Brands Look To A-List Celebrities To Break Through
Why It Hits: These days, it takes a lot for digital advertising to cut through the noise. The hope is that paying top dollar for the biggest names in entertainment, sports, or the creator economy can help craft marketing that’s unavoidable. While that’s always been true to some extent, the willingness of so many celebrities to get in on the action is unprecedented.
Behind The Ads: According to a report from advertising operations platform XR, US brands spent over $1 billion on A-listers last year — more than before the pandemic.
It also found that spending on pay guarantees — “the upfront cost to secure top talent to appear in ads rather than hourly rates” — has grown by a whopping 47%. In other words, brands want to make sure talent doesn’t back out.
Most of that spending goes toward securing name-brand actors like Matthew McConaughey, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Chris Hemsworth — a big shift from Madison Avenue’s focus on smaller actors just a decade ago.
A quarter of expenditures went to professional athletes, with NFL players in high demand and WNBA players on the rise.
Meanwhile, spending on top influencers has jumped 103% since 2022, with many now commanding paydays comparable to A-list actors.
Final Pitch: Why are brands backing up the Brinks truck for a star? According to Insider, celebrities are viewed as “a safe bet when it comes to metrics like ad recall — a measure in surveys that determines whether people remember seeing an ad.” And with political and cultural tension running high, leaning on the broad tent of a beloved celebrity is an easy way to ensure an ad is received positively. That’s about as big a win as anyone can hope for right now.
The Future: With Madison Avenue making so many inroads with Hollywood talent, investing further in long-form branded entertainment feels like a natural next step for CMOs.
Together with FX Invite
The Beauty’s One Shot Studio Transforms You With A Single Shot
Visionary creator Ryan Murphy has teamed up with writer Matthew Hodgson to unleash another bold, boundary-pushing series — The Beauty. And FX wants you to be the star.
The network is inviting fans into a photographic experience that transforms them into the face of the show’s new campaign, revealing the intoxicating power of beauty — and the danger that comes with it.
What: Through a luxe glam and editorial shoot, guests go from passive participants to part of the story… captured in one unforgettable image.
Where: If you dare, head to The Atrium at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles.
When: Exclusively January 16th and 17th from 11:00am to 9:00pm.
One shot makes you hot. Step inside, share your transformation, and watch the consequences unfold on FX’s The Beauty, premiering January 21st on FX and Hulu.
If you’d like to join us, simply reply to this email to secure your spot!
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, Polled, & Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.