Will star power of Kohli, Ranveer as endorsers fade away in 2019? No way

Bollywood continued to dominate the endorsement business in 2018

This was the year when star power distilled itself into a concentrated and potent mix, with a few top celebrities setting the records in their favour even as the arena expanded to include some uncapped players. 

The surprising winner was Ranveer Singh (25 endorsements) who incidentally had just one movie release, the controversial Padmaavat, that too at the beginning of the year! Ranveer pipped the Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli (24 endorsements), Amitabh Bachchan (24), Akshay Kumar (22), Deepika Padukone (22) and Alia Bhatt (20) to top the charts in terms of the number of brands for celebrities in 2018.

For the first time, none of the Khans made top grades, signaling perhaps the end of an era. Shahrukh had 13 endorsement contracts in 2018 (down from 20 in 2017) and Salman was the face of just 10 brands. Aamir and Saif were both in single digits. Ranbir Kapoor, despite a superhit Sanju, and all his metro swag remained a laggard.   

Bollywood continued to dominate the endorsement business. Even Hrithik Roshan who had no release in 2018, had as many as 16 brands while rising star Varun Dhawan flaunted 14. Ayushmann Khurrana who delivered two 100-crore hits late in the year, did pocket the prestigious Coca-Cola deal but did not have enough time in 2018 to fully encash his box-office success. 

M S Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar started to lose steam with each of their portfolios dropping below double digits; the same being the case with PV Sindhu who started to taper off after a great 2017. Within cricket, no new stars really emerged except a couple of campaigns for Hardik Pandya and the MRF bat deal for Prithvi Shaw. Despite early promise, both Shikhar Dhawan and K L Rahul failed to get any significant brands. Women cricketers too drew a blank.

But there was no escaping celebrity power for brands. Millward Brown estimated that 24 per cent of all ads aired on television had celebrities as endorsers. The percentage may actually be much higher if one were to factor in videos on social media. In terms of media devoted to a single celebrity, as per the Indian Institute of Human Brands, Virat Kohli had the highest share of visibility, followed by Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Akshay Kumar.  

What does this imply for 2019? One big factor that is likely to disrupt the charts is marriage. The year could take a toll on star women endorsers. Going by past records, marriage does dampen the prospects of women as brand ambassadors. This has been seen to be true for Aishwarya Rai and Kareena Kapoor. Will it be the same for Anushka Sharma, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra? 

On the flip side, marriage will also create a new opportunity with the emergence of ‘power couples’. Virushka, DeepVeer and even Akshay-Twinkle are likely to be seen together more often. Virushka are already the brand ambassadors for ethnic apparel brand Manyavar while the Kumars have quite a few. Ranbir-Alia were featured together just this week by Flipkart, in what may be a sign of things to come. 

The strong will get stronger in 2019. Virat Kohli will in all probability be the most sought-after endorser. More so because of all the cricket slated for the coming year. Ranveer has a slew of new releases coming up, so his currency is likely to remain strong. Akshay Kumar too should continue to enjoy a dream run and has been marked out by many as the most likely to replace an ageing Big B as India’s ‘most trusted’ endorser. 

Deepika will continue to do well, Alia is likely to take the top spot among women and the year may also offer opportunities to the likes of Ishaan Khattar, Vicky Kaushal, Kiara Advani especially with more and more brands seeking younger faces.

There is an emerging market for micro-influencers too going forward. The likes of Bhuvan Bam (BB ki Vines), Gabbar Singh, Zakir Khan, Suresh Menon, Abish Mathew, Gaurav Gera, among others represent a new generation of celebrities on the internet who can also push brands. 

The stars will continue to shine and sparkle through 2019. But will we just see more of the same? Brands flocking to known faces to break the clutter, but doing the opposite by hiring the same known faces on the block. Or will there finally be a more nuanced understanding of endorsement strategy?

The author has a PhD from FMS-Delhi, with a thesis on Celebrities as Human Brands.