If you're keeping score: Pillsbury Doughboy, 10, LeBron
James, 1.
According to a USA Today story, the familiar Pillsbury
Doughboy mascot garners more than 10 times the social-media buzz related to its
brand, Pillsbury, than celebrity endorser LeBron James does related to his
biggest brand sponsor, Nike, according to research to be released Monday by
Synthesio, a social-media monitoring specialist.
"LeBron probably brings a lot of value to Nike, but in
terms of social media and Nike, he has virtually no value at all," says
Loïc Moisand, co-founder and CEO of Synthesio. "If you're a marketer that
wants to raise awareness in social media, it's useless to spend money on
celebrities," he says.
It's an age-old argument that will probably never be
settled: Do brands get their money's worth from celebrities? In terms of
social-media eyeballs -- which typically relate to a younger and often more
desirable demographic, it appears that mascots leave celebrity endorsers in the
dust.
"It's the cuddle quotient," explains brand
consultant Kate Newlin. While mascots can seem sweet, charming and integral to
a brand, celebrity endorsers often seem to be little more than
"rented," she says.
Except GoDaddy's Danica Patrick, that is.
Patrick, the race car driver, finished about four times
higher than any other celebrity endorser in brand-related social-media buzz in
the social-media research report. Moisand says it's in part, because Patrick
frequently mentions GoDaddy in tweets from her personal handle. Also, he says,
"she appears reachable."
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