How Do You Cope When A Celebrity Lets You Down?

Today, the media is flooded with news from various sources and grabbing their attention is a mammoth task. Therefore, when it comes to publicising an event or brand, having a celebrity on board makes the reach quicker and greater. This is the reason that many like to take the celebrity route to grab eyeballs. Besides this, having a celebrity on board lends an aura of credibility and builds trust instantly.

For our recent assignment Village Ticket, we decided to take the celebrity route too and roped in a prominent actor.  He had confirmed his presence but let us down in the last minute. Some like to keep a clutch of celebrities as Plan B, but here we did not have one. How did we manage?

What is Village Ticket?

Village Ticket – Uzhavar Unnum Unavu was a large event that took place at the MGR Janaki College for women. The aim was to connect city residents with their village roots and also understand what farming was about. The event had over 300+ traditional TN recipes ranging from Kal Dosai to Arcot Chicken Biriyani and Hogenakkal Fish Curry. Visitors enjoyed simple village joys such as riding a bullock cart, playing traditional games like Kabaddi, Gilli etc.  There were also plenty of village folk arts such as Oyilattam, Kavadi Attam and so on. This four day fest attracted hundreds of enthusiastic people who sampled the true traditions of rural Tamilnadu.

How we did it!

The celebrity dropping out dampened our spirits a bit but we decided not to let it drag us down. Our Plan B was to steer away from a boring press meet where there would be just formal addresses. We decide to recreate the entire atmosphere of the village at the press launch. The media who came to the launch were surprised to suddenly get transported into the rural atmosphere.

The themed launch started right from the backdrop where traditional kolams were used to decorate it. Folk artists gave dazzling performances right at the press meet. This gave the shutterbugs plenty to click, from the colourful costumes to the vibrant moves, they knew that this would make the pages and TV screens get a lively look. They were also served traditional village food.

The coverage that we received was phenomenal, from top dailies like the Hindu, Dinamalar, DT Next, Deccan Chronicle, Dinamani, Eenadu and more.

What we wanted to underline is that when you make your press launch an attractive event, even without a celebrity.  the magnitude of reach is much more.