Practical Sales Training™ > How To Get Attention > Tagging Famous People
Tagging Famous People
What Is It
Tagging famous people means writing content aimed at one specific, well known person. You post it in public, but you’re not really expecting them to read it privately. Everyone else just gets to watch.
This is different from a normal advert. A normal advert speaks to the buyer directly. This one speaks to someone famous instead, and lets the buyer listen in. As a result, that shift changes how people react to it completely.
The message usually looks like a letter, a post, or an open callout. It uses real details from the famous person’s actual life. That’s what makes it feel personal instead of staged.
Brands use this because attention is expensive to buy but easy to borrow. A famous name already has eyes on it. So attach your message to that name, and some of those eyes land on you too.
Why Does It Work
People are naturally curious about messages meant for someone else. It feels like reading a text over a stranger’s shoulder on the train. You weren’t invited, but you can’t look away either.
Fans of the famous person also do a lot of the work for you. They share it, tag their friends, and argue about whether it’s genuine. As a result, each share puts your brand in front of a fresh audience for free.
There’s also a credibility transfer happening underneath. If a brand is bold enough to publicly call out someone huge, buyers assume the brand must be confident, or at least worth a second look. So that assumption spreads faster than any list of features ever could.
Add a deadline or a condition, and the story gets a plot. People stick around because they want to know what happens next, not because you told them to buy something.
How Can You Use It
Pick someone whose story fits your offer right now
Don’t just chase follower counts. Look for someone whose current situation lines up with what you actually sell. For example, a tired athlete after a tournament works for a holiday brand. Similarly, a stressed founder after a funding round works for a productivity tool.
That overlap is what makes the tag feel earned instead of random. Without it, the whole thing reads like a stunt with no logic behind it, so people notice the gap straight away.
Write it like a real, specific message
Use their actual name, actual numbers, and actual dates. Vague flattery gets scrolled past. Instead, specific details make the reader believe someone really sat down and wrote this for one person, not a template swapped in for whoever’s trending.
Specificity also gives fans something worth quoting back. A number or a deadline travels much further than a general compliment ever will.
Build in a cost you can’t quietly take back
A deadline, a public offer, or a clear condition raises the stakes. Instead of a soft mention tucked into a caption, it tells the reader you’ve actually put something on the table.
That cost is what turns a post into a story people want to follow. Nobody shares an advert. But people do share a dare.
When It Works Best
This works best when the famous person has something happening in public right now, so your message feels timely instead of random. It also works when your offer is real enough to honour if they actually respond.
Low risk situations help too. Warm, playful messages tend to land safely. So a brand already known for cheeky marketing can push further than one that’s usually serious and formal.
When It Becomes Dangerous
It turns risky fast if the message could embarrass the person you’ve tagged. Nobody wants to be the punchline in someone else’s campaign, even a kind one.
It also backfires if the offer isn’t real. If you can’t or won’t deliver what you promised, and the person calls you out publicly, the story flips onto you instead.
Legal exposure is real too. Using someone’s name and image carelessly can cross into implying an endorsement you never actually had. So check that line before you post, not after.
Common Mistakes
Tagging someone with no connection to your offer
Picking the biggest name available, instead of the most relevant one, is the fastest way to look desperate. In fact, relevance beats reach almost every single time.
Making it about your brand instead of them
If the post reads like a normal advert with a famous name stuck on top, people spot it instantly. Instead, the famous person has to be the centre of the story, not a prop standing next to your logo.
Having no plan for a response
What happens if they actually reply, ignore you publicly, or push back? So decide that before you post. The internet will ask the question for you within minutes.
Tagging Famous People – An Example
On The Beach and Erling Haaland
During the 2026 World Cup, On The Beach wrote an open letter to Erling Haaland offering him free holidays for life. Only one person was actually addressed in the copy, and it worked precisely because of that.
Everyone else reading it wasn’t the target. They were just allowed to watch someone else get offered something huge, with a real deadline attached. As a result, that’s what pulled shares and comments in far beyond anything a normal holiday advert could manage.
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