For Celebrity Endorsements To Stay Impactful Credibility And Relevance Will Become More Important Than Ever

BW Marketing World and Alchemist Marketing Solutions recently hosted a webinar  on ‘Covid.19 Celeb Biz.20- The Aftermath’. The webinar discussed the “Changing Dynamics of Brand and Celebrity Association.

Brian Tellis, Co-Founder and Group CEO, Fountainhead MKTG, a Dentsu Aegis Network Company and Sunder Raman, Former CEO, Reliance Sports and Former CEO, IPL shared their insights on the subject that has become a big conversation in the marketing circles of-late.

Raman began with a candid remark on what the celebrities and sports players might be feeing  like in these pandemi times.

 “I think the endorsement space is great but at this point of time they want to get back to their craft and they want to get back to what they love to do.”

He also highlighted the that 75% of all investments in the endorsement in India are still with the film stars or the movie celebrities. 

“Sports sector occupies more or less 20% of it but there are values attached to those sports.”

Speaking about the upcoming changes in the celebrity endorsement sector he said that the tonality and graph of creativity will change and that people would look forward and rely on a much serious and credible persona. 

He also explained it from the celebrity’s side and mentioned that “It will move from fixed fee and a fixed time to a more blended process which will include digital, print, equity or partnership. I think a blended model of endorsements will take place in the near future.”

When asked whether this disruption will lead to the lesser celebrity endorsements Raman optimistically said “I think it will definitely go up for two reasons, one is; that we need to make rapid increase awareness. In the short term, there will be a surge in the demand for celebs in the brand world and it will be more sought after in the near future”

Speaking about the impact of covid 19 on celebrity endorsements, Raman added that celebrity endorsements will not change. In his view it will be more important now on how related the endorsement will be towards the current situation.

“People these days are hungry not only to see the celebrities speak on the screen but they are more inclined to listen to what they are speaking and for what cause they are speaking.”

As a veteran of the events and experiential space, Brian Tellis said that the physicall events will continue to be under stress for a while and it was time to reimagine experinces.

“We are in the business of creating experiences with finite purpose I think that regular ingredient will continue to play a part. We need to maintain the balance of how much importance either of these ingredients will play. I do believe that the basics don't change only the balance between the inputs towards objectivity will change.”

“Things are going back to the normal as we are hoping and no one knows- when but I am an eternal optimist it's always half full it's never half empty”, he added.