For last few weeks, the backs of Mumbai’s ubiquitous BEST buses have been sporting pictures of the dashing Virat Kohli, the 23-year-old cricketer and youth icon, holding a handset of an unknown brand called Celkon.
Elsewhere, Katrina Kaif walks with elan in designer slippers called Flite. Her boyfriend Salman Khan climbs buildings and comes skiing down snow-capped mountain peaks in Hawai chappals, while close friend Akshay Kumar jumps around in Sparx shoes. Kaif can also be seen munching a little-known chocolate called ChocOn, which until a few months ago had unknown white models endorsing it.
They have company. Kareena Kapoor has literally been sitting pretty in huge print and outdoor ads for a little-known Mumbai-based builder called Monarch. She has been endorsing Monarch’s luxury apartments with ads plastered across Mumbai and its far-off suburbs saying the ‘The New Face of Luxury’. Actress Vidya Balan is the face of Jolly Silks, a fashion & silks retail chain from a Kerala-based group called Joy Alukkas. There are some more star endorsers on the rolls of Joy Allukkas including singer Shreya Ghoshal, actors Madhavan and Kangana Ranaut.
But big names endorsing small or unknown brands do not stop there. The first family of Bollywood, yes, the Bachchan family, has put its brand might behind Kalyan Jewellers, a Trichur-based jeweller. Amitabh Bahchan and his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are both amongst a bevy of stars including names such as Nagarjuna, endorsing Kalyan, known largely in the south.
Bachchan and his daughter-in-law have been paid a whopping Rs 20 crore for a three-year contract with Kalyan. Balan’s reported asking price for endorsing Jolly Silks is Rs 4-5 crore, while Kaif, the reigning queen in Bollywood, was paid over Rs 4-5 crore for her one-year endorsement deal with the makers of ChocOn, the Delhi-based S K Industries. Kohli was also paid nothing less than Rs 3 crore for endorsing Celkon, a 40-50 per cent jump over his regular endorsement fees.
Bunty Sajdeh, chief executive officer, Cornerstone Sports & Entertainment, the agency that manages the endorsements of Kohli, says that it was a calculated risk signing on Celkon. “We were quite surprised with the presentation that the company made to us and how they felt Virat could make a difference to the brand. We saw sense in what they were saying. So we went ahead with the deal,” he says.
At a time when the mainline handset brands have gained the visibility they need, celebrities such as Kohli, who have just burst onto the endorsement scene, say experts, don’t have a credible name to back. Sajdeh puts it bluntly. “The big companies don’t need the big brand endorsers. The small guys do. These companies quite often are ambitious and harbour a desire to compete with the big boys. When they tie-up with the big names it makes a huge difference,” he says.
This point is endorsed by S K Jain, managing director of S K Industries, which manufactures and markets confectionary products. He says, “Our visibility has suddenly gone up with Katrina endorsing our chocolate. Retailers and distributors, who were hesitant to stock our products earlier, our now calling us and saying that they would like to carry our products.”
Kalyanaraman, chairman & managing director, Kalyan Jewellers says, "We want to expand our footprint nationally and eventually globally. This collaboration of actors from the north and the south is to cater to a larger audience." Says Joy Alukkas, chairman, Joyalukkas Group, "We don't blindly sign celebrities. We ensure the celebrities on board compliment our brand values and personality."
While big brand endorsers could mean that the company signing them on is serious about its business plan and what these celebrities can bring to the table, some brand experts opine that it is shortlived. “It does give you a huge burst initially. But a big name does not necessarily mean success,” says Harish Bijoor, chief executive officer, Harish Bijoor Consults.
A case in point is website Hometrade.com, which was launched during the turn of the current century at the height of the dotcom boom. In 2000, Hometrade.com, which provided stock and financial news and information, surprised many when they signed on actors Hrithik Roshan and Shahrukh Khan and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to endorse the website. It was billed as the biggest brand endorsement at that time with the three big names lending their star power and appeal to the investment site. Soon enough there were huge billboards dotting the Mumbai landscape asking people to log on to the website. Many did thanks to the huge ads featuring Roshan, Khan and Tendulkar. But the moment the dotcom boom fizzled, so did Hometrade.com and with it the multi-crore endorsement deal that it inked with the endorsers.
But examples such as these have not prevented the small guys from going after the big fish. Balan is rumoured to have inked a Rs 5-crore deal with a Chennai-based saree maker. Sajdeh says that he wouldn’t mind a small brand or two for Kohli provided the fit is right. The party continues, in other words.
