Even with a major celebrity like Sydney Sweeney, the Siren lingerie website fails on basic e-commerce principles. It lacks lifestyle imagery, reviews, and detailed product info, suggesting the team relied too heavily on the celebrity's fame instead of building a solid user experience.
Related Insights
The founder secured a front-page feature in The Times for her new course, a massive PR win. However, this success masked a fatal flaw: the product lacked market validation. This proves that high-profile PR can create a dangerous illusion of viability.
Over 60% of Super Bowl ads used celebrities, but most failed to deliver ROI. The few successes, like Ben Affleck for Dunkin', worked because the connection was sincere and pre-existing. Simply paying for fame without a genuine link is a waste of money.
A visually basic website can generate massive revenue if the user experience (UX) is flawless. Focus on clarity of messaging, value props, and social proof first. Aesthetics (UI) are secondary; a pretty site that confuses users won't convert. UX is for the customer, UI is for you.
Gary Vaynerchuk warns that using high-profile celebrities can be a trap. The audience often remembers the celebrity but not the brand, leading to poor recall and wasted ad spend. The key is ensuring the brand remains the undisputed hero of the creative.
Don't waste resources on advanced CRO tactics like personalization if your website's foundation is weak. If your messaging is unclear, your value proposition is confusing, or you lack social proof, these core issues must be addressed first. Advanced tactics on a cracked foundation will inevitably fail.
Gary Vaynerchuk warns that using A-list celebrities is risky because audiences recall the star, not the product, leading to poor brand recall. For success, the brand and its message must remain the hero of the ad, never playing 'second or third fiddle' to the celebrity talent.
The failure of Travis Scott's Cacti seltzer, despite his massive global following, proves that a creator's audience cannot save a subpar product. Fans may try a product once out of loyalty, but repeat purchases—the foundation of a real business—depend entirely on the product's quality.
Co-founder Sarah Foster reveals that micro-influencers with authentic, engaged audiences have been far more effective at driving sales than celebrities with millions of followers. This highlights the superior ROI of niche creators who have built genuine trust within their communities, proving reach doesn't always equal results.
The era of simply 'slapping a celebrity face' on a product is over. Modern consumers demand authenticity. Successful brands like Fenty and Rare Beauty thrive because their founders are deeply involved, knowledgeable about the products, and genuinely connected to a larger mission, such as inclusivity or mental health.
A positioning framework is useless until it's translated into website copy. All key audiences—customers, investors, future employees—judge your company by its website. Founders who say "don't look at our website" are admitting their positioning is failing in its most critical application.
