South Indian super-hits to get more endorsements

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South Indian super-hits to get more endorsements

After a string of Bollywood flops like Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Shamshera and other recently released high-profile films like Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar-starrer Raksha Bandhan, with both heading for a slow start to celebrity endorsements by top Bollywood actors. While Bollywood's performance has been dismal, four successive super-hits from the South -- Pushpa: The Rise Part 1, RRR, KGF -- Chapter 2 and Vikram have grossed more than 3,000 crore worldwide, including nearly 800 crore in Hindi net collections.

South Indian celebrities are signing pan-Indian ads campaigns. Bengaluru-based redBus recently announced Pushpa-starrer Allu Arjun as its brand ambassador. The actor Ram Charan, best known for his global hit RRR recently signed a deal with Frooti to be its brand ambassador along with Alia Bhatt. Rashmika Mandanna, who is the female lead in Pushpa: The Rise, recently endorsed Kingfisher, along with Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan and worked with brands like Dabur Honey, Boat, Cashify, McDonald s, etc.

Ranveer Singh, who recently won the International Advertising Association IAA Brand Endorser of the year and is known to charge between Rs 3.5-4 crores per ad, is one of the most expensive actors for endorsements, according to experts.

Celebrities always have their brand tagged with their performance, whether they are in sports or movies. The impact is not for the immediate term unless it is negative publicity or because of a controversy because brand ambassadors are signed for a longer period of time, according to Madan Mohapatra, an independent marketing and media consultant.

He says that since celebrities already have a certain established brand equity in the market, it may not matter to a brand custodian in the long term. As a brand custodian, he said if I sigh someone today, it might have an impact because it always works on recency.

Social media plays a huge role in making sure celebrities stay in the minds of people. Experts say that if the films are underperforming for more than 6 months a year, it could have a graver impact. South Indian stars like Vijay Devarakonda, Allu Arjun, Ram Charan, etc. It needs to be consistent in the north Indian markets for it to become a trend.

Southern stars will get more pan-India contracts but how long will it take to reach pan-India hits. I ll take it as a phase. He said that this spurt of South Indian stars endorsing Pan India brands and short term will have good traction.

Prateek Srivastava, co-founder, Chapter Five Brand Solutions, a brand consulting and communications company, says Bollywood's underwhelming performance at the Box Office is not the only reason why their brand deals are suffering. Their endorsement fee and brand value would go down, not only because of their underperformance at the Box Office. It is because the consumer is moving a lot towards digital content and there are so many digital stars and influencers that have become popular. When you have a big influencer as your brand ambassador, you automatically get that kind of reach. He said that it was a big reason that Bollywood stars have come down, and that is a reason why dependence on them has come down.

He believes that the industry will see more stars from the South become well known in North Indian markets. He said that it helps the brand distinguish themselves from other brands that are taking the same faces from Bollywood.