In the past year or so, Angel Talent Agency has received many invitations from companies interested in Matthew for advertising endorsements. However, they were all turned down after Helen Herman discussed them with Matthew. The main reason was that none of them were relatively high-end brands. There is a strange rule in the advertising endorsement market: once you endorse a low-end brand, it's very difficult to receive invitations from high-end brands.
This involves a question of style. For example, with brands like McDonalds and KFC, as long as a Hollywood Star has a clear plan for commercial endorsements and greater ambitions, they definitely won't take such endorsements.
Not to mention low-end brands like McDonalds and KFC, even mass-market brands like Nike and Adidas were not in Helen Herman's plans.
Matthew basically followed Helen Herman's advice in this regard. Helen Herman and Angel Talent Agency had invested a lot of resources in him to create the current situation. Since they rejected low-end products, it was certainly because the long-term plan would yield more benefits.
The interests of both parties in this regard were generally aligned.
"What is it this time?" Matthew asked, sitting across from Helen Herman's desk. "It's not that kind of medicine again, is it?"
A while ago, an American company that produced medicine specifically for men wanted to find him for an advertisement and offered a seven-figure reward. They didn't even need him to do much, just take a few sets of photos for the medicine.
After Matthew found out, he immediately had Helen Herman refuse. He remembered a certain brand of throat medicine that had successively deceived several football superstars into doing advertisements; the effect of those ads was absolutely earth-shattering.
"No." Helen Herman shook her head first, then said directly, "Mercedes-Benz Company has officially sent an invitation of intent, placing you on the candidate list to be their spokesperson starting next year."
"Mercedes-Benz?" Matthew certainly knew that this could be considered a high-end car.
Helen Herman explained, "It's not the Mercedes-Benz business series; Mercedes-Benz business cars wouldn't look for you for an endorsement either."
Matthew agreed with her. The spokesperson and the product's temperament must match. Although he didn't take the path of a teen idol, and his external temperament shown to the public was more mature than his actual age, he was still a young actor under twenty-five. Moreover, in his past roles, none had been of a business type.
"Some spokespeople are chosen very well, enhancing the brand image, promoting brand awareness, and even directly promoting product sales."
Helen Herman then added, "Of course, there are also cases where the choice was blind or unexpected spokespeople appeared, causing the brand to regress instead of progress. That happens too."
She picked up her water glass, took a sip, and continued, "The one Mercedes-Benz Company wants you to endorse is the G-Class SUV series."
Hearing this, Matthew immediately thought of that hardcore mercedes-benz suv he had seen bosses driving on construction sites before and said, "The mercedes-benz g-class, I know it."
Helen Herman didn't respond to him and continued with the basic situation, "The current spokesperson for the mercedes-benz g-class suv series is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their contract with Schwarzenegger expires at the end of next June. Since Schwarzenegger faded out of the film industry after entering politics, Mercedes-Benz decided to change people."
"is this confirmed?" Matthew asked with concern.
"It hasn't been finalized yet," Helen Herman said truthfully. "This is just an invitation of intent. Mercedes-Benz will still conduct relevant market research. If nothing goes wrong, they will have an interview with you next month. If they are satisfied with you, they will enter into formal contact and negotiations with us."
She added, "Regarding cars, supercars almost never use Hollywood Stars as spokespeople. Higher-end brands like Bentley and Rolls-Royce have always rarely used spokespeople. A luxury brand like Mercedes-Benz that leans towards the mass market, especially the G series which exists as a high-end SUV, can be said to be the highest brand we can reach in terms of advertising endorsements."
Matthew had heard Helen Herman say before that the top luxury brands usually don't use spokespeople, such as top-tier luxury Haute Couture and the highest-end Swiss watches. Even if they use them occasionally, they tend to favor models with a cold temperament and not particularly high fame.
High-priced luxury goods do not easily use popular stars as spokespeople. It could even be said, albeit excessively, that the more top-tier the luxury product line, the less likely it is to use a popular star as a spokesperson.
Often, entry-level luxury brand goods, such as perfumes, low-end watches, youth-oriented ready-to-wear, and leather bags, will invite popular stars for endorsements. When it comes to high-priced Haute Couture, high-end jewelry, high-end supercars, and high-end watches, the appearance rate of stars is very low, especially popular teen idols, who almost never appear.
Fans of teen idols who can afford such products can be described as extremely rare.
