Celebrities endorsing products has been going on for years. But in today’s brand-focused environment, the search for the right celebrity to match a brand has taken on Olympic proportions.

Davie Brown Entertainment, a US-based marketing agency, specialises in mixing entertainment and branding. They provide movie product placement services, buzz marketing and the Davie-Brown Index, a research tool that purports to measure the impact of a particular celebrity’s endorsement of a brand in terms of consumer purchase intent. The index, which was launched in March 2006, uses a 1.5 million-strong research panel that assesses a list of 1,500 celebrities on traits such as appeal, trendsetting ability, trust and influence.

Movie stars such as Will Smith and Tom Hanks rank highly on the index, as well as sporting celebrities. Other celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, may rank highly in terms of awareness, but low in terms of trust, making them unsuitable for certain brand images. According to a report in New York Magazine, access to the index runs at US$20,000 a year.

The endorsers...

Nicole Kidman: Chanel
Chanel chose the glamorous blonde for their Chanel No. 5 campaign because she embodies the elegance of the fragrance. The company also hired award-winning director Baz Luhrmann (who worked with Kidman in her Oscar-nominated role in Moulin Rouge) to direct and produce No. 5 The Film. The 180-second adver-film cost Chanel US$42 million to produce.

Nicolas Cage: Montblanc
Montblanc employs Cage partly because of his link to success and charity work – two qualities the company promotes as part of their brand image. Cage also has the distinction of having starred in popular action movies and in small-scale, art-house productions, giving him household recognition around the world, as well as the respect of art aficionados. 

Angelina Jolie: St John
Jolie was chosen to replace supermodel Gisele Bundchen as the face of St John Knits as part of the fashion brand’s continuing strategy to give the company a younger edge. Jolie is contracted to appear in ads and to only wear St John’s garments for red-carpet events.

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers: Versace
Rhys-Meyers replaced Halle Berry and appeared in a campaign surrounded by a collection of female supermodels, including Kate Moss and Christy Turlington. He is the first male face of Versace in some time, following a line of female stars that includes Madonna and Demi Moore.

Scarlett Johansson: Louis Vuitton
After appearing in the fashion house’s 2004 campaign, the actress (right) was asked, in a rare move, to pose once again for Louis Vuitton’s spring 2007 campaign.

Lindsay Lohan: Miu Miu
Though Lohan has been considered too much of a “teen queen” to act as the muse of a major fashion label (rumours that she would sign with Louis Vuitton or Chanel stayed just that), the starlet was tapped as the next face of Miu Miu, bringing a desirable sense of notoriety to the Miuccia Prada’s younger line.

Jude Law: Dunhill
Law is the face of Dunhill in Asia only, and is a wise choice for the brand, which has had trouble appealing to younger generations.