In 2023, Brands Will Put a Bigger Focus on Ensuring They Don’t Get ‘Kanye’d’

Ever since Josiah Wedgwood first marketed high-end china in the 18^th century by seeking the sheen of associating with royalty, brands have sought celebrity endorsements to elevate their products in the public’s eye. But along with the reward of celebrity association comes risk, a lesson once again delivered in 2022 when major consumer brands found themselves caught in the chaos and controversy of associating with Kanye West.

While this served as a great reminder of the high price tag such fallout can carry, it likely won’t diminish the marketing appetite for endorsements, especially as more consumers align their purchasing behaviors with their social views and beliefs. Rather, it’s likely brands will adjust their vetting processes and strategically plan for potential scenarios — from scandal to soured relationships — to avoid such revenue and reputational risk should things go sideways.

Own the Unexpected

Whether it's a celebrity scandal or some other unforeseen event, new headlines can cause unruly ripple effects on your brand that force you to make major business decisions at a moment's notice. The ability to analyze the impact of these situations, and strategically pivot in the face of the unexpected, can be the difference between losing big or mitigating the sting.

To ensure your business has the resiliency to rapidly respond to changing consumer sentiment in the court of public opinion, here are three things you should consider:

1. Scenario modeling to understand business impact. If you aren’t pressure testing your partnerships to identify potential points of failure and mitigate risk, you should start now. This includes modeling a variety of different scenarios to understand the impact they could have on your reputation and your bottom line. For instance, what’s the cost of canning commercial campaigns and pulling inventory off the shelves if your celebrity’s behavior causes consumer demand to plummet? Be sure to factor in variables like what products could possibly replace that inventory, how much revenue is tied to specific endorsements or campaigns, and how long might it take for revenue and demand to stabilize. This level of scenario planning will help ensure you have the confidence to act quickly if and when a crisis occurs.
2. Social listening to mine sentiment data. Predicting consumer sentiment around a celebrity whose star is falling can be done by mining social media and other external data sources. Tapping into capabilities like demand sensing, for instance, can help you monitor for positive and negative language around an individual or a product and derive a correlation between sales and what those language trends look like. While it can’t undo the decision you made to partner in the first place, it can help you stay on top of trends and understand the impact certain social moments are having on your brand, product or service.
3. Real-time forecasting to protect profit margins. While partnerships can be a boon for sales, there's always risk of failure — whether the result of a celebrity blunder or a general product flop. That’s why it’s critical to evaluate the partnership on a regular cadence, with a clear view of real-time insights, from point-of-sale data to production and promotion costs. If you’re celebrity partner suddenly becomes ensnared in a crisis, this real-time view will help you re-forecast quickly and find the right levers to pull to keep your revenues on track.

There’s no doubt that celebrity endorsements will continue to be a hallmark strategy for brands. However, public sentiment can turn on a dime, and associating your brand with someone in the limelight can be a risky gamble. Just as businesses tap into data and technology to keep their operations on track, these same tools can and should be leveraged to mitigate risks when it comes to partnerships. Real-time data analysis, demand-sensing capabilities, and advanced scenario modeling tools can help businesses remain alert, agile and resilient in the face of a celebrity-driven scandal.

Bob Debicki is the senior director of global CPG and retail industry solutions, Anaplan, a cloud-native, enterprise SaaS company, transforming how enterprises across industries see, plan and drive business performance.