This week we bring you another post by Dan Kennedy from his new book Making Them Believe with Chip Kessler:
“Let me point out something that John Brinkley did. It has been a huge breakthrough for a number of people I’ve worked with personally, so I have seen its power firsthand. When Brinkley took over his first radio station and recognized he needed other programming to attract and hold listeners, so he could intersperse his programs and have a large audience for them, he invested in bringing popular entertainment celebrities of his time to his radio shows, as well as in turning unknowns into celebrities.
Pete Lowe wiped out dozens of well-established promoters of “success rallies” almost overnight when he invested in top celebrities to star in his events – beginning with former President Ronald Reagan. It was also his purpose to position himself with a star-studded line-up of celebrity speakers to make himself a famous speaker who could command the attention of huge audiences and have his religious message listened to, by people who would otherwise never give him the time of day. I spoke for nine years on his SUCCESS tour, and doing so contributed enormously to my own rise in prominence, reputation and celebrity, so I’m grateful for his boldness and big thinking.
My clients Bill Guthy and Greg Renker forever changed the infomercial business by investing in celebrity hosts. By doing so, they instantly elevated their shows above all others. They made Tony Robbins a major personality by surrounding him with celebrities in infomercials, and they built the #1 brand in acne treatment products with celebrity-driven infomercials and commercials.
Dan Frishberg had the cajones to chase – and get – major celebrities, political and financial world leaders and other experts to be guests, interviewed live, on his original, paid-for (“fake”) radio program on a dinky-market station, even including Henry Kissinger and Alan Greenspan, who rarely do radio interviews. Because they were important, he quickly became important, attracting the attention of the real media in his market, as well as the public.
I call this the strategy of attachment. What or who you attach yourself to in the public eye is what you are accepted as.
P.S. Discover even more ways to “celebrity-ize” your business in our new book Celebrity Leverage – available as a free PDF download in the Private Member Lounge. If you’re not already a Contact Any Celebrity Member, join now!
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