Celebrity endorsements in South India – the next ‘Big thing’.
The buzz in the Advertising and marketing field is that the endorsements for South Indian movie actors is the “next big thing” in business. Ever wondered why most of our celebrities don’t endorse as many brands as their Bollywood counterparts? And why we’re subject to dubbed ads, which are more humorous than convincing? This articles hopes to throw some light on the business of celebrity endorsements. Luckily for me, all the four actors in my family have been the brand ambassadors for leading brands. Also, as a producer at Geetha Arts and CEO at Southscope, I have interacted with the big boys of Marketing & Advertising on this topic and had a ring-side view if the celebrity endorsement business. This article being a lengthy one, has been broken into two parts.
Kalamandir & Varudu bring out the “Kalasutra collection”
Finally, some new age marketing is coming into movies. The producers of Varudu, Universal Media have tied up with popular saree retailer Kalamandir to create a special range of wedding clothes, based on the movie – for South Indian weddings. Called the “Kalasutra collection”, most of them are aimed at the vaduvu (bride) as women are the brand’s biggest audience. The brand ran a ‘roadblock’ campaign on Friday with full-page in ads in all leading Telugu and English dailies in Andhra Pradesh. The estimated cost of this campaign alone would be Rs 120-150 lakhs. If the brand is spending this kind of money, I am sure the retail business is really big and can afford these kind of budgets. The Telugu film industry, doesn’t recognize “co-branded advertising” as a form of marketing. Any ad that has the movie’s logo, is considered an ad by the producer. So, the campaign of Kalasutra collection does not have a logo of the movie, but cleverly plays on the varudu (groom) and marriage theme. The campaign was executed by the movie’s publicist Srinivas and AP Media Pvt Ltd, an upcoming marketing agency in Hyderabad. Incidentally, Srinivas is the publicist of Geetha Arts and Allu Arjun. Have a look at the ads, click to enlarge.
Wish me a happy life ahead. I am getting married!
Congratulate me. I am getting married to a popular politician’s daughter… Supposedly! I first smirked on listening to it. But the when I saw the source of this gossip, rumor rather – I wasn’t surprised. It was a published on the blog of a popular lady journalist. Wondering who is it? Hint : She’s fair, oversized & openly declares hate towards Chiranjeevi & family for reasons I can’t reveal in detail. Infact the hate propaganda, rather than journalistic merits is her claim to fame. According to this wannabe Perez Hilton, a few months back even Ram Charan had married a movie heroine. So what happened to his wife now? Exactly a year back she reported on her blog to ‘mark her words’ that though I strongly deny then, that I am going to turn an actor in one year’s time. Its been one year since then, and I’ve been loyal & made more inroads into my field – the show business. My blog wasn’t live at the time to clarify and thankfully time answered the truth.
Southscope March 2010 covers : A.R Rahman & Trisha Krishnan
Hi again! The latest copy of Southscope has hit the stands. Grab your copy from your nearest bookstore or sms SCOPE to 56263 to subscribe. Its a double issue again! Twice the goodness to readers, but double the work load for us at Southscope. Click on the images to enlarge. Our last issue featuring Allu Arjun and Tamannah was a sell-out. We increased out print run this month. Also, we’re now the “largest selling South film magazine” in English. Yes, we do have a competitor (as per market, not me). But our aspirations for Southscope are much larger. Hope you liked the latest edition. Do let me know your feedback on this issue.
Meanwhile, Trisha had unveiled the March edition of Southscope in a press event yesterday. Click here to see videos, photos of the event.
Video publishing co Ooyala named after Telugu word. Interesting!
I was searching though the web on how to monetize the original video content produced by Southscope. The Southscope Style Awards & ‘making of’ footage of our photoshoots are some of our IP (intellectual property) I wish to host online and monetize. I stumbled across this popular video publishing platform Ooyala, which lets publishers like us put their video content online on different platforms and monetize it. On first hearing of the name, it sounded like the telugu word oo-yah-la, which means a swing or cradle. I thought it was a mere co-incidence as web 2.0 companies come up with obscure or invented words for brand names such as – Guba, Meebo, Squido, Flickr, Digg amongst others. But, as I explored the site, I visited their ‘About’ and realized their name is actually derived from the telugu word ooyala, which means cradle. Even more surprising is that none of their founders are people of Telugu or Indian origin! I presume a branding agency might have suggested the name, or they would have bumped into it while surfing the net. They liked the name because they felt it demonstrates what their company is doing – cradling a new form of innovation.
While naming brands or companies, I usually avoid Indian words as very few sound ‘brandable’. Also very few Indian words are ‘universal’ in nature like shastra, sutra, avatar or karma. Also, I felt names Shaadi, Baazee, JeevanSathi, Naukri or Masti doesn’t translate well across cultures in India. I myself dint know what Baazee meant till some one told me. Nor what the much-used ‘Jugaad’ meant for that matter, though I learnt Hindi in school. Also spelling them makes it harder. The brand is spelled as JeevanSathi, but ‘sathi’ is pronounced as ‘saa-thi’. Also if Jugaad or Masti have an H as they’re pronounced ”ju-gaadh” or “mas-thee”. Hence I stick to English words. My magazine’s is name Southscope, a word I came up with. I coined the name “Green Channel Forex” to my aunt who setup a travel & forex agency. Also, suggested my friend Madhu Mantena the name “Cinergy Productions” (cinema – synergy) for his film production company. I came up with another English word for one of the new businesses I am setting up. But, its quite surprising that some body at the other end of the globe actually considered a telugu name for their business. Hop over to Ooyala (http://www.ooyala.com/about) and have a look at their site. Hope the name works for their brand.
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