Ciara and her daughter host the unveiling of the holiday window for our client American Girl, which also featured a doll by Swarovski.

Friendly request from afar: I know we’re all feeling a combo of anxious and disconnected and occasionally distracted out of our minds. But...can we all ease up on our social channels just a touch?

Oops - I said that out loud. KIDDING! Crazy talk coming from someone who runs an agency for influencer and celebrity marketing.

And yet. If the social numbers stay in the stratosphere, my brand clients (and all of the other unfortunate brands who aren’t my clients) have got to work even smarter at connecting with consumers.

Long before Corona time, traditional brand advertising and promotion stopped being enough on its own. Now, the pandemic-driven social media spike is making it tougher for brands to break through the saturated social-scape.

Brand marketers are working overtime to stay on radar while communicating sensitively. Heck, with all of the old-fashioned, fat n’ happy production shoots now on a Keto diet, brands have had to get mighty creative to communicate at all.

Brands understand that they have to connect with consumers in organic and empathetic ways. Now more than ever.

That’s why celebs and influencers are so perfect for this delicate moment. They’ve long been dominant as effective brand ambassadors. And, PS - they’re experts at inexpensive, DIY storytelling on the fly. Pretty helpful amidst current communication complications.

With the world reeling, celebs and influencers are talking to their communities in different ways. They’ve downshifted from pure aspiration and upleveled to a place of more heart.

Also read: Celebrity and Influencer Marketing is Shifting from Aspirational to Inspirational. Just Like Your Brand.

And therein lies the modern-day secret of all brand marketing.

(drum roll, please....)

A subhead to add a dramatic pause

(drum roll continues…..)

Ready?

Here we go:

Authenticity.

Amidst our noisy, battered, crowded social ecosystem, authenticity is more essential now than ever.

Like a wizened Yenta matchmaker (with a youthful Botox glow), I’ve spent years connecting brands with celebrity and influencer talent. And once I’ve got the blushing bride and handsome groom marching down the aisle (or groom-groom/ bride-bride/ and any combo thereof), I then turn into an expert doula, helping to birth fabulous branded content that clicks.

Amidst brand marketing weddings and content babies, here’s what I know for sure:

Don’t ever try to match your brand with a celebrity and influencer who isn’t wildly crazy about you. Like a shotgun wedding, it never works.

If the celebrity or influencer isn’t gushing about your brand - if their connection doesn’t feel real - then the endorsement might as well be vapor. It will disappear without a trace.

Right along with your budget.

There’s a positive flip side to this. When a brand aligns with talent that genuinely loves them, the result is Notebook-worthy magic. They hold each other in the rain, everyone cries, and the audience is hooked.

THAT’S what you want.

That and Ryan Gosling.

But I digress.

Brand marketing memories: celeb gifting

Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, jLow and Vanessa Hudgens all wearing Juicy Couture — Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, jLoand Vanessa Hudgens all wearing Juicy Couture

Contrast this curated matchmaking approach to the way that brands used to try to connect with celebrities and influencers.

Authenticity was a wild shot in the dark.

Back in the ancient days, when dinosaurs roamed Wilshire Blvd., PR agencies would help brands spend beaucoup bucks to gift celebrities boxes of free product. All in the hopes that talent might be caught wearing it.

Celebrity gifting….“genius” tactic. Just spend all of your dough spoiling celebs and hope the karmic gamble works.

Once in a raaaaare while, it did.

The Juicy Couture brand took off with this “let’s put all of our money on red at the casino tables” approach. Stars (like JLo, back when she was Jenny on the Block) started wearing the groovy free matching velour tracksuits (omg - remember?) that showed up on their doorsteps and in their gift bags.

The brand became such a mega success that the look defined the early aughts. Much as some of us may now regret said look when flipping through our pre-cell phone photos...cuz most of us can’t pull off velour like JLo or Paris Hilton.

Juicy Couture aside, this lavish longshot never worked for most brands. Brand marketers were left with sunk costs, sheer embarrassment, and a lotta ‘splainin’ to do.

Even when a celebrity happened to like the free product that brands threw at them, the effort still often went to waste.

For example: I recall a high-end baby stroller brand, one that shall go unnamed to protect the innocent.

They gifted a celebrity with one of their strollers and - surprise! The new mom just happened to love the stroller and carted it around everywhere.

Big win, right?

Not so fast.

The paparazzi shots that caught this mom star on the go never mentioned the stroller name. The logo was nowhere to be found (this hurts me to even type), and the celebrity herself never gave a shout-out to this brand.

The stroller might as well have been invisible. (*Cue the sad trombone sound.)

