Celebrity Gifting

I know I know -- the words "Celebrity Gifting" sound like so much fluff --  When I first heard about it, I wasn't sure what it even was or how it worked.  It seemed like it might end up being a huge waste of time -- I mean are any of the celebrities even going to open or see what is "gifted" to them?  Are the gifts just going to end up in some agents office with a pile of other stuff, forgotten and unopened?  And besides that -- Isn't it all just a bunch of name dropping and what not? ...  Maybe --- Yet, the celebrities on this gifting list are PARENTS -- and the truth is -- when it comes to my product I value what all parents think.  As I mentioned in the previous post -- You never know who will be your champion.  Just one parent who loves my product and shares it makes a difference.  How much louder of a voice does a parent who is tv personality have?  Maybe one of them will actually have their kids test the puzzles out -- and they will love them -- so they will share the news about this new fun product and more people will know that Flipzles exist and will want to try them for themselves.  {deep breath}  Maybe not -- but either way I had a blast doing it fluff and all.

So -- I heard about Baby Swags in a Mom Entrepreneur Forum that I joined.  I was curious about what it was and how it worked so I looked into it.

I saw that Phyllis (the owner) gifts products from entrepreneurs and small businesses like myself to celebrities.  For the Holiday gifting there was a list of 11 celebrities with kiddos and then the company doing the gifting also got to choose the 12th celebrity.

Since I am just starting I thought this might be worth a shot.  It might help me with the challenge of getting my product out in front of more eyes... and if not I can chalk it up as a fun learning experience.
I submitted Flipzles and was accepted -- so the next step was getting my gifts ready.

This was a long process, because I wanted to know more about the celebrities that I was sending the puzzles to.  Some of them I knew a little about, others not so much.  I focused on learning about them as parents and about what type of charity work they were involved in.  It was fun to see that side of them rather than just the red carpet side.  I hand-wrote unique notes to each person and picked out the puzzles that I thought their children would most enjoy.  Finally I added a bit of information about my company and how Flipzles came to be and shipped them to Phyllis.

The celebrities  selected to receive the Holiday Celebrity Gift Bag included: Tori Spelling, Jessica Alba, Nicole Richie, Alyson Hannigan, Halle Berry, Jennifer Garner, Camila Alves, Mario Lopez, Bethenny Frankel, Katie Holmes, and Josh Sabarra.  

For the celebrity of my choice I wanted to choose an athlete because of my love for sports.  I chose Kerri Walsh.  I think it is amazing that she won an Olympic Gold Medal pregnant with her 3rd child!  She is someone who I think is admirable as a mother, athlete and advocate of people striving to achieve their dreams. 

The gifting went out just before Christmas.  

On the 28th I received a Thank You email from Josh Sabarra (he is Consulting Producer for The Ricki Lake Show) -- so of course he is my new favorite celebrity :)   If you are a twitter-er you should follow him.

What else will come of this?  Who knows?  Maybe nothing --- but if you know me, you know I am a dreamer so .... we will wait and see.