Why some celebrity-led brand stunts work—and some fall flat

In January 2019, Kris Jenner told everyone on Twitter to #getready for a big announcement from her daughter, Kendall, praising her for sharing her “most raw story” yet. The next day, Jenner revealed…that she was the new face of Proactiv. And many on the internet laughed.

A year later, Tom Brady tweeted a cryptic black-and-white photo amid rumors that he was leaving the Patriots. That turned out to be an ad for Hulu (as well as the cause of at least a few near-heart attacks across New England, according to some online comments).

So last month, when Snoop Dogg announced in an Instagram post that he was “giving up smoke,” it might not be surprising to hear that some people were immediately skeptical. And that skepticism was rewarded: It was, in fact, an ad, this time for Solo Stove smokeless fire pits.

Even if the ad elicited some eye rolls, Mik Manulik, VP and creative director at The Martin Agency, told us that the responses to the campaign have been “better than [his team] could have imagined.”

But there’s a fine line between frustrating fans and sticking the landing, so what is the key to executing a celebrity-driven teaser without leaving audiences feeling overhyped or potentially duped?

No blowing smoke

“There’s definitely a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it,” Molly Barth, senior cultural strategist at consultancy sparks & honey, told us. While a seemingly blemish-free Kendall Jenner striking a partnership with an acne-care brand might not exactly scream authenticity, she said, Snoop Dogg x Solo Stove was “done very, very well” because it connected back to Snoop’s personal brand as a well-known cannabis smoker. It helped, too, that the Solo Stove campaign leaned into “a sort of memeification” and humor, which Barth said was “critical” to its success.

The messaging also worked for Snoop Dogg x Solo Stove, she said, because it wasn’t as vague as some other teasers. When celebrities or influencers make announcements like, “Big thing coming,” and it ends up being an ad, she said it can come across to some as “disingenuous and sort of money-grabbing.”

Even though Snoop Dogg is undoubtedly being compensated for the partnership, Barth said the execution made it feel more like an inside joke, which helped it succeed even if other announcement-type campaigns have seemed to lose some of their shock value.

“There needs to be some sort of hook for the consumer to actually want to engage—they don’t just want to be sold to for the sake of making money,” she said.

Catching fire

Using Snoop Dogg to help build Solo Stove’s brand voice and kick off firepit season was The Martin Agency’s “wildcard” idea, Manulik told us, and one that they knew wouldn’t come without some risk.

“We were concerned that when it came out that it was for Solo Stove, there could be a backlash,” he said. “But it felt like 90% of the responses were really positive.”

According to The Martin Agency, both Snoop and Solo Stove saw an increase in followers across platforms and more than 30 million engagements across posts.

“I think it’s really important for brands, when they get into this space, to make sure that they’re letting the audience lead the conversation, and they’re along for the ride,” Manulik told us. “If you’re forcing people to talk about you in a way that doesn’t make sense, a lot of times, people reject it.”

By releasing a vague teaser before the actual announcement, Solo Stove was also able to generate billions in earned media impressions and get coverage from mainstream media outlets like CNN, which covered the initial announcement and then a follow-up story to clarify.

The teaser also drew the attention of public figures like Willie Nelson and Meek Mill, the latter of whom said he was inspired to give up smoking after hearing about Snoop’s decision.

“Everything we did was in good fun,” Manulik said. “Ultimately, maybe we did inspire some people who were thinking about going smokeless to follow through on it.”