Overview: Bloomberg Business interviews Hollywood Branded CEO Stacy Jones on how the agency created the celebrity endorsement relationship between Estelle and Rosa Regale.
Estelle Sips; Wharton MBAs Crowd-Fund for School: Scene
Bloomberg Business
by Amanda L Gordon
10:10 AM CDT
August 8, 2012
Estelle
Estelle performing at the Darby on Aug. 7. Photographer: Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg
Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) — Hip-hop’s glamorous starlet Estelle crooned last night at the Darby — everything from snippets of Madonna’s “Borderline” to her smooth-rap “Freak” to her first hit, “American Boy,” which the audience sang for her.
Then she popped a magnum of Rosa Regale and gave a toast to a wonderful life, launching into her song by that title. The chorus goes, “Hey! I’m winning today.”
Kevin Liles, her manager, and Mike Kyser of her label, Atlantic Records, sat in a center booth watching with approval.
Estelle and Rosa Regale have become an item since her album “All of Me” was released in February.
It started with the music video for “Thank You,” in which a waiter pours the Italian sparkling red wine imported by Banfi Vintners. Then came sampling at a pre-Grammy event featuring her charity, the All of Me Foundation, and at some of her shows. There were Twitter and Facebook mentions, too, all culminating in a one-year endorsement deal giving the brand the right to Estelle’s image for marketing purposes.
Stacy Jones, chief executive officer of Hollywood Branded Inc., initiated the relationship.
“The reason why Rosa Regale wanted to work with Estelle is that the brand tested really well in an urban demographic,” Jones said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. “And Estelle has a clean image, a healthy persona.”
The crowd assembled last night, on a stop of the Rosa Regale “Invite Only” tour, seemed to fit that profile.
Among them: Bryce Shaw, general manager of design firm Holly Hunt; Ann Akiri, who works in marketing for Ben Sherman; Dwayne Williams, an emergency-room physician, and DJ Kevin Young.
One guest advised not to drink more than two glasses of Rosa Regale or you’ll get a headache.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-08/estelle-sips-wharton-mbas-crowd-fund-for-school-scene
