• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, November 20, 2013

InterMedia Entertainment has unveiled a new index that it purports to evaluate and rank the best celebrities for direct response advertising and marketing campaigns.

Brooke Shields and Mark Harmon top the list of the inaugural rankings, placing first and second respectively.

Celebrities are scored on recognition, trustworthiness, attractiveness, influence, and likeability among other criteria. The ranking, dubbed the “IME DR Star Index”  is based on a representative survey of the national consumer base with respondents in all age, gender and income groups from all 50 states, InterMedia said.

The company said information gleaned from the research can be used to determine the most appropriate celebrities for any specific demographic. For instance, Harmon scored well overall based on trust, influence and likeability, but Alex Trebek and Heidi Klum ranked first and second respectively for people with incomes exceeding $100,000, due to the highly  educated audiences that watch Jeopardy and the affluent viewers that are tuned into Klum as the host of Project Runway. 

Among men, Gary Sinise (CSI NY) is ranked 25th overall, but is third among men aged 35-plus.

The quarterly rankings from the new index will appear in Electronic Retailer Magazine, and the company is providing free access to a quarterly report listing the Top 500 ranked celebrities.  More detailed reports are reserved for the company’s own entertainment and advertising clients.

The inaugural top 10 overall after Shields and Harmon are Trebek, Vanna White, Patrick Stewart, Julia-Louis-Dreyfus, Jennifer Hudson, William Shatner, Henry Winkler and Courtney Cox.

Hulk Hogan ranked first in the Recognition category (with a recognition level of almost 98%), but only 71st in the overall rankings, due to lower scores on trustworthiness, attractiveness and ability to influence purchase behavior.

Justin Bieber scored high in the Recognition category (over 96%), but near the bottom of the Influence category.  Similarly, Donald Trump and Mike Tyson scored high in Recognition (97.59% and 92.17%, respectively) and low in Trust and Influence. 

“Clearly, simply being high profile and well known is not an adequate quality for an effective spokesperson,” the company said.