The Hindu Business Line : Hey celebrity, entertain me!

Last week I read an interesting piece of gossip when I visited Chennai. Jyotika, the famous Tamil film actress who is slated to marry another famous Tamil actor, Surya, went shopping for her wedding saris. And where did Jyotika, the celebrity endorser of the high-profile RmKV Silks, shop? If reports are to be believed, the celebrity shopped with an entourage for the wedding at (hold your breath) Tulsi Silks!

(Before writing this column, I once again checked this out with my niece who lives in Chennai who said that Jyotika had bought her wedding saris in RMKV too, as per a later report. This confused me but my niece didn't seem too worried as she was more concerned about her heartthrob Surya getting married!) But for me, at least, the damage was done.

Never mind the fact that RmKV Silks is one of the largest retail advertisers in the South. I was confused because Jyotika had featured in several commercials for the brand which, one can safely say, created a lot of visibility for the brand. And while ads like "Entha Kalar" were extremely visible and made a difference to the brand's fortunes, it obviously has not made any difference to the celebrity who shopped elsewhere. Should she not shop only at RmKV, the brand she endorses? Will it impact the brand when celebrities do not do so? Will customers say: Even she doesn't shop there, so why should we? There are enough instances of celebrities in India not using the products they endorse in media. But I don't think customers will mind. Jyotika will continue to model for the RmKV brand and consumers will continue to buy there irrespective of wherever the actress chooses to shop for her sarees. Why do I say this?

Celebrity as entertainer, not endorser

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a Webinar on branding where whether any one else picked up an insight or not, I certainly did. Santosh Desai, President of McCann Erickson, India and one of the sharpest minds in Indian advertising, made an extremely insightful observation. In India, he said, celebrities are viewed more as entertainers, not as endorsers of brands. And my mind went back to BPL, India's leading consumer electronics player of the '90s, and Amitabh Bachchan, the brand's star endorser. Rumour had it that Amitabh did not own any BPL product other than a four-door refrigerator but BPL did a campaign featuring the star (whose career was actually going south at that point in time) with the entire range of BPL products. The commercial was quite interesting with Amitabh entertaining us as only he can. But whether there was a reaction from the market or not, there was an immediate reaction from the competition. IFB suddenly discovered it was sitting on a gold mine, which had the potential of being a landmine for BPL. The reason for that was very simple. Amitabh actually had an IFB washing machine at his residence despite endorsing the entire BPL range.

So IFB released a very cheeky ad that said, "Amitabh believes in the best. That is why he uses an IFB washing machine." It created a minor storm as phone calls, faxes and angry letters flew. The campaign was pulled off immediately. But there probably was more of an embarrassment than a reaction in the market place. I wonder how many customers noticed. I am not even sure customers really cared. Maybe they felt commercials were like films with creative (and not necessarily true) storylines and were not to be taken at face value.

Entertainment the name of the game

Today we live in a world of clutter. Customers are getting greater choice and consequently increasingly restless as they realise the power of their remote controls. They zap boring programmes and commercials at will. This is where celebrities come in. There is enough evidence to suggest that celebrities create instant awareness, particularly if they are cricketers in India. An example that comes readily to mind is the launch of the TVS Victor motorcycle featuring Sachin Tendulkar. The cricketer's endorsement of the brand, coinciding as it did with a dream run for the cricketer in the 2003 World Cup (which sadly did not extend to the finals), made a big difference to the brand. Of course, the brand's competitors were quick to point out that Sachin being a Mumbaikar (Mumbai being a city where people mostly travelled on trains and other public transport), did not know how to ride a bike and hence was hardly the right choice.

Other cricketers too are increasingly featured in commercials. But while cricketers enthral, entertain and at times leave you breathless by their on-field capabilities, it must be conceded that they can't emote even to save their lives.

Contrast this with another genre of celebrities from the field of entertainment. Actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, to name just three, have an amazing ability to charm, captivate and woo viewers. Some of the most entertaining commercials have featured these stars.

Santro over the years has used Shah Rukh exceedingly well and if one may add, consistently. The earlier commercials for the launch of Hyundai the company and Santro the car featured Shah Rukh in a quandary as to whether he should endorse the brand or not. Shah Rukh's association and involvement with the brand has continued till the present-day ads "Santrowale hain." Yes, Shah Rukh has certainly made a difference to Santro. Does he drive around Mumbai in the sunshine car? Who is bothered? And I did read an interview with the star saying his favourite vehicle was an SUV. In my opinion, he is a fantastic, popular actor who is the model for all these Santro commercials rather than an endorser for the brand.

When Coke advertising was struggling in India, the brand decided to Indianise and roped in Aamir Khan. Aamir's fantastic ability to bring the commercials alive - as a Hyderabadi, Bengali and more - put Coke well on the road to greater visibility and crucial to this was Aamir's ability to entertain. But let's not forget that these commercials had amazing scripts. And I think this is a trick that some companies tend to miss. Celebrities are all fine. But what are they doing in the commercial? Are they just there, holding up the product, or entertaining? And the answer to the question might well determine the success or failure of the commercial.

Speaking of successful commercials one certainly recalls the series of Parker commercials featuring Amitabh shot in the business class section of an aircraft with different, successful people who are not using Parker pens. Amitabh was truly outstanding in those commercials - oozing sarcasm and dishing out entertainment. Does Amitabh use a Parker? I have to check that one out. But does it matter? And in the Rin commercial with the cute boy coming for his school interview, he is just acting the role of a Jesuit priest more than endorsing Rin.

So, what's the score?

The Federal Trade Commission USA's guidelines on celebrity endorsements are worth recalling: "In particular, where the advertisement represents that the endorser uses the endorsed product, then the endorser must have been a bona fide user of it at the time the endorsement was given. Additionally, the advertiser may continue to run the advertisement only so long as he has good reason to believe that the endorser remains a bona fide user of the product."

Clearly we are not constrained by guidelines like these. And yet, let us try and evolve a few guidelines of our own, even while conceding that ours may not have the same far-reaching implications!

Is your strategy well thought out? Or is it a lazy one?

Does your celebrity have a fit with the brand? Say, Viswanathan Anand for NIIT?

Is the celebrity an expert? Obviously, Sachin Tendulkar is an expert on bats and Michael Schumacher an expert on cars. Shah Rukh is not an expert on colas so his testimony on how safe Pepsi is seems a bit watery.

What is the script and the creative idea? Can the celebrity entertainer add value to it? Can he make it memorable?

Yes, it's not the celebrity, stupid! It's the idea!

(Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of Brand-co)

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