Although 32% of Spirits brands engage in celebrity endorsements, only 15% employed a celebrity on Twitter. Our Digital IQ Index®: Spirits shows in addition to a brand ambassador’s following, brands should gage or mandate how often the celebrity will tweet on behalf of the brand.
Among those studied in our Index, Sean “Diddy” Combs was the ideal brand ambassador for Ciroc with 9,520,000 followers and 158 brand mentions in 2013. He had 225x the reach of the @Ciroc account. Ne-Yo came second for Malibu, with 6,120,000 followers, 58 brand mentions and 482x the reach of @Maliburumus. On the other end of the spectrum, Mary J Blige did not mention Belvedere once on Twitter in 2013. She had 316x the reach of @Belvederevodka, which made her silence a miss for the brand.
Brand ambassadors seem to be willing to change their tweeting habits. Alexi Lalas improved his relationship with el Jimador by agreeing to mention the brand in 2013. (Lalas was an ambassador for el Jimador in 2012 but failed to mention the brand on Twitter.) The gap between endorsers proves choosing a celebrity with a large following is not enough.