The Celebrity brand is of great importance. How a celebrity is regarded by the public and how high their profile is can have a direct affect on their earnings. Keeping track of the brand and maintaining it is therefore crucial. Here celebrities will be written about in terms of the ‘brand’ that they promote.
Television today is dominated by reality T.V. It began by taking unknowns and thrusting them into the limelight in what seemed to be an effort to fulfil Orwell’s “fifteen minutes of fame” prediction. However, never ones to miss a trick, those who dwell in the lower levels of ‘celebrity’ saw an opportunity to boost their profiles and make money.
I was flicking through some of these shows and throught to myself, ‘Just how much can a celebrity’s online profile be boosted by appearing on reality show and how long does this last for?’ and ‘ Where are the contestants discussed, and do some have a more sustained profile than others?’
There were 12 celebrities of varying degrees of fame in the Big Brother House this January, all looking to boost their public profile for the coming year.
For the purpose of my search I focused on six of the housemates, they are:
- Alex Reid – cage fighter/actor/ Mr. Katie Price
- Dane Bowers – singer
- Ivana Trump – entrepreneur, ex-wife of Donald Trump
- Stephen Baldwin – Hollywood actor
- Nicola Tappenden – glamour model
- Lady Sovereign – UK rapper
Fig 1: Contestant mentions over a two month period
Prior to the start of the show, the majority of the contestants had limited social media profiles, with only Ivana Trump being the centre of a news story on 27th December 2009 involving her, a plane, swearing and children.
Over January, while that the program is on:
- Alex Reid, is the most discussed, with 11,345 mentions.
- The closest rival to Reid is Stephen Baldwin with 5,904 mentions, less than half of Reid’s.
- Ivana Trump and Lady Sovereign had similar levels of mentions at 4,268 and 4,219.
- Dane Bowers clocked up 2,741 while Nicola Tappenden only managed 555 mentions.
What insight does this give us over the celebrities as a brand in the short term? It shows that:
- Appearing on reality T.V. can boost your profile, but some of the celebrities do better than others.
- The Alex Reid brand is consistently high.
- The Nicola Tappenden brand bubbles fairly low – between 10 and 20 mentions per day while in the house, peaking on the 18th January when she was evicted. Post-eviction her brand mentions fall to below ten mentions per day.
- Lady Sovereign’s mentions are high while on the show. Following her eviction on the 18th January her daily mentions fall drastically.
They provide a good comparison in how Big Brother can work in favour of the brand, but only in the short term and limited other external factors.
The trend of mentions of the celebrities’ names shows fluctuation. This highlights that, even while the program is being broadcast, not all the contestants are being consistently discussed in social media. This seemed surprising, given the attention that the show is given by the tabloids and blogs. There were spikes in the contestants’ mentions, most notably when they were evicted. However, there are two clear spikes which stand out in January, and both concern the Alex Reid brand.
The first Alex Reid spike is on the 29th January when his brand receives 1,806 mentions. This is when he won the show. Clearly the winning brand gets the lion’s share of the coverage that day.
Fig 2: Frequently Used Words in Winner's Spike
The above Word Cloud picks out the most frequently used words in the day’s posts on Alex Reid. Most of the conversation surrounding his brand is concerned with his success in winning the show. Where was his success being discussed though? By segmenting the results by media type we can see where the Alex Reid brand is being discussed the most in relation to his victory:
Fig 3: Media Location of Alex Reids Victory Mentions
Micro media, including Twitter, was the platform where a vast amount of Alex Reid conversation was taking place. Often Twitter users were Tweeting about the result of the show. Of the Big Brother contestants he is the clear winner not only of the show, but also in terms of mentions of his brand.
However, there are factors other than Big Brother affecting mentions of Alex Reid. The second spike in Alex Reid activity was the announcement that he and his partner, Katie Price, married in Las Vegas. This announcement once again boosted the Alex Reid brand in social media, with 1781 mentions on the 3rd February. You could take the debate further, was the marriage a direct result of Reid’s victory, or would he have married Katie Price regardless? We’ll let the Heat readers decide that one.
In essence, the celebrity brand remains important for the individual to earn a living. The public profile is therefore important. Big Brother appearances do increase a celebrity’s social media presence. Here we have shown, using Radian6 as a tool, how to monitor brands, comparing them against competitors (the other contestants), and where they are most frequently discussed. Radian6 can be used to do this for any brand, aiding and monitoring any social media strategy that could be put in place. Now the Alex Reid brand needs to sustain the mentions across social media and capitalise on winning the show and the interest in his marriage!
