Substantial literature exists researching effective celebrity endorser characteristics, and a growing body of literature investigates the specifics of professional athlete endorsements. However, there has been little focus on selection from the advertising practitioner's perspective; research that does exist is limited to the United States and British markets. This research among New Zealand advertising agencies found that celebrities/athletes are used primarily to achieve' cut through' and that their use is generally thought to be effective provided there is a tight fit between celebrity/athlete, brand and message. Interestingly, for New Zealand practitioners, the risk of negative publicity and hiring costs were the most important factors in the endorsement decision.

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This study examined the effectiveness of two procedures aimed at improving response rates for mail surveys: an incentive sent with either the first mail-out or first follow-up, and the inclusion of a replacement questionnaire, with or without an incentive, with either the first or second follow-up. The survey involved a sample of 1,600 New Zealand residents aged 18 years or older, randomly selected from the 2005 Electoral Roll and randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. The response rates after two follow-ups ranged from 62.3 to 66.5 percent. Using a chocolate as an incentive with the first mail-out was effective in generating a significantly higher initial response than the control; however, after two follow-up mail-outs, differences were not significant. Sending a replacement questionnaire plus a chocolate with the first follow-up generated a significantly higher response rate than merely sending a letter, and the effect of this procedure persisted through to the end of the survey. Overall, these results provide further compelling evidence of the importance of using follow-up mail-outs for improving mail survey response rates.

Matching celebrity athletes with potential endorsement opportunities is often difficult. Yet there are easy-touse survey-based methods available. Based on a survey of the general public in New Zealand, this study uses both Ohanian's source-credibility scale and a constant-sum scale to help brand managers, player agents and advertising practitioners select good celebrity athlete-product fit. Four New Zealand athletes (two males and two females) and several products were included in the test. Results show that the female celebrity athletes outperformed their male counterparts as potential endorsers. Use of Ohanian's multi-attribute scale yields a level of richness and insight, prompting us to advocate the use of both scales in the pursuit of endorser-product congruences.

collected UK and Japanese data on behalf of the Centre for Law & Genetics and Osaka University respectively. Critchley and Charbonneau prepared the initial draft with all authors contributing to the final article. Walshe programmed the survey and contributed to specific data preparation, analysis and literature review for this article. Yamamoto and Kato contributed to survey translation.