BRAND T-WOOD GETS BIGGER

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Posted: 13 years ago
#1
BRAND T-WOOD GETS BIGGER


The brand endorsements of Tollywood stars have trebled in the last three years

Karthik Pasupulate


Allu Arjun's latest endorsement deal with a leading toothpaste brand in the country has been the talk of T-town lately. The ad went on air recently and word has it that the 'stylish-star' has been paid an eight figure sum for the deal. The truth about signing amounts may be contestable, but what we can say for sure is that brand Tollywood is on the rise. And how! National brands are actively seeking out T-town stars like never before to leverage their popularity to sell everything from fancy diamond jewellery to toothpaste.
Be it Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun, NTR, Rana, Nagarjuna or Venkatesh, every Tollywood star is an official brand ambassador. Adfilmmaker Prahlad Kakkar thinks this was long overdue, thanks to the growing appeal of South Indian cinema nationally. "Some of the biggest hits of Bollywood in the last couple of years have been Hindi remakes of South Indian films. The acceptability of South films has grown manifold over the last few years. The cinema here also has come of age and is as good, if not better than Bollywood. The popular South Indian stars are rightfully staking their claim in the endorsement business," says the ad guru.
In fact, the celebrity endorsement business in Tollywood has seen a huge growth in the last three years. Indranil Blah, CEO of a leading celebrity management company in South India, points out , "The size of brand endorsement market in Tollywood is pegged at around 70 crore currently. It has grown almost threefold from 20 crore three years ago. The cult following that Tollywood stars command among their fans in Andhra Pradesh is just phenomenal. The numbers are going to grow exponentially in the next few years."

The brand appeal


Also, the 'uber-cool' modern avatar of the dashing young men of the South seems to be helping them. "The stereotyped South Indian star was middle-aged, paunchy, mustached, running around the trees with actresses half his age and was often a butt of ridicule. But now there is a complete change. The young stars are ribbed, muscled and in tune with the latest fashion fads. They are on par with their Bollywood counterparts," he adds.
Economic factors are also driving this trend. Earlier the popular impression was that AP is a very Hyderabad-specific market and Bollywood stars worked reasonably well here. But that's changed. The advertisers seem to have realized that the Tollywood stars connect better with the non-Hindi speaking majority of the population who are the new target customers. "In the last five to six years the economy has really emerged. The GDP of Andhra Pradesh is bigger than many countries of the world. The disposable incomes have been growing and a large part of this GDP is created outside Hyderabad in places like Vijayawada, Guntur, Rajamundry etc. The people in these regions identify more with a Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan Tej or an Allu Arjun than the Khans or Roshans," explains Indranil.
Firoz, the South Head of a Bangalore based leading celebrity Management Company points that the cross-pollination of actors from South is another major factor working for them. "In the recent past we have seen many actors from the South breaking into Bollywood. Initially it was just the actresses, but the likes of Rana, Suriya, Madhavan, Sudeep, Kajal Aggarwal, Ileana and more recently Dhanush have all come into the national reckoning and the advertisers are actively looking for potential brand ambassadors. We are also looking at signing popular TV stars as well. The key reason is to tap into the local
market," says Firoz adding, "The per capita entertainment consumption of cinema in South India is on par with Bollywood. Three of the six metros in the country lie in the South. Also we have seen South Indian blockbusters grossing 70 crores which is on par with many Bollywood biggies," he adds
The visibility that such brand associations give an actor works as an additional motivation says actor Rana who replaced Saif Ali Khan as the brand ambassador of a leading alcoholic beverage brand. "As an actor, you could have two or three releases in a year at max. But brand campaigns run all through the year and help us stay connected with the audiences even when our films are not in the theaters. It gives you something interesting to do as an actor as well," shares Rana, adding, "I am in discussions with a couple more brands and will soon be announcing a couple of new endorsements in about a month's time."
In fact the dashing young men of Tollywood seem to be eating into the share of the ladies off late. Manoj Kumar, the CEO of a Hyderabad based talent management firm says, "The male stars are being signed up by jewellery brands and gold brands as well which were the preserve of ladies until recently. They have caused a dent in the ad-revenues of the ladies as well," he says.
karthik.pasupulate@timesgroup.com

Mahesh Babu and (below) Ileana D'Cruz






Ram Charan (above); Allu Arjun (below)

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shadesofme thumbnail
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Posted: 13 years ago
#2
south stars are now becoming popular and are endrosing so many brands...
but loved it mahesh babu is the highest paid and had more no brands than the all the stars together😳
avivakirk thumbnail
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Posted: 13 years ago
#3
Thanks for posting Chalhov...missing u in Malayalam chat thread..hope u had a nice weekend

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