How Celebrity Appearances at CES Backfired...And What I Would Have Done Differently

http://mashable.com/2012/01/18/celebrities-ces-brands-infographic/

Read this article and infographic with great interest this morning because I was one of the hundreds who lined up for Justin Bieber's autograph at the Tosy event at CES. Now, before you ask me to give back my "man card," you need to know I have a daughter for whom I was a hero when I got back home with her personalized, signed Bieber autograph. (NOTE: I also went to the Snooki autograph session the previous day, but I decided the ROI for waiting in that line was not worth the effort.)

As I stood in line, my public relations/social media brain couldn't help but notice all the things I would have done differently to get the most out of this incredible opportunity. I have to believe the money Tosy spent to have Justin (and his entourage) there for several hours was considerable. And this is on top of the cost of a CES booth space (extra-large, by the way) and the cost of the public relations firm they hired to assist with the event. 

Here are the top five things I would have done:

1. Create Social Media Profiles: Tosy has no social media channels: no Twitter account, no Facebook account, no YouTube account, no Google+ account, NONE! Not having at least a couple of these is bad enough, but the fact they did not establish some channels in preparation for this event was very shortsighted. As a matter of fact, the fact their public relations firm did not demand it and help them set them up borders on malpractice. I would have made sure they had these established well in advance in order to build a following and start the "buzz" around this event. 

2. Make It Easy for People to Publicize Your Event: Because they had no social media channels, there was nothing at the event encouraging people to Tweet with a special hashtag, nowhere to post their comments and photos on their Facebook page, no place to share videos of the event, and nowhere for them to blog the event LIVE (live-tweets, Facebook updates, YouTube videos, blog posts, etc.).

3. Know Your (Potential) Audience:They had no idea who was in the audience. I'm not sure if they took it for granted that there would not be a lot of teenage girls attending CES, but they certainly downplayed the response they would get. When my two friends and I arrived (all parents of little girls for whom we wanted to be a hero) three hours early for the event, there were two other people waiting in line. One of the Tosy employees actually encouraged us to come back in two hours, which if we had done, we would have been too far back in line to even see Justin. They had to reconfigure the line at least three times because it was much larger than they had planned for. What they forgot was the fact that while there wouldn't be many tween and teenage girls in the audience, there would be THOUSANDS of parents of tween and teenage girls in attendance. And some of us were so thrilled with this opportunity, we were willing to tweet and Facebook and Google+ about Tosy all day long for the chance at that coveted autograph. All they had to do was ASK and make it easy for me (hashtag). 

4. Make it Worthwhile for People to Publicize Your Event: As the event was going on, I would have offered prizes to some lucky people in line just for being there. I would have offered a chance for a free robot to a lucky Twitter follower and/or Facebook friend (for a LIKE) and/or Google+ follower. We would have staff live Tweeting, posting photos and video, retweeting our followers in attendance, commenting on posts throughout the social mediasphere. One tweet about Bieber gets retweeted numerous times. They could have been the trending topic in a matter of minutes. 

5. Share Before, During, and After and Do It Immediately and Constantly: Finally, after the event (IMMEDIATELY after), I would have all our photos, video, social media pages, and media links updated and highlighted on our website. I would continue commenting and retweeting and reposting and sharing. I would announce our contest winners. I would have LOTS of photos and video of Justin with our robot. 

You see, it's not that the celebrity endorsement is a bad investment. It's that the companies don't understand that having the celebrity there is only the beginning. It's what you do with their appearance that makes the difference. That's what gets you word-of-mouth. That's what makes you the trending topic. That's what gets you a mention on Entertainment Tonight and TMZ and GMA and all the places that aren't just technology news outlets. 

This was a golden opportunity that only received a small fraction of the attention it could, and should, have. Nonetheless, I'm a hero to my daughter for at least a few more days. Thank you, Tosy and Justin Bieber! 

(Photo of my friends with JB)