Knowing their stuff........

Having a celebrity talking about your cause can have benefits but comes with dangers. In this studio discussion on The Daily Politics, Pam Ferris shows how it should be done.

Pam is Vice President of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. What’s important here is that she has relevance, being a former carer, and, more importantly, knows the subject and is able to talk about it convincingly. It’s always a risk putting a celebrity in such a pressured position but if they are thoroughly briefed and have mastered their subject they can be fantastic advocates for your cause.

I have no doubt that this is a relationship that has been developed over a number of years. It takes time to get someone who you can put on a TV sofa and talk eloquently, especially with policy makers – but when you do hold onto them. As I said in “We love you….we love you not….” celebrities go in and out of fashion but people like Pam are rare and worth a fortune.

However there are risks with bringing someone onboard. You are aligning two brands and if one is devalued the other will suffer. The last thing you need is the media coverage to be about your celebrity doing something wrong or a public falling out between the charity and the celebrity.

A classic example is Dappy from N-Dubz becoming an ambassador for Beat Bullying and then appearing to bully a Radio 1 listener with an unpleasant text message. He subsequently apologised for the incident and the charity dropped its relationship with the band. Whilst I appreciate that N-Dubz was a good choice for the charity’s target market, a little research would have made me nervous. According to The Sun he has a conviction for spitting in a girl’s face and Digital Spy had reported he’d been removed by armed police from an aircraft with a band mate as "They were swearing at kids on the plane, being foul and threatening passengers".

It’s fantastic to have celebrity support but particularly where you intend to put someone in front of the media, you need to think very carefully about how well they fit with the charity’s message and how well they will be able to talk about the subject.

Tweet Off

Last night the Children’s Trust (@childrens_trust) tweeted this:

Celebrities receive so many requests to tweet about charities that they have had to develop a coping strategy. The problem with Twitter is that it gives direct access without being filtered by agents.

Matt Lucas (@RealMattLucas) has created a separate account “So because I get lots of requests daily to RT charity info, I have set up a dedicated Twitter account just for that.... @CharityRetweet 1,275,608,814,000.00 via TweetDeck”

Sarah Brown (@SarahBrownUK), a great advocate of Twitter, said yesterday that she “has a personal rule to not RT individual fundraising appeals on Twitter which even extends to @SallyBercow”.

Hassling people via Twitter and then publicly complaining that they haven’t responded is hardly going to endear you to a celebrity with which you do not have a relationship.

Doyen of Twitter, Phillip Schofield has created a guide to using it which can be found on his website.  This is his sage advice for charities: 

“Charites/endorsements/interviews/personal appearances

I use Twitter for fun and to keep those who choose to follow me up to date with what I’m doing. I don’t look for or want to be offered work here! If you need to contact me professionally please look at the contacts page of this website to make an approach (where we might even say yes!!). Charities are even more tricky. I don’t have the time needed to vet you! That may sound harsh, but with so many followers, sadly, comes responsibility. I can’t endorse a charity, good cause or website that just might turn out to be bogus. I would be mortified if I pointed anyone in the direction of something that was anything but 100% above board.

To that end I’m afraid that I must point you to the contacts page of this website where an official approach must be made for me to get involved with a charity. I must also point out that I’m a patron of lots of charities and at the moment I’m not looking for more. I’m really very sorry, but I hope you understand.”

There’s also a risk involved in asking for a celebrity re-tweet. As the godfather of Twitter, Stephen Fry, (@stephenfry) warns on his website that a re-tweet by him can easily crash a website if you’re not prepared for the interest it can create, as many as 500,000 visits in an hour.

If you have a good relationship with a celebrity then they will talk about your charity as David Schneider (@davidschneider) did for The Prostate Cancer Charity, Coronations Street star Shobna Gulati (@shobnagulati) does for Plan International, Annie Lennox (@AnnieLennox) does for her SING campaign and Amanda Mealing (@meamandamealing) does for Breast Cancer Care.

Most famously Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) went into a race to see whether he could beat CNN to 1 million followers and as a result donated US$100,000 to No More Malaria.

As a friend pointed out “Celebs do things on their own terms. To bombard them with a cold email from a stranger is barely one grade up from spam, no matter how worthy the cause.”

Therefore trying to start a relationship via Twitter is probably not the best idea.

David Schneider in a crop top - well it is for charity!

I thought this video from comedian David Schneider was terrific.  Posted last Friday, The Prostate Cancer Charity not only has him taking part in a sponsored bike ride but he's shot a funny video talking about his support for the charity and given us some questionable cycling tips - the image of him in a crop top is one to behold.

In addition to shooting the video he's not only put it on his own website but also tweeted about it to his 40,000+ followers.  Whether the tweet will increase his fundraising I don't know - I'm a little sceptical on using twitter as a fundraising tool. However now thousands more people know of the event and it certainly keeps you watching to the end. It was also not too 'in your face' about the cause or the ask.

My only criticism is that it's not on the event's website (although it was only posted on YouTube on Friday - so maybe they're in the process) nor has the charity re-tweeted (although with only 232 followers they're dwarfed by David's followers). Charities spend a lot of time gaining some fantastic celebrity support and so often forget to shout about it on their own websites or supporter newsletters.

