Imagine this about 3 decades ago - a typical ad agency brainstorming session. It is eleven o'clock at night, and outside it's raining like it only can in the Bombay monsoons. The meeting room is filled with leftovers of a samosa, Maggi noodles dinner and somewhat bedraggled account exec and creative types who'll get passed over by any fastidious cat. The ashtrays are filled to overflowing. The glasses and the bottle of Old Monk are all empty. Nobody has any money to go any buy another OM, and in any case the booze shops are all closed. And worst of all, we're supposed to present ads to the Bossman tomorrow morning, and there's nothing to show - nothing at all worth a d***.
That's when our Creative Director would open up and speak those golden words of wisdom which have resounded in the offices of ad agencies since the days of Pompeii: "Let's put a really pretty bimbo in the ad, and the client will love it. Make sure that she shows a lot of thorax, chest and midriff and we'll get approval."
Sex sells. Right.
Decades have passed, and the bright minds of Indian advertising have found something else that sells even better.
Celebrities.
I can imagine the conversation happening in the ad agency at another eleven o'clock at night brainstorm meeting. Of course, no ciggies, no Old Monk in the conference room. Now the CD says, "Stick in some celebrity mugshot in there, and we'll get approval."
In a seminar some months ago, a highly respected Professor of Marketing in one of the top business schools in the US gently hinted at his sense of surprise at the popularity of celebrity advertising in India; in his view, no other market uses celebrity advertising as much as India. One can easily believe it - we need Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, and other assorted film, TV and sports stars to sell us anything from flipflops to payment banks to travel booking sites and shopping sites, etc.
Is it because Indian consumers really believe that celebrity endorsement means that the product is a better, more reliable product? That Salman Khan actually uses Bahamas flipflops? Maybe they do - going through a few hundred assignments from MBA students over the years have convinced me that the writers of such assignments really believe that celebrities bring credibility.
So, all the things we were taught about the vampire effect, and matching brand values with those of the celebrity are perhaps old hat. Perhaps, sticking a celebrity into the ad is a hidden confession of the lack of ability to think of a strong creative idea, and hence an easy escape route.
So, the idea is that when the finest footballer in the world, Lionel Messi, exhorts us to rush out and shell out Rs 4 lakhs for the Tata Tiago, we should be doing just that. Maybe the Tata guys are right - according to this, Tata Motors received over 1 lakh enquiries for new Tiago by mid April. Sales were perhaps not as spectacular, if this is to be believed, but it's early days yet.
Or is it just fanciful thinking? Car buyers in the Tiago category may not care at all about Lio or any other celebrity endorsement, but are more concerned over mundane matters like "Kitne deti hai?"
I've tried to get stats from my friends in market research about the role that celebrity endorsement plays in advertising and the specific areas of influencing consumer behaviour, but no success - their data is of course for privileged access only. Perhaps a reader of this post may wish to point me to some data which is in the public domain and does address this question.
That's when our Creative Director would open up and speak those golden words of wisdom which have resounded in the offices of ad agencies since the days of Pompeii: "Let's put a really pretty bimbo in the ad, and the client will love it. Make sure that she shows a lot of thorax, chest and midriff and we'll get approval."
Sex sells. Right.
Decades have passed, and the bright minds of Indian advertising have found something else that sells even better.
Celebrities.
I can imagine the conversation happening in the ad agency at another eleven o'clock at night brainstorm meeting. Of course, no ciggies, no Old Monk in the conference room. Now the CD says, "Stick in some celebrity mugshot in there, and we'll get approval."
In a seminar some months ago, a highly respected Professor of Marketing in one of the top business schools in the US gently hinted at his sense of surprise at the popularity of celebrity advertising in India; in his view, no other market uses celebrity advertising as much as India. One can easily believe it - we need Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, and other assorted film, TV and sports stars to sell us anything from flipflops to payment banks to travel booking sites and shopping sites, etc.
Is it because Indian consumers really believe that celebrity endorsement means that the product is a better, more reliable product? That Salman Khan actually uses Bahamas flipflops? Maybe they do - going through a few hundred assignments from MBA students over the years have convinced me that the writers of such assignments really believe that celebrities bring credibility.
So, all the things we were taught about the vampire effect, and matching brand values with those of the celebrity are perhaps old hat. Perhaps, sticking a celebrity into the ad is a hidden confession of the lack of ability to think of a strong creative idea, and hence an easy escape route.
So, the idea is that when the finest footballer in the world, Lionel Messi, exhorts us to rush out and shell out Rs 4 lakhs for the Tata Tiago, we should be doing just that. Maybe the Tata guys are right - according to this, Tata Motors received over 1 lakh enquiries for new Tiago by mid April. Sales were perhaps not as spectacular, if this is to be believed, but it's early days yet.
Tata Motors receives over 1 lakh enquiries for new Tiago
Tata Motors receives over 1 lakh enquiries for new Tiago
Or is it just fanciful thinking? Car buyers in the Tiago category may not care at all about Lio or any other celebrity endorsement, but are more concerned over mundane matters like "Kitne deti hai?"
I've tried to get stats from my friends in market research about the role that celebrity endorsement plays in advertising and the specific areas of influencing consumer behaviour, but no success - their data is of course for privileged access only. Perhaps a reader of this post may wish to point me to some data which is in the public domain and does address this question.
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