The power of celebrity
When 2017 kicked off, several marketers believed it was time to wind down the dependence on stars as the previous year had seen several brands in trouble over statements/actions of their celebrity endorsers. Stars too were wary as the government was all set to legislate the brand-endorser relationship, in a bid to protect consumers. However the year gone by has seen the relationship flourish, although the nature of the engagement has changed, according to the Indian Entertainment Marketing Report by ESP Properties | Consumers have a greater recall of products that have been endorsed by celebrities, irrespective of whether they are actual fans or not. And if consumers happen to be fans, they place a higher value on products that celebrities are endorsing | Data between the years 2007-2017 show that endorsement driven ads have an upward trend during the summer and pre-Diwali season and a thin drop beginning November for the winter | During the year, the endorsers’ list expanded to include non-cricket sports; sportspersons such as Vijender Singh, Sakshi Malik, P V Sindhu and Sania Mirza are among the leading names in that group | The birth of home-grown leagues in hockey, kabaddi, football, wrestling and badminton has led to the creation of more hero figures available as influencers | Ads with celeb endorsers steadily grew in the decade beginning from 2007 and movie stars bagged largest share of endorsements | Brands are increasingly using influencer marketing as a subset of celebrity endorsements; they use ‘influencers’ to create word-ofmouth advertising by using people who are trusted in certain circles | Endorsers are the ‘face’ of a brand while influencers are perceived to be ‘creators’ of the entire message | Influencers are specialists. They’ve built communities around themselves in a very niche space | Brands choose endorsers and influencers for multiple reasons: launch, sustenance and revival | An influencer’s social media
presence is a huge pull for a brand or a film’s promotional plan. It also enables brands to amplify and measure the effectiveness of a campaign real-time | Shah Rukh Khan and MS Dhoni have consistently been in top endorsers’ lists. But 2017 has seen a few upsets: Virat Kohli toppled Shahrukh Khan as the top endorser while Deepika Padukone broke the male domination of the list of top 10 endorsers. She dislodged Salman Khan to take the number 3 spot