Celebrity endorsements still rule brand advertising to send specific messages to targeted consumers

Brand advertising leverages celebrity ambassadors that align with their brand persona to send specific messages to their consumers.

Consumer behaviour continues to be driven by the advertising they are subjected to. No matter how much we crib, advertising isn’t going away. The reason, it works.

No wonder brands spend more and more on eye-catching videos, roping in celebrities that align with their brand persona.

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Telegram will soon launch sponsored messages soon, though the company says it will not show ads in private chats.

A short ad can bombard our brains with just what we want to see, making us want the real thing. Even Netflix is planning to roll out TikTok-like short clips feature for kids to vie with TikTok and capture the next generation of viewers to its platform.

Bringing on a celebrity as an ambassador has been an effective way of passing on a message, however particular, to the viewer. A host of brands have been leveraging this way recently.

For example, last week, Niantic and The Pokémon Company group announced that Grammy award-winning artist and Pokémon fan Ed Sheeran will star in a special performance for Pokémon GO Trainers (players).

In celebration of the release of his new album, “=” (Equals), Pokémon GO Trainers can enjoy some of Sheeran’s latest tracks as well as classic hits via an intimate, pre-recorded performance video accessible through Pokémon GO.

Moreover, growing trends of video ads indicate that video gained importance this festive season. According to Criteo’s 2021 Holiday Commerce Report, consumers are receptive to ads when they’re watching videos and will take actions like searching for and purchasing the products they’ve seen?.

The Message of an Underdog Rising

Indian fashion D2C brand, Bewakoof signed Sidharth Malhotra and Fatima Sana Shaikh to promote the brand across its digital platforms. The Student of the Year star Malhotra and Dangal star Shaikh were in the Bewakoof  digital campaign with the theme Never Change.

Bewakoof introduced their new tagline, ‘Ho Bewakoof toh stay Bewakoof — Never Change’. The idea stems from the the brand persona, which stands for expressing yourself freely without any inhibitions.

When we thought of rolling out our new campaign centred around Never Change, Sid and Fatima were our obvious choice because, as a brand, we identify with them

The campaign stresses on the underdog appeal.

Prabhkiran Singh, Founder CEO, Bewakoof, said, “We are the market leaders in the fashion industry and have built our business without any godfathers. When we thought of rolling out our new campaign centred around Never Change, Sid and Fatima were our obvious choice because, as a brand, we identify with them.

“In our early days, we were ridiculed for our brand name, business model but we didn’t change, nor did we give up. As a brand, we see these disruptive qualities in both Sid and Fatima.”

Commenting on her engagement with Bewakoof, Shaikh said, “Bewakoof’s journey has been similar to mine. This got me interested in associating with the brand as I could identify with the expressions, language and styling they promote. The comfort level with the brand and the products that I tried won me over.”

The Message of Sustainability in Daily Life Products

Brands that want to send a message of sustainability too leverage the influence of a celebrity. For instance, Beco, an Indian eco-friendly D2C home, kitchen, and personal care brand launched its new ad-campaign featuring its latest range of home care and cleaning products.

The campaign, designed and created by ^ a t o m Network, featured Beco’s new brand ambassador, Bollywood actress and environmental conservationist, Dia Mirza. This was Mirza’s first major campaign for the brand ever since coming on board as the new face of the brand and an investor earlier this month.

Solutions created by the FMCG brands years ago haven’t been reinvented, and therefore is leading to unhealthy consumption

The campaign took a direct dig at the widely available and advertised range of home products as being harmful for the environment. They introduced their latest eco-friendly and chemical free range of home cleaners, laundry liquids and wipes that they claim are made safe without use of harmful chemicals.

Speaking about the initiative, Akanksha Gupta, Lead – Marketing, Beco, said, “The homecare category hasn’t seen much innovation for the past 20 years, let alone the sustainable space. Consumers are looking at the same predictive ads, falling for them and unknowingly consuming these products out of habit.

“However, the fact of the matter is that solutions created by the FMCG brands years ago haven’t been reinvented, and therefore is leading to unhealthy consumption. Moreover, customers don’t even know that their basic essentials like tissues and cleaners can be harmful.

“Being India’s first natural homecare brand, we want to change and are changing the way people buy these products. Positioning Beco in a captivating, easy to understand and impactful fashion, we are bringing in the much-needed disruption. This campaign is just the beginning to a more consumer-focused, data led, and creative-technology interspersed brand that we’re in the process of building.”

The 50 sec film brings a unique concept of featuring an ad within an ad to give the entire campaign a realistic feel. It emphasises that although most over the counter cleaners do the trick of cleaning your homes, the high levels of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that can be present in them poses a health risk for the users.

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Speaking about the campaign and the ad-film, Yash Kulshrestha, CCO ^ a t o m, said, “Truth is the most powerful sword a brand can possess. We just took it out of the sheath and presented it in a hard-hitting yet entertaining way.

“The category is brimming with loud and look-alike ads with superficial claims. It helped us mount our narrative and highlight the grim part in a more palatable way. We are lucky to have a brave client and an ambassador like Dia Mirza who trusted in our suggestions on how to establish and own a strong equity in the space of eco-friendly household products. The campaign is also supported by multiple digital activities which will help in delivering the short-term business metrics as well.”