The Power of Celebrity: Leveraging Content Creators

March Madness wasn’t just relegated to the hardwood weeks back, as 68 teams battled it out until there was one left standing. There were also some competitive moves made in the wireless industry when T-Mobile announced its $1.35-billion acquisition of Mint Mobile. 

It was the kind of story that would normally just make the rounds in the tech space or business websites, but due to the power of celebrity, this deal was also shared on countless entertainment sites and platforms, with Ryan Reynolds owning a nice little chunk of Mint - roughly 25% - while acting as their colourful spokesman the past couple of years. 

Reynolds was even the focal point from a PR perspective, as the iconic actor’s quotes added some humour and human interest to what would have otherwise been another run of the mill, wireless company acquisition. 

“We are so happy T-Mobile beat out an aggressive last-minute bid from my mom Tammy Reynolds,” the ‘Deadpool’ star quipped in a press release announcing the sale. 

Then again, who wouldn’t be cracking jokes when set to rake in over $300-million merely four years after buying a majority stake in the upstart wireless carrier? 

In a November 2020 article on the partnership, the then-four-year old company had seen its revenue grow 50,000% over the previous three years and its highest traffic days as a direct result of Reynolds’ marketing and PR initiatives. 

In the past, celebrities merely got involved with brands - either as ambassadors, or with more clever titles like creative director - neither of which usually had much impact after the initial announcement. 

The power of celebrity branding - coupled with the right-fit ambassador - has created a shift that simply didn’t exist years back when upstart business thought that throwing big money at a bigger name would create overnight success. 

Everyone in the industry now realises that name recognition and star power aren’t enough. It takes the right-fit talent and a team that understands how to create and harness the perfect storm power of digital, social, business and branding to achieve next-level success. 

It’s something we discuss often at The Harkey Group and with guests on my Rebrand Podcast. We’re living in a new world where yesterday’s influencers are today’s force-of-nature content creators - which we’ve collectively broken down into three different tiers. 

The A-Tier is obviously a brand like Mint Mobile’s dream scenario. Aligning with A-list talent like Reynolds - a global icon and superstar with looks, brains, swagger and universal likability - is virtually bulletproof, outside of some unforeseen, major scandal. 

Someone like Kevin Hart also fits this criteria. Hart launched a global media and product company called Laugh Out Loud Productions with Lionsgate back in 2017, before buying them out two years later. 

Hart lends his name, likeness, image and star power to brands like Hyundai, Foot Locker, Nike, Old Spice and Tommy John - all of which help fuel an LLC that produces, develops and distributes digital, audio and experimental comedic content - which in-turn keeps his personal brand thriving and drives major brands to partner with him. 

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson followed a similar blueprint, launching Seven Bucks Productions in 2012. The company was named for the meagre amount of money Johnson had in his pocket when released from the Canadian Football League, just before he signed with the World Wrestling Federation back in the mid-’90s. 

SBP creates original releases for television, film, emerging technologies and digital networks - which is very lucrative for Johnson and his partners.

Gwyneth Paltrow is the powerful name behind GOOP, Beyoncé works her magic with Ivy Park, Jessica Alba chased her personal passions with The Honest Company, Rihanna got behind Fenty Beauty and Kylie Jenner blew up with her Kylie Cosmetics line - those are all super-powerful women crushing it in their respective spaces. 

We’re talking about top-flight talent with tens of millions of followers when discussing this A-lister tier - which in turn creates much more traditional casting opportunities for these types of brand partnerships. 

Brands are spending millions of dollars - and giving equity - to bring on names of this stature. 

Who doesn’t love these kinds of deals? A mere couple of days are needed to shoot high-quality content, posted and integrated by both the talent and the brand. The more-clever A-list content creators run this process through their own production companies, which gets them paid handsomely and turns these projects into bonafide work for their agencies. 

Major brands who bring on major talent like this are not just getting celebrity endorsers - they’re getting all paid, earned and owned marketing channels - which is why this process is still way undervalued regarding bang for the buck. 

Obviously not all brands have the backing, resources or even need for A-list talent or this type of spend, which leads to the B-Tier: content creators with anywhere between 100,000 to one million followers. 

An important, necessary and well-used tier, this group can be tougher to figure out compensation-wise as there’s so much white space when working with B- or C-list actors, athletes and artists. Brands don’t necessarily want to overspend and the talent isn’t inspired to work for a paltry number. 

The key to success here starts with having a nice-sized paid budget, and an endorser that authentically cares about or likes the actual product. Without this genuine connection between talent and product, good or service, the partnership won’t have much of a pulse. 

Repetition is key here. $10,000 for a one-off post isn’t going to make a dent. Brands are going to have to negotiate with the talent; $100,000 for a dozen posts so that everyone is getting value. Get the content creator a ton of products. Create affiliate codes to track sales and to engage new consumers. 

Sourcing influencers is also crucial. There are countless free or paid options that can connect brands to athletes, artists, teams, events and content creators. This ensures that you zone in on the right-fit collaborator for the campaign, while eliminating any discomfort during price negotiations, as everything is up front. 

From here, it’s all about the content creator and brand repurposing content on each of their platforms - paid and owned - while finding the right mix of content collaboration, as you don’t want it to be too brand-heavy or influencer-heavy. 

The third, or C-Tier, is more of the traditional ambassador category: the 5,000 to 50,000 range of loyal followers, where your content creator has to be completely authentic and an all-in brand loyalist for the partnership to jell. 

Looking for a content creator to hype your athletic apparel brand on their social media platforms? Then you definitely want that fitness-is-religion ambassador who lives, eats, breathes and evangelizes working out and a healthy lifestyle. 

These are also your thought leaders, trendsetters, accomplished bloggers, loyalists and connectors - the type of people who live to tell people about good products or services they’ve stumbled upon and have the personality and platform to talk about and promote it. 

This is a group that you want to load up with free products for them to use and talk about - as well as products they can give away via contests and promotions to their loyal, like-minded followers. These types of content creators can be sourced at scale, and there are countless platforms to assist in finding these right-fit evangelizers.

Circling back to Reynolds and what his power of celebrity did for this acquisition: this was a rare situation where everything couldn’t have lined up better. 

At a time when we’re unfortunately seeing a lot of generally lazy work - sub-par ads on social media, zero strategy, high-priced commercials not hitting the mark - it makes it that much more refreshing when perfect storm situations arise and the best content wins. 

Just like Hart, Johnson and others have their own production companies. Reynolds does as well - Maximum Effort - which according to their homepage, “makes movies, TV, series, content, ads and cocktails for the personal amusement of Hollywood Star Ryan Reynolds”, that they “occasionally release” to the general public. 

Maximum Effort has done work for the 'Deadpool' films, 'Free Guy' and 'The Adam Project' - all of which Reynolds starred in - as well as his Aviation Gin, his efforts with his football club Wrexham AFC, and of course a slew of creative for Mint Mobile, which gave the brand visibility, edge, cool factor, narrative and a story. 

This serves as a reminder to all that the power of the right-fit celebrity content creator - and doing great work that resonates - creates massive value and puts brands on the map in the new world like never before.