Building celebrity brands — Lanie Shalek // Jobi

Celebrity and brand partnerships can be an expensive slippery slope, especially if there's no product-celebrity fit. How do you identify products for the right celebrity? What should your go-to-market strategy be in a saturated market? Who better to learn these things from than someone who has been finding the proper product categories, matching them to the right celebrities, and funding the go-to-market? Listen to the conversation as Lanie Shalek, the Director of Growth Marketing at Jobi, discusses building celebrity brands.
About the speaker

Lanie Shalek

Jobi

 - Jobi

Lanie Shalek is Director of Growth Marketing at Jobi Capital

Show Notes

  • 01:58
    What is Jobi Capital, and how do they serve celebrities and brands?
    In addition to fundraising the capital, Jobi is a venture studio that does extensive research into categories to pair that with the right celebrity.
  • 03:05
    How Jobi Capital finds insights into which brand is suitable for a particular celebrity
    Jobi does a lot of research into the category before determining that this is the direction we want to build a brand.
  • 05:15
    After the brand and celebrity match, what is the go
    Direct-to-consumer and owned media is a crucial strategy given the rising cost of media buying and the difficulty in getting earned media.
  • 07:44
    Standing out in a saturated celebrity market
    Some categories are more saturated than othersfor example, the beauty space. Almost every celebrity has created a beauty brand. You have to consider the market size when choosing a category. Also, an effective product will sell itself and make the celebrity influence much more rewarding.
  • 09:58
    How to identify the right product for the right celebrity?
    Authenticity is critical, and there also needs to be strong storytelling for the brands for it to make sense.
  • 11:23
    What is authenticity?
    A celebrity must care and truly like the product they are endorsing or promoting.
  • 13:54
    Keep your marketing up to date to stay relevant
    Marketing has changed a lot, and more changes are coming. Stay up to date, talk to other marketers and learn as much as possible.

Quotes

  • "Jobi pairs the category, the celebrity, and the operator and then provides internal resources." - Lanie Shalek

  • "We do a lot of research into the category before determining that this is the direction we want to build a brand. So, for example, who are the other players out there in the home care space? We speak to different consumers and run qualitative and quantitative research to discover what would make sense within this category. And then, when we're looking at the celebrities, we make a shortlist of them that makes sense to that specific category." - Lanie Shalek

  • "There are still ways for a celebrity to break through the clutter, like whitelisting out the celebrities account and using their audiences on Facebook to build lookalike audiences. So, in addition to owning that lead gen piece and driving people to grow your Instagram following, you get backend access, which also helps marketing costs a lot." - Lanie Shalek

  • "Some categories are more saturated than othersfor example, the beauty space. Almost every celebrity has created a beauty brand. And for that, it is super hard to break through the clutter. That's also something we look at when considering a category we want to go into, making sure that we can own a market size." - Lanie Shalek

  • "To succeed with celebrity branding, there needs to be the authentic piece and making sure there's that product-celebrity fit. In addition, the brand needs to have a strong story to make sense." - Lanie Shalek

  • "It's super important that authenticity piece in place where brands work with people who care and like the product, and that makes a huge difference." - Lanie Shalek

  • "From a performance standpoint, what performs content-wise is to be more authentic, even if it's a celebrity. If it's a selfie with a product and them speaking authentically to the camera, that will crush it versus a studio shoot image." - Lanie Shalek

About the speaker

Lanie Shalek

Jobi

 - Jobi

Lanie Shalek is Director of Growth Marketing at Jobi Capital

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