How To land yourself a starring role

George clooney does it for martini and David Beckham has done it for just about everything, but while advertisers have long recognised the benefits of celebrity endorsement, councils and housing associations are only just catching on.

Yarrow Housing, which provides services for people with learning disabilities, last year received coverage in The Times after Love Actually star Bill Nighy said people with learning disabilities “have been ignored for too long” and posed for photos to promote its annual report.

Last year Nighy attended Yarrow’s summer party, starred in its annual play (pictured) and wrote an introduction for a resident’s book of poetry.

Picking the right celebrity to endorse a project not only attracts local and national press interest but can also cement your links with tenants. Ann Wimbledon, director of business development at Yarrow, says: “I think Bill Nighy’s involvement made people feel very important. People were thrilled when he came to the summer party and had their photos taken with him. He signed hundreds of autographs.”

If you’d like some celebrity kudos, first decide who to approach. Nighy got involved with Yarrow after being introduced to Wimbledon by a friend. If you move in less glamorous circles, don’t be put off.

Identifying a celebrity with a connection to the geographical area you are operating in can be a good place to start.

Hackney council used this approach when it was looking for someone to front a video explaining decent homes and stock transfer to residents. The press office came up with the idea of contacting radio DJ Trevor Nelson because they knew he had been brought up in the borough.

Nelson even got the council extra publicity: he talked about the Hackney scheme on his radio programme after making the video.

Consider what aspects of your work might strike a chord with a particular celebrity. This kind of thinking paid off for Novas Group when it asked actor Kenneth Branagh to promote a cultural centre for Liverpool’s black and minority-ethnic communities.

David Mills, press and PR officer for Novas, says he wrote to Branagh’s agent explaining that the project featured galleries, exhibition and performance spaces. Branagh provided some quotes for a press release saying the project would “carve open new opportunities for individuals and communities”.

Once you have a list of targets, try approaching them through an agent. If you’re making a video, the producers may be able to do this. Otherwise, most celebrities have official websites that can be tracked down with a quick internet search. Send them an email with details about the project and what you want them to do.

If they say yes, you may need to work out a fee, which will vary depending on the level of involvement required. One day might cost a few thousand pounds, depending on the celebrity’s standing, but Bill Nighy gave his time for free while Nelson gave Hackney council a 50% discount on his normal rates because of his links to the borough.

Alternatively, you could go for an MP – they do not charge for appearances. Metropolitan Home Ownership, the low-cost homeownership arm of Metropolitan Housing Trust, uses local politicians to raise the profile of its projects. A spokesman says: “It shows they care about the issues on the ground, so it is great for them and it is great for us because it validates our work.”

You might even be able to build a relationship with the celebrity over the long term – as Yarrow and Hackney council did with Nighy and Nelson. A spokesman for Hackney says local people’s reaction to Nelson convinced the council to keep him on board: “It pushed all the right buttons. On every estate we went to, kids were running up to him asking for his autograph.”