There was a time not so long ago that the winner of a celebrity look-alike contest might have rode the virality wave to its crest with something like an appearance on Ellen.
Today, these winners get brand deals with companies like Away luggage and Torchy’s Tacos—and then they get invited to the Golden Globes.
In recent months, celebrity look-alike contests have captured the public’s attention and adoration, starting with a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest held in New York in October. The event drew in about 2,000 participants and attendees—and even inspired an appearance from Timmy T himself.
Contests searching for doppelgängers of Glen Powell, Paul Mescal, Jeremy Allen White, and other famous faves have followed, and it was perhaps only a matter of time before brands got involved. With that said, marketers told us it took some figuring out exactly how and when to step in.
“We are a brand. We are a company. We didn’t want to taint the experience at all,” said Morgan Hendrix, head of brand marketing, partnerships, and public relations at Torchy’s, which offered a free queso prize and mascot antics at the Glen Powell look-alike contest. “We didn’t want to overstep.”
From fan to brand appreciation
Perhaps because celebrity look-alike contests seem to have sprung out of organic fan appreciation, none of these events have so far been sponsored. Instead, both Torchy’s and Away got involved because their marketing teams were fans of the events themselves.
The Torchy’s team, which is based in Austin, Texas, “had all seen little murmurings of [the Glen Powell look-alike contest] in different parts of our Instagram, our Threads, or just whatever we were watching that morning,” Hendrix told Marketing Brew.
After having a good laugh, the team realized they could get in on the fun and promote the brand’s Queso Gold Card, which gives its owner a year’s worth of free queso, at the same time, she said. The resulting marketing stunt, after Torchy’s reached out to the event’s organizer to coordinate, included Torchy’s delivering free queso to the event, donating a Queso Gold Card as a contest prize, and bringing its mascot to both participate in the contest and take photos throughout the day.
The team considered taking the brand’s involvement a bit further, Hendrix said, but they ultimately decided it wasn’t the right fit.
“I think having that awareness was what helped us keep it fun, engaging, and not too, ‘Oh, man, brands have ruined it now!’” she said. “That’s the last thing we wanted anyone to say.”
At Away, the brand’s senior manager of influencer and advocacy brought the celebrity look-alike concept to the team’s attention, according to Alice Chen, the brand’s director of social media, influencer, and community.
Get marketing news you'll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
“We immediately knew she was onto something, and just started outreach right away,” Chen told Marketing Brew. “Look-alike contests are everywhere right now, and so our thinking was just, let’s get this on social. Let’s partner with the right people and see where this can go.”
Instead of going to the events, Away worked with winners of the Jeremy Allen White, Timothée Chalamet, and Dev Patel look-alike contests on a social media campaign.
Chen said that the campaign is social-only so far since acting fast to capitalize on the trend was a priority. Of the engagements on one particular post, in which the three look-alikes are highlighted in a carousel of still images, 39% were new customers, Chen said.
An authentic look-alike moment
Brands typically clamor to get in on zeitgeisty moments, but both Torchy’s and Away’s teams took a second to evaluate if celebrity look-alike contests were the right trend for them.
“We don’t do things or participate in trends just because everyone else is doing it,” Chen said. “We do it when it feels like we have something to say, and we can actually take leadership space in that area.”
Chen said Away was able to use the look-alike fervor to reassert itself as “the OG innovator in the luggage category.” The campaign’s messaging featured the phrase “Even look-alikes travel with the real thing,” which Chen said was a “cheeky nod to dupe culture” in the luggage space and beyond.
“When we make the decision as to whether or not we participate in the conversation, it really comes down to how ownable it is for us as a brand,” she said. “That ownability is what drives our decision-making when we choose to participate or not participate in a trend.”
Hendrix said the Torchy’s team recognized the trend’s national appeal but really chose to get in when they saw the local angle. With both Glen Powell and Torchy’s being original Austinites, Hendrix saw the event as a way to reconnect with Austin culture.
“We thought this might just hit home, and that’s kind of all we wanted to do with it,” Hendrix said. “Our whole emphasis was really very much just, hey, this is a very chaotic, good, fun, easy weekend thing that’s going on in our city that we think embodies a lot of what Austin’s about. Let’s go down there and have the same amount of fun with it.”