The Strategy: Leveraging the A-List

Celebrities and public opinion leaders can inspire large numbers of people, and this has become a successful approaches to conducting agenda-promoting campaigns.  The more relevant the “celebrity” is at a particular time, the greater the impact.      aaa

The individuals with the greatest influence are those who are currently in the limelight.  In public-relations jargon, this prime group is named the “A-List”.a

To leverage all possible elements of our awareness-elevating campaign, we were determined to recruit “A-List” celebrities whose media coverage would enhance all other exposure.  Their followers would then encourage an extensive domino effect for our message’s impact, increasing awareness of heart disease, for women, in Israel.a

Knowing that “A-List” celebrities can make a great difference is one thing – the big question was how to turn this vision into a reality.  Our team prepared a comprehensive strategy for recruiting big names:a

Capitalize on personal connections

Promote the campaign as one that saves lives Identify the recruited celebrity to be recognized as leading an important social agenda

Encourage participation by starting small – allow the person to be part of our campaign with minimal effort on their part

“Friend Brings Friend” – once the first A-Listers have been recruited, their names can be used to recruit others

We invited all types to join our campaign: men & women, young and old, models, authors, journalists, actors, comedians and public opinion leaders.a

The first to come on board were Yael Levental, a comedy artist; Galit Gutman, a model and morning TV show hostess; and Zippi Shavit and Hanna Laslau, two Israeli actress icons in their seventies.  Once this group was on board, others joined the wave.  In total, more than 30 A-Listers took part in our campaign. a

The task was simple.  Each celebrity sent a picture of him or herself to their followers, accompanied by a short message including the action item “like the campaign page to inflate the giant heart in Rabin Square. ” Ten thousand “likes” were needed to completely inflate the heart, and the Pollin Center heart was fully inflated after just three days of our campaign!  a

 In less than one week, leveraging the A List enabled us to  expose hundreds of thousands to messages promoting awareness of women’s heart health.a