I don't know whether it was David's or the chairty's idea but thought it was a clever, fun way of using new media with a celebrity and, I suspect, not particularly expensive.

We love you.....we love you not....

I saw a friend on TV last night – no it wasn’t Crimewatch! They were appearing in a prime time drama.

This particular actor used to be in a long running major series and went on to appear in another award winning series. Then they had a few years off screen. They supported a regional charity in their area. One year they rang to check the date of an annual event that attended whenever they could.

This is what they were told “Oh? You want to come this year? It’s just that you’re not very high profile at the moment but you can come if you want”.

Strangely this actor no longer supports that charity – oh and they’re back on TV in a hugely popular long running series.

Long term relationships should be a fundamental goal. People go in and out of fashion with TV producers but that doesn’t mean they can’t help raise the profile of your cause. One minute they’re on a live Saturday night show, the next they’re in panto.

Big charities struggle to get high profile support. It really isn’t easy. There’s more charities than there are celebrities. We all work with the best possible people we can get but never forget those who have donated their time for many years. One it’s good manners and two they are still valuable. I’ve had someone on the cover of a magazine who hadn’t had a major TV role for 25 years.

Many fundraisers will talk about donor care. Celebrities are donors – think how much you’d have to pay for them to endorse a product. That’s the value of the time they’ve given you. Relationship management requires time and effort but can deliver great rewards. Before looking for new celebrities, look at the support you already have and work out creative ways to maximise. ……oh and don’t forget people sometimes come back into fashion. Stick with them through the tough times and they’ll stick with you through the good times.

Charidee = free slebs?

Why is it that companies think that if they mention the Charity word they’ll get celebrities for free? In my inbox today I’ve seen two requests from PR companies; one asking for a celebrity to front a campaign, the other asking for someone to judge an event.

Celebrities get paid good money to do work for commercial organisations. The first said that in exchange for support they’d make a donation to a charity they support - yet the campaign isn’t for that charity and I’d be willing to bet they aren’t planning on donating the normal commercial rate for the celebrity.

The second wanted a full day of the celebrity’s time at an event where they were raising funds for charity but this was clearly a promotional day for the PR’s client. In exchange they promised lots of publicity in a particular leisure pursuit’s press. So they want a day of someone’s time, don’t want to pay and think that the celeb is going to be desperate to get publicity in a niche market, which they obviously wouldn’t get if it weren’t for this fantastic PR company.

Please. Get real. It’s requests like these that give charities a bad name amongst agents and publicists. It makes the jobs of those who do this properly a great deal harder.

There is nothing wrong with using celebrity supporters in conjunction with corporate partners but the celebrity is always representing the charity and never endorsing the partner.

One of my favourite examples of getting it right is this TV advert for Andrex and Teenage Cancer Trust. At the end McFly encourage people to buy an Andrex Puppy soft toy. But McFly aren’t endorsing Andrex. They’re opening words are “We’re supporting Teenage Cancer Trust”. They go on to say if you buy the toy you’ll be raising funds for TCT. What they don’t say is “buy Andrex”. If they’d said that their management would have quite rightly been expecting a fee.

Come on PR’s don’t use the charity sector as a cheap way for you to get celebrity support for your clients.

Celebs, Runs & Treks

The Sun this week was busily telling us that Denise Van Outen is in training to take part in a ‘seven-day hike along Peru's Inca Trail’. It’s a fundraising trek, on which she’ll be joined by Fearne Cotton in support of Breast Cancer Care.

A great piece of coverage for the charity.

However this reminded me of a wider issue I’ve seen in charities.

Not many people get married on their first date (although I’m sure someone will find me an example). So why do many fundraisers think that they can get someone to run a marathon or take part in a trek when they have no knowledge or experience of each other?

I imagine the conversation might go something like this:

Charity: Hello, you’re a famous celebrity

Celebrity: I am, but who are you?

Charity: Well you’ve never heard of us. You don’t know anything about our work and as far as I know you’ve got no known affinity with our cause.

Celebrity: So why are you talking to me?

Charity: Well you being famous and all, we thought you were bound to want to spend six months doing some really hard training, run 26 and a bit miles, talk to lots of media about us and….if you could manage to raise lots of money at the same time that would be fabulous.

Celebrity: HANGS UP

OK, OK, so I exaggerate but that is basically what’s being asked. Running a marathon or taking part in a trek is a huge commitment because of the time involved, not just in terms of the event but also in terms of the training. It’s not the same as providing a quote and a photo.

Working with celebrities is all about building and developing relationships. To go back to my dating analogy it’s about wooing and courtship. Many celebrities very generously do take part in running events and treks generating both money and publicity for great causes. Just look at the coverage of the London Marathon and the Great North Run. Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and Marie Curie, to name but two, regularly have large numbers of celebrity runners.

However these are almost always people with whom they’ve had long relationships. Denise & Fearne will be making their Peruvian trek for a charity with which they have been involved for a number of years. Therefore the key is to start small and build up to such large requests. It’s clear that Breast Cancer Care have stewarded these relationships well.

