With growing consumer fatigue for disingenuous #ad posts, new celebrity marketing platform The VIP Suite has launched with more than 1,000 celebrities already signed up on the site.
The marketing platform aims to help brands create authentic and long-lasting relationships with talent, identifying true fans and helping shape future influencer marketing strategies.
The platform has been created by celebrity consultancy RunRagged, which has more than 30 years’ of experience booking talent for adverts, PR campaigns and red carpet events.
Brands start by working with The VIP Suite’s expert concierge team whose unparalleled industry insight helps them create a gift recipient hit-list from over 1,000 celebrities.
Once the list has been agreed, brands offer their products or services on the platform, and when celebrities express interest and place an order, The VIP Suite ships product direct to talent’s homes.
The team behind the platform believe this approach forms the beginning of a powerful authentic relationship, presenting opportunities for organic exposure, as well as insight for future paid-for collaboration with talent.
It is the most cost-effective way to access talent as there are no fees, no wasted stock sending product to people who don’t like, want or need it and it builds relationships that create authentic advocacy and earned influence.
Brands are alerted each time a celebrity makes an order, allowing them to build up a database of VIP fans which they can work with for future PR, ad and marketing campaigns – RunRagged’s core service offering.
Once the VIP receives their gift the brand could see anything from feedback to organic social posts and the opportunity to call the talent a ‘fan’ of their brand. The VIP Suite has been developed for all brands, from large blue chip companies right through to start-ups.
During the platform’s development phase, it helped numerous brands to grow social followings, generate organic PR coverage, get authentic endorsements from celebrities and learn which talent was a fan of their brand.
The VIP Suite is also an effective way for international brands to test the market before launching in the UK, building buzz and a demand for a product or service via celebrity endorsements to win over buyers and distributors.
“The VIP Suite is set to change the celebrity gifting industry and make it far more intentional,” said RunRagged co-founder Emma Usher.
“We created it as an antidote to generic influencer algorithms and cookie cutter strategies, improving the scattergun approach currently used by brands in the bid to acquire celebrity endorsements.
“The direct-to-talent platform not only gets a brand’s product directly into the hands of celebrities, it helps them identify their fans to create a much more authentic working bond, providing them with insights they can nurture and grow.
“It creates strong talent relationships that will ultimately make a brand’s future marketing more powerful, adding that all important credibility in what can often be a very cynical space.”
The VIP Suite has been in development over the past year in a testing phase and to date, brands from Champneys Spas, Dr Martens, Focus Clinics, Leesa, BIRD Restaurants, David Lloyd, Oasis and the Israeli Tourist Board have gifted to talent.
The platform has already gifted to chart-topping musicians, including Taylor Swift and Cara Delevingne, with listings on the site starting at £1,000 per month.