Vadim Kormilitsyn created the Stars and Brands agency, which specializes in celebrity marketing, that is, attracting celebrities to advertising campaigns. He expects to find active clients in the form of banks.

Text: Yulia Gordienko

The use of celebrities in advertising makes the brand recognizable - Vadim Kormilitsyn, managing partner of the Stars and Brands agency, became convinced of this in 2002, while working as the general director of the cosmetics company Emansi Laboratory. Then, to promote the brand, he conducted an advertising campaign with the participation of the singer Valeria, it cost $200 thousand. Two years later, he headed the celebrity marketing direction at the Ima-Press agency. And in 2007 he opened his own business and became an intermediary between stars and advertisers.

Large advertising agencies attract stars on their own. However, Kormilitsyn assures that they often prefer to outsource celebrity advertising to him: advertisers rarely resort to it, only in 2-3% of cases (it costs them from $50 thousand to $1.5 million), so they have established connections with stars As a rule, there are no full-service agencies. But Kormilitsyn’s portfolio includes exclusive agreements with 20 artists (he does not name them) and about 500 partnership agreements with celebrities, including Hollywood ones. His agency takes 3-15% of the contract amount. Kormilitsyn selects a star who would fit the brand image, conducts negotiations, is involved in processing the deal and supporting BTL promotions, and often offers ideas for an advertising campaign.

The most expensive star that Kormilitsyn “sold” was Patricia Kaas for the L’Etoile chain (the advertising campaign cost the retailer 1.5 million euros in 2008). “Sometimes we fix the desired amount at which the client wants to “buy” the star, and if we manage to contract it cheaper, the client pays us a bonus,” says Vadim. FMCG companies traditionally use stars in advertising. But after Trust Bank “blowed up the airwaves” with an advertisement featuring Vladimir Turchinsky and Bruce Willis, Stars and Brands also decided to work with banks. First of all, Kormilitsyn will offer clients athletes whose contracts his company is currently concluding.

Costs for advertising campaigns involving stars amounted to $100-120 million in Russia in 2010. The market share of the Stars and Brands agency is estimated at 7-10%. The company is currently negotiating the sale of a stake (its size has not yet been determined) to a strategic investor from Hong Kong. The deal is expected to close at the end of June. With the money raised, Vadim plans to publish a magazine dedicated to celebrity marketing, as well as start “selling” Russian stars (primarily sports stars) to participate in advertising campaigns in Europe and Southeast Asia. “This is very promising in light of the upcoming Olympics in Sochi,” the businessman believes.

Company: National Agency "Stars and Brands"

Year founded: 2007

Specialization: celebrity marketing (attracting stars to participate in advertising campaigns)

Owner: Vadim Kormilitsyn

Staff: five full-time employees plus five to ten temporary workers

Headquarters: Moscow

Competitors: celebrity divisions of large advertising agencies

Problem: stars are not used very often in Russian advertising

Stars on call