Brand Endorsement – Rise of New Celebrity

Katrina Kaif has replaced Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as the brand ambassador of Nakshatra Diamonds is one of the many replacements of senior queens by new celebrities in endorsement race. The bollywood queen such as Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta and Aishwarya Rai – who were towering till recently are suddenly finding themselves out of the reckoning.

The growth of the new celebrity is also evident from the fact that senior actress such as Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta charge between INR 85 lakh and INR 1 crore per endorsement, which is much less than what Kareena Kapoor or Katrina Kaif charges which is around INR 1.5 crore.

New celebrities such as Asin, Genelia DSouza, Katrina Kaif, Imraan Khan, Harman Baweja, Kangana Ranaut, Jiah Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Farhan Akhtar are attracting advertisers attention. In recent time these new celebrities have signed various endorsement deals. These new celebrities are not only signing new endorsement deal but also replacing veteran celebrity in most of the cases. The demand of the new celebrities is so high that that have option to choose from the list of brands. Jiah is said to have recently turned down INR one crore offer from the brand Miss Bikini India 2007. She refused to pose in a bikini for the brand.

No doubt this is the best phase for newcomers in Bollywood but they have to sustain themselves for another three-four films before they become a big endorsement star. A stars brand value remains intact if he or she delivers hits. It is important to maintain a high success rate to negotiate for the next big deal in terms of remuneration. The senior actress such as Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta and Aishwarya Rai in recent past has not given any big hit and hence their brand value is depleting. The failure at the box office has also impacted the celebrity endorsement deals. In last one year Nestle India dropped Rani Mukherji, as its brand ambassador for the Munch brand of chocolates. Nestle ended a four- year association with Rani Mukherji and signed South Indian actress Trisha. The actress Trisha has also replaced Preity Zinta in the Scooty Pep advertisement. Preity Zinta in recent times has lost her association with brands such as Perk, Liril, BSNL, and Santro.

Brand Endorsement – Power of Two

In recent years advertising world has discovered power of two. The celebrity couples are manipulating their publicized relationships to rake in the moolah at a professional level. The star couples Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgan and Kajol, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor are signing multi- crore contracts for lucrative advertising campaigns. Moreover, the celebrity couples are signing endorsement deal together to prove the point that they are together. The advertisers are enchasing the couple power to promote the brand. In recent times the celebrity couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor has signed endorsement deal with two brands Head & Shoulders and Airtel.
In the Head & Shoulders ads the couple – Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor is shown first time together. Though Kareena Kapoor is shown just for a few seconds in the shampoo advertisement but it is already attracting eyeballs. In other cases Ajay Devgan and Kajol have been seen in ads for Whirlpool and Tata Indicom, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone are seen in the Clinic All Clear campaign and Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone shared smallscreen space in an ad for cola giant Pepsi. Companies are often ready to pay an arm and a leg to get real life couples on reel. Ajay Devgan and Kajol, command INR 6- 8 crore per deal, while Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, command almost INR 10- 12 crore for a campaign. Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone easily commands INR 6- 8 crore per campaign while John Abraham and Bipasha Basu command INR 5- 6 crore per deal.

Idea Cellular new campaign “Education for all”

Idea Cellular has launched its new Ad Campaign with its Brand Ambassador Abhishek Bachhan. The ongoing campaign with a spotlight on “education for all” has attracted many eyeballs. It is one of my favorite advertisements.

The campaign highlights the power of Mobile telephony to address the socially relevant theme of education. Campaign has been promoted through print, television, out of home, digital and on ground activities.

Storyline

In the campaign Abhishek Bachchan has played the Head of an educational institution – a priest and the principal of the school. When challenged by the traditional, physically bound classroom methodology that prevents reaching out to many who are in need of education, he uses mobile telephony to overcome the barrier.

Campaign Phase One – Teaser: In the first phase which is a 10-second teaser Abhishek Bachchan is shown as sitting and wondering how to educate the country’s children who can not manage to go to school. He suddenly looks up with a confident smile on his face and says ‘Idea’.

Campaign Phase Two – The Message : The second campaign which is a 90-second TVC opens with a village girl. The commercial shows that the village girl did not get admission in a school as there were no vacancies. The priest and the principal of the school, Abhishek Bachchan, looking for a solution suddenly comes up with an idea of starting mobile classrooms where teachers have mobile phones with them on their desks and children are shown in the ground and listening to the classes through mobiles. The campaign came to me as a great idea with strong social message. Idea Cellular, as a company, in its previous campaign also focused on social issues with the theme of bringing people together like in the campaign’s of caste war, and cultural differences SMS.

Campaign Phase Three – Impact : The third phase of the campaign has impact of education for all. It shows how the parents of the school going students are behaving. They are also learning through their children.

Idea Cellular as a company believes that an Idea can change lives and this is the central thought of the brand which they have been following since beginning. The company to increase the impact of the campaign has tied up with Nanhi Kali, an NGO and NDTV to promote this campaign of education for all, especially girl child.

Company – Idea Cellular
Brand – Idea Cellular
Theme – Education for all
Creative agency – Lowe IndiaFilm – Chrome Films