Imagine picking up the phone and hearing a man with a thick, slow British accent ask, “Can you please deliver some water to Sting’s villa in Italy?”
Or sometimes it would be his villa in Malibu.
Other times to his home, ahem, mansion in England.
Yes, I would periodically receive such calls as Penta Water’s PR manager back in 2004/05.
The Stars Loved Penta
I hadn’t dealt with celebrity endorsements in my PR career before landing this dream job at Penta Water in beautiful Carlsbad, CA (about 35 miles north of San Diego). But as the company’s first full-time PR employee, I embraced the challenge.
Penta was a perfect fit for the celebrity lifestyle. It was an ultra-purified, premium water brand — and expensive. In 2004 a 16.9 oz. bottle was $1.69. But it tasted great… because it had NO taste.
The rich and famous loved it so much that they usually proactively contacted us, practically begging to endorse our product. It was almost surreal.
(Warning: Entering my water snob mode now.)
What gives water a taste are impurities — when there’s something else in the water besides water. From the indoctrination I received while working there (and it’s what I still believe), the cleaner and purer the water, the faster the hydration. I remember seeing a study that showed ultra-pure water hydrates faster than sports drinks (plus, those beverages tend to be laden with sugar).
The only exception for having something in your water is when you’re working out hard and need to replace your electrolytes.
One of the biggest misconceptions about bottled water is you can get minerals from water. Umm, no. Your body doesn’t efficiently process minerals from water because they’re largely inorganic. It’s much easier to get your minerals from plant and animal food. You’d probably drown from drinking water before you obtained a sufficient amount of minerals from water.
And here’s a deceiving statement printed on some water bottles’ labels: “Minerals added for taste.” What it should say is, “Minerals added to hide the taste of the impurities still in our water.”
The Scoop on Celebrity Endorsements
Back to the celebrity endorsements and how that works.
I typically worked through the celebrity’s agent. Oftentimes there were several agents working for an agency that represented numerous celebrities. Some specialized in TV/movie stars, others in athletes.
Sometimes I worked directly with the talent, like a local budding musician named Courtney Jaye.
You typically have to pay these celebrities (what we would now call influencers) a pretty penny to endorse your product.
Penta Water was unusual when it came to this. Instead of cash, we paid for celebrity endorsements with cases of water — typically about 5 cases of water a month.
Yes, this was water we essentially received free from the City of Carlsbad, and then purified the tar out of it.
The only exception to not paying athletes were the Olympic swimmers, which included Amanda Beard, Jason Lezak and Aaron Piersol. Their agent insisted we pay them at least a stipend since they weren’t professional athletes. I was able to convince management to do so — but at a more reasonable rate that I was able to negotiate with this agent. Besides, who better to endorse your product than an Olympic swimmer? They know water!
Managing the “Penta People”
I quickly established a system for managing these celebrities, which I dubbed the “Penta People.” Click here to see the impressive list from our press kit.
Upon signing our agreement, they received a welcome packet. It stipulated that in addition to our ability to state they endorsed our product, I also had each celebrity send us a signed 8×10” headshot where they also wrote something glowing about the water.
I told Sting’s manager to ask him to sign his 8×10, “Penta is simply THE best message in a bottle.” Unfortunately, by then Sting was very focused on his solo career and trying to move on from his days with The Police. Instead he signed, “The spirit moves upon the water,” a reference to a line from his Sacred Love song.
The photos were put in quality frames, and eventually we had nearly 100 framed celebrity endorsements lining the hallway walls on either side of the lobby. It was quite the sight.
These framed, autographed 8x10s impressed visitors. I think it especially helped influence potential investors visiting the office. It also helped close distribution deals. One of the biggest deals was the Kroger grocery chain. I don’t remember all the details (because I wasn’t there), but when Penta Water’s leadership team met with Kroger executives at their Ohio headquarters to sign the distribution agreement, then Cincinnati Bengals Quarterback Carson Palmer — who was one of our Penta People — was also in that meeting and helped close that deal.
I’ll share some other time why I regard Carson to be a man of incredible integrity. Teaser: He had a lucrative endorsement deal with Pepsi… but didn’t endorse their water brand.
These endorsements also opened doors in my press pitching. Check out these press quotes. Having Amanda Beard helped us score a front page story in USA Today.
How I Landed at Penta Water
If you’re interested, here’s the story of how I became the first full-time public relations employee hired by Penta Water. It’s a remarkable story — at least in my own eyes.
I was working in a HIGHLY toxic corporate culture (mostly to do with the PR dept.), and for the sake of my sanity I had to get out ASAP. My two and a half years there felt like a decade. I began applying for jobs. I even paid thousands to an executive search firm in Irvine, CA to help rescue me. They turned out to be mostly a scam, except for one thing they taught me that made all the money I spent with them worth it.
They taught me the importance of having a highly polished personal elevator pitch — one that should be at the tip of my tongue, ready to confidently use to answer the job interview question, “Tell me about yourself.”
I worked very hard at writing, refining and practicing my elevator pitch. (Read my blog post about elevator speeches.)
One day I noticed Penta Water, only a few miles away from my current work in Carlsbad, CA, had posted a PR manager position. I applied. Due to my ability to write a very attention-getting cover letter that practically made me sound like I was heaven sent just for the job I was targeting, I secured an interview with Penta Water’s VP of marketing, Dave Donaldson. (Where are you Dave? Call me! You’re my hero!)
Very early on in my interview I delivered my elevator pitch to Dave. Afterward, Dave sat back in his chair and had the most incredulous, blown-away expression I’d ever seen. After a short pause he said, “Come with me.” We walked up a long flight of stairs to the COO’s office on the second floor. After he introduced me to Ike Gillman, Dave said, “Tell him what you just told me!”
I did.
The next day I was offered the job, after they rescinded an offer they had already made to another candidate. (Sorry, whoever you were!)
I truly had the time of my life at this job. Laid the foundation for their communications. Directed all news media relations, celebrity endorsements (as I mentioned), customer relations, and assisted in marketing communications, events and trade shows. Even placed the product on the first season of The Biggest Loser. (I’ll have to write about product placement another time.)
3 Big Takeaways
- Create a system for celebrity endorsement success. Be clear in an agreement about what you’ll do and what you expect of the celebrity. Create a welcome or orientation packet. And leverage this endorsement by sharing it.
- Think outside the checkbook. Celebrity endorsements don’t always require cash. Instead, they may be happy with a monthly supply of your product.
- Strategically leverage star power. Use celebrity endorsements as a tool to impress stakeholders — whether it’s potential investors, distribution partners, the press, or customers.
Have you had any celebrity endorsements for your product(s)? Do share!
Jeffery E. Pizzino, APR is a spin-free public relations pro who is passionate about telling the why of your story with clarity, impact and authenticity. He began his PR career in 1987 at Ketchum Public Relations in New York City but has spent the majority of his career as a solopreneur. He’s AuthenticityPR’s Chief Authentic Officer and also functions as the fractional CCO for technology startup Converus.
Jeff has an MBA in Management from Western International University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications — with an emphasis in PR — from Brigham Young University. He’s a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but also holds an Italian citizenship. Jeff and his storyteller wife Leticia have four children and four grandchildren. In his extremely limited nonwork hours, he studies italiano, practices guitar, gardens, disc golfs, reads, listens to New Wave music, serves in his church, watches BYU football, and plays Dominion and Seven Wonders. Email Jeff.