…..oh and don’t assume they’ll raise lots of money. I know of one celebrity who did absolutely no fundraising for their chosen charity but did raise the profile by being interviewed on TV. At another charity one actor raised just a few hundred pounds, but again generated publicity.

Raise funds for cancer by increasing your risk of cancer?

What better than a high profile celebrity to raise awareness of a Cause Related Marketing partnership. So congratulations to Against Breast Cancer for getting Duncan Bannatyne, a renowned supporter of good causes, to support their relationship with Ember Inns, creating Thirsty Dragon Ale. Plus there’s support from Simon Cowell’s mother Julie, Ben Shephard and Lucy Rusedski on the website.

All you have to do to help raises funds for the charity’s research is buy a pink drink and Ember Inns donates 5p. There’s four alcoholic and two soft drinks.

Well done? Well maybe not……

This is a medical research charity trying to help the 1 in 9 women who will develop breast cancer. It seems however that they missed a session at a conference somewhere. According to Cancer Research UK, in an article in the Daily Mail …

“Studies have clearly shown that alcohol causes cancer, and breast cancer especially. Even small amounts can have an impact. Cutting back on alcohol intake is one of the best ways of reducing your risk”.

This well balanced and researched article received praise from the World Cancer Research Fund.

Ember Inns are aiming to raise £60,000 by encouraging people to drink alcohol. The more you drink the more you raise. The more you drink the more you presumably increase your risk of breast cancer (since the article says cutting back reduces your risk). Is it me or does this seem like a charity that is trying to stop breast cancer, is raising funds by encouraging people to partake in an activity that increases their risk of getting breast cancer? However I’m not an expert on breast cancer and am relying on the Daily Mail so it may well be that I’m completely wrong.
 
It’s hard to raise funds in a competitive marketplace with so many breast cancer charities chasing the pink corporate pound (Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Care, Breast Cancer Campaign, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Haven, & the Genesis Appeal – to name but a few) but is there possibly a time when a charity actually should be saying no to certain sources of income?
 
I am completely supportive of companies raising funds for charities and would genuinely congratulate a pub chain for wanting to do this in what is an incredibly difficult financial climate for the licensed trade. I’m just not sure that this was the best way to do it – but maybe I’m wrong? Perhaps staff fundraising and holding events might have been preferable to using the Cause Related Marketing route.
 
CLIC Sargent (another charity dealing with cancer) have a hugely successful partnership with J D Wetherspoons – but there’s no CRM.

The questions that a charity should be asking
From a celebrity point of view should you be using celebrity endorsement of a corporate partnership that could be seen as controversial? Did their supporters know of the issues? Had the charity considered the risks to the relationship with their dedicated celebrity supporters if there was public criticism? The key relationship holder should ALWAYS be aiming to protect that relationship. On a technical note had they cleared the use of the word Dragon with the BBC (which they may well have done)? The BBC is fastidious in ensuring that there is no implied endorsement of a charity or company by the corporation outside of its existing charity commitments. If the charity didn’t then there is a potential risk for their celebrity’s relationship with an employer.

The Myth of the Little Black Book

The Little Black Book is a myth!

So often I’ve seen sentences like the one below in job adverts for celebrity managers in the UK charity sector:

“This role requires an individual with strong celebrity contacts……”

Actually it’s simply not true. If you want to contact people there are two good databases to which you can subscribe which will give you their details; Celebrities Worldwide and Red Pages. In addition for those on a smaller budgets there’s free information (although not as comprehensive) at Spotlight covering almost all UK actors and most TV presenters.

What you do need is someone who knows how to approach people and how to deal with agents, managers and publicists appropriately.

The second part of this particular ad went on:

“…….the ability to strategically align these contacts with national campaigns”

Why?

No one knows everyone. More importantly like many I have celebrities I would call friends but that doesn’t mean that they’d be right for every charity campaign. It’s good, old fashioned, basic marketing. What’s your goal? Who’s your target audience? Who will appeal to that audience?

A good example is the RNLI’s recruitment of Shirley Robertson and Hannah White for Cowes Week 2010. Do I know who they are? Actually I’d never heard of them. In fact they’re high profile Olympic and transatlantic sailors respectively.

I’m not into sailing but if you are then you have probably heard of them, and, more importantly, the charity got coverage on Yachting Monthly’s website which is read by their target market. You don’t need to know these people in advance. You need to be able to research who’s relevant and then know how to make a successful, targeted approach.

This highlights the fundamental issue that charities want celebrity support but many don’t actually know how you do it or what skills are required.

The good celebrity managers in the charity sector, of which there are many, spend a great deal of time protecting celebrities from their own organisations. The world of a celebrity is nothing like the structured world of a charity. A great celebrity manager has to act as an interface between the two, making sure each relationship is handled in the way the celebrity wants. I’ve dealt via agents but with some celebs I’ve kept in touch via Facebook, Twitter & text. It’s what works for the celebrity and how that support can be best used to achieve the charity’s aims.