Brand marketing memories, part 2: house set-ups

In the evolution of celebrity and influencer marketing, the “random free gifting era” gave way to the “house set-ups” age.

Once again, this wasn’t a real authentic-lovin’ approach.

Brands would rent a jaw-dropping house for a month in a glam spot like Malibu and stock the manse with giftable products for celebrities. Clothes, towels, sun products, furniture, art - all of it would be donated by a collection of brands so that celebrities could sample the goods. And, hopefully, spread the word by being photographed with these vast array of awesome products.

I spent many a weekend in these literal fun houses, watching my celebrity or brand clients collide through real world product placements. All in the shape of epic, paparazzi-filled bashes.

Talk about breaking the fourth wall. With house set-ups, even the walls were covered with product.

Every room, every drawer, every surface was awash with sponsored products to impress the celeb party guests. From fake tanning booths set up for spray tan products to closets bursting with luxe clothes, brands turned these houses into a free giveaway extravaganza. Any and every stop was pulled - all in the hopes that a star would get captured with the product by a roving staff photographer.

The results were always mixed. These weren’t romantic love affairs for the ages. More like cheap motel hookups that usually left brands with a nasty hangover.

From product promotion to content development

Since then, these house set-ups have evolved. Instead of focusing on products that are laid out for celebs and influencers to “sample” (or more accurately, abscond with), now we see content development houses.

Also read: The 3 C’s of Brand Marketing Right Now

The Hype House. The Clubhouse. The Sway House. All real-life playpens where influencers live and work together for the express purpose of creating content that can lightly integrate brands when the moment calls for it.

These content houses have exploded in recent months. So much so that everyone - the houses, the brands, the talent - are scrambling to win the upper hand in the fabulous collab deals. (That is, when they’re not dealing with Corona-driven shutdowns by the L.A. mayor.)

The good news: the authenticity factor is pretty high in these marketing arrangements. Because authenticity is what now fuels successful branded content development.

It’s all about shared values

Today, the strategic marketing move is to leave nothing to chance. I work with brands to engage celebrities and influencers upfront, ensuring that the marketing spend actually yields valuable content.

And authenticity drives everything.

Clients need to guarantee that the brand narrative is included within the organic story. But beyond that, I always encourage brands to let the celebrities and influencers steer the content in ways that ring true to their voice.

The last thing you want is for an influencer to post scripted ad copy that screams fake. So please, brands, stop thinking you know how to put words into the mouths of the talent you hired. YOU DON’T. You may know your product, but the talent knows how to reach their followers.

Authenticity will make or break your celebrity and influencer marketing. When your talent is fully committed to your brand or cause, they have enormous power to positively affect their audience’s interest in you. And right now, the alignment of caring influencers and brands to make a difference is a seismic way to engage audiences in a genuine connection.

For example: I sent health and wellness influencer Jen Selter to the set of Titan Games, where she posted to her 12 million followers as she tried out the set. Jen had a blast and got her audience revved up about watching the show….because they could see that she was, indeed, truly having a blast.

Sofie Dossi and Spencer X’s YouTube collaboration for Chips Ahoy/ Mini Reese’s and Hershey’s.

Or how about this: I inked a YouTube deal for influencer Sofie Dossi and Spencer X with Chips Ahoy’s new Mini Reese’s and Hershey’s cookies. Sofie had to get extra creative developing the content because the shoot took place just as COVID was shutting down everything and the two could not physically be together in the same room (no stress there!) But as it turned out, the organic video shoot - with Spencer appearing via robot - was pure clickbait gold, including a new song that Sofie wrote and performed on the YouTube video. Chips Ahoy! loved it, and so did her millions of followers and subscribers.

I could go on and on about the content bliss I’ve seen when a celebrity and brand find true love - from Ciara and her daughter at the American Girl Store to Neil Patrick Harris and Drew Barrymore supporting Mattel’s Creatable World gender neutral dolls designed to keep labels out and invite everyone in.

Neal Patrick Harris posted with his kids, supporting Mattel on its new inclusive doll line, Creatable World.

Nobody wants to feel sold to. People want to feel….well, they just want to feel something. Something wonderful.

Brands - you’re too special to sell yourself short. Find your true celeb or influencer love - or, better yet, have someone like me help you swipe right.

Nurture a real relationship built on an authentic connection. Then let the candid, easy, natural content just flow like honey.

Later, you can wish that ALL of your relationships were this easy.

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Kristi Kaylor is the CEO of The Loft Entertainment, L.A.’s leading (according to us, and granted, we’re biased) marketing and content development agency that helps brands leverage the power of celebrities and influencers.