Dixon still not famous
In the manner of all those great physicists who named laws and propositions after themselves I am planning to do the same thing, but about celebrities - let’s call it Woad’s Theory of Celebrity (WTC). You see I had an apple falling from the tree moment when I saw an article about Alesha Dixon teaming up with Toblerone. It detailed how she was scraping the last spoonful of the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ celebrity barrel and had roped the choccy brand into promoting her UK tour.
More about the promotion later. But while thinking about Dixon and what she was famous for I had a eureka moment and WTC was born. If a ‘celebrity’ is more famous after they have left a reality show than when they went in, then they were never a celebrity to begin with.
Think about it, like the laws of physics it stands up to robust testing. When Katie Price left ‘I’m a Celebrity get me out of here’ she was no more or no less famous, as was Vic Reeves. But Peter Andre, Christopher Biggins, Joe Pasquale… The list is endless. I’m going to call its Woad’s First Law of Celebrity.
As for the promotional campaign it’s a strange one. It kind of reminds me of Trident’s promotion offering tickets to see an exclusive Beyonce gig. For all my criticism of that though, at least it had some sense of scale. It was big. This is not big, this is rather small and that is strange because brand-wise you’d think Toblerone was number one.
Basically Toblerone is planning to offering free tickets, CDs and photos as well as a chance to meet Dixon herself. That’s if people remember her by then because the competition ends in September.
Comparing Toblerone/ Alesha Dixon to Trident/ Beyonce kind of reminds me of my childhood when their weren’t that many McDonalds around. Junk food was exciting so mum tried to create a home grown quarter pounder by giving you a Birds Eye beefburger in between two slices of white bread? Well that’s what the Toblerone has done here because this ain’t no Big Mac.
Stay tuned for the second law of WTC. It’s how long a reality celebrity wears off while the third is a table correlating Z-Listers to famous snacks.
Comments
Geoff, your showing your age a bit on this one my friend! Alesha has had a relatively successful recording career (not when compared to the goddess Beyonce, of course!) but her 2008 single “The Boy Does Nothing” got to No.2 in the charts and stayed in the Top 40 for 3 months. Not my cup of tea I’m glad to say but I’m not in the target demographic for pop/R&B… wrong age, race and gender (much the same as you)!
She’s with Select Model Management and has been on the covers of Cosmopolitan, FHM, Arena to name but a few. Not exactly a stratospheric career, but not too shabby… something to be proud of.
“Strictly Come Dancing” could probably be described as a low point… but she did win it I believe so that goes some way to tipping the balance in her favour.
So why the tie up with Toblerone? The brand fit looks pretty weak. Swiss mountain-shaped chocolate with a slightly higher age demographic, mainly bought as a gift in airport duty free shops… perhaps that’s the point, Kraft Foods might be trying to drive the age profile down by making it more youth/street. Risky strategy maybe? Switzerland, cuckoo clocks, International banking, Montreux Jazz Festival… it’s all a long way from pop/R&B isn’t it? Maybe the idea is to get young girls buying it for their Mum’s, they get the CD’s and Mum gets the trans-fats. Nice.
Caveman - my age frequently appears. It’s a bit like bumping into someone you don’t like in the street, no matter how many times you change your route to avoid them they always seem to be going to the same sandwich shop as you.
However in this case I’m not sure the age is entirely relevant, after all I would have been a whole year younger when the hits and covers you mentioned occurred. And I admit she was the most searched-for name in 2008 by media org’s but somehow I don’t think that’ll be the case this year.
Fair point about the brand relevance though. I can’t help but think Toblerone is simply too late or maybe the deal was cheap. After all you can get plenty of good, if slightly soiled, publicity for your tour from an on-pack campaign. Or then again maybe Toblerone is aiming for a younger demographic, after all no brand wants to do a Yardley and let their customer base die out on them.
Your comment bears more resemblance to a rant on an anti-capitalist blog for teenagers than a considered view posted on a credible website for marketing professions. Sorry, I can’t see that you’ve had a stunningly original insight, let alone come up with a new ‘law’. Tie-ins (’celebrity’ or other) are a perfectly reasonable form of marketing promotion, this is just another one.
Mark - thanks for taking the time to comment, however I can’t help but feel you’ve misunderstood the nature of the site. I’m guessing by your reference to “a credible website for marketing professions” you’re talking about Brand Republic - at least I hope that is the case and that you haven’t picked that up from looking at this site. CSO, while commenting on celebs on and brands hooking up, is intended to be irreverent. It is not insight for marketers looking to use celebrities - although sometimes I think it should be. Unlike other BR blogs, which are all skinned within the BR frame, it is intentionally kept separate primarily to avoid people mixing it up with Haymarket sites which are designed for marketing professionals.
OK fair point, Geoffrey the Teenager. Almost an arm’s length from Brand Republic, yet still an association that implies approval.
Mark, I think the point that Geoffrey was trying to make, and this is a recurring theme on this website, is that all too often lazy marketers use the default option of a celebrity endorsement (no matter how tenuous the connection) to peddle their wares…
[...] yesterday’s dressing down from Mark over the CSO take on Alesha Dixon doing Toblerone, I am considering adopting a slightly different tone for the following piece. Harry Potter actress [...]