Wednesday Post

Celebrity endorsement is a big business and this adds to the income of celebrity in a big way. In some cases celebrity earn more from the endorsements rather than his/her main field. Classic example of this case is tennis star Maria Sharapova (now retired), during her playing years she earned more from endorsements than from tennis.

Do you know who were top India  celebrities who earned maximum from the endorsement in year 2020? In our country there are two types of celebrities who get to endorse the various brands, and they are Actors and Sports persons. I am giving below the top endorsers in each category

Actors (Male)

• Akshay Kumar
• Amitabh Bachchan
• Ranveer Singh

Actors (Female)

• Kareena Kapoor
• Kiara Advani
• Alia Bhatta

Sportsmen

• Virat Kohli
• MS Dhoni
• Sachin Tendulkar

Sportswomen

• PV Sindhu
• Saina Nehwal
• Sania Mirza

Surprisingly in the male actor category none of Khans, ie Shahrukh, Salmaan and Amir are in this list. It is still mind boggling , Amitabh Bachchan who is 78 years old is still occupying no. 2 slot in the list. In the female actor category the top female actor Deepika Padukone is missing from the list, and surprisingly Kiara Advani, who has filmy career of only few years is occupying the 2^nd slot in the list.

In the sportsman category, it ie quite obvious that Virat Kohli is occupying the top slot. Dhoni in the 2^nd slot is understandable because he has just announced his retirement, as till few years back he was occupying top slot. But  surprise is Sachin Tendulkar , who retired about 7 years back is still the favouritre of many advertisers. In sportswomen category it is quite obvious that PV  Sindhu and Saina Nehwal ore occupying no. 1 & 2 as they are most  famous sportswomen of the country. It looks like there is no other sportswomen of repute, who can occupy 3^rd position, as Sania Mirza, who has not played competitive tennis for almost 3 years is occupying the 3^rd position.

It has been reported that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni together accounted for 66% of the overall TV ads using celebrities. As compared to the lockdown period till Sept 2020, there is a rise of almost  90% in average ad volumes per day now. There is also a rise of 16% over last year, in TV ads for social causes, which is mainly by Central govt.

Now coming to companies who are spending most on advertising.

Fast Moving Consumer to Consumer Goods (FMCG) is the largest category to advertise on TV. The industry leader Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) the largest brand followed by Reckitt Coleman and Procter and Gamble. ITC, Colgate Palmolive, Godrej Consumer products, Cadbury India, Wipro, Amazon and Amul were next on the list of 10 top advertisers.

Toilet soaps constituted 7% of the total advertising expenditure, followed by e Commerce companies and Toothpastes, which contributed 4% each, during the calendar year. These were followed by Shampoo, Washing Powder, Floor Cleaners, Milk, Beverages, Cars and Chocolates.

The e commerce category, which includes social media and entertainment sites, witnesses the highest increase in ad spends over the last year 2019.

Waiting for your views/feed backs/comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

30^th December 2020