'You want to get that reassurance': Why Scottie Pippen, John Legend are endorsing travel
Bailey SchulzGeorge Clooney, John Legend and Scottie Pippen want you to travel.
All three celebrities star in new campaigns tied to the travel industry: Clooney promotes a fundraiser that offers the chance to visit him in Italy, John Legend stars in a new Vrbo ad that promotes visiting loved ones and Scottie Pippen offers up his own Chicago home through Airbnb.
It’s no coincidence that travel companies are using familiar faces in their campaigns just as the travel industry is starting to rebound.
“I think it’s an effective way to market at the moment,” said Jonathon Day, an associate professor at Purdue’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. “It’s sort of an implicit endorsement that it’s safe to travel … It’s just reinforcing the (idea) that people like me or people who I would aspire to or respect say it’s OK to travel, so it must be OK.”
A stay at Scottie Pippen's Airbnb
For Airbnb’s latest promotion, the short-term rental company has partnered with two-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time NBA champion Pippen to promote the platform's unique stays.
Learn more: Best travel insurance
Pippen is offering up his Chicago home to up to four guests on Aug. 2, Aug. 4 and Aug. 6 for $92 a night -- a nod to the year he became a gold medalist.
Guests will be able to watch the Olympic games during their stay and explore Pippen’s home, which features an indoor basketball court, personal movie theater, outdoor pool, arcade room and indoor sauna. Pippen will also greet his guests virtually upon check-in.
Fans can request to book a stay at the home starting 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, July 22 at airbnb.com/scottiepippen.
“I think it’s something we’re all looking forward to, getting some kind of entertainment and getting back to seeing our athletes perform at a high level,” Pippen told USA TODAY. “I think this is a great experience for fans to have an opportunity to come to my home and experience what it’s like to watch the games from my swimming pool or from my movie theater.”
Airbnb is also offering online experiences with Pippen and fellow basketball legends Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing in August. The athletes will lead discussions on their time with the U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball team.
Chris Lehane, head of policy and communications at Airbnb, said it was a no-brainer to team up with an athlete like Pippen, a sports icon who is recognized across multiple generations.
“Anytime you get to partner with a Hall of Famer, you immediately say yes,” Lehane said. “As you look at how people communicate, how they connect, how they engage in this day and age, it’s often through someone who’s an influencer, someone who’s a celebrity, someone who people just already feel they have a connection to and with."
Day said celebrity endorsements can be especially useful for industries like travel.
“Travel has always used celebrity endorsements and people like me or people like you as a way to (get across their message) because you’re buying something you can’t test before you get there,” Day said. “And because of the risk associated with the travel experience, you want to get that reassurance. A celebrity does that.”
John Legend partners with Vrbo
Singer and actor John Legend, who recently starred in an ad campaign for short-term rental company Vrbo, is teaming up with the company again to promote a vacation giveaway to families looking to reconnect after spending months apart during the pandemic.
To enter, participants can follow Vrbo on Twitter or Instagram and post a photo of themselves with the person they want to reconnect with, along with a caption explaining why they want to reunite and #VrboReunionContest.
Winners will be announced every day for 30 days, starting Wednesday. Legend will be promoting the giveaway on his Instagram, which has more than 13 million followers.
"I’ll be posting photos of some of my family who I’ve missed throughout this past year and hopefully this will inspire others to do the same and enter the Vrbo Reunion Contest," Legend told USA TODAY via email. "I know a lot of people haven’t had the chance to see their families yet, so by promoting the contest, we’re hoping to help reunite them sooner and make some really beautiful moments happen."
“John is helping us find families who may not be fans of Vrbo yet but need and want that time away together,” Melanie Fish, head of Vrbo public relations, said via email. “Working with a celebrity was about reaching new audiences, but for Vrbo it was also about finding the right voice – quite literally – to help Vrbo celebrate the reunions that are happening in unbelievable numbers this year.”
Vrbo -- which formerly operated under the HomeAway brand -- had a Super Bowl advertisement in 2010 that starred Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprising their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold, but this is the first time the company has built a campaign with a celebrity, Fish said.
Seunghyun "Brian" Park, an assistant professor at St. John’s University in New York who researches marketing in hospitality and tourism, said this could be an ideal time for companies to partner up with a celebrity since more travelers are becoming comfortable hitting the roads or skies once again.
“Hiring a celeb is very effective for message delivery," Park said. “Partnership with celebs will be very effective to relieve fan’s concerns."
Visit George Clooney in Italy
George Clooney is not a good roommate.
At least that’s the takeaway from his latest advertisement with Omaze, a for-profit fundraising company. The movie star has partnered with the company to offer up a giveaway that would fly the winner to Italy for a 4-star hotel stay and lunch with George and Amal Clooney once the pandemic is over.
A video promoting the fundraiser online stars Clooney acting as an annoying, Brad Pitt-obsessed roommate during quarantine.
“The interesting thing about celebrities and just talent overall is that they sit at the center of culture and these zeitgeist moments,” Omaze Chief Marketing Officer Eric Edge said. “They have the power of reaching millions of people with a message.”
The fundraiser, which closes Friday, supports the Clooney Foundation for Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for justice through accountability for human rights abuses around the world.
Chekitan Dev, the Singapore Tourism Distinguished Professor at Cornell University and an expert on hospitality branding, said the use of celebrities in advertising is a “smart strategy,” especially when the celebrity is already associated with a tourism brand like Clooney is with Italy.
“Restarting tourism after a full stop, especially after a pandemic, is a tough slog,” Dev said via email. “Smart co-branding between a celebrity brand …. and a tourism brand .... can move the travel market.”
He added that while partnering with a celebrity can be pricy, he expects to see more influencers in the post-pandemic world push their followers to visit specific destinations.