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Using a Social Proposition Built Within the Brand

For example the 'Be Vegetarian' campaign by Safal, which had people like Kiran Bedi, T. N. Seshan and Maneka Gandhi extolling the virtues of a green diet. The Surf campaign done by Revathy and Shabana Azmi (in the south and north respectively) which stressed on the prudent usage of valuable water was a social proposition cleverly inter-woven in the brand.

Duration of Usage - Promotional or Long Term Strategy

Sometimes celebrities are used for short-term promotions and brand activities. An example is the Rani Mukherjee campaign for Bata which is believed to have helped boost sales for the ladie's footwear brand, Sundrop, by a whopping 500 per cent. The same Rani Mukherjee has a longer association with Fanta and Munch.

Stealth Advertising

Marketers are slowly moving away from the traditional use of celebrities as product peddlers, since a cynical public no longer believes that celebrities actually use the products they endorse in commercials. Revlon launched an online marketing campaign targeting female customers via chat rooms to get people talking about who Revlon's new face would be. Consequently the announcement of Halle Berry as Revlon's new face was met with great anticipation.

Foreign Celebrities

There is always a mystique surrounding foreigners and the popularity of sports people and Hollywood celebrities goes beyond their own country. So you see a Richard Gere doing a Visa ad, Jackie Chan doing a Discover commercial or a Boris Becker doing a Siyaram commercial, all for greater eyeballs and positive buzz in their target segments.

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* Contributed by: -
Bikram Bindra & Kaushik Vijay. G,
Faculty of Management Studies,
University of Delhi, New Delhi.