Celebrity kiya kya?

One of the very first meetings every marketing strategist attends in a new agency or firm’s boardroom is to have a ‘celebrity’ or reflect on whether spends on the celebrity are worth for the brand. And for a lot of reasons, such questions are fairly legitimate in a country like India, where celebrities are used as lottery tickets.

In India, you will invariably, notice how often major brands are endorsed by celebrities, who are signed-up for a handsome price. So is it really worth the bet? Like any other marketing investment, even celebrity investment is evaluated on the returns a brand gets in terms of investment.

Signing the right celeb is one of the most critical tasks; s/he should not just be famous, they should fit into the character of the brand (product), will s/he really create a persuasion for the product? Will there be marketing budget for media spends after signing-up with the brand?

Some brands knew the right permutations and combinations and chose the right celeb to endorse/feature in their advertising communications. Our favourite is the Ranbir Kapoor and Virgin Mobiles tie-up. You might argue that the brand could not sustain in the market and was soon taken over by Tata Teleservices; but you simply cannot forget how powerful and right the advertisements of Virgin Mobiles were.

Right from the one where Ranbir gangs up with his friends and sets himself up for a date, to the ones where he sticks bills on the neighbour’s cars to increase his balance with each incoming call, Ranbir was the perfect sync for the brand.

As fresh as the brand was (dating back to 2009, when they started rolling out ads with Ranbir Kapoor), it reflected the country’s youth through the face of Ranbir Kapoor, who too was a new face in the industry. Young, witty and humorous, just like the brand’s personality. Needless to say, the brand had a great recall compared to other telecom advertisements at that point in time, despite having approximately the same “Opportunity To See” (OTS).

Some smarter brands, with handsome marketing budgets, have capitalised celebs and optimised their brand image. A classic testimony is Pepsi. In its recent marketing strategies, the brand roped in two of the most desired celebs of India – Virat Kohli and Ranbir Kapoor. Catching the lighter vein of Indians – both cricket and cinema – Pepsi ran commercials and integrated marketing campaigns with both the celebs; and yes, all the commercials were true in the brand’s tone, and the courage to pun on the brand (“Pepsi thi, pi gaya”) proved to be an extra push for the brand.

However, sometimes, the table can turn upside-down for the brand, because it cannot have control over the brand ambassador’s life. We all know the Snapdeal – Aamir Khan controversy. So the bigger question a marketing strategist and more importantly the brand itself should ask, is whether the celebrity adds to the brand’s value or is s/he just passing fancy?