Making celebrities accountable

Thinking about using a celebrity to endorse your brand? Not a bad idea. But you might want to think twice - lest you end up looking like Pepsi, which, after splurging Rs 24 crore over an eight-year endorsement deal, was left sulking when endorser Amitabh Bachchan said he ditched the brand as people tend to equate it with poison. On the other end of the spectrum you have Tata Tea, which, in one of its recent ads, had Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan pledge that he would ensure the name of his leading ladies are placed before his own in the opening credits of all his films.

This was just one way to make a celebrity accountable. Are there more such examples to learn from?

Brands have to force celebrities into more central roles: Raghu Bhat

It is important to understand clearly all the possible reasons why brands opt for celebrities. Imagine a new brand whose product is already on the shelves of the retailers, thanks to the manufacturer push. The next step - consumer pull - needs to be created at a pan India level in the shortest possible time. What options does the marketer have? A brilliant creative idea?

Or a celebrity like Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan whom all Indians recognise thus leading to instant brand awareness?

So here is the reality. Clients aren't idiots. They use celebrities for a very solid reason. Celebs work. They fast-track the brand awareness process, break clutter and create stature in minimum time, even if the creative idea is sometimes sub-optimal. However it cuts both ways. The celebrity can also damage the brand he or she endorses. For instance, GM, Gatorade and Gillette were forced to deal with a lot of negative publicity after Tiger Woods' skeletons started crumbling out of the closet. Also, sometimes celebs endorse too many brands leading to a perception that they aren't serious about any. The law of diminishing returns comes into play.

Moreover, celebrity endorsements, done for monetary motives, even create confusion. In India, Kareena Kapoor endorses Vivel that makes soaps, face wash, fairness lotions, shampoos and shower gel and also Lakme which is into cosmetics and also face wash.

In order to utilise celebs more effectively, brands need to explore new paradigms and get more creative. Celebrities can't be mercenaries anymore; brands have to force them into more central roles. For instance, Lady Gaga was drafted into Polaroid's marketing campaign not as a celebrity but as a creative director who had an influence on the kind of products Polaroid developed. This was something that gave Polaroid instant traction among Lady Gaga fans on the net.

Shilpa Shetty who owns Rajathan Royals and also appears as its brand ambassador is another example of a celeb going beyond her traditional role while marketing a cricket team.

The rise of the internet has opened newer opportunities. Brands can proactively ferret out their own internet celebrities rather than relying on just the traditional ones. Justin Bieber or Dhanush of Kolaveri Di fame are two examples of YouTube and Google hangout sensations that are sprouting up all the time and it is for brands to find them early and capitalise on.

It is very fitting that in India, e-commerce companies, many of whom are start-ups unencumbered by past marketing baggage, have been at the forefront of using celebrities in unusual ways. Take travel portal Yatra.com that reportedly brought in Salman Khan as a stakeholder instead of just featuring him in their ads. This obviously enhances the credibility of the communication and makes it easier to relate to. Even Musafir.com, if reports are to be believed, has been innovative and made Sachin Tendulkar a partner in the company itself.

At one level, consumers are growing a bit indifferent to monologues by 'spokespersons'. They are demanding more interaction with the brands and have the opportunity to do so, thanks to social media. And for brands trying to differentiate, moving from a celebrity endorsement strategy to a 'celebrity collaboration' would be the way to go.

Raghu Bhat
Founder director, Scarecrow Communications

 

Go with a brand advocate, not just a brand endorser: Vikram Kharvi

Today's consumer is a totally different animal than the consumer of even five years ago, meaning, what was effective and influential five years ago is not necessarily so today. She is more likely to be influenced by someone in their social network than one with a tenuous connection. Today's consumers are informed, time-compressed, and difficult to impress, and they are only influenced by ads that are relevant and provide information. They don't want to have products pushed at them, even from a celebrity. Just because an ad is incredibly popular, funny and/or viral doesn't mean that it is effective with consumers.

The same rule goes for celebrities. Just because a celebrity is incredibly popular and achieves fabulous box-office returns and critical acclaim does not mean he will provide a similar effect on brands he endorses. Brands need to have their own identity. Ideally, they should not piggyback on the identity of a celebrity and hope to replicate their success. I somehow get this feeling that not much effort is put into thinking through the relationship a brand must cultivate with a celebrity. The result: the celebrity ends us saying something as banal as, "I use this product, so why don't you,'' and the ad agency thinks it has done its job.

Let us just face it. In India we have no striking example of celebrity endorsements in which the celebrity is held accountable for making claims on behalf of the brands they represent. Not even a handful of companies are serious about including celebrities at the conceptualisation stage of an ad campaign. Let me correct myself: if you really think hard, you may find one or two. The one I can think of involves actor Aamir Khan as Coke's brand ambassador. That was right after the company was hit by the pesticide case. Before signing the contract, Khan went to one of Coca Cola's bottling plants to go through the entire bottling procedure himself. Such due diligence by a celebrity is rare; in most cases celebrities don't do anything over and above what is mentioned in their contracts.

In this scenario, how does a brand up the accountability quotient of its brand ambassadors? First companies should understand that all the celebrities are not taken seriously by the consumers. Take Bollywood as an example here. Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan usually make it to the list of people who are taken seriously for their word. Farhan Akhtar is the latest addition to this club of reliable and serious brand ambassadors. On the other hand, some of the new crop of actors like Sonakshi Sinha are taking up endorsements to be in the limelight. I remember seeing a Page 1 ad by a real estate developer in a leading English daily which promised a photo opportunity with the actress on booking. This is something a brand should avoid. Accountability in such associations is not even a concern.

A brand should start by picking up a celebrity whose way of life and personality reflects its own values. If a brand chooses to rely on the charisma of a star, it is best to have a serious one-on-one conversation with the celeb. Brief the celebrity on what exactly you expect from them. Research has shown that an ad with a great idea with or without a celebrity is clutter breaking. Tata Tea's Jaago Re campaign used Shah Rukh Khan at a later stage of the campaign and not as the soul of their communication strategy.

In the age of social media, there are endless possibilities of how you can make celebrities accountable for your brands. Author Chetan Bhagat who signed up as the brand ambassador of matrimony portal Shaadi.com doubles up as a brand advocate on Twitter. He has a huge fan following on the social media platform.

Vikram Kharvi
Head, Adfactors B2B