A lot of celebrity endorsements make sense – especially since the endorsee and product normally have a relevant connection. Case in point: the diet pill/program that’s paired with the celebrity that lost a lot of weight, the basketball player that has a pair of basketball sneakers named after him, and so forth.

On the contrary, there are a lot of celebrity endorsements that make no sense – especially since such won’t lead to increased sales. Therefore, the money that is spent on irrelevant celebrity endorsements could be spent in relevant and meaningful ways.

The first celebrity endorsement that doesn’t make sense to me is the celebrity endorsements of motor vehicles, because I do not see the connection. In other words, I can not imagine anyone buying a car because they noticed someone famous in the vehicles commercial.

It could be argued, that the celebrity appears in the commercial to attract more eyes, and as a result more brand recognition. But does brand recognition matter if it doesn’t result in increased sales?

Motor vehicle commercials should focus on highlighting the reasons why a potential customer should be intersected in buying the vehicle, because those reasons are of relevance.

If a motor vehicle company is interested in throwing around extra money, in an attempt at fishing for viewer’s attention, do it in a way that will have a lasting impact. My suggestion would be to finance meaningful competitions, in which they could feature in commercials, and other ad plays.

The competition could focus on gathering new vehicle feature idea submissions from individuals, and rewarding individuals if their idea comes to fruition.

The commercials, printed ads, etc. could direct viewers to a specially designed website where users could go directly to an area in which to submit their idea, or they could detour to other areas of the website. A few potential examples are as follows:

 

1. Individuals could go to a research and development area (R & D area), in order to check whether or not their idea has already been submitted/patented, or to merely brainstorm.

In the R & D area, individuals would be able to click onto any part of a vehicle, in order to see its composition, and to view a list of any potential add ons / upgrades that the company offers and to view all prior released submissions relevant to such a part.

Within the R & D area, individuals would be able to interact with virtual models, of every vehicle in which the company offers.

 

2. Individuals would also be able to go to a design area, where they would be able to alter each available vehicles’ body features, in an attempt to create a better designed vehicle.

In such an area, individuals would be able to test drive a virtual version of their finished designed vehicle. And they’d also learn any potential positive and/or negative impacts of such a design.

If a motor vehicle company deployed such an advertising campaign, they would be able to achieve something that a celebrity backed campaign never would……lasting relevance.