Covid-19 Is An Opportunity For Brands And Celebrities To Reimagine Their Interdependence
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.”
The webinar was attended by-Satyaki Ghosh, CEO, Domestic Textiles, Aditya Birla Group, Swarnim Bharadwaj, Global Brand Director, Unilever- Singapore and Pankaj Sharma, Director, Consumer Products Division, L’Oreal India.
Participants spoke about the impact of covid on celebrity brand endorsements and how brands will restrategise their celebrity brand spends.
Swarnim Bhardwaj of Unilever said that celebrities were voices of authority and people believed in them and trusted them and this was the time when we needed such a voice the most. He however cautioned that authenticity shoud be the cornerstone of such communication at all times.
“The amount of authenticity needed in this time is a lot more than before. People need authenticity and clarity, this is an opportunity for brands and celebrities to play role in this.”, said Bharadwaj
Bringing in the focus onto smaller or micro celebrities, Satyaki Ghosh CEO of Domestic Textiles, Aditya Birla Group said, “There are a new set of celebrities like the TV stars, OTT platforms and bloggers who are available to work with the brands. Brands will need to create demand within their limited spending capacity post Covid. I believe that alternate stars will have a very big role to play for smaller brands.”
Ghosh also mentioned scenarios where big brands like Pepsi, Coke, Cadbury and Nestle have handled downtime situations using big celebrities. He underlined that in tough times brands will keep choosing celebrity endorsements for building greater customer connect. While also maintaining that discretionary income will be lower for both the companies and the consumers so pricing will play a point, finding a win-win between the brand and the brand ambassador.
Pankaj Sharma, Director L'oreal, Consumer Divison emphasised that it was important for brands to bring back demand post Covid.
He said, “While the current scenario might not be permanent but it definitely has certain implications. It will lead to change in consumption habits. At L’Oreal, we are thinking and planning to stimulate the demand back into our business.”
“Today the focus is mostly on essentials, but essentials make only 30% of a household expense, so until the non-essentials purchases get going the economy will not rise back. At Loreal we are thinking and planning on how to stimulate demand back into our businesses? With this perspective if you look at what makes india going – It’s a big Bollywood blockbuster or a Cricket match and this will make celebs play a bigger role, while there may be a new path for creatives but building demand will be at the core” he further added.
Sharma also pointed that in all this the challenge of clutter is bound to rise and that a celebrity spokesperson can cut through this easily and help in increasing brand salience. “In times to come brands will keep using celebrities for endorsements”, he reiterated.
