With an average visibility of 33 hrs per day across all channels, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar topped the list of most visible celebrities in the first half (January-June) of 2021. He was followed by Kiara Advani with 18 hrs per day through endorsements done on TV, as per the TAM Adex report on Celebrity Endorsement. Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni were the only two Sports celebrities among the Top 10 celebrity list.
More than 50% of ads were endorsed by two celebrity couples – Akshay Kumar/Twinkle Khanna &Kareena Kapoor/Saif Ali Khan, and both the couples had endorsed 39 and 19 brands respectively during Jan-Jun’21. Celebrity Couples endorsing the maximum number of brands during H1 Y 2021 were Akshay/Twinkle with 39 brands, followed by Deepika/Ranbir with 32 brands.
More than 25% of ads on TV were endorsed by celebrities from different professions, with film actors accounting for more than 85% share during H1 2021, followed by sports personalities and TV stars that added 12% and 3% share respectively. Compared to Jan-Jun’19, Celebrity endorsed advertisements grew by 23% in Jan-Jun’21, whereas it was decreased by 26% during Jan-Jun’20. During Jan-Jun’21, 65% growth was seen in Celebrity ad volumes compared to Jan-Jun’20.
Highest ad volumes observed during the month of March for both the period, i.e. H1’20 and H1’21, it was grown by 16% in Mar’20 compared to Feb’20 and then suddenly dropped observed during Apr-May’20 due to Covid 19 pandemic. Celebrity ad volumes decreased by 21% in May’21 compared to Apr’21, while it was growing by 3% in May’20 over Apr’20.
More than 50% of the ads endorsed by celebrities fall under the Top 3 sectors, and about 3/4th of the ads fall under the Top 7 sectors. F&B sector topped with more than 1/4th of total Celebrity ad volumes share followed by 20% share added by Personal Care/Personal Hygiene during Jan-Jun’21.
The avg. ad endorsing ratio of Male and Female celebrities for the Top 10 sector was 55:45. Ads under the ‘Education’ sector were only endorsed by Male Celebrities. F&B sector’s advertisements were dominated by Male celebrities, while Female celebrities dominated Personal Care/Personal Hygiene during Jan-Jun’21. Toilet Soaps was the top category with a 7% share of celebrity ad volumes during H1 2021, followed by Toilet/Floor Cleaners with a 6% share. The top 10 categories together added more than 35% share of total celebrity ad volumes during Jan-Jun’21.
Ecom-Gaming was the top category for which maximum celebrity from different profession endorsed brands under it followed by Ecom-Media/Entertainment/social media. In the Ecom-Gaming category, more than 80% of advertisements are endorsed by Sports celebrities.
Celebrity advertisement did maximum on News channel genre with 30% share of celebrity advertising volumes followed by GEC genre with 26% share. Young Female Celebrities were preferred over their Male counter-part, but the scenario changes when it comes to celebrities of the age 35+ group.
Among the sports celebrities, Virat Kohli claimed the first top with 26% share of advertisement followed by M S Dhoni had 23% share in Jan-Jun’21, both the sports celebrities were also present in overall celebrity advertising list.
Top 5 sports celebrities together added more than 45% share of ad volumes during Jan-Jun’21. 45+ male Sports celebrities appeared, whereas only eight female Sports celebrities were seen during Jan-Jun’21. Out of 8 female Sports celebrities, Mithali Raj topped the list, followed by Saina Nehwal.
Celebrity advertisement decreased by 41% during the Wave I phase, whereas it grew by 15% and 23%, respectively, compared to the Pre Covid phase. Compare to Wave I, 96% of celebrity ad volumes increased during Unlock period, and 2.1 times growth was observed in ad volumes in Wave II.
Compared to the Pre Covid phase, the count of advertisers and brands decreased during the other three covid phases. F&B is the leading sector in Pre Covid and Wave I-II phases, whereas the Personal Care/Personal Hygiene sector was on top during Unlock phase, which was the festive period.
Toilet Soaps and HUL topped the consistent categories and advertisers’ list, respectively. There were more than 110 and 125 consistent categories and advertisers seen during all phases. During Wave II, more than 120 new advertisers & 225 new brands were seen compared to Dec’20-Feb’21, and more than 175 new advertisers & 375 new brands were observed compared to Wave I.
