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More and more celebrities are trying to get a foothold in the food industry – with success. Whether it's tea or chocolate, Switzerland or Germany, the celebrity food products sell out quickly and generate high sales. Why the concept works so well, and what storytelling elements are behind it, we reveal in our blog.

The Gangstarella pizza or the "Bra Tee" by the German rapper Capital Bra, the first own food products by fitness influencer Pamela Reif or the Jokolade by TV entertainer Joko Winterscheid – they are all in great demand.  In Switzerland, social media star Zeki recently took the same step and became the first Swiss influencer to launch his own snack sausages "Sucuk" at Migros. Why exactly are these "celebrity foods" so well received? Here are the five ingredients behind the secret recipe of celebrity food products:

1. It's not the content that counts, it's the packaging that counts

The colourful packaging of the Bra Tea or Jokolade is eye-catching. Too much color? There's no such thing! The brighter the colours, the better – especially with the mostly younger target group. In Switzerland, too, the first deliveries of Bra tea were sold out shortly. Everyone wants it – but young people don't talk much about the taste. The No. 1 topic of conversation is the slogans on the back of the packaging: "Capis Bra Tee blasts exaggeratedly". Entertainment is guaranteed. Jokolade also advertises with slogans such as "I wanted to do something meaningful" or "Karmarellized". On the advertising posters, Joko Winterscheidt can be seen in a pink fur coat on a pink sofa in a completely pink environment. What counts here is: more is more.

2. Bridging the gap between humor and authenticity

At first glance, you might laugh at the products. However, they should not be underestimated, because they create the bridge between humor and authenticity with good storytelling. Instead of simply launching a chocolate with wordplay on the market, Jokolade is now part of a great mission: for slave-free chocolate worldwide. The company pays a surcharge of about 20% on the cocoa, which allows the farmers to secure their livelihood. Fitness influencer Pamela Reif also does a lot of education behind her food products.

3. Social Media vs. Teleshopping

While conventional food products such as Ristorante or Lindt rely on expensive TV advertising, the new celebrity products do not need this at all. Here, " owned media" plays a greater role, i.e. one's own channels. Almost every day, Pamela Reif talks about her food products on her Instagram channel. So her 7.7 million followers are constantly bombarded with it – teleshopping 24/7, so to speak. "Fan bounding" also plays a major role here. If you are a fan of the celebrity or influencer, the willingness to buy is much greater. The media also like to report on celebrities. Thus, the food products also benefit from free PR in the area of "earned media". But even here there are PR stunts that seem quite random at first glance.

4. Invisible PR stunts

A video circulated in the media and on social media in which entertainer Joko Winterscheidt and rapper Capital Bra meet at a Shell gas station and taste each other's recently launched food products. A live tasting, so to speak, which immediately attracted the fans. A chance meeting or a planned PR stunt? The video went viral and benefited from extra attention when a case was filed against Capital Bra for not wearing a face mask at the gas station. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad PR.

5. Sales strategy conditions the fans

Through clever marketing moves, buyers are guided through a customer journey that aims to achieve the desired outcome: Buy, buy, buy. The Pamela Reif products were sold out within 20 minutes in the online shop. As a result, new restocks were constantly announced – in the meantime, there is even daily information about when new products will be available. If you were to plan in larger quantities or with more foresight, you could certainly communicate a week in advance. But that would be boring – and the hype could fizzle out. In the meantime, even supermarket giants are jumping on the celebrity products. The large social media reach seems to be a sales guarantee for them. Whereas in the past you had to buy into the assortment in the classic retail business, today it's exactly the opposite.

A look into the future suggests the launch of even more celebrity food products. We are curious to see who will enter the food business after Zeki. Maybe Roger Federer with his own kale?

Would you like to learn more about storytelling in the food industry and Jokolade and Co.? Here you can find our StoryRadar episode, in which Lisa and Ferris talk about the new hype around celebrity food products. Listen now!

Storytelling Elements Celebrity Food Products Podcast
Lisa and Ferris also talk about the hype around celebrity food products in our podcast Storyradar.