Their faces have come to the fore and elevated them as true celebrities of their brands. They are managers, businessmen and entrepreneurs who conquer the media and go viral on social networks starring in advertising campaigns for their companies. A risky strategy that seeks not only to build a credible story about their products and services but also to humanize the company they lead. But the path of the media leader requires not only a continuous exercise of professional and personal coherence, but also enduring high exposure that often tests his waistline.
“The consumer wants to know who is behind the product they consume and the companies with which they interact. Its leaders have become a valuable resource to create strategies of closeness and trust always aligned with the brand values,” says Paco Lorente, professor at ESIC University. This is confirmed by Nielsen’s Trust in Advertising study, according to which 81% of consumers trust user-generated content and word of mouth more than traditional advertising. Something that businessman and brand image Alain Afflelou is very clear about, with more than 1,400 opticians and audiology centers distributed across twenty countries.
A meteoric expansion in which its Tchin Tchin campaign has had a lot to do with it. “My agency, CDP, considered that putting me in the ads would give credibility to the message and guarantees to the consumer. He generated a real impact that was at the same time a protagonist, an optician, a hearing care professional, the bearer of the brand, its owner and inventor of all the concepts,” he highlights. And he warns that this is not going to become famous. “The presence of the manager must highlight the message and the company. I have always said: ‘My name is Alain Afflelou and I am an optician or hearing aid professional.’ That’s what makes it believable. I haven’t said ‘Hello, I’m here to show off’. There is a risk in thinking that one can afford to say or do everything,” he points out.
For Afflelou, the key to this advertising working lies in being backed by a track record. “As a professional he knew well the problems of glasses wearers and people with hearing impairments. So I was credible, and that’s why the French followed me.” A credibility linked to the exploitation of his image that has made Jesús María de Arriaga, founder and CEO of Arriaga Asociados, add 300,000 clients and 400 employees. His ‘Let’s make it easy’, which seeks to “democratize access to justice,” has made him an omnichannel leader. “I represented myself in a trial and saw the trust you generate when your case is true,” he says.
Become the scourge of large companies and banks, his image travels from television to press and radio, the internet, buses and social networks, where he has invested 20 million euros in one year. “I use my image to change that of a sector like the legal profession, which is cold, distant and charges in advance.” And for this it allocates 2 million euros from a turnover of around 42 million. He recognizes an overexposure of himself “which doesn’t scare me at all because I have based my business model on this strategy.” His counterpart in the real estate sector, Eduardo Molet, speaks of closeness and trust, but also of transparency, who has made his effigy his brand for years.
Dangerous strategy
His popular ‘Sold’ has elevated him in a sector he knows like the back of his hand. “On a trip to the United States I saw that consumers knew who was behind each company and that transparency generated trust, something key for the owners to give you their houses to sell.” The economist speaks of coherence in the media exhibition. “If you use your image for your business you have to be very aware of everything you do and say, manage your company well, take care of your employees, your personal life and above all, ignore criticism because they tend to go against you and not against you. your company, which is what really matters.” A whole roadmap that the ESIC professor describes as “dangerous” because “it puts a person as a guarantee of the brand, which must also be blameless.”
Among social networks, Linkedin (830 million members and 58 million companies, according to Kinsta) is consolidating itself as a business macro showcase where top executives seek to connect through their videos and publications. This is what the president of McDonald’s Spain, Luis Quintiliano, has done with the ‘The Last Order’ campaign to “give voice to our commitment to the primary sector and make visible the work of Spanish ranchers and farmers.” A proximity that Ikea also seeks, since “at these times it is essential to be close and accessible,” according to its CEO in Spain, Nurettin Acar. “Social networks allow me direct and unfiltered contact, in addition to being an essential channel for active listening. “They are a perfect place to humanize the brand,” he says. The firm has extended this closeness to 125 professionals with whom it has created a spokesperson hub “so that they can show the day-to-day life of the company in a different way.”
From LG Electronics, Francisco Ramírez, general director of B2B, becomes the image of his brand, giving visibility to “projects such as the worldwide digitalization of cinema or the modernization of 80% of football stadiums to convert them into multifunctional spaces” , he points out. “Getting exposure in a technology company means giving credibility and humanizing the projects, because some can last up to 25 years.” And he concludes: “Starting to publish is an exercise in sincerity that exposes you to potential rejection that you have to know how to accept.”
Start head on
As an entrepreneur of a technological project, Manolo Villalón, founder and CEO of the Open Salud platform, with 100,000 users, recognizes that “being at the forefront of communications means humanizing and putting a face to a technology that is scary and that has many doctors terrified. ”. Being the image of the brand “allows me to give doctors confidence in digital health and its benefits, something that will save them unnecessary in-person consultations, because that model is no longer sustainable.”
But being on social networks is no guarantee of success. Being entertaining and original adds up, although there’s nothing like trying as you go. “I realized that when I or my team went out instead of a product, the ‘Likes’ on Instagram multiplied,” says Aida Casanovas, founder of the Gramola Lab candy store. And it swept the ‘Prince Charming’ campaign: “ The key is that followers identify with your story. As a single mother, I invite you to stop looking for Prince Charming in bars, clubs or dating apps and I offer him to you in the form of a chocolate.”
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