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When asked to name Brands that leverage their founders as “cult icons” or celebrity “Faces”, you can probably think of several right off the bat…Dave from Wendy’s, Steve Jobs from Apple, Jeff Bezos from Amazon, etc.

The benefits of turning a founder into a celebrity are pretty clear.  From a brand equity perspective, you can quickly build brand character and personality as (competent) “founder ambassadors” understand how to authentically communicate the values their compan(ies) espouse.  In addition, founders are often inspiring and authentic…if a brand gets it right, these ambassadors can even become cultural icons.  Additionally, from a pure cost perspective, you also don’t have to pay expensive celebrity buyout fees.

Deliberate spokespeople (founders, characters, authorities, celebrities, enthusiasts–as classified by Rohit Bhargava) often work well for brands, but can sometimes fall flat (the Bill Gates/Seinfeld ads never received rave reviews.   While the “founder spokesperson” idea has been around for a while, a trend that seems to be picking up steam is for employees to step into the public spotlight to become a “Face” or public ambassador for their brand (either deliberately or accidentally).

A (Green) example using a marketer as an authoritative deliberate spokesperson.

Using employees, brand managers or marketing execs., etc.  as deliberate spokespeople will likely continue as consumers demand more & more authenticity.  Timberland–a fantastic brand with outstanding Green credentials in my opinion–has used marketers and other employees in its Earthkeepers campaign (see this spot).  Some have criticized the Earthkeepers ad, saying it might have been more authentic if it would have incorporated the gritty contributions made by consumers found on the Earthkeepers YouTube page.  Whatever you think about the polished 2 minute testimonial featuring a values marketing employee, I think it is great to see Timberland getting out there and communicating their enviro-ethos with real employees out front–leading the way.

The trend of companies putting real people “front and center” is not going to wane in this age of corporate mistrust. And, as more and more marketers/customer service reps, etc. get behind their brands on Twitter, the rise of the hybrid “accidentally deliberate” spokesperson will continue.  Today, we already see brand representatives building deep consumer relationships via strong customer service and outreach (in the case of RichardatDell).  We also see charismatic marketers, simply out there communicating authentically with their communities (see Jeffrey, Chief Creative officer at Threadless).  Indeed, getting it right externally for your brand as a new age manager is definitely more an art than a science–but one thing is for sure, you’ll need some PASSION and social networking competency if you want to engage going forward.

Hat tip to Dave Knox for pointing out the excellent post from Mya Frazier.

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