What is celebrity? For most of us, it usually means being aware of someone without ever having met them. It may be a sportsperson, or a pop star, or a contestant in a reality TV show. At a local level it could be that person who rescued a cat from a tree outside your daughter’s school. Cat Guy.

For a commissioning editor, increasingly, celebrity equates to easy clicks and immediate eyeballs. Attaching a celebrity’s name to a project brings the promise of audience and attention. Both may be fleeting, but in a crowded field of content this short-term boost could be enough to get a format off the ground. It’s why there were five seasons of Extreme Fishing with Robson Green.

The risk, of course, is that the celebrity brings nothing but the name. Audiences are not dumb. They want a smidgen of relevance. It’s perhaps why we never got to see Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank.

With that in mind, what’s your first response to hearing that Dua Lipa has a book club?

If it was just pictures of Dua Lipa holding a book (as props, like Carrie Bradshaw), then you might dismiss it as fluff. But that would be a serious misjudgment. The book club is part of a broader cultural concierge service. Dua Lipa started her first book club in 2019. She conducts interviews with leading authors, interviews that are highly praised by those who follow literary discussion. She knows her stuff, and has an opinion. Importantly, as someone who has been interviewed countless times, she knows how interviews work.

What does this mean for advocacy content? It’s unlikely you’ll persuade Dua Lipa to interview your customers (though I can’t rule out Robson Green), but there may individuals within your organisation whose celebrity precedes them. A charismatic CTO, or a brand lead with a strong social following.

Done well, using a name could bring fresh perspectives to your advocacy content. It could attract new customers to your advocacy program, or open up access to new interviewees. It may help find a new or larger audience.

All of this is possible. But if we can learn from Dua Lipa, first check your celebrity meets three criteria:

• They have established credibility in the field
• They’ve done their research
• And they are familiar with how interviews work

Above all, and this is where we can all spot a dud, your celebrity must bring enthusiasm for the work.