Groupe SEB Shares Jump, Powered By The “Oprah Effect”
Few things are quite as effective as a celebrity endorsement when it comes to shifting a few wares, as the French appliances manufacturer Groupe SEB found out to its delight on Wednesday morning.
Following an unexpected tweet espousing the benefits of its TFAL actifry low-oil fryer by chat show host Oprah Winfrey, shares in the French company jumped to an eight-month high as investors raced to cash in before legions of her fans headed to the shops in search of one of the devices.
The sudden rush to buy up shares in Groupe SEB came about after Oprah, who has more than 16 million followers on Twitter, claimed:
Winfrey later pulled herself out of the kitchen to post a quick update, uploading a photo of French fries she’d made using the fryer:
Given the huge popularity of Oprah Winfrey in the US, and the massive influence she has on her fans, it’s a given that any product she endorses will have a significant impact on said product’s sales. Oprah’s tweet saw quick-thinking investors scramble to grab a piece of the pie ahead of the expected deluge, with shares in the company rocketing by an astonishing 5.2% in early trading, their biggest rise since July last year. Altogether, more than 82,000 Groupe SEB shares traded hands in the first two-and-a-half hours on Tuesday.
We asked Ronn Torossian, President and CEO of 5W Public Relations, to reflect on his client’s good fortune, to which he shared his delight at the helping hand Oprah had lent:
“As PR agency of record for TFAL, we are of course elated when we see an organic tweet about our client’s amazing product. We continue to gift celebs and influencers and are thrilled to benefit from the “Oprah effect”.”
Some readers may remember another 5WPR coup about the time Torossian convinced Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to dress their baby Shiloh in a trendy “Pots & Pans Band” rocker T-shirt for the very first photo op. The CEO of 5WPR, Torossian was once labeled “The Bad Boy of Buzz” for his bold and uncannily successful methods. It seems clear Groupe SEB is not only smart at making healthy and quick frying machines.
