Good old celebrity endorsement, one of the riskiest marketing strategies around. An entire brand’s reputation is placed in the hands of an individual who often does not care about the product or service he or she is endorsing.
Anyway, onto the celebrity in hand – Mr Leonardo DiCaprio. Famous for his roles in Inception, Shutter Island, Titanic, The Departed and numerous other blockbuster films, Leonardo DiCaprio has put his name to a new product for the Chinese market. The product is the OPPO Find smartphone, created by the OPPO Guangdong Mobile Communication Company.
Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of the OPPO commercials
The ad campaign is highly influenced by the style and sub-plot of Inception as Leonardo DiCaprio’s character travels to Paris on a quest to find a mysterious woman. There will be a series of five commercials in total, two have been released already below:
‘Find Me’ commercial – Part One (Watch On Youku)
‘Find Me’ commercial – Part Two (Watch On Youku)
According to reports, Leonardo DiCaprio was paid a staggering $5 million to feature in the commercials.
Rather amusingly the website, which the commercials direct you to, is literally just an image pretending to be a website (at least at time of writing). Go to www.oppofind.com – you’ll see what I mean. Not much really happens in these commercials, let us hope the remaining 3 are a little more exciting. To be the first to hear about the new commercials follow the brand’s Sina Weibo page.
Before we finish, in case you haven’t seen it before, here is a great example of a brand riding a celebrity endorsement storm in style. Remember when Tiger Wood’s affair was exposed and people thought that all his sponsors would ditch him, well Nike had other ideas.
Nike used the situation to create a slightly chilling commercial (below) as Tiger hears his father talking to him from beyond the grave. Brilliant.
Nike Golf: Earl and Tiger commercial
Don’t forget to like us on Facebook.
