Is celebrity co-creation the new celebrity endorsement?

Mumbai

Maria, yes, a possibility of this catching on to be the new ‘avatar’ of celebrity endorsement exists, provided the co-creation exercise is handled seamlessly from start to finish.

It is important to remember that celebrity co-created brands are not only about slapping a celebrity name onto the brand. It is marrying the entire process of creation with the ethos of the persona chosen. It is important for personal ownership of the brand philosophy to show in every aspect of the brand, be it in brand name, colour, symbols used, packaging, pricing, brand-positioning statement, advertising execution and more.

Most Indian brands have made the mistake of misunderstanding celebrity co-creation and restricting it to skin-deep involvement of and with the celebrity. More often than not, it is just the name of the celebrity and not much else. In celebrity co-creation, the DNA of the brand needs to be embossed with the essence of the celebrity on a forever basis. When owned with passion and promoted with passion, with the direct involvement of the celebrity in question, co-creation works wonders. Unfortunately there is not a single such example in India. When Sachin and Sourav opened their restaurants in Mumbai and Kolkata, one imagined this would be the case, but it was not. Sanjeev Kapoor is a possibility in this realm. But still not there. Not yet.

Companies use big events to market themselves well. What are the things to watch out for when using events such as the Kumbh Mela?

Mumbai

Ratan, events are easy and events are difficult. It is easy to get anecdotal with events and get a whole lot of editorial mileage by doing very innovative-looking things, but doing them in a small and significant way at events such as the Mega Kumbh Mela of India is tough. Difficulties faced by brands that use the event are one of scale and one of swimming against clutter and still emerging top of mind at the grassroots level where consumption resides, and not necessarily Brand PR. The issue of scale is the fact that disparate sets of audiences throng the mela and being in twenty places with brand presence is just not enough.

The second challenge is the fact that the Kumbh Mela is the darling of all marketers alike. There are just too many brands vying for attention. The challenge here is achieving brand salience, and getting your brand to stand out by using differentiated sets of communication vehicles on the ground. The third challenge is one of people management. You need lots of people to manage the Kumbh audience.

It is very easy to get lost – and very difficult to be seen. That is the classical brand challenge.

Things to watch out for? ROI, for sure. Simple ROI calculations do not work in such melas . Most brands are investing ahead of the curve. The mela works best and most beautifully for those brands that are vying to gain the attention of new audiences with new brands. If you measure ROI, most brands come out of the Kumbh Mela in the negative. It is an eyeballs game.

It is also about standing out with new innovation. The first blimp at a Kumbh Mela will be remembered. Take MRF, for instance. If it were to launch a blimp at the Kumbh Mela, provided the audience was right for it, it would once again dominate. Innovation is what works best here. It is not about using the same old mediums, it is about creating new ones and dominating those new vehicles.

The audience at the Kumbh is a prime buying audience. To that extent, it weeds out those who are non-viable as consumers and keeps in the prime potential consumers. An excellent audience to reach out to, provided you have the patience and ability to get really mass.

Harish Bijoor is a business strategy expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Send your questions to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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