SHARON, AGA AND OTHER STARS AS PRODUCT ENDORSERS
by Nestor U. Torre, Inquirer News Service, May 25, 2002
Profitable
SHOW biz stars have always enjoyed a side-career as product endorsers that brings in a tidy income each year.
But that sideline has never been as profitable as it is now, with some super-celebrities charging millions and even mega-millions of pesos to endorse everything from canned sardines to chic fashions made affordable for the middle-class market.
A celebrity-friend of ours recently revealed to us just how profitable the endorsement field has become: Once, she said, the advertising agency of a new product approached her management, urging her to agree to endorse it.
Since she felt that the product would be wrong for her classy image, she turned it down.
But the agency was instructed by the manufacturer to offer the stellar talent whatever it would take to secure her prized assent.
The price just kept going up-and up-until the offer just became too ridiculously tempting to be sniffily pooh-poohed away.
The star finally agreed to endorse the product for so much money that she was able to buy a house with her income from her "sideline"!
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| CUNETA AND MUHLACH. Credible personalities |
They charge the steepest endorsement fees in the biz (save for FPJ and his beer institutionals, of course), and yet prospective advertisers keep lining up for their services.
The reason is simple: products endorsed by these two stellar pluggers yield additional sales figures that are huge enough to rationalize the mega-millions that their endorsements cost the companies involved.
What makes the likes of Sharon and Aga the "convincing" product endorsers that they have turned out to be? Why are they hounded by advertisers, while other stars have to make-do with itty-bitty T-shirt or underwear plugs, or are left in the lurch altogether?
What to look for
First, they're big stars, which means that they're popular, which further means that their word counts for something with the general buying public.
Next, they're credible endorsers, because their public and private lives are generally beyond reproach, which makes them naturals as endorsers of "family" and "child" products.
"Sexy" and " macho" stars also get to endorse products, but they tend to be of a more limited range and geared to specialized markets. Consequently, the fees they pay also tend to be smaller.
So, it you're a prospective star who's casting a moist, sidelong glance at product endorsements, cultivate a "For General Patronage" image and lifestyle!
A third factor is the stipulation that the star endorser isn't associated with a competing brand for a similar product. So, if the celebrity is already endorsing a brand of toothpaste, that's it for him or her in the dental-care category.
That's why in-demand endorsers don't say yes to any offer; they wait for the biggest manufacturer of a given product to make his bid, which is usually heftier than the compensation package that the less-affluent competition can come up with.
Fourth, popular endorsers choose products whose advertising campaigns and tie-ups can in turn boost the stars' entertainment careers.
Thus, the cycle is cleverly completed: Stars are chosen to endorse products because they're popular, but if they play their cards right, some of the products they endorse can make them more popular as entertainers as well-especially if their commercials turn out to be "hits" that people keep talking about.
All that, and mega-millions, too! No wonder, less favored stars wish they could be top-of-the-line celebrity product-endorsers, as well.
And they're really starting them young these days, aren't they? Sharon's baby is only 16 months old, and yet she's already appeared in her first product-endorsement commercial with her mega-popular mom.
By the way, you don't have to be well-known to earn a lot as a child talent in commercials. A friend of ours had a cute baby who was cast as the lead talent in a promo campaign and got paid P100,000 before the tot was even a year old!
Of course, Sharon's own pride and joy wouldn't settle for that relatively modest amount, but it was certainly big enough for a toothless tyke who still couldn't go potty by himself!
The case of Sharon and her baby shows that you can be a celebrity only by association, and still make it as a product endorser. And what about Sharon and her yaya? That's stretching the "by association" link a bit, but it also works.
Sharon and her mechanic? Aga and his dentist? The possibilities are mind-boggling! The line forms to the right . . .