Because 'little fresh meats' and 'little flowers' were once dominant, Matthew had occasionally seen on the internet that a certain luxury company had made a strategic error in endorsements. They invited a high-traffic 'little flower' as a spokesperson in the region on The other side of the Pacific. A year later, the performance showed that product sales hadn't improved at all. They then discovered that the fans of the 'little flower' were almost all ordinary young boys and girls under twenty. Expecting them to buy luxury goods was unrealistic. Instead, the 'little flower' used the brand effect of the luxury brand to greatly increase her fame and popularity.
After the one-year contract expired, the company quickly parted ways with the 'little flower'... Over the past year or so, Matthew had also learned a lot of common knowledge about brand endorsements to avoid being clueless when the time came.
The main consumers of high-end luxury goods are mature, wealthy individuals. If a brand uses a star, or uses an inappropriate star, it will instead lower the consumer's perception.
In this regard, he had seen a classic case in the materials collected by Angel Agency. In 2001, Chanel brought in Coco Lee as the spokesperson for the Asian region, which resulted in public protests from a group of noble ladies and socialites... Therefore, Matthew and Helen Herman didn't expect to get endorsements for the very top brands.
Even if it wasn't Matthew, but a Hollywood superstar, the mercedes-benz g-class suv was basically the ceiling for car endorsements.
"The next month is the observation period for Mercedes-Benz," Helen Herman instructed. "You need to be careful."
She thought for a moment and said, "Compared to this series, you are a bit young. Fortunately, this isn't the business series, but a more sports-oriented model. The style and temperament of the G series' appearance also match you very well."
The biggest problem was that Matthew's fan base leaned towards teenagers, which was an inherent disadvantage.
However, Helen Herman didn't say much more. Whether they could land this endorsement would depend on Matthew's fame and influence on one hand, and her operational ability as an Agent on the other.
Frankly speaking, Matthew's advantages were also very obvious.
The performance of the mercedes-benz g-class suv was powerful and its styling was rugged. Its tough appearance, straight lines, and sharp, angular style could be said to be very consistent with Matthew's persona and actor temperament.
Just like Arnold Schwarzenegger, if Matthew got the advertisement endorsement for this car, it might produce an effect where one plus one is greater than two or even three.
Among the new generation of Hollywood male stars, it was hard to find another one like Matthew who had outstanding physical conditions and combined a tough and wild temperament while being currently popular.
Unless Mercedes-Benz insisted on choosing those middle-aged and elderly male stars, the fact that they sent an invitation of intent showed they were still more inclined towards a young generation male star like Matthew.
These big brands often emphasize the continuity of endorsements. If it weren't for Arnold Schwarzenegger entering politics, Mercedes-Benz probably wouldn't have changed spokespeople. And with the development momentum Matthew was showing now, he would clearly remain popular for many years.
Compared to those messy brands from before, Matthew also really wanted to get this endorsement. After listening to Helen Herman for a while, he asked, "What do I need to do?"
"Be more high-profile and maintain exposure." Helen Herman thought for a moment and added, "I will contact a few high-end interviews for you as soon as possible. No need to consider Elena Boyar and TMZ."
Matthew shrugged and didn't say anything. TMZ was, after all, a gossip site.
Helen Herman obviously had thought it through, "I'll see if I can contact Vanity Fair to make you the cover figure early next year."
"During this time period." Matthew had participated in the awards season PR for pirates of the caribbean last year. "It won't be easy."
As a magazine with an extremely wide audience within Hollywood and among the elite, the cover figures for the first few issues of Vanity Fair each year were often the focus of competition.
Helen Herman couldn't guarantee it either, "I'll try my best."
Matthew stayed in Helen Herman's office for a good part of the day. For him, the endorsement for the mercedes-benz g-class suv was even more important than fighting for the lead actor role in a big-budget commercial film.
According to Helen Herman, if they could really cooperate with Mercedes-Benz, in terms of remuneration alone, there would be an income of about five million dollars every year.
Following the consistent strategy of these big brands, as long as Matthew himself didn't have any major problems, this 5 million dollars a year could become a long-term fixed income.
On the other hand, the brand effect of Mercedes-Benz was huge, and it could also help promote the endorsing star.
As everyone knows, an excellent spokesperson plus an excellent brand can achieve mutual success and a win-win situation.
Unfortunately, neither Matthew nor Helen Herman knew who else Mercedes-Benz had sent invitations of intent to.
Helen Herman's network was limited to the entertainment industry, and such commercial secrets couldn't be found out.