Most endorsement problems aren’t personality problems or sales issues. They’re not programming or client problems. You may find it hard to believe, but it’s not even a problem with AEs and sales managers. The root of most problems with endorsement ads lies in the endorsement ad ecosystem.
Each stakeholder has a defined role, and when everyone understands who does what, when, in what order, and with what information, problems are rare. If there is no system, everyone improvises, which produces inconsistency, friction, and the horror stories that every personality, AE, and sales manager has about deals gone wrong.
The antidote to improvisation is clarity for each team member
The Endorsement Ad Ecosystem Players
A healthy endorsement ad ecosystem has five players. In small markets, some of these roles may be held by the same person. In larger markets, they may involve entire departments. The roles exist regardless of how they’re staffed.
The Personality. The asset. The reason the endorsement exists and the reason it works. The personality’s role is performance, of course. But it’s also evaluation, relationship-building, brand management, and ongoing judgment calls that determine whether the ecosystem stays healthy over time. The personality who understands their role as more than “show up and read the ad” is the personality around whom a great endorsement team can be built.
The Account Executive. The connector. The AE’s role is to identify clients, build the advertiser relationship, structure the deal, and manage the client’s experience. The AE is not the personality’s manager, the arbiter of what the personality will or won’t do, and the person who sets the talent’s rate. They’re the bridge between the commercial marketplace and the talent’s brand, and like any bridge, they work best when both sides know what they’re connecting.
The Sales Manager. The architect. The sales manager sets the commercial framework, including rate structures, client standards, process expectations, and sales training. When the sales manager has built a framework and trained the sales team to work within it, the whole system operates with less friction. When the sales manager improvises deal by deal, the inconsistency creates problems that everyone downstream has to manage.
The Program Director. The guardian. The PD’s role in the endorsement process is to protect the programming integrity that makes endorsements valuable in the first place. Too many endorsements dilute the format. Wrong category fits create audience confusion. Copy that sounds out of place damages the show’s credibility. The PD is the person whose job it is to ensure that the commercial activity doesn’t undermine the programming product that makes it worth buying.
The Client. The partner. The advertiser’s role in a healthy endorsement relationship is more active than most advertisers expect and more collaborative than most sales pitches describe. Great endorsement, clients invest in the relationship. They meet the personality, provide product access, give creative latitude, and manage their own expectations about results. Clients who want the personality’s credibility without the partnership that makes credibility transferable produce campaigns that don’t work and relationships that don’t last.
The Process: What a Healthy System Looks Like
There are six stages to an endorsement deal. Each has a primary owner, specific inputs, and a clear output that the next stage depends on. When all six stages function correctly, the system produces endorsements that work for the advertiser, the station, and the personality.
Stage One: Identification
Primary owner: Account Executive, with input from the Personality.
The first stage is identifying potential endorsement clients who align with the personality’s brand, can support the investment, and are interested in the endorsement format.
The AE is the primary driver because they have the broadest view of the advertiser marketplace. They know who’s spending, who’s looking for new approaches, and who’s already expressed interest in host-based advertising. Their client list is the starting inventory.
But the personality should have input at this stage to generate leads. The personality can recommend businesses and categories, and identify clients in the AE’s portfolio they’d be enthusiastic to work with. Tapping that intelligence early produces better candidates than the AE working alone.
The output of Stage One is a list of qualified candidates. Not every advertiser who might be interested, but the ones who pass the initial fit test from both the commercial and the brand perspective.
Stage Two: Evaluation
Primary owner: Personality, with input from the Program Director.
Before any client is pitched on an endorsement, the personality should evaluate the opportunity.
Skipping this stage is the source of more endorsement problems than any other process failure. When a client is pitched before the personality has evaluated the fit, the deal has momentum before the most important question has been answered. Walking it back after a pitch has been made is complicated. The evaluation happens before the pitch, not after.
The output is a clear position: Yes, no, or “I need more information.”
The program director is involved at this stage for categories or clients that have potential programming implications. This won’t be a frequent problem, but it’s good to get the PD in the loop.
The output of Stage Two is a decision: approved for pitching, declined, or pending more information.
