’t helped turn around the struggling retailer.) Dean Winters is also considered a successful pitchman but most people probably wouldn’t consider him a celebrity. Winters is best known for playing Dennis Duffy on 30 Rock.
The study showed that while Jay-Z can sell music, he’s not so good at selling phones. His ads performed 50% below the celebrity average. His Magna Cartaad for Samsung was ranked as one of the least effective ads in the study.
Don’t expect the study to inspire many brands to shy away from celebrities. There’s something ephemeral about having your product associated with someone who is very glamorous. And a celebrity connection can often bring more attention to an ad and your product, especially at Super Bowl time. This ad for Soda Stream, starring Scarlett Johansson, became a viral sensation after Fox reportedly asked Soda Stream to cut the reference to Pepsi in the ad.
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