Is there a correlation between staying in the news and a celebrity's brand appeal? Visibility certainly helps.

Perhaps that's what motivated Eikona PR Measurement, a division of TAM Media Research, to track the 10 most talked about (or written about) Bollywood celebrities in the first three months of 2012.

The study was done before the IPL finals when Shah Rukh Khan hogged the headlines and TV eyeballs. Yet, even before the IPL concluded famously for him, Shah Rukh still was the most written about Tinseltown celebrity in the print media and the second most talked about star in the television media — due largely to reports of an ugly spat with director Shirish Kunder and link-up with actress Priyanka Chopra.

Arch rival Salman Khan, though, beat SRK by a big margin to be the most discussed celebrity on television. Receiving disproportionately higher television coverage compared with other celebrities, Desi Dabangg grabbed nearly 11 per cent share on television news.

Unlike SRK, however, Salman Khan generated largely positive buzz revolving around his hosting Bigg Boss' fifth season, his performance in the IPL opening ceremony, his mega hit Dabangg , and talk about his next big movie Ek Tha Tiger .

So, are corporates influenced by the news buzz the stars generate when they select their brand ambassadors?

Vinita Bangard, Founder-CEO, Krossover Entertainment, who has done deals for SRK and Priyanka Chopra agrees that “it helps a celebrity to improve his or her brand value and can translate into a higher number of endorsement deals”.

But given the league SRK is in, she adds, being talked or written about on a daily basis is not important.

Positive coverage

However, the kind of news the star creates definitely does have an impact the brand value of a superstar.

Celebrity managers believe that stars such as Salman Khan did not get too many endorsement deals despite a string of hit films because of the constant negative news reports around him.

But as the Eikona analysis shows, all the news around Salman has been positive of late — so it may not be mere coincidence that he has been picking up lucrative brand endorsement deals, which include Yatra.com and Suzuki Motorcycles.

“Constant negative publicity for a celebrity could make advertisers cautious,” says Indranil Das Blah, Chief Operating Officer of celebrity management firm Kwan Entertainment and Marketing, which manages a host of stars, including Ranbir Kapoor.

Significantly, the report also trawls through news items on the stars and gives them a brand attribute. Siddhartha Mukherjee, Senior Vice-President, Eikona PR Measurement, added, “Brands often face challenges in finding the right fit or synergy with the chosen celebrities and look out for synergistic brand attributes.”

This article is corrected for a factual error.

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