Bollywood and Cricket celebrities have always been an apple to the eye for brands to promote themselves on a global scale. And when it comes to festivals like the World Cup, every eye is on the most successful celebrities of the moment. Following the same pattern, this world cup too is no different when it comes to brands collaborating with the famous Cricketers and B Town celebrities.
In a recent survey conducted by the Indian Institute of Human Brands, B-town celebrities and the Indian cricketers have been frequently approached by brands to the advertising game when it comes to maximum recall value.
Virat sports a desi attire for the Uber Ad (source: dailyhunt)
The Survey by the Indian Institute of Human Brands in this Cricket World Cup:
We all have seen these celebrities talking about their respective brands with the products either in their hands or in the background during ad breaks. Talking about the most viewed celebrities, we have seen Shahrukh Khan, MS Dhoni, Virushka, Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor leading from the frontline. In addition to these big names, a total of 25 celebrities have been listed in the survey.
On one side, Dhoni in Dream11 Ad speaking “India’s biggest sports game” has resided in every viewer and Shahrukh’s “real scent of success“, i.e, Denver has become the smell every Indian long to smell. The duo of Virat and Anushka in the Google Duo advertisements have managed to perfectly grab the viewer’s attention. While these three have topped the list, Aamir Khan’s Vivo ad and Ranbir Kapoor- Paresh Raval’s duo in “Jaadu Teri Nazar” ad for CocaCola have managed to give them tough competition.
Cricketers sweating hard on the field and grabbing attention during the World Cup sounds normal but it’s really amazing to see how Bollywood celebrities like Ajay Devgn are playing a virtual cricket with bare hands in their Pan Masala ads by making everything ‘Kesari’ starting with the ‘Jubaan’!
Ajay Devgn playing cricket with his fingers with Pan Masala has been in trend (source: youtube.com)
What Experts Have To Say?
IPL introduced a nice essence of cricket and Bollywood combined, increasing brand recall multifold. The World Cup has assured a continuum of excellent star recall instantly after the IPL. During the World Cup, stars have stolen people’s minds and hearts, not only in India but also at the world level,
says Jagdeep Kapoor, Brand Consultant and CMD, Samsika Marketing Consultants. The survey also lists the celebrities according to the most watched and highest recall parameter. King Khan leads the list here too. Yes, with the highest recall value the King of Bollywood has become the new king of the endorsement industry too in recent times.
Who should advertise? Who do people remember?
asks Dimple Gupta, Strategic Brand Consultant.
The reality is when stars like Shah Rukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan and Ranveer Singh are part of the game they’re just playing a larger pie in the customers’ mind. This is because people are in a fun, relaxed, party mood and don’t really focus on ad content but on the celebrities, thus the noticeability of the brand goes higher,
answers Ms Gupta.
Brands going after new celebrities in this Cricket World Cup:
Brands are also finding their way to the recently acknowledged celebrities like Pankaj Tripathy for a high brand recall from Tier II and Tier III cities.
Pankaj Tripathy in the recent Policy Bazaar ad (source: youtube)
Smaller products might be better off with closely curated festive advertising or social media campaigns constructed around greater customer participation and improvement through competitions and free giveaways, an industry expert said. But to reflect yourself as a big brand, you definitely need help from celebrities.
Celebrities help in the higher brand recall:
The study obviously demonstrates that recall and acceptance are driven not only by media weighs but also by the longevity of a celebrity’s connection with the brand. BYJU’s World Cup visibility is less than that of some other products with similarly well-known names, but Shah Rukh’s continuous existence with the brand has helped build stronger customer equity,
says Chief Mentor of IIHB, Dr. Sandeep Goyal.
When celebs associate with more than one brand:
But one thing we need to understand is that the share of celebrity aura is not equal for all endorsements. Let’s take the example of MS Dhoni, we are easily able to recall the brand Dream 11 that he endorses but when it comes to Sneakers (the other brand he endorses), we take some time to visualize it. Same is the case for Virat Kohli’s recent Uber ads that are very much recallable but when it comes to the cement brand he endorses, I fear how many of you will be able to recall the name. These are some of the few examples where the same celebrity is associating with more than one brand.
Dhoni in Snickers ad (source newsX)
Moreover, comparing this World Cup season with the previous one of 2015, one can easily notice the increase in celebrity involvement with the brands. Looks like brands have now understood the recall value of the big names of B-Town and Cricket Field. After all, they have understood that “ye khel hai mahaan” and to excel at this they have learnt to “khelo dimag se“!
Read more:
IPL brand value rises 19 percent in a year, says Duff & Phelps
