I’m a Marketer, Get Me Out of Here!

You know Christmas is coming when the new series of “I’m a Celebrity” starts.

A couple of weeks ago, the intrepid celebrities headed for the Australian jungle. For the first time in ages, I had actually heard of the vast majority of them – makes a change.

You may be scratching your head and wondering what on earth this has to do with copywriting, the answer is absolutely nothing, but it is to do with marketing.

Although all the celebs are taking part to raise money for charity, you have to ask yourself what’s in it for them?

The simple answer is promotion – they’re there to market themselves for future TV projects.

Admittedly, this hasn’t always worked in the past – who could forget Gillian McKeith’s disastrous appearance? But many have gone on to do other things.

Having watched several series (all for research purposes of course), I can’t help but notice a recurring theme.

When the celebs first arrive, those that jump and scream at everything usually end up doing the lion’s share of the trials.

Marketing to stand out

Look at this year’s constellation of celebrities; Matthew Wright became an instant target for the voting public with his jumpy shenanigans before he’d even reached the jungle.

For someone who is apparently scared of everything, he’s put up some incredible performances in the trials. So, is he really that afraid of everything, or is it a clever ploy on his part to stand out from the rest to get the most airtime?

Similarly, there’s Joey Essex. Not so jumpy, but his inability to tell the time, or blow his nose (he has learnt to tie his shoe laces though, because that’s a life skill he needed) has encouraged the British public to vote for him to do the trials.

As a result, the two of them have been hogging the TV coverage.

Then of course there’s the love interest – no prizes for guessing who that’s supposed to be (Joey and Amy) – and Rebecca Adlington’s priceless comment the other night when she and Steve Davis were subjected to the sight of Amy massaging Joey’s back – “It’s like watching porn with your parents.”

But a new pretender to the jungle throne has now made an appearance. Kian Egan has been a fairly quiet character until the  ‘Hang out to dry” challenge. Desperate to get food for his starving camp mates, Kian out smarted the ostensibly unbeatable Joey to win food for his camp mates – the rise of a new Tarzan? Time will tell.

It’s all about how you are perceived

When you are marketing your business, you present it in a way that you want people to see. This is exactly what each of these celebrities are doing.

Some are quietly working behind the scenes, doing only what’s needed to get by.

Others are pushing themselves, trying to become the leader in their niche (hero, joker, scaredy-cat).

The jungle is a microcosm of business marketing – which are you? The quiet business working away in the background and getting by, or the one that stands out as the leader in your niche?

 Image courtesy of Keerati/FreeDigitalPhotos