We got to wondering if celebrity spokespeople are worth the big bucks in Telecom/Wireless. So, we pulled all competitor TV spots for 2015 YTD and compared the ad effectiveness scores for those with celebrities against those without. For analysis of ads in other categories, see our Competitive Intelligence resources page.
Celebrities Don't Appear to be a Guaranteed Win
To our surprise, we saw very little statistical difference in the scores as you can see below. (Note: An ABX Index of 100 is "average" and an Index of 140+ is "great.")
So why don’t those with celebrities stand out as ‘great TV?’ We saw some strong creative in the line-up, but the audience didn’t reward it with creative effectiveness scores as high as we would have anticipated.
To illustrate, let's look at two of the top ads below. The #1 ad starred David Beckham in a :60 spot for Sprint that focused on the complexity of competitor wireless plans. The ad garnered a decent 125, which is 25% above “average” in the ABX scoring system, but still below “greatness." The high Reputation score indicates Beckham’s presence did have an impact, at least in the :60 version. (Click to play).
Then, we looked at the #3 ad, which was for T-Mobile, which does not use a celebrity. Amazingly, it scores almost as high! (Note: the #2 ad featured Joel McHale for T-Mobile.) (Click to play).
So, is it worth the money to hire a celebrity in Telecom/Wireless? Based on our consumer panel, we’d say maybe not. See below for how the celebs themselves stacked up.
If you'd like a copy of the Creative Diagnostics for these ads, please click below. Be watching this space for Competitive Intelligence for Retail, Household, Personal Care, Automotive, and more.
How the ABX Testing is Done
ABX provides ad effectiveness scores from human respondents against 14 variables and in all media types. ABX Index values are a comparison of the results of an ad versus the average of all ads in the ABX database (100,000+ ads). Click for more information about definitions and methodology.
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