Have you ever considered the idea of inviting local or even international celebrities to grace your trade shows or marketing events? A lot of major and even micro businesses hire celebrities to endorse their different lines of products and services, so they can attract a larger potential client-base who may be fans or supporters of that particular endorser. They appear in printed and television ads to promote the product they have been paid to endorse. But what about including them in trade shows and launching days too? What are the pros and cons of doing this?

To Have Or Not To Have Celebrity Guest Appearances

How beneficial is a local or international celebrity’s guest appearance in your upcoming trade show? Are they worth all the expenses or trouble? Here are some advantages and disadvantages of hiring and inviting celebrities to help promote your next marketing event. Consider them first before you call their managers and book them up for an official gig:

Advantages:

1. Celebrities are a sure way to grab target audiences’ attention.
   Having a celebrity around can surely attract a large audience attendance, especially if the celebrity happens to be a highly popular personality. You’ll be able to encourage the celebrity’s fans to attend your trade show and eventually turn them as actual customers.
2. Celebrities can help establish recall for your company’s brand.
   Your slogan can get a high chance of being remembered or recalled by your target audience if it is uttered or spoken by the celebrity endorser during the trade show program. It’s like asking them to make an official statement for you.
3. Celebrities can provide a good form of entertainment.
   If you have celebrities like actors, singers, or dancers as official trade show guests, you have the option to ask them to perform in front of your target audience. This can surely add excitement to the whole event and make it extremely memorable for everyone.

Disadvantages:

1. Celebrity trade show appearances can cost you a lot of money.
   If you really want a celebrity to appear on your next trade show, you might have to spend some big money to finance it. These popular personalities have high talent fees, so hiring them can really make a dent in your marketing or advertising budget.
2. Celebrities may steal the limelight from your products.
   Instead of promoting or highlighting your products and services, the celebrities you hire may unintentionally hog the spotlight to themselves. The best thing you can do to avoid this is to devise an effective timeline, schedule, and program flow that provides more time and exposure for your business or company rather than the endorsers who are hired to promote your products.
3. Celebrities’ schedules may possibly hinder them from accepting your advertising offers.
   There is a possibility of facing difficulty in booking these celebrities as their very busy schedules may stop them from doing so. Thus, you need to coordinate with their talent managers as soon as possible so you can get their commitment early on and avoid getting rejected, or worse, even stood up in the actual marketing event.

Hiring celebrities for trade shows surely has a lot of perks but can also be disadvantageous at the same time. Thus, you need to exercise prudence and sensibility when deciding if this technique will really be useful to you or not. Just make sure to make the most out of your trade shows. Celebrity or no celebrity, the event has to be memorable and a remarkable for your target audiences.

Niña Angeli Pilapil, a bookworm by heart, is an expert in promotional products used for both marketing and personal reasons. She is employed by Promopeddler.com as their official writer and blogger. This dark chocolate fanatic enjoys her spare time either reading books, watching movies, and spending time with her family. If you want to connect with her, follow her at http://twitter.com/ninsbonita.