When you’re strategizing a new celebrity marketing campaign, you want to create something new and fresh!

You want a celebrity marketing campaign that will intrigue and motivate your customer. Celebrities are an exciting way to generate conversation. But maybe your product needs a little more spice, a big personality, something a little more intimate. Maybe a person who can get out in the public and directly engage with the customer. Booking a celebrity chef is a fun and an original solution to heat up business! Food offers a physical connection from the chef to the customer. It’s truly the one way in which the consumer actually consumes.

Some of the hottest celebrities right now are chefs. Why? For one, foodie culture is on the rise. Americans are eating out more now than ever before. You can see it in food stores. Amazon just bought struggling Whole Foods and is receiving substantial positive press for the acquisition. Cooking shows are the most successful surviving remnants of the reality TV fad years ago. This puts top celebrity chefs in the celebrity limelight.

A Recognizable Face: 

Most people gravitate towards celebrities because it almost feels as if they could be friends – it’s as if they know one another. Of course they don’t, but the attraction starts with the draw of what a person must be like. The difference between an actor and a celebrity chef is that while an actor is constantly changing parts, a chef has a unique personal brand that defines them in the marketplace – to a certain extent, we know Michael Symon, or Marcus Samuelsson, or Wolfgang Puck. Famous chefs are present in our everyday lives, between the myriad of cooking shows, food festivals, and, of course, restaurants. They have their own food lines, cooking schools, and, for most of these chefs, a history of celebrity marketing campaign success with major brands.

There’s a stronger intimacy between a consumer and a chef because there’s a physical connection between chef and diner. That connection makes for a very convincing marketing device. Working with someone familiar brings a closeness to the customer, even if they’ve never eaten at one of the chef’s restaurants. Knowing who the person is, and what they’re about – their passion, no less, is a draw. It makes people feel connected, and that connection can be applied to your product when you position the two together.

Take this a step further – your product associated with a chef’s image can catapult your brand. Take Paul Newman for example. He was an actor, but when he and his family created and sold his famous salad dressing, it was a huge success. The marketing? Paul Newman’s face. A whole brand of food spun out from salad dressing. A chef can do the same thing – the visual of a trusted celebrity endorsement is a powerful thing.

More Marketing Opportunities: 

What’s great about integrating a celebrity chef into a celebrity marketing campaign is that you can take your campaign off the screen or the printed page and get your product in person. Chefs tend to have big personalities, which attracts a crowd. But what’s better, when you hire famous chef for events and activations, you can put their talents to use anywhere with a cooking setup. For upcoming celebrity chef speaking engagements, don’t just have them speak. Let them cook!

Celebrity chef appearances are really fun to watch whether you’re a huge foodie or hardly know your way around a kitchen. Like an actor on stage, a chef’s work is a performance. When you hire a chef to integrate their personality into your brand, you have access to the cooking element as well. Use it! Live events with real smells, tastes, and interaction with the chef are excellent sensory captivators, which can directly impact your brand, even if you don’t have a food-related product. Integrate a logo and create a display on the table to bring attention to your product while the chef is putting on the show. As the chef cooks, he or she can plug your business. This tactic will allow you to directly come in contact with your customer. The longer the chef cooks, the better your product is affiliated.

But you can get more mileage than that. Most television shows welcome product placement, and many famous chefs for hire are on TV now. Giving the chef’s production a quantity of your product in exchange for placing your brand on the cooking set is a simple and effective way to drum up more business. If you have a contract with the chef, the production will likely have to say yes, though it won’t be a hard sell. Who doesn’t want something for free? Everyone wins.

The Campaign Doesn’t end with Your Brand: 

Between cookware, cookbooks, and television shows, these top celebrity chefs are their own marketing empires. In fact, when you hire a chef to headline your celebrity marketing campaign, you’re helping them promote their own brand. And it works the other way around, too. What’s great about associating with someone like this is that even when they aren’t campaigning for you, their presence is still attached to your product. Think of iconic celebrity marketing campaign successes such as Cindy Crawford and Pepsi, Mark Wahlberg and Calvin Klein, Justin Long and Apple, Jessica Simpson and Proactiv.

Every time you see that celebrity, it reminds you of their affiliated product. When dealing with a person who has their own line of work to promote, as with Jessica Alba and The Honest Company, they market themselves so often that by assimilation, your brand is going to get a plug too. If you had Tiffany Derry as your celebrity spokesperson, every time one of her television shows came on, the viewer would affiliate seeing her with your brand. And you wouldn’t even have to pay for it.

Chefs are Entrepreneurs: 

Now, take the cooking out. Famous celebrity chefs all started out somewhere, maybe as a sous chef, and worked their way up. All you have to do is watch one of the documentary shows on television to see that their success was no accident. Chefs work long, hard hours in hot and crowded kitchens. They had to build their skills, network to meet new people, and save money, even though cooks aren’t highly paid. They had to open a restaurant, which is a risky business, and learn to market, all the while pushing towards their goal: to create a successful and original product that people wanted. When you hire a chef, you’re hiring someone who’s done what you want to do – succeed. They’ll go to bat for you with little guidance because they know how to do it already.

Great Presence and Inspiration: 

Consider a celebrity chef speaking event, in which they combine their success as a businessperson, with their love of food. Most chefs are outgoing, they’re approachable, but even more, they know how to work. If you’re looking for someone motivational, this could be your best bet. What’s so intriguing about successful chefs is that they very rarely had a handout. Usually, they achieved their success from talent and hard work. The restaurant business has a high turnover, so it’s especially interesting to listen to someone who came out on top. Consider it a fun twist on the successful entrepreneur or CEO.

Celebrity Chef Network has an extensive roster of the world’s top chefs for hire. These famous chefs have television, , celebrity marketing campaign, and corporate event experience. Whether you’re looking for a personality, a restaurateur, or a television network chef, our booking agents can help determine which chefs can best complement your celebrity marketing campaign. To discuss celebrity chef options for your next campaign or special event, contact us today via email at booking@celebritychefnetwork.com or call (212) 410-9879.

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