Welcome to Amy’s Spotlight: From Hollywood to Healthcare. The blog will periodically provide commentary from Amy Doner, President and Founder of The Amy Doner Group, an established celebrity and talent procurement agency specializing in the pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare industries. Amy will offer her perspective on the influence celebrity, pop culture and related trends can have on today’s health-minded world and your business.
Amy’s Spotlight: A Client’s Consensus
How would you counsel a client focused on retaining one particular celebrity for an initiative if you believe the search is better suited to go in a different direction?
Many times The Amy Doner Group will hear from a client as a direct result of seeing a particular celebrity reveal his/her own recent medical diagnosis, or that of a loved one. There might be a buzz in the air at the company, with the client receiving requests internally to “get the celebrity.” Of course we love working off of those suggestions as a starting point, and typically would first and foremost explore that possibility. However, we also provide counsel as to why perhaps the search should or could go in a broader – and possibly different – direction. Even if on paper a celebrity looks like they are the perfect fit, the moment The Amy Doner Group receives a query we hone in on questions for our client to help shape the search. What other pharmaceutical brands have they worked in or currently are? Are they outspoken in other health spaces? How flexible are they with their time? Some responses may reveal that the celebrity originally viewed as a sure thing by a company or organization may not be the best fit after all.
Who is typically on your client’s team internally when reviewing and approving use of a celebrity?
The Amy Doner Group typically receives requests from marketing and/or communications departments responsible for implementing a health education campaign. However, depending on the size of a company or organization, often many more people internally need to be “on board” with the celebrity recruitment process. We have been asked to work with a wide range of departments to not only help with contractual elements, but to also review program goals and strategies, messaging, related internal and external communications materials and more depending on the scope of the project. And, in the case of a branded pharmaceutical campaign, all product mentions must be reviewed in the context of the FDA-approved label. So, at any given moment we might work with a company’s marketing and communications, medical, legal, regulatory affairs, publications, advocacy, professional education and advertising departments. The bottom line? Anyone and everyone at a company should be prepared to weigh in on the celebrity recruitment process so communication within the company or organization is key.
How does The Amy Doner Group approach a search for numerous celebrity spokespersons for one particular initiative?
The Amy Doner Group can search for an endless number of celebrities at a time to build a cadre of spokespersons for one particular initiative. We often have been tasked with building a celebrity spokesperson network. We work with the client on a prioritization strategy to determine what type of celebrity might be most important to sign first until the team is built. In some cases the client might be looking for all athletes, all entertainers, all technology experts or all celebrity chefs. In other cases they might want a variety of celebrities representing a cross-section of expertise, but with the same health interests in mind. The Amy Doner Group works with our clients to develop a specific plan of action to strategically build this consortium of experts, rather than just trying to fill in the blanks with those who may not be a natural fit for a program.
Post a question or comment here. For more information about The Amy Doner Group, go to AmyDonerGroup.com